Good detail definition and high resolution, pretty good color. Contrast is rather high, but overall results are good.

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 Optio 33WR did a pretty good job.

The shot at right was taken with a +1.0 EV exposure compensation adjustment, about average for this shot. Contrast is on the high side, though midtones aren't too bad overall. I chose the Auto white balance as the most accurate overall (though slightly cool-toned), as the Manual setting was a bit too warm for my tastes, and the Daylight setting appeared warm and greenish.

Marti's skin tone looks pretty good, though a bit more pink than in real life. The blue flowers in the bouquet are almost perfect, just slightly dark. (Many digicams have trouble with this blue, which is in reality a pretty pure, light navy.) The strong reds look about right as well, and saturation is good overall, although the greens seem just a little dull. Resolution is good, with good definition in the fine detail of the bouquet. Detail is strong in the shadows as well, with moderately low noise.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files 33WROUTMP0.HTM through 33WROUTMP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Even better detail and resolution, with good color, but once again somewhat high contrast.

I shot this series with the Optio 33WR's Auto white balance setting, but overall color wasn't too different from the wider shot above. The shot at right was taken with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment, and again has rather high contrast, producing dark midtones and shadows, even though the highlights are blown out. (Boosting the exposure another notch to get better-looking midtones and shadows lost to much detail in the highlights altogether.) The Optio 33WR's 2.8x zoom lens helps prevent distortion of Marti's features, a definite plus in close-up shots like this one. The level of visible fine detail is even higher in this shot, with good definition. Noise is slightly more pronounced in the shadow areas here than in the wider portrait, but is still moderate.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files 33WRFACAP0.HTM through 33WRFACAP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +1.3 EV

Slow-Sync Mode +0.7 EV

Good intensity and coverage with the built-in flash, though some exposure compensation required. Better results with Slow-Sync mode.

The Optio 33WR's built-in flash underexposed this shot quite a bit at the default exposure setting, requiring a +1.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment for the best results. Though the overall exposure is just a little bright, I preferred it to the dull appearance of the lower exposure settings. Overall color is pretty good, despite the dim cast. I also shot with the camera's Slow-Sync flash mode, which required only a +0.7 EV exposure compensation boost. (Here's a shot at the default exposure, which is just a little too dim.) The longer exposure time allows more ambient light into the image, enabling more even lighting and more pleasing color (despite a slight blue cast from the flash itself).

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color with the Incandescent and Manual white balance settings, about average 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 Optio 33WR's Auto white balance had a difficult time with this shot, producing a very strong orange cast. Both the Manual and Incandescent settings produced good results though, and I personally preferred the warmer, more natural appearance of the Incandescent setting to the cool tone of the Manual setting. The shot at right was taken with a +1.0 EV exposure compensation setting, which is about average for this subject. Color is good overall, though the blue flowers have a dark, purplish tint (probably to be expected due to the light source).

ISO Series:
Noise is pretty low at the Optio 33WR's 50 and 100 ISO settings, increasing somewhat at ISO 200, and becoming objectionable at ISO 400.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Slightly cool color, but great detail.

Though slightly cool, I preferred the Optio 33WR's Manual white balance setting here, as the Auto setting had too strong of a red cast. (The Daylight setting was much too yellow.) Resolution is high, and details are sharp. The tree limbs above the roof, and shrubbery in front of the house both have great detail. There's a little softening in the corners, but overall sharpness is still good.

Slightly soft, but good detail, and very little fuzziness in the corners. Good dynamic range as well.

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 Optio 33WR turned in a very respectable performance with this target. While slightly soft, its image here shows about the amount of detail I'd expect to see from a three-megapixel camera with this subject. It did a good job of holding detail in the corners, showing relatively little of the corner softness I'm accustomed to seeing in digicam photos. It underexposed the shot slightly, but as a result, did an excellent job of holding onto detail in the strong highlight of the bay window, while at the same time holding good detail in the deep shadow near the door. A good performance overall.

Resolution Series:

ISO Series:

Contrast and Saturation Series:
The Optio 33WR offers both contrast and color saturation adjustment via record-menu options. As you can see from the examples below, both controls provide a useful range of adjustment, and work pretty much as you'd expect them to.

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Color Saturation Series
Low	Normal	High

Lens Zoom Range

A basic 2.8x 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 (2.8x, in this case), and at full telephoto with the digital zoom enabled. The Optio 33WR's lens is equivalent to a 37-104 mm zoom on a 35mm camera. That corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a moderate telephoto. Following are the results at each zoom setting.

	Wide Angle
	5x Telephoto
	2x Digital Telephoto

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Warm color balances, but good detail and resolution.

