Good resolution and detail, and good color with the automatic white balance. High contrast though.

The extreme tonal range of this image makes it a tough shot for many digicams, which is precisely why I set it up this way, and why I shoot it with no fill flash or reflector to open the shadows. The object is to hold both highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat" picture with muddy colors, and the EasyShare CX6330 did a nice job, although it lost some highlight detail.

The shot at right was taken with a +1.0 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which produces reasonably bright midtones, albeit at the expense of highlight detail. The camera's automatic white balance system produced a good color balance, although the overall color is perhaps just slightly reddish. Still, Marti's skin tones look good, and the blue flowers have only faint purplish tints, as they should. The red flowers are slightly hot and pinkish, but the net effect is quite pleasing color. Resolution is high, with good detail even in the shadows. Image noise is low.

To view the entire exposure series from -0.5 to +1.5 EV, see files C633OUTM1.HTM through C633OUTP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Higher resolution and detail, but a lot of exposure compensation required to handle the bright lighting.

Overall results are similar to the wider shot above, and the CX6330's 3x lens prevents strong distortion of Marti's features (though a little distortion is noticeable). The shot at right was taken with a +2.0 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which is quite high for this shot. Midtones are still a little dark, although the highlights are very bright. Detail is stronger in this shot, with good definition and sharpness.

To view the entire exposure series from -0.5 to +2.0 EV, see files C633FACM1.HTM through C633FACP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +1.5 EV

Night Exposure Mode +0.5 EV

Good intensity and coverage with the built-in flash, with natural-looking color.

The CX6330's built-in flash did a good job here, although illumination was somewhat dim at the default exposure setting. I found the best results with a +1.5 EV exposure compensation adjustment. Color is pretty good, with a slight warm color cast from the incandescent lighting in the room, and a slight blue tint on Marti's shirt and features from the flash itself. Still, overall color is quite good. I also shot with the camera's Night exposure mode, which uses a slower shutter speed to allow more ambient light into the image. With a +0.5 EV exposure compensation adjustment there, the image came out slightly brighter and more even, although color is about the same. (Click here for the default setting.) Good results overall.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.5 EV in normal mode, see files C633INFP0.HTM through C633INFP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page. To see the same series in the Night exposure mode, see files C633INFNP0.HTM through C633INFNP3.HTM.

Automatic White Balance

Pretty good overall color, hard to get the proper exposure.

This shot is always a very tough test of a camera's white balance capability, given the strong, yellowish color cast of the household incandescent bulbs used for the lighting. The CX6330's automatic white balance did a pretty good job here, and produced only a slight warm cast. The shot at right has a +0.5 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which is slightly dim. However, increasing the exposure to +1.0 EV resulted in an image that was too bright. (Digicams really need exposure compensation in 0.3 EV increments. The 0.5 EV step size used by the CX6330 is really too large.) Skin tones are a little reddish, and the blue flowers are dark and purplish, but color is still pretty good overall, much better than I'm accustomed to seeing from cameras' auto white balance systems on this shot. Image noise is on the high side, however. 

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.5 EV, see files C633INP0.HTM through C633INP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Auto White Balance

Good resolution and detail, with nearly accurate color, but quite a bit of softness in the corners.

The CX6330's automatic white balance system produced good results here, with only a slight reddish tint in the white trim of the house. Resolution is high, with good detail in the central tree limbs above the roof, as well as in the front shrubbery. Details are reasonably sharp throughout the center of the frame, but there's quite a bit of softness in the two left corners, as well as in the lower right corner. (In fact, it extends along the left side of the frame and across the bottom as well.)

Excellent resolution and detail, with a good dynamic range.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio. The rendering of detail in the poster will be very different than in this shot, and color values (and even the presence or absence of leaves on the trees!) will vary in this subject as the seasons progress. In general though, you can evaluate detail in the bricks, shingles and window detail, and in the tree branches against the sky. Compression artifacts are most likely to show in the trim along the edge of the roof, in the bricks, or in the relatively "flat" areas in the windows.

This is my ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this, and the CX6330 did a credible job for a 3-megapixel camera. Interestingly, there's little sign of the pronounced corner softness I found in my indoor shots, so it appears that the fuzziness is only an issue in relatively close-in shots. The 6330's high contrast is evident here again, as it loses all detail in the bright white paint of the bay window, while simultaneously showing very little detail in the dark shadows near the front door. The color here is pleasing, if not a little oversaturated in the blue sky. (This slight oversaturation is a bit of a hallmark of the 6330 and some other Kodak cameras too, a deliberate choice, as most consumers somewhat prefer brighter color, even if it overstates the colors of the original scene.)

