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

High resolution and strong detail, with great color. Contrast is a little high, but pretty good detail in the highlights and midtones.

• Exposure compensation: +1.0 EV, about average.
• Contrast/Tone: High, some highlight detail lost, even with low contrast setting and slightly dark midtones
• White Balance: Auto most accurate overall, Daylight was cool and Manual reddish.
• Color accuracy: Quite good, blues are very good. Accurate reds, yellows, and greens.
• Skin tones: Pretty good, although slightly pinkish.
• Resolution/sharpness: High, good definition
• Shadow detail: Slightly limited, though low noise

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files Z20OUTAP0.HTM through Z20OUTAP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.


Contrast Series:
An effective contrast adjustment, that almost handles the tough lighting of this test. Good too, in that it has little effect on color saturation.

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

High contrast again, but excellent resolution and detail.

• Exposure compensation: +0.7 EV, about average.
• Exposure/Tone: High contrast, but good midtone and highlight detail
• Detail: Stronger and sharper
• Distortion: Very good, 8x zoom lens avoids distortion close-in like this.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files Z20OUTFACAP0.HTM through Z20OUTFACAP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +1.0 EV

Slow-Sync Flash +1.0 EV

Good overall performance, with good color, despite a slight reddish cast. Good exposure with the Slow-Sync setting, but very warm color.

• Exposure: Bright at +1.0 EV, though quite dim at the default exposure. Slow-Sync mode also required +1.0 EV.
• Flash balance with room lighting?: Moderate with the normal flash mode, color balance is warm and reddish. Slow-Sync mode results in a stronger warm cast.
• Color: Pretty good, though slightly dark.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV in the normal flash mode, see files Z20INFP0.HTM through Z20INFP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV in the Slow-Sync flash mode, see files Z20INSFP0.HTM through Z20INSFP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good to excellent color with all white balance settings, though slightly higher than average exposure compensation required.

• Exposure: +1.3 EV adjustment needed, slightly higher than average
• White Balance: Manual and Incandescent very good, Auto slightly reddish, but still very good.
• Color: Skin tones pretty good, blue flowers a little dark, others flowers dark as well. (Good, given the tough light source.)

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files Z20INMP0.HTM through Z20INMP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

ISO Series:
The Z20 produces low image noise at its 50 and 100 ISO settings, and only marginally increases the noise level at ISO 200. Starting at ISO 200 though, anti-noise processing begins to take a noticeable toll on fine detail. Still, even ISO 320 shots are acceptable when printed as large as 8x10 inches, and are quite good at 5x7 inches and below.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color and strong detail and resolution. Slight blurring in the corners, but good detail definition.

• Sharpness/Detail: Good for its class.
• Sharpness in Corners: Slight falloff, better than average.
• Color: Manual most accurate, Daylight cooler, and Auto red (but all three still good).
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Very little, only a slight amount in bricks that are in shadow.

Slight underexposure but high contrast slightly limits dynamic range. However, high resolution and very strong detail.

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: Very good, a lot of fine detail.
• Sharpness in Corners: Very good, much better than average.
• Color: Good.
• Dynamic Range: Slightly limited by high contrast, but still good detail in the highlights, fairly good in shadows.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Little or none in this particular shot.

Resolution Series:

ISO Series:
(Same as above in Indoor Portrait shot: Low noise at ISO 100 and below, some fine detail lost to anti-noise processing at ISO 200 and above.)

Sharpness Series:
A good range of sharpening adjustment. Low setting leaves some sharpening there, but the resulting images take strong/tight unsharp masking in Photoshop(tm) very well. High setting is crisp without too many artifacts, good for inkjet printing at 5x7 and below. Normal setting is good compromise, the images appearing fairly crisp with low artifacts.

Contrast Series:
As before, a good range of contrast adjustment, with relatively little effect on color saturation.

Contrast Series
Low	Normal	High

Color Effects Series:

Color Effects Series
Natural Color	Vivid Color	Black & White	Sepia

Lens Zoom Range

An excellent 8x zoom range.

