"Sunlit" Portrait:
(This is my new "Outdoor" Portrait test - read more about it here.)

High resolution and strong detail. Color is flat, though nearly accurate.

• Exposure compensation: +0.7 EV, about average.
• Contrast/Tone: High, some highlight detail lost even with low contrast setting, although midtones are well-exposed.
• White Balance: Auto is best, though very similar to the Daylight setting. Manual was slightly red.
• Color accuracy: Very good, blues are slightly dark but without purplish tints. Good overall color and saturation.
• Skin tones: Very good.
• Resolution/sharpness: High, details are well-defined, slight loss of subtle detail to anti-noise processing.
• Shadow detail: Moderate, high noise

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files Z50OUTAP0.HTM through Z50OUTAP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Contrast Series:
A good contrast adjustment, affects only contrast, leaves color saturation alone. Default contrast is higher than I'd like though.

Contrast Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Saturation Series:
A good range of adjustment, in nice-sized steps. (Images are so blown out because I shot this series with the contrast option set to its default.)

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

High resolution and detail, but slightly bright exposure and low contrast setting flatten color slightly.

• Exposure compensation: +0.3 EV, about average
• Exposure/Tone: Bright exposure required for good skin tones results in hot highlights
• Detail: Even stronger here, and better definition, though just slightly soft overall (camera was back-focusing slightly?)
• Distortion: Pretty good, 3x zoom lens avoids strong distortion close-in like this, though a small amount is noticeable.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files Z50OUTFACAP0.HTM through Z50OUTFACAP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash Flash intensity +2

Pretty good results with the normal flash mode, but exposure compensation doesn't appear to affect flash exposures, so is a little dark. Good color, just slightly warm.

• Exposure: Default exposure was a little dark, but boosting to +2 in the Flash Exposure option of the Record menu helped at least somewhat.
• Color: Fairly accurate skin tones, and the flower bouquet looks good. (About average, given the tough light source.)
• Flash balance with room lighting?: Good, warm cast overall, but no unnatural blue highlights from the flash.
  
  
  
  

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Warm color balances, but good exposure, though slightly more exposure compensation than average required.

• Exposure: +1.3 EV adjustment needed, a bit higher than average
• White Balance: Incandescent slightly warm and reddish, but best overall. Auto rather warm and yellow, Manual slightly greenish. All were within acceptable limits though.
• Color: Skin tones pretty good, blue flowers a little purple, others flowers good. (About average, given the tough light source.)

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.7 EV, see files Z50INDP0.HTM through Z50INDP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

ISO Series:
Image noise was moderate in general, quite low with the 50 and 100 ISO settings. At ISOs 200 and 400, image noise increased and interfered with definition of subtle details. Images at ISO 400 were fairly soft overall, with noticeable noise. Prints on our Canon i9900 studio printer at 8x11 were soft but likely acceptable for some uses, prints at 5x7 looked great.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Slightly cool color with Manual white balance and slight overexposure, with strong blurring in the corners of the frame.

• Sharpness/Detail: Moderately high, though good. Details appear pixilated and slightly posterized in the foliage.
• Sharpness in Corners: Strong blurring in all four corners
• Color: Manual best overall, though slightly cool. Daylight and Auto much warmer.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Visible in shadowed areas of brick walls, but not too prominent.
  
  
  
  

Fairly high resolution and a lot of fine detail, but a limited dynamic range. Once again, very soft corners, and a warm color cast.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance, and to present a near-infinite range of detail to the camera. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio.

• Sharpness/Detail: Good for a 5.0-megapixel camera.
• Sharpness in Corners: Fair to poor, blurring in all four corners.
• Color: Good.
• Dynamic Range: Limited, significant loss of detail in the highlights and marginal detail in the shadows.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Some detail loss evident in pine foliage, shadowed areas on house.

Resolution Series:

ISO Series:

Sharpness Series:
A good control. Highest setting makes very crisp images with relatively few artifacts. Normal setting gives good results with essentially no artifacts. Lowest setting produces images that take unsharp masking in Photoshop(tm) particularly well.

Contrast Series:

Contrast Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Saturation Series:

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Lens Zoom Range

A typical 3x zoom range.

The EX-Z50's focal length range of 35-105mm equivalents is typical of most point & shoot digital cameras. It corresponds to a moderate telephoto to a modest telephoto.

	Wide Angle
	3x Telephoto
	4x Digital Telephoto

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Slightly cool color, but good detail and resolution.

• White Balance: Manual setting cool, but best overall. Auto and Daylight settings white balance very similar, both good just very slightly warm.
• Color: Slightly pale skin tones. Blue robe slightly purplish in the shadows, but overall color is pretty good.
• Sharpness/Detail: Very good. (Close to the limits of the poster though.)
  
  
  
  

Standard Macro Shot

Macro with Flash

A very small macro area with great detail. Flash has trouble up close though.

• Minimum Macro Area: 1.75 x 1.31 inches (44 x 33 millimeters)
• Softness in corners?: Slightly more than average. (Most cameras get fairly soft corners in macro mode.)
• Flash performance in macro mode?: Poor, significant overexposure with strong shadow from the lens.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good overall exposure and color.

• White balance: Manual white balance setting produced best results, Auto and Daylight both warm.
• Color Accuracy: Generally good color accuracy, reds are somewhat oversaturated (very typical for digital cameras with this target). Blues tend to be a bit oversaturated and the camera shifts hue to try to make "pure" blues from ones that lean toward cyan or purple. (Probably a good thing.) Good color overall..
• Shadow detail and noise: Pretty good detail in the briquettes, moderately high noise.
  
  

The results in the tests below mirror those seen above in other test shots. The test series are repeated here without further comment, for the benefit of our more quantitatively-oriented readers.

ISO Series:

Contrast Series:

Contrast Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Saturation Series:

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Color Series:

Color Series
Normal	Black & White	Sepia

Low-Light Tests

Good low-light exposure capability, sensitive enough for average city street-lighting at night, and slightly darker situations. Autofocus system had trouble achieving good focus, however, even at levels equal to typical street-lighting.

• Exposure limit: 1/4 foot-candle at ISO 200 and 400. (About 1/4 as bright as typical city street lighting at night.) 1/2 foot-candle at ISO 100, and one foot-candle at ISO 50.
• Autofocus Limit: With a perfect subject (sharp, high-contrast edge), a bit brighter than 1/4 foot-candle, but reliable only to 1/2 foot-candle. (About 1/2 to 1/4 the brightness of typical city street lighting.) With this target, camera had trouble focusing even at 1 foot-candle.
• White Balance: A little pink in the lower exposures.
• Noise Levels: On the high side, particularly at lower light levels and higher sensitivity settings.
• Detail loss to anti-noise processing?: Poor focus makes it hard to tell.
• General Notes: Probably not a first choice for after-dark non-flash photography. Decent exposure ability, but poor autofocus performance.

(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 one foot-candle corresponds to a normal exposure of two seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 100.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux
ISO 50	1.6 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6
ISO 100	1 sec f2.6	2 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6
ISO 200	1/1 sec f2.6	1 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6
ISO 400	1/3 sec f2.6	1/1 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6	4 sec f2.6

Flash Range Test

A very weak flash, dim at eight feet, and with significant falloff from there.

Flash range at telephoto lens setting: Eight feet

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/60 sec f4.8	1/60 sec f4.8	1/60 sec f4.8	1/60 sec f4.8	1/60 sec f4.8	1/60 sec f4.8	1/60 sec f4.8

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

High resolution, 1,250 lines of "strong detail." Higher than average barrel distortion at wide angle. Soft to very soft corners. Moderate chromatic aberration at wide angle, less at medium and telephoto focal lengths.

• Resolution: 1,250 lines both vertically and horizontally, although level of artifacts might make 1,200 a better rating.
• Artifacts begin at: ~800 lines
• Extinction point: ~1,700 lines
  
  
• Barrel/Pincushion distortion: 1.0 percent barrel at wide angle, 0.08 percent at telephoto
• Chromatic Aberration: Moderate at wide angle, better at medium and telephoto focal lengths
• Corner Sharpness: Moderate to poor, particularly at wide angle
  
  

Resolution Series, medium focal length

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG	"Economy" JPEG
2,560 x 1,920	Z50RES2560F	Z50RES2560N	Z50RES2560E
2,048 x 1,536	Z50RES2048	-	-
1,600 x 1,200	Z50RES1600	-	-
1,280 x 960	Z50RES1280	-	-
640 x 480	Z50RES0640	-	-

 

Resolution Test, Zoom Series

2,560 x 1,920 (Fine, Wide Angle)	Z50RESW
2,560 x 1,920 (Fine, Telephoto)	Z50REST

Sharpness Series: