Tough/Waterproof Camera Shootout 2013: Lab Test Results
Six tough/waterproof cameras comparedSurvival of the Fittest:
2013 Best Tough/Waterproof Camera Shootout
Lab Test Results
Here's where most of our determination of a camera's overall quality is made, in the image analysis. No matter how fun or easy to use we find a camera, we figure the true quality of an image capture device is found in its images. We think you'll agree.
Lens Quality
|
Model |
Wide |
Tele |
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Canon |
 |
 |
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Nikon |
 |
 |
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Olympus |
 |
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Panasonic |
 |
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Pentax |
 |
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Sony |
 |
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Center Sharpness: These crops are taken from the center at maximum or close to maximum aperture, for both wide angle and telephoto.
On shorter zooms, there's usually less difference between wide and tele in the center; the difference usually occurs in the corners, which we cover separately below. Also keep in mind that focal length ranges and resolutions vary.
The crops at right show that all the cameras do quite well at maximum wide angle in the center. They apply different amounts of sharpening, but each produces very good to excellent sharpness and contrast at wide angle.
Results are different at full telephoto, however. Here we can see only the Canon D20 provides good sharpness, though contrast is a bit lower than at wide angle.
The Nikon AW110 is a bit soft at full telephoto but the Nikon also applies a little less sharpening than the Canon.
The Olympus TG-2 is the softest of the group at full telephoto, though contrast is still pretty good. It also applies very little sharpening at telephoto.
The Panasonic TS5 is reasonably sharp, however it loses a lot of contrast at telephoto, more so than any of the others, perhaps due to aggressive C.A. suppression.
The Pentax WG-3 GPS is also softer with lower contrast and significant C.A., though still relatively sharp.
It's a similar story with the Sony T30 which is also softer than wide angle, though contrast remains good.
For maximum sharpness, you'll definitely want to use avoid using full telephoto with all of these cameras if you can.
|
Model |
Wide |
Tele |
|
Canon |
 |
 |
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Nikon |
 |
 |
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Olympus |
 |
 |
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Panasonic |
 |
 |
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Pentax |
 |
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Sony |
 |
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Corner Sharpness: These crops are taken from the worst-case corner at maximum or close to maximum aperture, for both wide angle and telephoto.
Waterproof cameras generally require some optical compromises because of their internal optics, and that really shows here in the corners.
The Panasonic TS5 stands out as one of the better performers overall, with good sharpness and decent contrast in the corners, though it shows a slight color shift to magenta in the corners.
The Pentax WG-3 GPS looks pretty good, especially considering it's both wider and faster than the Panasonic, though moderate vignetting (shading) is visible at wide angle. It also shows a slight color shift to magenta.
The Canon D20 does well at full telephoto, however at wide angle corners are soft and there's very strong lateral chromatic aberration as well. You can also see from the jagged edges that plenty of geometric distortion correction is being applied, contributing to softness.
The Nikon AW110 does fairly well with good sharpness at telephoto and fair sharpness at wide angle. You can also see that significant distortion correction is being applied, and there's some significant vignetting as well.
The Olympus TG-2 offers fair corner sharpness at full telephoto, however wide angle is quite soft, though there's little sign of strong distortion correction.
The Sony TX30 offers decent sharpness in the corners at wide angle, though again we see signs of geometric distortion correction. At full telephoto, the Sony is the softest in the corners of the group.
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Model |
Wide (%) |
Tele (%) |
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Canon |
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Nikon |
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Olympus |
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Panasonic |
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Pentax |
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Sony |
Geometric Distortion: Barrel distortion ("bloat") is indicated with a plus (+), pincushion distortion ("squeeze") with a minus (-). Numbers are in percent, and smaller numbers are better.
Geometric distortion at wide angle ranges from imperceptible (Canon D20) to quite strong and noticeable (Sony TX30). The Nikon and Pentax lenses exhibit both barrel (+) and pincushion (-) distortion depending on the edge, likely an indication distortion correction is being applied (imperfectly) during JPEG processing.
Distortion at the telephoto end is generally better controlled, with most cameras in this group showing negligible to relatively low amounts, except for the Canon D20 which showed a moderate amount of barrel distortion.
|
Model |
Wide |
Tele |
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Canon |
 |
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Nikon |
 |
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Olympus |
 |
 |
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Panasonic |
 |
 |
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Pentax |
 |
 |
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Sony |
 |
 |
Chromatic Aberration: Worst-case chromatic aberration (C.A.) in corners at wide angle and telephoto.