The Z20's focal length range of 36-290mm equivalents is much larger than that of most point & shoot digital cameras. It corresponds to a moderate wide angle to a pretty substantial telephoto.

	Wide Angle
	8x Telephoto
	Digital Telephoto

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Cool, slightly magenta color cast, but still good overall color. Excellent resolution and detail though.

• White Balance: Daylight slightly cool but best overall. Auto very warm, Manual cooler and magenta.
• Color: Cool and slightly magenta skin tones, 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 tiny macro area with great detail, with surprisingly good results from the flash as well.

• Minimum Macro Area: 1.03 x 0.78 inches (26 x 20 millimeters)
• Softness in corners?: Some, but less than average. (Most cameras get fairly soft corners in macro mode.)
• Flash performance in macro mode?: Pretty well, considering the short shooting distance, though a little dark and unevenly lit.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good overall exposure and color.

• White balance: Manual most accurate overall, Auto slightly red, and Daylight a hint green.
• Color Accuracy: Generally good, with good saturation. Blues are shifted slightly toward cyan, other colors are hue-accurate. Yellow-greens and yellows are a little undersaturated, reds are somewhat oversaturated. Better than average accuracy, and generally very pleasing, though.
• Shadow detail and noise: Good detail in the briquettes, moderately low 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
Low	Normal	High

Color Effects Series:

Color Effects Series
Neutral Color	Vivid Color	Black & White	Sepia

Low-Light Tests

Slightly limited low-light capabilities, but sensitive enough for average city street lighting at night. Autofocus works down to about 1/3 the level of typical city street lighting. Good color and low noise overall.

• Exposure limit: 1/4 foot-candle at ISO 200 and 320. (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: A bit less than 1/2 foot-candle. (About 1/3 the brightness of typical city street lighting.)
• White Balance: Good.
• Noise Levels: Moderately high, at the higher sensitivities and lower light levels.
• Detail loss to anti-noise processing?: Surprisingly little.
• General Notes: The Konica Minolta Z20 did pretty well at low light levels. It doesn't go as dark as some cameras do, but certainly dark enough for typical city night scenes. Color and detail are good, noise is moderate, and the autofocus system works down to just a bit brighter than the camera can capture an image at.

(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	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2
ISO 100	2.5 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2
ISO 200	1.3 sec f3.2	2.5 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2
ISO 320	1/1 sec f3.2	1.6 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2	4 sec f3.2

Flash Range Test

A bright flash, with good intensity to about 13 feet, though still bright at 14 feet.

Flash range at telephoto lens setting: 13 feet (Excellent)

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/100 sec f3.4 ISO 50	1/125 sec f3.4 ISO 50	1/160 sec f3.4 ISO 50	1/160 sec f3.4 ISO 50	1/160 sec f3.4 ISO 50	1/200 sec f3.4 ISO 50	1/200 sec f3.4 ISO 50

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good resolution for its 5-megapixel class, 1,250 - 1,300 lines of "strong detail." High barrel distortion at wide angle, and a fair amount of pincushion at telephoto. Strong chromatic aberration at telephoto, moderate at wide angle. Good corner sharpness at normal and tele lens settings, slight softness at wide angle.

• Resolution: 1,250-1,300 lines both vertically and horizontally
• Artifacts begin at: ~1,100 lines
• Extinction point: ~1600 lines
  
  
• Barrel/Pincushion distortion: 1.1 percent barrel at wide angle, 0.6 percent pincushion at telephoto
• Chromatic Aberration: Moderate at wide angle, strong at telephoto
• Corner Sharpness: Good
  
  
  

Resolution Series, medium focal length

Wide Angle	"Fine" JPEG	"Normal" JPEG	"Economy" JPEG
2,560 x 1,920	Z20RES2560F	Z20RES2560N	Z20RES2560E
2,048 x 1,536	Z20RES2048	-	-
1,600 x 1,200	Z20RES1600	-	-
640 x 480	Z20RES0640	-	-

 

Resolution Test, Zoom Series

2,560 x 1,920 (Fine, Wide Angle)	Z20RESW
2,560 x 1,920 (Fine, Telephoto)	Z20REST

Sharpness Series: