A very nice job, with good detail and resolution, and good overall color as well.

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 SD100 did a good job.

The shot at right was taken with a +0.3 EV exposure compensation adjustment, which brightened the midtones slightly, albeit at the cost of some highlight detail, while the shadows are still darker than I'd like. I chose the Daylight white balance as the most accurate overall, though the Auto setting produced similar results. The Manual setting resulted in a warmer, yellow image.

Skin tones are a little warm and ruddy, but not bad overall. The blue flowers in the bouquet look almost exactly right. (This is a very difficult blue for many digicams to get right. For reference, the flowers are a pretty pure light navy blue, with just a few hints of purple in them.) The red flowers of the bouquet are just a little oversaturated, but the strong yellow and green tones look good. Resolution is very good, with a lot of fine detail visible throughout the frame, even in the shadows. Details are also sharp overall, and image noise in the shadows is low.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files SD10OUTDP0.HTM through SD10OUTDP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Great resolution and detail, though just a slight distortion from the lens.

Results are similar to the wider shot above, in terms of color and exposure. The SD100's 2x zoom lens prevents some distortion of Marti's features, but there's still a little artificial exaggeration of her nose. Detail is much stronger in this shot, particularly in Marti's face and hair. Details are just slightly soft, but still well-defined. The shot at right was taken at the default exposure setting, which produced a nicely balanced exposure with only the strongest highlights blown out. Shadow detail is again strong, with low noise.

To view the entire exposure series from -0.3 to +0.7 EV, see files SD10FACM1.HTM through SD10FACP2.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +0.7 EV

Slow Sync Mode +0.7 EV

Good intensity and coverage with the built-in flash, though a strong color cast from the room lighting.

The SD100's built-in flash illuminates the subject well, producing a bright image with a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment. (The default exposure was just a little too dark.) The background incandescent lighting results in a fairly strong orange cast on the wall in the background, quite a bit of which spills onto Marti's features and the flower bouquet. The camera's Slow Sync flash mode produced similar results, though with slightly more even lighting than the normal flash mode. Again, a +0.7 EV exposure compensation adjustment produced the best results, as the default setting was slightly dim.

To view the entire exposure series in the normal flash mode from zero to +1.3 EV, see files SD10INAFP0.HTM through SD10INAFP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page. To see the same series in the Slow Sync flash mode, see files SD10INAFSP0.HTM through SD10INAFSP4.HTM.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Though slightly warm, good color with the Incandescent white balance. Good exposure as well.

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. It was a bit of a toss-up between the SD100's Manual and Incandescent white balance settings, as both produced nearly accurate color balances. (The Auto setting really had trouble here, producing a strong orange cast.) In the end, I chose the slight warmth of the Incandescent setting over the greenish tint of the Manual setting, as being more representative of the original scene. Though slightly warm, Marti's skin tone is pretty good. However, the blue flowers appear dark and purplish. (Probably to be expected, considering the light source.) I chose an exposure compensation adjustment of +1.0 for the main image, which is about average for this shot.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.7 EV, see files SD10INTP0.HTM through SD10INTP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

ISO Series:
Noise is moderate in this shot at the default ISO setting, low at ISO 50, fairly high at ISO 400 (a fairly typical outcome).

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Great resolution, detail, and color.

Both the SD100's Auto and Daylight white balance settings produced nearly identical results here, so I stuck with the Auto setting for the main shot. The Manual white balance resulted in a strong cool cast. Resolution is high, with a lot of fine detail visible in the tree limbs and shrubbery. Details are again slightly soft, but still well-defined. The extreme corners of the image are quite soft, particularly on the lefthand side, but the effect doesn't extend too far into the image area.

Excellent resolution and detail, with good dynamic range.

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.

This is my ultimate "resolution shot," given the infinite range of detail in a natural scene like this, and the SD100 does a good job with it. The tree limbs over the roof and fine foliage in front of the house show strong detail, with very nice definition in the leaf patterns, although flare from the lens obscures some details. The brick pattern of the house also shows good detail. Details are just slightly soft throughout the frame, with increased softness in the two left corners, but not to the extent we saw in the shot of the house poster above. The camera loses all but the strongest details in the bright white paint surrounding the bay window, a trouble spot for many digicams. However, detail is stronger in the shadow area above the front door. Overall color looks good, although the greens are somewhat oversaturated (particularly the grass color), and exposure is just slightly bright. The table below shows a standard resolution and quality series (with the "normal" and "economy" samples pared out for image sizes smaller than the maximum), followed by ISO and Effects series.

