Olympus C-3030Olympus extends their high-end compact to 3.3 megapixels, adds sound to its movies!<<Video, Power, Software :(Previous) | (Next): Reference: Datasheet>> Page 12:Test Results & ConclusionReview First Posted: 5/18/2000 |
Test Results
In keeping with our standard policy, our comments here are rather condensed, summarizing our key findings: For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the C-3030 Zoom's "pictures" page.
As with all Imaging Resource camera tests, we encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the devices performed: Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how well the C-3030 performed, and how its images compare to other cameras you may be considering buying.
Overall, the C-3030 Zoom produced exceptional images, befitting its status as a top-of-the-line 3.3 megapixel digicam. Color accuracy was good, although our shots of the MacBeth(tm) chart showed a somewhat warm cast with all white balance settings, and the bright yellow patch had slightly lower color saturation. (A common digicam problem.) Overall, we felt the color was quite good,however.
The Olympus C-3030 performed toward the top of the current range of 3.3 megapixel digicams in the resolution department, with a resolution that we "called" as between 850 and 900 lines per picture height in both the horizontal and vertical directions. While just a hair off from the sharpest performance we've seen to date, the 3030 deserves credit for not applying heavy-handed in-camera sharpening in an attempt to boost the apparent resolution.
As did the 2 megapixel C-2020 Zoom before it, the C-3030 Zoom offers excellent exposure control, with choices of matrix or spot metering, full aperture and shutter control, including an optional manual mode, and ISO speeds ranging from 100 to 400. The C3030 Zoom performed very well in our low light tests, producing very usable images down to light levels of 1/8 of a foot-candle. (We're chiding ourselves for not having gone down to 1/16 of a foot-candle, since it's our guess that we would have obtained usable if not somewhat dim pictures at that level as well.) At these low light levels, with exposure times of 2 to 10 seconds, there is a moderate amount of noise present in the images. (We direct readers to Mike Chaney's excellent Qimage Pro program, for a tool with an amazing ability to remove image noise without significantly affecting detail.) To put the C3030's low light performance in perspective, an average city night scene under modern street lighting corresponds to a light level of about 1 foot-candle.
We found the C-3030's optical viewfinder to be a little tight, showing approximately 82 percent accuracy at wide angle and about 81 percent at telephoto. (Note that we've changed our nomenclature on this to better reflect what you see looking into the viewfinder: We previously would have referred to the C-3030's viewfinder as "loose"...) These numbers are from the 2048 x 1536 resolution size but the smaller, 640 x 480 resolution size numbers are similar at 83 percent accuracy for both wide angle and telephoto. We also noticed that the framing here slants just a little to the left vertically, possibly the CCD on our test model was shifted a little. The LCD monitor proved to be quite accurate, showing about 97 percent frame coverage at wide angle and slightly over 100 percent accuracy at the telephoto setting. (The covered area is just barely inside the darker lines we use to frame the viewfinder accuracy target). As with the optical viewfinder, the smaller, 640 x 480 image sizes weren't too far off from the larger ones (about 96 percent accuracy at wide angle and over 100 percent accuracy at telephoto). We generally like to see the LCD monitor as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, so the C-3030 does a pretty good job in that respect.
The C-3030 does pretty good job in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of 3.35 x 2.52 inches (85.21 x 63.91 mm). This is about an average minimum coverage area among digicams we've tested, but the body threads of the C-3030 in conjunction with Olympus' CLA-1 filter adapter permit the addition of external macro lenses for much tighter focusing.
Overall, we found the C-3030 Zoom to be a very worthy contender at the upper end of the current (May 2000) digicam spectrum. Image quality, resolution, and sharpness are all very good, and the camera provides excellent exposure control as well as very good low light capability: An impressive performance!
Conclusion
Well, from our previous review of it, it's probably pretty clear that we really liked the previous Olympus C-2020 Zoom. (We like it well enough in fact that it's the camera we use to do all our studio photography with.) The C-3030 Zoom is a very worthy upgrade, bringing not only increased resolution but numerous feature and user-interface enhancements as well. It's probably safe to say that if you liked the C-2020 Zoom, you'll love the C-3030 Zoom. All in all, another great digcam from Olympus, and one that we think competes very strongly at the upper end of the current "prosumer" digicam spectrum.
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