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Sony DSC-S70 Sony makes a compact 3.3 megapixel digicam with full movie/sound capability and a razor-sharp Zeiss lens! Select a topic 13. Reference: Datasheet 14. DSC-S70 Sample Images --------------------------------- 1. Intro and Highlights 2. Executive Overview 3. Design 4. Viewfinder 5. Optics 6. Exposure & Flash 7. Shutter Lag & Cycle Time Tests 8. Operation & User Interface 9. Camera Modes & Menus 10. Image Storage & Interface 11. Video, Power, Software 12. Test Results & Conclusion --------------------------------- Print-Friendly Review Version Additional Resources and Other Links Reader Comments --------------------------------- Digital Camera Comparometer (TM) --------------------------------- <-- Digital Cameras (Home) <-- Digital Camera Reviews Index <<Viewfinder :(Previous) | (Next): Exposure & Flash>> Page 5:Optics Review First Posted: 5/5/2000

Optics
The S70 is equipped with a 3x, 7 to 21mm Carl Zeiss, Vario-Sonnar lens (equivalent to a 34 to 102mm lens on a 35mm camera). This is the second time we've seen Carl Zeiss optics on a Sony digicam (the first was the DSC-F505), and the result here is the same: The lens is noticeably sharper than that on many digicams, producing exceptionally crisp results from corner to corner. (This is a direction we expect to see pursued by more manufacturers in the future: Lens quality may well become a key differentiator between digicams with otherwise similar functional specs. Certainly, the use of Zeiss optics on the S70 will help Sony's cause in marketing the unit.) The lens is protected by a removable lens cap which comes with a small strap to keep it from getting lost. The aperture is manually adjustable in Aperture Priority mode from f/2.0 to f/8.0 in nine steps. Focus can be controlled either automatically or manually with a range from 9.87 inches (25cm) to infinity. Pressing the Focus button cycles through a variety of manual and auto focus options: Auto Macro, 1.75 feet (0.5m), 3.25 feet (1.0m), 9.75 feet (3.0m), 23 feet (7.0m), infinity and then back to regular autofocus. This distance gauge is particularly helpful in very dark situations where it can be hard to focus. The Auto Macro setting allows you to capture subjects from 1.62 inches (4cm) to 8 inches (20cm) away, with the lens set at the furthest wide angle setting. The S70 does a nice job at macro shooting, capturing a minimum area of just 0.94 x 0.70 inches (23.77 x 17.83 mm). Additionally, the Panfocus exposure mode sets up the camera so that the focus changes quickly between far away and close-up subjects and Landscape exposure mode sets the focus at infinity, for recording distant subjects.

The lens features filter threads to accommodate a variety of Sony conversion kits. Our test model of the S70 came packaged with a very large wide angle conversion lens (almost as big as a bread plate!). When working with a conversion kit, you must activate it through the record menu so that the camera can actually focus the lens.

The 2x digital zoom function is controlled through the Record menu and effectively takes the S70's zoom capabilities up to 6x. As always, digital telephoto noticeably deteriorates image quality, causing it to be noisier and sometimes softer, so keep that in mind when digitally zooming.

In our resolution tests, we found the S70's Carl Zeiss lens to be every bit as sharp as the Zeiss name would imply: The S70 actually showed the highest resolution of any digicam we've tested to date! It's beginning to seem like every camera that comes along these days is suddenly "the best" for about a week or two. In this case, the previous resolution champ was the Canon Powershot S20. It's interesting to compare the results of the Canon and Sony cameras though: One significant difference is that the Sony DSC-S70 is clearly applying more in-camera sharpening than does the Canon S20. This adds "crispness" to an image, without necessarily increasing the resolution. In the case of the S70 though, there does appear to be at least a bit of extra resolution as well. We "called" the S70's resolution as 900-950 lines per picture height in the horizontal direction, and 850-900 in the vertical, with detail visible vertically well beyond 900 lines, and horizontally to well beyond 1000. As with the Canon S20, the Sony DSC-S70 seems to show resolution beyond what should be theoretically possible, according to the Nyquist theorem and the CCD's pixel count. We attributed this to the camera's excellent suppression of artifacts, both in chrominance (color) and luminance (brightness) domains. There is in fact some aliasing visible beginning around 750 lines vertically (where theory says the limit should be), but it's so well controlled as to be almost invisible. Overall, a really remarkable performance, another triumph for Zeiss optics.

While the S70's lens shows excellent resolution and sharpness, it still has a fair bit of barrel distortion at the wide angle end, which we measured at 0.8 percent. The telephoto end showed much less, with only 0.15 percent pincushion distortion, an amount that's barely noticeable in most shots. Chromatic aberration is present but very low, we caught about 2-3 pixels of coloration on each side of the corner elements in our resolution target, shot at wide angle. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target). At the telephoto end of the lens' range, the chromatic aberration is much less apparent. In other respects, the S70's Zeiss lens performed superbly: The chromatic aberration is the main fault that would prevent us from giving it an altogether stellar rating...

Accessory Lenses
The S70 has body threads to accept an accessory lens adapter ring, the VAD-S70. We don't know the details of how this unit will be sold: In our case, it came along with the (gigantic!) accessory wide-angle lens, the VCL-MHG07, shown at right. The VAD-S70 gives you a set of 52mm filter threads out ahead of where the lens telescopes to when it's deployed, letting you attach filters, close-up lenses, or the MHG-07 wide angle. The wide-angle accessory lens was a realy eye-opener (sorry, we couldn't resist), applying an 0.7x multiplier to the S70's normal focal length range. At the wide angle end of the zoom, this resulted in one of the widest-angle lens combinations we've yet tested in a digicam, a focal length equivalent to roughly 24 mm on a 35mm camera. The MHG-07 also seems to be a fairly high-quality unit, although (as you'd expect), not quite matching the quality of the camera's Zeiss lens itself.