Resolution Series:

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG	"Economy" JPEG
2,048 x 1,536	SD10FARLF	SD10FARLN	SD10FARLE
1,600 x 1,200	SD10FARMF	-	-
1,024 x 768	SD10FARSF	-	-
640 x 480	SD10FARTF	-	-

ISO Series:

Effects Series: The SD100 offers a handful of creative effects, controlling sharpness, color, and saturation.

Effects Series
Normal	Neutral Color	Vivid Color	Black and White	Sepia	Low Sharpening

Lens Zoom Range

Typical 2x 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 (2x, in this case), and at full telephoto with the digital zoom enabled. The SD100's lens is equivalent to a 35-70mm zoom on a 35mm camera. That corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a slight telephoto. Following are the results at each zoom setting.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Pretty good color, although slightly cool-toned with the Manual white balance. Good resolution and detail.

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. Both the SD100's Auto and Daylight white balance settings did just that, producing very warm-hued images. The Manual setting, though slightly cool, produced the best results overall. Skin tones are a bit pale and cool, but not too bad. The blue robe looks pretty good, although the deep shadows border on being purplish. Resolution is high, with great detail in the embroidery of the blue robe.

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

An average macro area, but good exposure, detail, and flash performance.

The SD100 performed well in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of only 2.91 x 2.19 inches (74 x 55 millimeters). Resolution is very high, with strong detail in the coins, brooch, and dollar bill. Corner softness is present in this shot, but the effect isn't terribly strong. Exposure looks good, though color is a hint cool. The SD100's flash throttled down pretty well for the macro area, though the brooch caused a hot reflection.

"Davebox" Test Target

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good overall exposure, and good color and saturation.

The SD100's Auto white balance produced the best color here, with the most accurate white value in the mini-resolution target and large, white color block. The Daylight setting resulted in a warm cast, and the Manual setting had a greenish tint. The SD100 had no trouble distinguishing the subtle tonal variations of the Q60 target, and overall exposure looks pretty good. Colors are bright and vibrant in the large color blocks, although I found two of the additive primary colors (red and blue) slightly oversaturated. The shadow area of the charcoal briquettes shows a moderately high level of detail, with low noise. Overall, an excellent performance.

Low-Light Tests

Very good low-light performance: Good color balance, a good AF illuminator, and good exposure capability in the long-exposure mode.

The SD100 does surprisingly well for a subcompact camera in the low light category. It has a "long shutter" mode, that permits exposures as long as 15 seconds, vs the 1 second limit in normal shooting mode. Combined with the autofocus-assist illuminator, this let the SD100 capture usable images down to the1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) limit of my test.

	1fc 11lux	1/2fc 5.5lux	1/4fc 2.7lux	1/8fc 1.3lux	1/16fc 0.67lx
ISO 50	1 secs F2.8	4 secs F2.8	8 secs F2.8	15 secs F2.8	15 secs F2.8
ISO 100	1/ 2 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	4 secs F2.8	8 secs F2.8	15 secs F2.8
ISO 200	1/ 3 secs F2.8	1 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	4 secs F2.8	8 secs F2.8
ISO 400	1/6 secs F2.8	1/ 3 secs F2.8	1 secs F2.8	2 secs F2.8	4 secs F2.8

Flash Range Test

Good intensity at eight feet, with slight falloff from there.

In my testing, the SD100's flash illuminated the test target all the way out to 14 feet, but the intensity decreased with every foot of distance beyond 8 feet. I'd thus rate it as effective to 8 feet, in general agreement with Canon's own rating of only 6.7 feet with the lens at its telephoto position. 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
1/60 secs F3.9	1/60 secs F3.9	1/60 secs F3.9	1/60 secs F3.9	1/60 secs F3.9	1/60 secs F3.9	1/60 secs F3.9

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

High resolution, with 1,050 lines of "strong detail." Less than average barrel distortion.

The SD100 performed fairly well on the "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 600 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to at least 1,050 lines, although you could perhaps argue for as high as 1,100 lines in the horizontal direction. "Extinction" of the target patterns didn't occur until about 1,200 lines.

Optical distortion on the SD100 is somewhat better than average at the wide-angle end, where I measured approximately 0.6 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared better still, as I found only two pixels of barrel distortion there. Chromatic aberration is also very low, showing only very faint coloration on either side of the 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.)

Resolution Series, Wide Angle

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG	"Economy" JPEG
2,048 x 1,536	SD10RESWLF	SD10RESWLN	SD10RESWLE
1,600 x 1,200	SD10RESWMF	-	-
1,024 x 768	SD10RESWSF	-	-
640 x 480	SD10RESWTF	-	-

Resolution Test, Telephoto

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

SD10RESTLF