At wide angle, the Pentax WG-3 GPS offers the lowest lateral chromatic aberration of the group, though we have no way of determining if it suppresses C.A. during JPEG processing since it does not support RAW capture (which is true of all these cameras). The Panasonic TS5 also does a pretty good job at keeping C.A. in check at wide angle (and telephoto). The Nikon AW110 shows some significant blue fringing at wide angle, but it's fairly dark and not as noticeable as some others. The Olympus TG-2 shows fairly low C.A. in terms of pixel count, however fringing is on the bright side. The Sony TX30 is next, with significant and fairly bright purple fringing. It's the Canon D20 that produces the most objectionable C.A. with purple and green fringing that is quite bright and noticeable.
C.A. is generally much better controlled at telephoto, except for the Pentax WG-3 GPS where it is markedly worse than wide angle. The Nikon AW110 shows some fairly strong red and blue fringing while the Panasonic TS5 shows moderate fringing, but C.A. is fairly mild at telephoto from the rest of this group.
Image Quality
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In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured, at base ISO using manual white balance. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Mouse over the camera name links above to compare models. |
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Color: Saturation and hue accuracy using manual white balance. Roll-over the links to compare cameras.
The Olympus TG-2 is little more true to life than most cameras at only about 3% oversaturated, while the Canon D20, Nikon AW110 and Sony TX30 show more typical saturation ranging from 8.2% to 11.6% oversaturated. The Pentax WG-3 GPS and Panasonic TS5 both produce slightly higher than average default oversaturation at 14.7% and 15.2% respectively. All the cameras push reds and blues, but most not by as much as we've often seen. And all of them mute yellow to some degree.
In terms of hue accuracy (after correction for saturation), Canon leads the way here, followed by Olympus, with Nikon, Sony, Pentax, and Panasonic bringing up the rear in that order. Every camera shifts cyan toward blue to improve sky color, but every camera except the Nikon AW110 also shifts yellow toward green. Combined with a reduction in saturation of yellow, this leads to some dingy greenish yellows in our Still Life shots.
Overall, though, each camera puts out fairly accurate color with manual white balance in simulated daylight.
|
Model |
Auto |
Auto Flash |
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Canon |
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ISO 1000, 1/20s |
ISO 320, 1/20s |
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Nikon |
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ISO 400, 1/10s |
ISO 200, 1/30s |
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Olympus |
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ISO 400, 1/20s |
ISO 200, 1/40s |
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Panasonic |
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ISO 400, 1/8s |
ISO 500, 1/60s |
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Pentax |
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ISO 200, 1/6s |
ISO 200, 1/80s |
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Sony |
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ISO 800, 1/15s |
ISO 800, 1/40s |
Indoors: Indoor Incandescent Portrait without and with flash, in full auto mode.
All of the cameras struggled a bit with white balance indoors under incandescent light, producing either warm or cool color, with reddish or greenish color casts using auto white balance. Switching to manual white balance would have produced better results, but this test is all about seeing how the cameras perform indoors in full auto mode.
The Canon D20 does fairly well, but overall color balance is too yellow. It also raises the ISO to 1,000, resulting in high noise with low detail. Flash performed well, with some ambient light retention and decent detail at ISO 320. The shutter speed is low, though, which could result in blurring from subject movement if the camera doesn't detect it and adjust accordingly.
The Nikon AW110 is little too reddish and a little dim, selecting ISO 400, and shutter speed is even slower than the Canon's at 1/10s. The flash shot is a little hot, but the camera lowers ISO to 200, allowing for a little more detail. Shutter speed has improved to 1/30s, but that's still a bit slow.
The Olympus TG-2's rendering is quite warm and yellow, though detail is not bad at ISO 400. Like the Canon, it selected a shutter speed of 1/20s which is a bit slow to avoid motion blur. The flash image is rather dim at ISO 200, though shutter speed is a reasonable 1/40s.
The Panasonic TS5 is a little cool with a magenta cast. The camera raises ISO to 400, which is about average here. Shutter speed is quite low at 1/8s which invites motion blur, unless the camera senses motion (with our static subjects, it's not possible to tell). Its flash shot is a bit harsh, retaining little of the ambient light, but detail is also soft at ISO 500. Shutter speed is good though, fast enough to avoid typical motion blur in indoor portraits.
Pentax's WG-3 GPS declined to raise its ISO above 200, resulting in underexposed images in both scenarios. There's a little less noise suppression as a result, but it's not really a plus. White balance is quite reddish in the ambient light shot, with the camera selecting the slowest shutter speed of the group (1/6s), making sharp hand-held shots nearly impossible unless the camera detects motion and boosts ISO. Shutter speed was very good with the flash, though.
The Sony TX30 gets the white balance a bit too warm and reddish but it's not bad, however exposure is a bit dim, even raising the ISO to 800. Shutter speed is also slow at 1/15s. The flash shot is exposed well, but with an odd orange glow from the ambient light. Shutter speed was an acceptable 1/40s.
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100 |
200 |
400 |
800 |
1600 |
3200 |
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13x19 |
11x14 |
8x10 |
5x7 |
4x6 |
Unusable |
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Canon D20: ISO 100 images look pretty good in terms of fine detail, but enough detail disappears at ISO 200 that it looks better at 11x14 inches. ISO 400 is quite a bit softer, and print sizes continue to fall off progressively to the point of being unusable at ISO 3200. |
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125 |
200 |
400 |
800 |
1600 |
3200 |
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13x19 |
11x14 |
8x10 |
5x7 |
4x6 |
4x6 |
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Nikon AW110: The AW110's images look more processed than the Canon D20's, but they print fairly well, achieving the same print sizes up to ISO 1600, and managing a usable (just) 4x6 at ISO 3200. |
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100 |
200 |
400 |
800 |
1600 |
3200 |
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13x19 |
11x14 |
8x10 |
8x10 |
5x7 |
4x6 |
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Olympus TG-2: The TG-2's images look very clean at low ISOs but aggressive noise reduction has a detrimental affect on fine detail that gives them a very processed look. Still, they printed well, with print sizes not falling off quite as fast at intermediate ISOs as the Canon and Nikon. Note that the TG-2 was not able to produce a usable 4 x 6 at ISO 6400. |
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100 |
200 |
400 |
800 |
1600 |
3200 |
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13x19 |
11x14 |
8x10 |
8x10 |
5x7 |
4x6 |
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Panasonic TS5: The TS5's images start out a little noisy but have pretty good detail up to ISO 400. Higher ISOs get much softer as you'd expect, but still manage usable prints, and the TS5 did as well in terms of print sizes as the best in this shootout. |
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125 |
200 |
400 |
800 |
1600 |
3200 |
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11x14 |
8x10 |
8x10 |
5x7 |
4x6 |
Unusable |
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Pentax WG-3 GPS: From the crops above, it seems like the WG-3 should have done better printed, but it just wasn't the case. (We found the same true of its predecessor.) Still, users can output a decent 4x6 at ISO 1600. Note that the WG-3 wasn't able to produce a usable 4x6 at ISO 3200 or 6400. |
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100 |
200 |
400 |
800 |
1600 |
3200 |
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13x19 |
11x14 |
8x10 |
8x10 |
5x7 |
4x6 |
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Sony TX30: The TX30's images look a bit noisy as well as over-processed, but they printed well, matching the best performance of the group. Note that ISO 6400 and 12,800 did not produce usable prints, and ISO 80 was very similar to IS 100. |
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ISO: Noise and Detail: For reference, this bottle label has razor sharp detail, but most cameras don't show that. All of these cameras are suffering somewhat from noise suppression that attacks what amounts to the grout lines in the mosaic. Lens sharpness also plays a role, as all of these were shot at telephoto.
Be sure to see our Print Quality results below for a better idea of how ISO sensitivity affects print size. Note that we've also added the print sizes below the crops to help you see what the different ISO settings can produce in terms of print size (this isn't an estimate, we really print the images).
Print Quality: Here, we've illustrated maximum recommended print size at each ISO in a simple spreadsheet view, with different colors for each size. This provides a pretty quick picture of which cameras are doing better than others when it comes to prints.
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Performance
|
Model |
Startup |
Full AF Lag |
Pre-focused |
Single Shot |
Full-Res Burst Speed* |
|
Canon D20 |
~1.6 |
0.33 / 0.39 |
0.073 |
1.93 |
1.9 (60+) |
|
Nikon AW110 |
~1.5 |
0.15 / 0.15 |
0.018 |
1.27 |
8 (6) |
|
Olympus TG-2 |
~1.0 |
0.22 / 0.29 |
0.043 |
0.73 |
5 (25) |
|
Panasonic TS5 |
~2.4 |
0.28 / 0.38 |
0.010 |
0.68 |
10 (7) |
|
Pentax WG-3 |
~2.0 |
0.21 / 0.11 |
0.022 |
1.68 |
1.5 (60) |
|
Sony TX30 |
~1.1 |
0.14 / 0.23 |
0.009 |
1.22 |
10 (10) |
|
Group Average |
~1.6 |
0.22 / 0.26 |
0.029 |
1.25 |
6.1 |
|
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|
Model |
Full Power Flash Recycle |
Low Light AF Limit |
Low Light AF Limit Assisted |
USB Transfer |
CIPA |
|
Canon D20 |
6.4 |
~1/2 |
0 |
7,269 |
280 |
|
Nikon AW110 |
3.8 |
~1/8 |
0 |
6,041 |
250 |
|
Olympus TG-2 |
3.7 |
~1/16 |
0 |
8,145 |
350 |
|
Panasonic TS5 |
2.8 |
~1/8 |
0 |
4,267 |
370 |
|
Pentax WG-3 |
4.8 |
~1 |
Failed** |
11,856 |
240 |
|
Sony TX30 |
5.5 |
~1/2 |
0 |
8,837 |
250 |
|
Group Average |
4.5 |
~2/5 |
0 |
7,736 |
290 |
|
* Manufacturer's specs. Note: All cameras tested with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-1 SDHC card with the exception of the Sony TX30 which was tested with a SanDisk Mobile Ultra 30MB/s UHS-1 Micro SDHC card. |
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Startup: The Olympus TG-2 was the fastest at powering up and taking a shot, with the Sony TX30 a close second. The Nikon AW110 was a bit faster than average, while the Canon D20 was average. The Pentax WG-3 and Panasonic TS5 were the slowest at startup in the group.
Autofocus: Autofocus was pretty fast from the newer models. At wide angle, the Sony TX30 was the fastest at 0.14s wit the Nikon AW110 very close at 0.15s. That's faster than most DSLRs! On the other end of the spectrum, the Panasonic TS5 took 0.28s while the aging Canon D20 took 0.33s to focus and take a shot. That's still fairly quick, but about twice as long as the fastest cameras in this group. At full telephoto, the Pentax WG-3 was the quickest at only 0.11s with the Nikon AW110 not far behind at 0.15s. Again, the TS5 and D20 were the slowest, but not bad. Prefocused shutter lag ranged from a blazing 0.009s for the Sony TX30 to 0.073s for the Canon D20, which is still pretty fast.
Shot-to-shot: Panasonic had the best shot-to-shot times in single-shot mode at a quick 0.68s, with the Olympus not far behind at 0.73s, while Canon had the slowest at a leisurely 1.93s. Full resolution burst mode varied a lot, from a pokey 1.5 fps for the Pentax to a blistering 10 fps for the Panasonic and Sony. (Note that the Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic and Pentax all have faster burst modes at reduced resolution.)
Flash recycle: The Panasonic was fastest recharging its flash after a full power discharge at 2.8s, while the Canon was the slowest at 6.4s.
Low-light AF: The Olympus TG-2 was able to focus down to almost 1/16 foot-candle of light, with the help of its fast (bright) f/2.0 lens. Oddly, the Pentax WG-3 really struggled in low light with the same or very similar lens, requiring about a foot-candle to achieve focus. All cameras could focus on our target in complete darkness with AF assist lamp enabled, except for the Pentax which failed to focus at all.
Download speeds: USB 2.0 transfer speeds ranged from 6.0MB/s for the Nikon to 11.9MB/s for the Pentax, all except the Sony TX30 tested with a fast 95MB/s SDHC card. (The Sony takes micro SD or micro Memory Stick cards.) The average for the group was about 7.8MB/s.
Battery life: The Panasonic and Olympus have well above average CIPA-rated battery life, while the Nikon, Pentax and Sony have below average. The Canon's battery life is close to average for this group.
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