The Hunt for the Best Ultra-Compact Camera
by Stephen Caston on October 5, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
General Image Quality
For our general image quality tests, all cameras were reset to their factory default setting. Then, they were set to their highest quality recording setting. The pictures were then taken with the use of a tripod and in Auto mode unless otherwise stated. Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size image. The crops below the thumbnails are 100%.| Canon S410 | Casio Ex-Z40 | Pentax S40 |
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| The S410 produces a sharp and well-saturated image. | In this image, the Z40 shows highly visible jaggies along the edge of the "A" in this image. | The Z40 does a pretty good job here. There are no real issues to speak of. |
In this first image, both the Canon and the Pentax show a good amount of detail. The Canon appears to use a bit more default saturation than the other two cameras. Although the Casio camera produces a decent amount of detail, there are visible jaggies along sharp edges.
| Canon S410 | Casio Ex-Z40 | Pentax S40 |
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| In this image, the S410 displays an incredible amount of detail with bright vibrant colors. | The Z40 had some trouble defining detail in this crop. The camera incorrectly set itself to "Portrait" mode, which explains the blurriness. | The S40 does a decent job with detail in this crop. Notice a slight blue cast compared to the other cameras. |
The Canon S410 shows its amazing ability to resolve fine details in this image. The Casio Z40 auto-detected a Portrait scene and produced a blurry image. The Pentax S40 does a better job than the Casio. However, notice the slightly cool cast on the crop. All three cameras overexposed the top of the building, destroying any sky detail.
| Canon S410 | Casio Ex-Z40 | Pentax S40 |
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| Although the Canon shows great detail, it also displays significant chromatic aberrations. | The Casio is free of chromatic aberrations. However, notice the jaggies along the edges. | No chromatic aberrations here either. However, the image is noticeably overexposed. |
In this image, we detected a bit of chromatic aberration in the Canon sample. The Casio Z40 did not show any signs of chromatic aberrations, however, the jaggies are still in full-effect. The Pentax S40 is aberration-free as well and the image is overexposed.
Overall, the Canon S410 has the most impressive image quality. The only major flaw that we can find is the visibility of chromatic aberrations. But even these were not so strong as to jeopardize the overall image quality. The Canon consistently produces sharp and well-saturated images with accurate color. The Casio Z40 shows jaggies along edges and produces the blurriest pictures out of the bunch. The Pentax is a decent performer, but is not as sharp and detailed as the Canon. Also, it appears to have some trouble exposing images properly with accurate color. We should also mention that we detected noticeable corner-blurring with all three cameras - something that is common in ultra-compact cameras.
Night mode
In this section, we take a look at each camera's night shot ability. First, we compared the "Long Exposure" mode on the Canon S410 to the "Night Scene" mode on the Casio Z40.| Canon S410 Long Exposure |
Casio Ex-Z40 Bestshot - Night Scene |
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| In this crop, the difference in clarity and detail is striking. The Canon S410 captures a significant amount of detail in the background as well as the foreground (the car). In addition, the camera handles noise very well. | The Casio Z40 is not nearly as clear and detailed as the Canon. The noise level is a bit higher than the Canon and we spotted several "stuck" pixels in the sky. |
This image really shows the Canon S410's ability to take clear and low-noise night images with very little light. The Casio Z40 showed an average performance and we were not happy to see stuck pixels appearing in the sky.
| Pentax S40 Night Scene (portrait) |
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| In this slow-sync image, the Pentax S40 shows decent low-light noise control. Also, notice that the flash produced a cool cast on the subject's skin. |
Movie Mode
| Canon S410 | Casio Ex-Z40 | Pentax S40 |
 (320x240, 15 fps) Right click to download. |
 (320x240, 15 fps) Right click to download. |
 (320x240, 30 fps) Right click to download. |
None of these cameras has a truly impressive movie mode. However, the extra fps on the Pentax does make the video much smoother. We felt that the sound quality on the Canon S410 was the best followed by the Casio Z40.
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stephencaston - Wednesday, October 6, 2004 - link
#11: For the continuous drive section of the specs, we use the results of our test. Canon is rated at 2.5 fps, but we found that in the highest resolution and SuperFine mode, we were able to take 3 shots at 2.8 fps.Thanks, I'll add a little note in the specs table.
flexy - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
i love my S230 with its 640x480 video capability. Believe me, once you get started with vids and a good editing program like Vegas you wont get back and pics are only the bonus :) And all that fun with such a tiny cam :)I consider the picture quality/optics of the Canon Powershots "ok" - if you consider it's a shoot and point and not a SLR with hyper-great image quality/zoom etc.
Its picture quality is 'overall good' - a great allround camera with nice features (esp. the vids :). I would prefer my S230 (or newer) any time over a big/bulky camera.
Pros:
nice 640x480 vids
IQ good for a point/shoot
size
stylish
Cons:
weak zoom
xand - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
Also, the continous drive information for the cannon in the specifications table is wrong.xand - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
The "best pictures" of this lot of cameras are almost a given; the S410 has a sensor of the same generation with an area of 38.2mm(1/1.8"), as compared to the others, which have 24.7mm (1/2.5") sensors.What would be more interesting would be a comparison of newer cameras by major manufacturers; generally they now all come with 1/2.5" sensors, including the new canons.
stephencaston - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
#8, Unfortunately, we were limited by which cameras we could choose and the S4i was unavailable at the time. However, we feel that the S40 is comparable to the other two cameras with respect to exposure options, size, etc. The S4i would have been a good option and we would have included it if it was available.rliao - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
How come the S4i wasn't reviewed? Isn't it more of an appropriate comparison?SleepNoMore - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
I looked at the Canon S series - they are very nice - almost bought one - THEN I found the Pentax Optio 33WR (now it's upgraded to 4 MP and called the Optio 43WR).It's WONDERFUL.
First of all, it's highly water resistant, has gaskets all through it.
Has about 13 programmed modes but I never need them really I just point and shoot and things look great. White balance is always right on.
Panorama/stitch modes, close-up modes, etc.
Takes SD cards.
Quicktime movies are a bit cheesy (320 X 160) it's more the sound I have issues with than anything but most of the time it's acceptable.
I'm guessing the Pentax 43WR goes for around 280 bucks - havent checked lately.
If you want a camera you can take skiing, snowboarding, to the beach or stand out in the rain without worrying about damage to the electronics, this is the one. It's also not gooney looking (i.e. bright yellow etc) like some other water resistant cameras.
stephencaston - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
#5 thanks, I have fixed the mistakeGumbico - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
Actually, the S410 only allows 3 mins of vid time. That's my only gripe about this camera.TheAudit - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
I have the Canon and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve never been one to read through a manual and this camera was easy enough to figure out so I did not have to do so. I am always surprised at how crisp the pictures are. Of course, I am not a professional photographer but this camera provides everything that I want in a camera – good pictures and small size because I hate carrying stuff around.