Canon PowerShot S100 Digital ELPHCanon packs 2 megapixels and a 2x optical zoom into the "smallest digicam on the planet!"<<Reference: Datasheet :(Previous) | (Next): Print-Friendly Review Version>> PowerShot S100 Sample ImagesReview First Posted: 6/20/2000 |
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! ;) |
|
|
Outdoor portrait:
(1660k) This is a tough shot for many digicams, due
to the extreme tonal range of the image (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, which the S100 had somewhat
of a difficult time with. We shot samples of this image using the daylight
(1631k) and automatic
(1629k) white balance settings. Both settings produced
very similar results, so we went with daylight for our main series. Color
balance looks very good, although the blue and red flowers seem a bit bright.
Hue is very good though, with little of the purplish tendencies we're accustomed
to seeing from other digicams in the blue colors of this shot. Resolution
seems a little soft, but still pretty good, judging by the small green leaves
next to the model's shirt and the outer strands of her hair. There's a lot
of detail in the shadow areas, but a moderate amount of noise there as well.
The S100 seems to produce sharp tonal breaks in the portion of the tonal
range corresponding to the model's skin tones. The result is a tendency
to emphasize skin imperfections somewhat. We had a little difficulty deciding
which exposure compensation adjustment to settle on for our main shot. We
finally decided on a +0.7 EV adjustment, which seems to get the best exposure
in the shadow areas but also loses highlight detail. Staying at +0.3 EV
somewhat keeps the highlights in check, but the shadow areas are way too
dark. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure settings
from zero to +1.3 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Closer portrait:
(1580k) The S100 gives about the same exposure performance
in this "portrait" shot, but is helped out a little by its 5.4
to 10.8mm optical zoom lens. (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 in the daylight white balance mode. We
found the same problem with this shot as we did with the Outdoor Portrait,
in that the camera seems to have a hard time dealing with the high contrast
of the outdoor lighting. We decided to go with a +0.7 EV adjustment for
the main shot, to get a decent exposure in the shadow areas and better-looking
skin tones overall. This loses detail in the strongest highlight areas,
but going down to +0.3 EV leaves the shadow areas too dark, and the skin
tones rather harsh. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure
settings from zero to +1.0 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
Indoor
portrait, flash: (1574k) For this test,
we simply shot with the S100's automatic white balance setting, using the
built-in flash combined with a variety of exposure compensation settings.
We chose the +0.7 exposure adjustment for our main shot, as it gave us the
best overall exposure. This seemed to hold good detail in the highlights,
while still providing fairly good skin tones. Reasonably good color in the
image, although the background is a little warm and the blue flowers seem
light in hue (and a little bright, as is the red flower in the center).
We also noticed that the reds in the face are very pronounced. Overall though,
a fairly good job of balancing the very warm-hued room lighting with that
from the flash. The table below shows the results of a range of exposure
settings from zero to +1.0 EV. Exposure Compensation Settings:
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Indoor
portrait, no flash: (1538k) 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 and the S100's white balance system did a reasonably good
job with this difficult light source. We shot samples of this image in the
automatic (1531k) and
tungsten (1537k) white
balance settings, choosing tungsten for our main shot because of its more
accurate color balance. The automatic setting produced rather warm results
with a magenta tinge. As with the flash portrait, the reds in this image
seem over-pronounced and too bright. Also, the highlight areas in the upper
shoulder of the model appear very odd, almost with a fluorescent-blue cast.
The blue and yellow flowers seem very muted, as do the green values throughout
the image. We found that cutting the color saturation in Photoshop(tm) helped
the skin tones greatly, but at further cost to the saturation of the blue
and yellow flowers. The camera does a good job of neutralizing the very
strong overall yellowish cast, but falls down a bit with the over-saturation
in the reds. The table below shows a range of exposure settings from zero
to +1.3 EV in the tungsten white balance setting. Exposure Compensation Settings:
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
House shot:
(2111k) 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 S100 with previously tested cameras, here's a shot
of the original house poster shot with the daylight
(2270k) white balance setting. In this shot, we chose the fluorescent (180k) white balance setting for our main series, as the color balance surprisingly appeared the most accurate overall (a very interesting outcome since we do not shoot with fluorescent lighting). We also shot with the daylight (181k), cloudy (183k) and automatic (182k) settings. The automatic setting looked very similar to the fluorescent, but appeared just a bit warmer. Daylight was also just a shade too warm and cloudy was very warm (which is what you'd typically expect, but given the outcome of the fluorescent setting, we thought we'd give it a try). Resolution seems a little soft throughout the image, especially in the shrubbery and bricks. A moderately high level of noise is most noticeable in the shingle area. The in-camera sharpening maintains a low profile, as we don't see any halos around the dark and light edges in the image, although the boundaries of the white trim in the central roof gable do seem a little heavy. The table below shows the full range of resolution and quality settings for the S100. Resolution/Quality Series
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
Far-Field shot:
(2059k) 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 S100 does a reasonably good job in this shot, which is the strongest test of detail of any we do (the bright white of the central bay window often tricks digicams into losing detail in that area). Although the bay window is partially in shade, you can still see a fair amount of detail in the sunny portions, meaning that the S100 wasn't entirely tricked by the bright white highlights. We again shot with the daylight (169k), cloudy (169k), automatic (169k) and fluorescent (170k) white balance settings, once again choosing fluorescent for our main series because it had the most accurate white value (which seems rather odd, since this shot is taken in full sunlight). Daylight was just a tiny bit too warm, cloudy was definitely too warm, and automatic seemed nearly identical. Color balance and saturation look nice overall, though some of the areas seem a little dim. (The S100 did a good job of holding detail in the very strong highlights of the white trim on the bay window, but with the result that the rest of the image appears a little dark.) Resolution and detail also look good but a little soft, with the shingles showing a small amount of noise. The table below shows the full resolution/quality series. Resolution/Quality Series
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
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 the lens at full
wide-angle, the lens at full telephoto and the lens at full telephoto with
2x and 4x digital telephoto enabled. The S100 does well with this zoom range,
there's barely any barrel distortion in the wide-angle shot. It's lens is
a little more wide angle overall than most cameras at the wide angle end,
and shorter at the telephoto end. The 2x digital telephoto does a nice job
of enlarging the image without compromising too much quality, resolution
seems close to the wide shot. At the 4x digital telephoto setting, however,
we see much softer detail.
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
"Musicians"
poster: (1951k) For this test, we shot
samples of this image using the automatic (152k),
fluorescent (151k), cloudy
(151k) and daylight (151k)
white balance options. Again, we chose the fluorescent setting, as
it produced the best skin tones and overall color balance. The automatic
setting was just a little too cool (the heavy amount of blue in the image
is often tricky for digicams to adjust for), and the cloudy and daylight
settings were too warm. Color saturation looks about right throughout, but
the model's blue robe seems to be just a little weak in hue. This might
be due to an overall bluish cast in the background of the image, causing
the camera to adjust the color cast away from the blue end of the spectrum
a bit. The skin tones also look about right and not too warm. Resolution
and detail are again a little soft, with the detail in the bird wings and
silver threads of the blue robe not as crisp as we've seen on some two megapixel
digicams. As with the House shot, noise is moderately high. Below is our
standard resolution/quality series in the fluorescent white balance setting. Resolution/Quality Series
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
Macro shot:
(1964k) The S100 does a good job in the macro category,
capturing a minimum area of 3.97 x 2.98 inches (100.88 x 75.66 mm). Resolution,
detail and color all look very good. The brooch is just a little soft, possibly
due to the limited depth of field when you get this close. We were also
able to shoot at the 2x (1245k)
and 4x (866k) digital
telephoto settings. As we noticed with the Lens Zoom Range shots, the 2x
digital telephoto still produces a reasonably sharp image while the 4x setting
decreases resolution very noticeably. (In the macro test, we shot all the
images at maximum resolution, which increased the softening effect of the
digital telephoto, in both 2x and 4x modes.) |
||||||||||||||||||
|
"Davebox"
test target: (1524k) We achieved nice results
in this test, after shooting sample images at the daylight
(92k), cloudy (95k),
fluorescent (92k) and
automatic (91k) white
balance settings. We ultimately settled on the fluorescent setting, as it
again produced the most accurate white value. Automatic produced very similar
results, but with a slightly cool cast. Daylight and cloudy were both too
warm. The cyan, magenta and yellow color blocks on the left side of the
target look reasonably accurate, although the large red block seems a little
bright (consistent with our findings throughout the testing). The S100 just
barely picks up the differences between the red and magenta color blocks
on the middle, horizontal color chart, echoing the trouble it seemed to
have with bright reddish hues (we've seen many digicams get confused in
this area and try to blend these colors into one). The subtle tonal variations
in "B" pastel range of the Q60 chart are distinguishable, but
a notch down from the best we've seen. Shadow detail looks exceptionally
good, and it seems like the noise level is a little lower with this shot.
