Digital Cameras - Sony DSC-D770 Test Images
(Original test posting: 1/10/2000)
We've begun including links in our reviews to a Thumber-generated
index page for our test shots. The Thumber data includes a host of
information on the images, including shutter speed, ISO setting, compression
setting, etc. Rather than clutter the page below with *all* that detail,
we're posting the Thumber index so only those interested in the information
need wade through it! ;) |
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Outdoor portrait:
(657k) This is a tough shot for many digicams, due
to the extreme tonal range. (Which is why we set it up this way!). The trick
is to hold highlight and shadow detail without producing a "flat"
picture with muddy colors. We shot this image using the automatic
(671k), daylight (662k)
and manual (657k) (or Hold)
white balance settings. We found the auto white balance setting to be just
slightly too cool. The "Hold" and daylight settings produced very
similar results with the daylight just a shade too warm. Therefore, we chose
the manual "Hold" setting for our main
shot (657k). It was interesting that we wound
up adjusting the exposure compensation to +0.75 EV to accommodate the shadow
areas. The shadow areas have great detail with about an average amount of
noise. The D770 did a good job with the blues in the model's flowers and
pants, only showing a very slight tinge of purple (most digicams have a
pretty tough time getting these blues just right). Sharpness and detail
are also very good, noticeable in the model's hair and the leaves against
her shirt. The table below shows the exposure compensation series (from
0 to +1.3 EV) we shot using the manual or "Hold" white balance
setting.
Exposure Variations:
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Closer portrait:
(650k) The DSC-D770 does a nice job with this "portrait"
shot, thanks to its zoom lens. (Shorter focal length lenses tend to distort
facial features in close-up shots like this: The availability of longer
focal lengths is a key feature if you're going to be shooting close-in people
shots like this.) This closer version of the above shot actually required
more exposure compensation, up to a +1.5 EV adjustment, for our main
shot (650k). Resolution and detail seem a little
better in this shot, noticeable in the individual strands of hair. The table
below shows the series of EV adjustments in the manual "Hold"
white balance setting.
Exposure Variations:
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Indoor portrait,
flash: (641k) This shot is always tricky
because of the potential differences between the color balance of the flash
and the bright room lighting. Many cameras produce odd bluish highlights
here, but the DSC-D770 didn't fall prey completely to that trap. It did
produce a barely noticeable magenta tinge in the highlight areas though,
very possibly due to the bright incandescent lighting. The default
flash exposure setting (641k) did the best job
of illuminating both foreground and background without over-blowing the
highlights. We took one shot with the 0.5 EV setting, producing this
(700k) image, which exposed the model correctly but
lost some color in the background to a minutely cool color cast. We also
snapped one shot with the +0.5 EV setting, resulting in this
(647k) image which correctly exposed the background
but blew the highlights on the model's shirt and flowers. An exceptionally
nice feature of the DSC-D770 is the capability to use the on-board flash
with the manual exposure mode for more even results. We achieved better
color balance on the model (although the background turned out a bit warm)
by combining a 1/13 second shutter speed and F/4.8 aperture with the flash
for this (685k) shot. The
DSC-D770 also allows you to connect an external flash, which we did. We
used a low-end SunPak flash and shot at 1/60 seconds and F/4.4 to get this
(683k) image, which produced the best exposure overall. |
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Indoor portrait,
no flash: (677k) This shot is a very
tough test of a camera's white balance capabilities, thanks to the strong
yellowish cast of the household incandescent lighting it's shot under. The
DSC-D770 did remarkably well with this difficult light source, although
the best results were again achieved in manual white
balance mode (677k) (or "Hold" mode,
as Sony calls it). The auto white balance setting
(687k) produced a warmer result, not too much different
than the incandescent white balance option (685k),
which appears to be balanced for professional tungsten lighting and thus
left a rather warm cast in the resulting image. We also tried shots with
low sensitivity (661k)
and high sensitivity (730k)
settings. The high sensitivity (ISO 400) version produced a slightly sharper
image, with a slight hint of warmth, but at the usual cost of increased
noise. Alternatively, the low sensitivity setting (ISO 50) produced a less
noisy image, as you'd expect, but resulted in magenta tinges in the highlight
areas. Overall, we felt that the ISO 100 (690k)
setting produced the most accurate results in this test, with barely any
noise. The table below shows the results of various exposure-compensation settings, in normal (ISO 100) sensitivity exposure mode. (The main shot was taken with an exposure compensation of +1.0EV units.)
Exposure Series, Normal Sensitivity:
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House shot:
(728k) NOTE that this is the "new" house
shot, a much higher-resolution poster than we first used in our tests. To
compare the image of the DSC-D770 with previously-tested cameras, here's
a shot of the original house poster (732k). Details in the leaves and foliage seems to be accentuated along the horizontal and vertical axes. This produced a slightly odd texture in the leaves, but resulted in a much sharper rendition in the bricks and other structural elements of the house. The default in-camera sharpening seems to be just right. Noise level in the shingles seems to be about average or slightly below. Resolution/Quality series:
We experimented with the DSC-D770's white balance options on this shot, and found that the "hold" (manual) white balance option again won out, although the "auto" setting did quite well also with just a slightly warmer tone. The table below shows the results of various white balance settings. White Balance Variations:
We also experimented with the DSC-D770's sharpening options on this shot, as shown in the table below. The default sharpening did pretty well, although we were able to do slightly better using Photoshop's unsharp masking applied to the "soft" version of the image. Sharpness Variations:
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Far-Field shot:
(723k) 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 Good detail, although again the best results are obtained by shooting in "Soft" sharpness mode and then applying unsharp masking after the fact in Photoshop(tm). As noted above though, the lens is equally sharp across its field, so the QV-2000 actually does better in the corners than some cameras that may be rated as sharper in the center of the frame. We didn't shoot a range of white balance variations here, but simply used the manual option for our standard resolution/quality series, which appears in the table below. Resolution/Quality series:
We also experimented with the DSC-D770's sharpening options on this shot, as shown in the table below. The default sharpening did pretty well, although we were able to do slightly better using Photoshop's unsharp masking applied to the "soft" version of the image. Sharpness Variations:
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Lens Zoom Range (new): We've
received a number of requests from readers to take shots showing the lens
focal length range of those cameras with zoom lenses. Thus, we're happy
to present you here with the following series of shots, showing the field
of view with respectively, the lens at full wide-angle, the lens at full
telephoto, and the lens at full telephoto with 2x "digital telephoto"
enabled. The D770's excellent 5x optical zoom lens is one of is stand-out
features, and this test shows the wide range of focal lengths it covers.
- Kudos to Sony, we wish more digicam manufacturers would provide longer-ratio
zooms!
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"Musicians"
poster: (706k) We shot samples of this
using auto (226k) and daylight
(226k) white balance options as well, but found them
both very similar and a little on the warm side. We felt the "hold"
(manual) setting again was the most accurate, although it seemed just slightly
cool. Color saturation on this one looked a bit low, but the skin tones
seem about right. Resolution is better than average as evidenced in the
detail of the bird?s wings on the Oriental model?s robe and the fine silver
threads. The table below carries links to our standard resolution/quality
series. Resolution/Quality series:
We again ran a range of sharpness variations on this shot, with the results shown in the table below. On this shot, we found by far the biggest difference between the soft and normal settings. The hard setting didn?t seem altogether too much sharper. Sharpness Variations:
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Macro shot:
(673k) The DSC-D770 performs quite well in the macro
category, with a minimum area of only 2.3 x 3.1 inches (59.5 x 78.1 mm).
Good detail, sharpness, and color, although the detail on the brooch seems
a little softer, possibly due to a limited depth of field or that the raised
brooch may be just slightly out of the focus range. The DSC-D770?s flash
did a good job of throttling down, producing this
(696k) somewhat dark image. (It actually throttled-down
a bit too much, in response to the bright reflection from the coin). The
digital tele works well up close, as seen in this
2x (207k) image, a useful feature for those wanting
lower-resolution ultra close-ups for web applications. |
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"Davebox"
test target: (631k) The DSC-D770 produced
overall excellent color and tonal results, better than most we've tested
to date (December 1999). The only minor criticism we have is that the yellow
and cyan seem just a slight bit weak. But other than that, we have no other
complaints. In this shot, the daylight (209k)
white balance setting produced a very warm cast and the auto
(207k) came out just slightly warm, leading us to
choose the "hold" (manual) option (631k)
for our main shot. The table below shows the usual range of resolution/quality
settings. Resolution/Quality series:
We again ran a range of sharpness variations on this shot, with the results shown in the table below. As usual, the "soft" setting appears to simply correspond to no sharpening being applied to the raw image, while the "hard" version is pretty heavy-handed. Sharpness Variations:
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Low-Light Tests Although it's specifications suggested that the D770 should be capable of good low-light performance, we were truly amazed by the results we obtained in our low-light tests! It's not uncommon these days for high-end digicams to sport long time-exposure settings. Combining these with a wide-open aperture and boosted ISO sensitivity should in theory produce usable images at very low light levels. In practice though, the technology is rarely up to the task, with most cameras completely running out of steam somewhere around 0.5 foot-candles (~5 lux) of ambient lighting. In the case of the D770, it's raw specs of ISO 400, f/2.0 lens, and 4 second maximum exposure time suggest that it should be capable of capturing images in light levels as low as 0.065 foot-candles (0.7 lux). While the camera can capture images that low (an absolutely amazing feat in and of itself), the resulting images show fairly large amounts of noise. We did feel though, that the camera did an excellent job down to about 0.25 foot-candles (~3 lux), and with a little work in Photoshop(tm) or other image editor, results at light levels of half that are amazingly good. Overall, we have to say that the D770 has the best low-light performance of any camera we've tested to date! (January, 2000) So what's the catch, if there is one? Well, actually there are a couple. First, the camera only autofocuses accurately down to light levels of about 1 foot-candle: Below that level you'll have to use the manual focus, and depth of field is quite shallow when the lens is at it's f/2.0 maximum aperture. This autofocus performance is adequate for most scenes inhabited and navigated by humans, but a limitation in darker surroundings. Secondly, and more of an issue for practical use of the camera, is that all auto-exposure modes (Program, Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority) have a 1/30 second limit for the slowest shutter speed. (?!) Thus, the only way you'll get decent low-light performance is to go into full manual mode. We really don't understand the reason for this, unless it's that the exposure is computed via the CCD, and there's not enough signal for it to work reliably that low. In real-world shooting situations, this is a significant nuisance. The table below holds the results of a number of shots we took, organized by ISO value, processing applied, and light level: Evaluating low-light imagery is so much a matter of personal preferences (as to how much of what sort of noise is acceptable) that we simply encourage you to look at the images and make up your own mind. We tested the camera using both ISO 100 and 400 sensitivity settings. The ISO 400 setting produces noticeable noise at any illumination level, but it doesn't increase as rapidly or to the extent that we'd have expected, as you move to progressively longer exposure times. The result is moderately noisy but usable images all the way down to the camera's "official" limit of 0.065 foot-candles (0.7 lux), and positively bright images down to levels of 0.25 foot-candles (3 lux). In ISO 100 mode, we were again surprised by how far we could push things. We did note that the ISO 100 images picked up a noticeably warm cast as the exposure time lengthened to multiple seconds, but the noise stayed well-controlled, and usable image information could be found all the way down to the 0.065 foot-candle limit of our test. These extreme low-light images required significant adjustment in Photoshop(tm), using the "levels" controls, but the final results were amazingly good. In the table below, we show results from ISO 100 and 400 settings, and selected images shot at ISO 100 and subsequently processed in Photoshop. Incredible!
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Flash Range Test (New) (This test was added in August 1999, so cameras tested before that time won't have comparison pictures available. As we go forward though, all the new models will have similar tests available). Sony rates the DSC-D770's flash out to a maximum of approximately 8.2 feet (2.5m). We found that it was still relatively effective as far out as 14 feet, although color balance tended to get cooler from about 11feet on. The table below shows results obtained at a range of distances from eight to 14 feet. Flash Range/Distance:
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ISO 12233 ("WG-18")
resolution target: (674k) The D770's resolution
is very much on a par with other 1.5 megapixel digicams, offering between
650 and 700 lines per picture height horizontally, and 600-650 lines vertically.
Images shot in low-resolution mode are also crisp and "clean",
with no major artifacts (not always a given with dual-resolution digicams).
Color aliasing in areas of very fine detail is very well controlled, something
that's also not always a given. The tables below carry links to our standard
resolution/quality series, for both wide-angle and telephoto zoom settings. Resolution/Quality series, Wide Angle:
Resolution/Quality series, Telephoto:
We again ran a range of sharpness variations on this shot, with the results shown in the table below. As usual, the "soft" setting appears to simply correspond to no sharpening being applied to the raw image, while the "hard" version is pretty heavy-handed. We again felt we did slightly better in Photoshop, applying unsharp masking to the "soft" version of the image. In this case though, we couldn't apply nearly as much unsharp masking without it appearing to be too much: The wisdom of Sony's choice for the default in-camera sharpening became more evident in this test. Sharpness Variations:
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Viewfinder accuracy/flash uniformity target:
The D770's viewfinder systems (optical and LCD) are unusual in the degree
to which they agree with each other, although this is perhaps to be expected,
since the optical viewfinder is a through-the-lens or single-lens reflex
(SLR) design. The optical viewfinder showed an accuracy of 93.3% in wide
angle (176k), and 91.4% in telephoto
(180k). The LCD finder was 95.5% at wide
angle (176k) and 95.9% (essentially identical)
at telephoto (180k). In
digital telephoto mode, accuracy was 96.3% All these figures are better
than average, although we still prefer for LCD viewfinders to show exactly
100% of the final image. The D770's optical viewfinder accuracy is noticeably
better than most consumer digicams, which average around 85% of the final
view. Flash uniformity was excellent in telephoto mode, and fairly good in wide angle, apart from one glaring problem: With the lens set to its widest angle focal length, the lens itself actually casts a shadow at the bottom center of the image, extending upward roughly 8% into the field of view! This is unfortunate, in that the flash uniformity is otherwise quite good. Of course, the ability of the D770 to sync with external flash units completely eliminates this problem in "serious" photographic settings. Still, we were surprised to see such an obvious, if minor design flaw. Geometric distortion is a bit higher than average at the wide angle end of the lens' focal length range, showing 1.05% barrel distortion. At the telephoto end, this changes to an almost imperceptible 0.3% pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration and coma are both excellent, with only the tiniest amount of chromatic aberration visible in wide angle mode as slight colored fringes on the resolution target elements at the extreme corners of the field of view. (Estimated at 1/3 of a pixel, or about 0.02%. In telephoto mode, there is no chromatic aberration visible at all. Likewise, we saw virtually no evidence of coma at either telephoto or wide angle focal lengths. |
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