Sony DSC-F505VSony updates their popular DSC-F505V with a 3 megapixel sensor (2.6 million effective pixels) and all-new electronics!<<Reference: Datasheet :(Previous) | (Next): Print-Friendly Review Version>> Sony DSC-F505V Sample ImagesReview First Posted: 06/01/2000 |
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: (1164k) 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 with the
daylight (1164k), automatic (1145k) and manual (1195k) white balance
settings, choosing the daylight setting because it gave us the best tonal
values overall and the most accurate white on the model's shirt. Automatic
white balance produced similar results to the daylight setting, although a
shade cool, and the manual setting was just a touch greenish. Color
balance on the DSC-F505V looks very good, particularly notable in the
blues and reds of the flowers and the tone of the model's skin. The shadow
areas show a lot of detail, with a moderate but very acceptable noise
level. Resolution looks great overall, especially in the small green
leaves next the model's shirt and the strands of hair. (We feel that the
resolution on the F505V is actually very close to that of many 3 megapixel
digicams, despite it's 2.66 megapixel effective sensor count.) Our main
shot required a +1.0 exposure compensation adjustment to get enough
exposure in the shadow areas without blowing out the highlights. One of
the improvements made on the F505V over the previous model is the use of
12-bit A/D conversion (digitization). Even though the final images end up
at only 8 bits per channel, the 12 bit digitization should contribute to
smoother tonal gradations and better discrimination of tonal values,
particularly in the highlights. We feel this is clearly evident here, with
the absolutely exceptional handling of the highlight detail in the model's
shirt and the white flowers. The table below shows the results of a range
of exposure settings from zero to +1.7 EV in the daylight white balance
setting.
Exposure Compensation Settings:
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Closer
portrait: (1174k) The DSC-F505V does a
nice job with this "portrait" shot, thanks to its 5x optical 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-up people shots.) As with the Outdoor
Portrait, we shot with the automatic (1097k), daylight (1192k) and manual (1104k) white balance settings, again choosing daylight as
the most accurate (automatic remained too cool while manual was a tad too
warm). Our main shot (1174k)
required less exposure compensation than the larger Outdoor
Portrait, a +0.3 adjustment, to properly expose both the highlight and
shadow areas. Sharpness and detail seem a little crisper in this close-up
shot, with the shadow areas producing an even lower noise level than in
the larger shot above. Very impressive! The table below shows the results
of a range of exposure settings from zero to +1.7 EV in the daylight white
balance setting.
Exposure Compensation Settings:
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Indoor
portrait, flash: (1005k) This shot is
always tricky because of the potential differences between the color
balance of the flash and the bright room lighting, which the DSC-F505V did
have some trouble with. (We don't routinely experiment with the cameras in
this way, but a standard photographer's trick is to tape an orange gel
over the flash head, and then use an incandescent white balance. - This
balances the flash to the room lights, then has the camera compensate
accordingly for the uniform color cast.) We shot first with the camera's
built-in flash at the low
(1008k), medium (1044k)
and high (1057k)
intensity settings, each of which produced slightly dim images with
bluish casts (except the low flash setting, which had a slightly pinkish
cast in the highlights and bluish shadow areas). Next, we put the camera
in Twilight Plus mode and again shot at the low (987k), medium (1024k) and high (1024k) intensity
settings. This resulted in slightly bluish shadow areas in all three
settings, with the best overall exposure at the low setting as the camera
allowed more ambient light into the exposure. Then, keeping the camera in
the Twilight Plus mode and the flash on the low intensity setting, we
boosted the exposure compensation to +1.0 EV, producing this (1005k) image, which
we think is the best exposure overall. The shadow areas are still a little
blue, but the exposure is nice and there's enough ambient light to prevent
any harsh highlights or shadows. Next, we attached Sony's optional
external flash and used the same low (946k), medium (958k) and high (988k) intensity settings, which all produced very dark
images. To try and brighten the image, we set the external flash at the
high intensity level and boosted the exposure compensation to +1.3 EV,
which produced this (1020k)
slightly lighter but still very dim image. Finally, we bounced the
external flash from the ceiling, set the camera to Twilight Plus mode and
boosted the exposure compensation to +0.7 EV, producing this (1096k) much brighter
but rather magenta image. (We would have chosen this last image as our
main shot, but didn't, since it was taken with an accessory product,
rather than the camera itself.) |
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Indoor
portrait, no flash: (1017k) 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-F505V did a pretty good job with this difficult light
source, with the results a bit of a toss-up between manual white balance mode (1017k)
which came out a little greenish, incandescent mode (1028k)
which was a bit, yellowish, and automatic
mode (1012k) which was a bit pink. We settled on
automatic mode for our main shot, although we would have liked to see
better color correction overall. The automatic mode results do clean up
very well in Photoshop though, as seen here.(646k) (This would be
another good place to use our favorite image-tweaking program PhotoGenetics - follow the link to read our review of it.) The camera's
exposure system did a good job also, as we shot our main image with just a
+0.7 exposure compensation adjustment. We did notice though, that further
increase of the exposure compensation beyond about +1.0EV made essentially
no difference. - This turned out to be because the camera limits the
maximum exposure to 1/30th of a second in all but Twilight Plus modes. In
blinding 20/20 hindsight, we realize we should have tried some exposures
of this shot in Twilight Plus mode. Unfortunately, the camera was already
back to Sony before we realized this.
Exposure Compensation Settings, Automatic:
Exposure Compensation Settings, Incandescent:
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House
shot: (1216k) 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-F505V with previously tested
cameras, here's a shot of the original house poster taken with the manual (1204k) white balance
settings.
For this shot, we tested the manual (1216k), automatic (1208k) and daylight (1196k) white balance settings, choosing manual as the most
accurate. The daylight setting produced very warm results, while the
automatic setting resulted in a slightly cool image. Great resolution and
detail throughout, with just slightest falloff of sharpness in the
corners. Overall, the DSC-F505V performs as well as many 3 megapixel
cameras in terms of resolution and detail. It's in-camera interpolation to
the 3.7 megapixel size gives very slightly more detail than you'd achieve
just interpolating the same amount in Photoshop, but overall we'd say
stick with the camera's basic resolution. (The size we've called "Medium"
in the table below. In these shots, there's barely any evidence of the
in-camera sharpening (noticeable as a small halo on the dark and light
edges), meaning that Sony really got it just about right. The roof
shingles and shadow areas show just a little noise, but it's not at all
bad. The DSC-F505V does a great job with this test shot. The table below
shows our standard resolution and quality series.
We also played around with the camera's sharpness settings, in both the 2240 x 1690 and 1856 x 1392 image sizes. With +/-2 settings towards more and less sharp, the DSC-F505V does a nice job of sharpening and softening the image without going too far in either direction. It also does this without changing the contrast of the image too much, as some digicams are prone to do. Sharpness series:
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Far-Field
shot: (1212k) 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.
The DSC-F505V did a nice job on this shot, showing excellent resolution
and detail throughout. Noise is fairly low in the shadow areas, although
we did pick up a little in the roof shingles. (Then again, the shingles do
have a texture of their own, which could be part of what we're seeing.)
The very difficult, bright white area of the bay window shows really
excellent detail in the highlights (a tough area for many digicams since
the area was painted with a bright white paint that makes tonal handling
very difficult). We again attribute this excellent preservation of
highlight detail to the F505V's 12-bit digitization. Again, in-camera
sharpening is hardly worth mentioning, as we picked up only the slightest
halo around the dark and light edges. Auto white balance gave us the best
color balance overall, and the table below shows our full resolution
series.
We again shot a series with the DSC-F505V's variable sharpness settings, with excellent results - Even the "Very Sharp" (maximum in-camera sharpening) results turned out very nice, with none of the usual signs of over-sharpening (obvious "halos" around light/dark boundaries, etc.) Sharpness series:
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Lens Zoom Range: 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 and at full 5x telephoto. Overall, the
DSC-F505V performs very well in this category and we noticed that
sharpness and noise actually seemed to improve with the full, 5x optical
zoom enabled. - A longer-ratio zoom lens is a very real benefit in getting
closer to distant subjects, which means that the 5x optical zoom of the
F505V should prove very useful in many picture-taking situations. The
widest-angle setting of the F505V isn't quite as wide as some competing
cameras, but the maximum telephoto setting gives results that some of the
competition can only achieve with so-called "digital telephoto". Overall,
a great camera if you need to really reach out to distant
subjects..
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"Musicians"
poster: (1187k) We shot samples of this
using the auto (1186k), daylight (1197k) and manual (1186k) white balance
options. We chose the manual setting for our main
shot (1187k) because it had the most accurate
color balance. The automatic setting turned out slightly cool, while the
daylight setting was just a little too warm. The skin tones look nice
overall in the manual setting, and the blue robe and red vest are also
rendered very accurately. The DSC-F505V does a nice job with resolution
and detail, reproducing the detail of the bird wings and the tiny silver
threads on the Oriental model's robe very well. The flower garland and the
multicolored, beaded necklaces also look nice. (In fact, this shot's
resolution is probably more limited by the poster than the camera.) A
moderate amount of noise pervades the entire image, but isn't too bad
(some of it could be coming from the test poster, which is rather grainy.)
The table below carries links to our standard resolution/quality series in
the manual white balance setting. Resolution/Quality series:
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Macro
shot: (1226k) The DSC-F505V does an
excellent job in the macro category, with a minimum capture area of only
0.85 x 0.64 inches (21.54 x 16.15 mm). Wonderful detail, sharpness and
color, although the brooch appears slightly soft (possibly due to a
limited depth of field). We also did see a moderate amount of barrel
distortion, but we were still pleased with the results. Unfortunately, the
DSC-F505V's flash was blocked by the lens and we were unable to test it
with this shot. (In fact, the size of the lens barrel, combined with the
2cm minimum focusing distance, made for some difficulty getting light onto
the subject properly. (A mini "light tent" of diffusion material taped in
a conical shape around a skylight or other neutral filter would be useful
in achieving even illumination at maximum close-up.) |
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"Davebox" test
target: (1014k) As with the other test
targets, we shot the Davebox with the automatic
(1014k), daylight (1018k) and manual (1014k) white balance settings. We chose the manual setting
for our main series, as it produced the most accurate white value in the
mini-resolution target. The automatic setting produced very similar
results as manual, but with just the tiniest bluish cast, and daylight
produced very warm results. The DSC-F505V produced excellent color and
tonal results throughout, although we noticed that the yellow color block
is just slightly weak. The DSC-F505V perfectly distinguishes between the
red and magenta color blocks on the middle, horizontal color chart, which
some digicams have trouble with, and the subtle tonal variations in the
Q60 chart are also distinguishable up to the "B" range on the pastel end
(the demarcation between the colors is a little faint, but is still
visible). We were initially fooled by the shadow detail in the briquettes:
At first, we wondered what happened to the top pair of briquettes -
normally they're the most visible, but in these shots they didn't seem to
be visible at all. - It turned out that's because they weren't there at
all! - In the course of our studio remodeling and rather hectic to-and-fro
that accompanied it, the top two briquettes actually fell out of the
Davebox, and nobody noticed until these images were shot! Given that the
top briquettes actually aren't there, the bottom pair actually show up
pretty well. Overall, a very good performance. The table below shows the
usual range of resolution/quality settings. Resolution/Quality series:
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Low-Light Tests An important note: We recently realized the extent to which camera temperature affects low-light performance. (Thanks to some tests done by friendly competitor Phil Askey.) As a result, we now routinely insure that the cameras are at a uniform temperature of approximately 70 degrees F prior to executing the low light tests. We also perform the tests at the lowest light levels first, before the cameras' internal circuitry has time to warm up. Results of cameras tested after early May, 2000 should therefore be very comparable with each other, while cameras tested prior to that time may show higher noise. In your own use of these cameras, you'll likely see lower noise levels in long time exposures if the camera is appreciably colder than 70 degrees F (about 20 degrees C), and higher noise levels if the camera is appreciably warmer. (Sensor noise doubles about every 6-8 degrees C.) Low-light shooting is the area in which we possibly saw the most dramatic improvement in the F505V relative to the original F505. The first 505, while an excellent camera, really wasn't a good choice for low-light shooting. By contrast, the F505V turned in an excellent low-light performance, capturing very usable images all the way down to a light level of only 1/8 foot-candles (~1.3 lux). Somewhat counter-intuitively, the camera's "night" or "twilight" mode actually produces darker images than those shot in "auto" mode - Apparently the "twilight" mode is intended to prevent bright lights and neon signs from washing-out to pure white in night scenes. The "twilight plus" mode produces far better results, achieving good results down to about 1/2 foot-candle, and usable ones (albeit with a goodly amount of post-exposure tweaking) down to 1/4 foot-candle. Using shutter-priority exposure mode though, you can go all the way down to an exposure time of 8 seconds, and get usable (if a little noisey) images at light levels of only 1/8 of a foot-candle. This is quite impressive: For comparison, a well-lit city night scene generally corresponds to about 1 foot-candle of illumination. Based on information contained in the file headers, the F505V apparently does make use of variable ISO settings, but only in Auto mode. - When working in shutter-priority mode, the camera defaults to its baseline sensitivity level of ISO100. (We'd like to see an option for increasing effective ISO in shutter-priority mode as well.) The table below contains a matrix of links to images shot at light
levels ranging from 8 foot-candles down to 1/8 foot-candle, and in each of
the four pertinent camera modes of Auto, Twilight, Twilight Plus, and
Shutter-Priority. (This time, to help our readers have some sense of
what's going on within the table, we've included tiny thumbnail versions
of each image. Click on a thumbnail to view the full-sized image.)
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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-F505V's flash power as effective from 11.9 inches to 8.3 feet (0.3 to 2.5m), which is consistent with our findings. Shooting in the normal flash intensity mode, we found the flash reasonably effective at eight feet, with a noticeable drop in brightness, beginning at 9 feet. From 10 feet on out to 14, the flash is still somewhat effective, but gets dimmer and dimmer.  Flash Range/Distance:
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ISO 12233 ("WG-18") resolution target:
(973k) As noted earlier, we were a bit surprised by
how well the DSC-F505V did on the resolution test, given its 2.66 million
effective pixels - It actually showed higher resolution than some 3
megapixel models! We attribute this to the same razor-sharp lens the
original F505 was noted for. Overall, we called the visual resolution on
our test chart at 750-800 lines per picture height in the vertical
direction, and 800-850 in the horizontal. Color aliasing at high spatial
frequencies is fairly low, but does become evident at between 1000 and
1100 lines per picture height in either direction. Overall, a very
impressive performance, particularly for a camera with the F505V's
effective pixel count. The tables below show resolution chart samples shot
at both Wide Angle and Telephoto zoom settings. Resolution/Quality series, Wide Angle:
Resolution/Quality series, Telephoto:
Again, we also shot with the camera's variable sharpness settings, finding similar results as with the house poster: a nice range of sharpening options that never seem to overdo it, and don't alter the image contrast along the way. Sharpness series:
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Viewfinder accuracy/flash uniformity target: We found the DSC-F505V's LCD monitor to be slightly tight (note that this is a change in nomenclature for us, we formerly would have referred to this viewfinder behavior as "loose"), showing about 94 percent of the final image area in wide angle (1082k) and about 94 percent in telephoto.(991k) (Accuracy remained the same with each of the image sizes we shot at: 2240x1680, 1856x1392 and 640x480.) To give you an idea of what we're looking for, we generally like to see LCD monitors as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, although the F505V is better than average in this respect. Optical distortion on the DSC-F505V is moderate to high, with the lens showing a 0.74 percent barrel distortion at the wide angle end and a 0.87 percent pincushion distortion at the telephoto end. Chromatic aberration is also fairly evident, as we noticed about two pixels of coloration on each side of the black 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.) Far from the worst chromatic aberration we've seen, but we'd be happier to see less still. Flash uniformity looks good at the wide angle end of the lens range, falling off just a little in the corners. Uniformity is excellent at the telephoto end, although rather dark in our test shots, probably due to the long working distance the 5x zoom imposed on this test. |
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