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 Optio 33WR had a little trouble here, producing warm color casts at all three white balance settings. Since the Auto setting appeared the most natural, I chose it for the main shot, even though it's still too warm. The Daylight setting was greenish, and the Manual setting much too warm. The warm cast gives the blue background and robe a greenish tint, and the models have ruddy skin tones. However, resolution is high, with excellent detail in the embroidery of the blue robe.

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

A tiny macro area with great detail and good flash performance.

The Optio 33WR performed nicely in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of only 1.59 x 1.19 inches (40 x 30 millimeters). Resolution is excellent, as the dollar bill has a lot of visible fine detail. Detail is also strong in the coins and brooch, though soft due to the close shooting range. Corner softness is strong on the left side of the frame, and likely contributes to the softness on the right side as well. The Optio 33WR's flash throttled down pretty well for the macro area, though there is a strong reflection in the brooch. Overall, an excellent macro performance.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Great color with the Manual white balance, although slightly overexposed.

The Optio 33WR's Manual white balance produced very good results here, with an accurate white value in the large color block and mini-resolution target. The Auto was just slightly warm, while the Daylight setting had a strong yellow cast. Exposure is a little bright, but the Optio 33WR still manages to distinguish the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 target. The large color blocks are bright, vibrant, and accurate, with appropriate saturation. Detail is good in the shadow area of the charcoal briquettes, and noise is moderately low.

ISO Series:
As in the Indoor Portrait shot above, the 33WR's noise level is good here at low ISO values, but becomes objectionable at ISO 400, while the noise-suppression processing blurs detail considerably.

Low-Light Tests

Somewhat limited low-light performance. Adequate exposures at the lowest light levels, but high image noise. Suitable for typical city scenes at night though.

The Optio 33WR operates under automatic exposure control at all times, but does offer an adjustable ISO setting and maximum shutter time of two seconds in normal exposure modes. (The "Fireworks" scene mode goes to 4 seconds, but there's no metering at all in that mode, so I didn't include it in my tests here.) In my testing, the camera produced, usable images down to the 1/8 foot-candle (1.3 lux) light level at the ISO 400 setting, but the image noise was very high at that level, and image sharpness was severely compromised by the anti-noise processing. As the sensitivity level decreased, so did the minimum light level, such that the ISO 50, shots were only usable at the one foot-candle (11 lux) light level (about the equivalent of average city street lighting at night). Color balance was rather yellow in these shots, so you can expect some color casts in your night shots. Noise was low at the ISO 50 setting, increasing to a high level at ISO 400. 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.

(Note: If you'd like to use a light meter to check light levels for subjects you might be interested in shooting, a light level of 1 foot-candle corresponds to a normal exposure of 2 seconds at F/2.8 and ISO 100.)

	1fc 11lux	1/2fc 5.5lux	1/4fc 2.7lux	1/8fc 1.3lux	1/16fc 0.67lx
ISO 100	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8
ISO 200	1 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8
ISO 400	1/ 2 secs F2.8	1.3 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8
ISO 800	1/ 3 secs F2.8	1/ 2 secs F2.8	1.3 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8

Flash Range Test

Good flash range, usable to the 14 foot limit of this test, but the camera boosts its ISO to get there.

In my testing, the Optio 33WR's flash illuminated the test target all the way out to 14 feet, with only a very slight decrease in intensity. That's good news, but it turns out that the 33WR "cheats" a little to get there. Like many digicams these days, the 33WR boosts its ISO setting for distant flash exposures, without informing the user. This does increase the effective range of the flash, but at the cost of significantly higher image noise. 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/ 125 secs F3.9	1/ 125 secs F3.9	1/ 125 secs F3.9	1/ 125 secs F3.9	1/ 125 secs F3.9	1/ 125 secs F3.9	1/ 125 secs F3.9

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

High resolution, with 1,000 lines of "strong detail." Average barrel distortion, high pincushion though.

The Optio 33WR performed on par for its three-megapixel class on the "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 600-650 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to at least 1,000 lines, although you could argue for 1,050 lines along the horizontal axis. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred around 1,300 lines.

Optical distortion on the Optio 33WR is a little less than average at the wide-angle end, where I measured approximately 0.6 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end did about the same, as I measured a 0.6 percent pincushion distortion. While 0.6 percent is lower than average at the wide angle end, the same amount of pincushion at the telephoto end is higher than average. Chromatic aberration is moderate: While it several pixels of coloration show on either side of the target lines, the coloration is fairly faint. (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.)

Resolution Series, Wide Angle

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG	"Economy" JPEG
2,048 x 1,536	33WRRESWLF	33WRRESWLN	33WRRESWLE
1,600 x 1,200	33WRRESWMF	-	-
1,024 x 768	33WRRESWSF	-	-
640 x 480	33WRRESWTF	-	-

Resolution Test, Telephoto

2,048 x 1,536 (Fine, Tele)

33WRRESTLF

Sharpness Series

Sharpness Series
Soft	Normal	Sharp