Resolution Series:

Lens Zoom Range

A fairly typical zoom range.

I routinely shoot this series of images to show the field of view for each camera, with the lens at full wide angle, at maximum telephoto (3x, in this case), and at full telephoto with the digital zoom enabled. The CX6330's lens is equivalent to a 37-111mm zoom on a 35mm camera. That corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a moderate telephoto. Following are the results at each zoom setting.

Auto White Balance

Good color, but slightly warm. Detail is good as well.

This shot is often a tough test for digicams, as the abundance of blue in the composition frequently tricks white balance systems into producing a warm color balance. The CX6330's automatic white balance handled the challenge pretty well, producing only a slight warm color cast. Skin tones are pretty good, but the warm cast gives the blue background and robe a greenish tint. Detail is good throughout the frame, though image noise is slightly high. Exposure is pretty good as well, though slightly contrasty. Once again, there's some softness present in the top right corner of the frame, but details are fairly sharp elsewhere.

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

About average macro performance. The flash has trouble up close though.

The CX6330 performed about average in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 3.11 x 2.33 inches (79 x 59 millimeters). Resolution is high, with good detail in the dollar bill, coins, and brooch. The left corners and top right corner of the frame are very soft, however. The camera's flash had a little trouble throttling down for the macro shot, and its off-center location produced a dark shadow in the lower left corner and a hot spot in the upper right corner. (The strong reflection in the brooch isn't entirely the camera's fault though, it's just a matter of the brooch happening to be in just the right (wrong) position to reflect the flash right back into the camera lens.)

Auto White Balance

Slightly warm color balance and high contrast, but bright, accurate color otherwise.

The CX6330's automatic white balance system produced a slightly warm color balance here, mainly noticeable in the large white color block and mini-resolution target. Apart from that slight warm cast though, the CX6330's color here is bright, vibrant, and accurate. I would say that the additive primary colors (red, green, and blue) are slightly oversaturated though. Exposure is pretty good, but contrast is higher than I personally like to see. The CX6330 distinguishes the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 target well, however. The shadow area of the charcoal briquettes shows moderate detail, with moderate noise.

Low-Light Tests

Limited low-light shooting capabilities, plan on using the flash for night exposures.

The CX6330 is a point-and-shoot style digicam with fully automatic exposure control and a maximum exposure time of 1/2 second. These factors greatly limit its low-light shooting capabilities. In my testing, the CX6330 just barely managed to produce an image at the one foot-candle (11 lux) light level. Even there, the image was somewhat dim, but still arguably usable with heavy adjustment in an imaging program. Noise is moderately low. One foot-candle roughly equates to average city street lighting at night, so you'll likely need the flash for most night exposures. The table below shows the best exposure I was able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.

	1fc 11lux	1/2fc 5.5lux	1/4fc 2.7lux	1/8fc 1.3lux	1/16fc 0.67lx
ISO 100	1/2 secs F3	1/2 secs F3	1/2 secs F3	1/2 secs F3	1/2 secs F3

Flash Range Test

A powerful flash, only a little falloff at the 14 foot limit of our test.

In my testing, the CX6330's flash illuminated the test target all the way out to 14 feet, without any significant decrease in intensity. Below is the flash range series, with distances from eight to 14 feet from the target.

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/90 secs F4.8	1/90 secs F4.8	1/90 secs F4.8	1/90 secs F4.8	1/90 secs F4.8	1/90 secs F4.8	1/90 secs F4.8

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good resolution, 900-950 lines of "strong detail." Average barrel distortion at wide angle, though barely any distortion at telephoto.

The CX6330 performed about average on the "laboratory" resolution test chart for an entry-level 3 megapixel camera. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 600 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to 900-950 lines. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred around 1,000-1,050 lines.

Optical distortion on the CX6330 was about average at the wide-angle end, where I measured approximately 0.8 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared much better, as I measured only 0.1 percent barrel distortion there. Chromatic aberration is low, showing only about three or four pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) The dominant distortion I observed in many of my test photos was some strong corner softness, usually most pronounced in the left corners of the frame. The majority of cameras I test show at least some softness in the corners of the frame, but the CX6330 was worse in this regard than most.

Resolution Series, Wide Angle

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG
2,032 x 1,524	C633RESWLF
1,656 x 1,242	C633RESWMF
1,200 x 900	C633RESWSF

Resolution Test, Telephoto

2,032 x 1,524 (Fine, Tele)

C633RESTLF