Detail still looks somewhat soft, especially in the small resolution target
on the right side. Below is our standard resolution and quality series. Resolution/Quality Series
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Low-Light Tests We were pleasantly surprised by the S100's low-light capabilities, as we obtained useable images as low as 1 foot-candle (11 lux). We were still able to see a fair bit of detail as low as 1/16 EV (0.67 lux), but noticed a major jump in image brightness between 1/2 and 1 foot-candles (5.5 and 11 lux). Most likely, this is due to the camera's lowest shutter speed being one second, which is probably not slow enough for the 6 EV light level. For reference, 1 foot-cancle is about the light level of a reasonably well-lit city night scene under typical streetlights. The table below shows the best exposure we were able to obtain for each of a range of illumination levels. Images in this table (like all our sample photos) are untouched, exactly as they came from the camera.
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
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). Canon rates the S100's flash power as effective from 11 inches to 10 feet (27 cm to 3 m) in normal wide angle mode, and from 11 inches to seven feet (27 cm to 2 m) in telephoto mode. In our testing, we found the S100's flash shots to be slightly dark overall (perhaps fooled by the specular reflection from the vertical gray scale on the Davebox), but they showed very little falloff from 8 to 14 feet. Based on this particular test at least, it would seem that the S100's flash range is very conservatively rated. Flash Range/Distance:
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
ISO 12233 ("WG-18")
resolution target: (1486k) The S100's resolution
turned in a surprisingly good performance on our resolution test. We say
"surprising" because we felt that many of its other test images
were a little soft for a 2 megapixel camera. The resolution results though,
showed that the camera captures a reasonable amount of detail, but loses
out somewhat in the sharpness category. - A good illustration of the difference
between "resolution" and "sharpness". Horizontal resolution
was a solid 700-750 lines per picture height, while vertical resolution
was 600-650 lines. As to the sharpness, we found that applying strong unsharp
masking with a small radius (130%, 0.3 pixels) in Photoshop(tm) greatly
improved the crispness of the image, without introducing any unpleasant
artifacts. Seeing this, we went back to some of our other shots, and tried
the same trick. We found that 130% was a bit much for general subjects,
but unsharp masking of 100% and 0.3 pixels radius made a significant difference
in how the pictures looked: Noise was increased somewhat, but the photos
overall picked up a much sharper, crisper appearance. Resolution Series, Wide Angle
Resolution Series, Telephoto
Resolution Series, 2x Digital Telephoto
Resolution Series, 4x Digital Telephoto
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
Viewfinder accuracy/flash uniformity target:
The S100's optical viewfinder is a little tight, showing approximately 84
percent of the final image area at wide angle
(483k) and about 85 percent at telephoto
(473k). The LCD monitor was much more accurate, showing
about 99 percent of the final image area at both wide
angle (471k) and telephoto
(474k) settings (it actually seemed a little loose
on the 640 x 480 (83k)
image size at wide angle, cutting off part of the heavy black outline that
we use as a guide). We generally like to see LCD monitors as close to 100
percent accuracy as possible, so the S100 comes through with flying colors
in this category, and it's optical viewfinder accuracy is very typical of
other digicams, as most seem to be designed for 85% coverage. We also shot
at the 2x (374k) and
4x (290k) digital telephoto
settings, which were very accurate, but resolution became worse with each
setting. (And we had significant difficulty in the studio, discerning where
the lines were on the LCD display in these modes, as the viewfinder display
became quite fuzzy in digital tele mode.) Optical distortion on the S100 is fairly low at the wide angle end, showing an approximate 0.4 percent barrel distortion. Oddly enough, we found barrel distortion at the telephoto end as well, albeit an almost imperceptible 0.1 percent. (Most lenses switch to pincushion distortion in telephoto mode.) Chromatic aberration was very low, maybe showing half a pixel of coloration on each side of the target elements. (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). Flash distribution looked very even at the telephoto setting, but had some fall-off at wide-angle. |
Follow Imaging Resource: