Sony DSC-S75(none)<<Video, Power, Software, & Hardware :(Previous) | (Next): Reference: Datasheet>> Page 12:Test Results & ConclusionReview First Posted: 02/9/2001 |
Test Results
In keeping with our standard test policy, the comments given here summarize only our key findings. For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the DSC-S75's "pictures" page.
As with all Imaging Resource product tests, we encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the camera performed. Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how the DSC- S75 performed, and how its images compare to other cameras you may be considering.
Overall, the S75 produced really excellent images. Color was quite good, with appropriately saturated primary colors, as well as good handling of pastels. Overall color accuracy was very high, with only slightly reduced color saturation in the subtractive primaries (cyan, yellow, and magenta). Tonal range was also excellent, particularly in the shadow details. At the other end of the scale, the S75 managed to preserve highlight detail in many shooting situations where lesser cameras produced blown-out, pure-white images. The S75's white balance system did a good job with most of our light sources, though we noticed slightly greenish tints with the manual setting at times. That said, the manual white balance setting produced the only accurate results in our difficult indoor portrait shot, with superb color balance and white values. This was a great improvement over the previous S70 model, which had significant difficulty with household incandescent lighting.
The S75 continues the Sony tradition of using high-quality Carl Zeiss lenses, a name long associated with exceptionally sharp images. We're happy to report that the S75 maintained the same level of sharpness we admired so much with the S70, producing consistently sharp images with each of our test shots. We did find some geometric distortion (very common among zoom-equipped digicams we've tested), with a barrel distortion of 0.6 percent in wide-angle mode, and a pincushion distortion of 0.3 (very slight) in telephoto mode. These distortion figures are actually a bit better than average, particularly at the telephoto end of the lens range. Chromatic aberration is present but very low, we caught only one or two pixels of coloration on each side of the corner elements in our resolution target, when photographed at the wide-angle setting. (This distortion is visible as a very slight colored fringe around objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.) At the telephoto end of the lens range, the chromatic aberration is much less apparent.
Like its predecessor the S70, the DSC-S75 turned it a really exceptional performance on the resolution test. We "called" the resolution at 900-950 lines per picture height in the horizontal direction, and 850-900 in the vertical direction, with detail visible well beyond 900 lines vertically, and well beyond 1,000 horizontally. As with the earlier S70 model, the DSC-S75 seems to show resolution beyond what is theoretically possible, according to the Nyquist theorem and the CCD's pixel count. We attributed this to the camera's excellent suppression of artifacts, in both the chrominance (color) and luminance (brightness) domains. There is in fact some aliasing visible beginning around 750 lines vertically (where theory says the limit should be), but it's so well controlled, it is almost invisible. Overall, a really remarkable performance, another triumph for Sony's excellent optics and signal processing.
The S75 follows the current standard in its provision of both optical and LCD viewfinders. We found the S75's optical viewfinder a little tight, showing about 80.6 percent of the final image area at wide angle, and about 80.5 percent at telephoto, for all four image sizes. We also noticed that images framed with the optical viewfinder resulted in a slant toward the lower left corner. The S75's LCD monitor produced more accurate results, showing approximately 96.25 percent accuracy at wide angle, and about 97.5 percent accuracy at telephoto, again at all four image sizes. Framing at the digital telephoto setting was also very accurate, showing about 97.4 percent of the image area at all four resolution sizes. Since we generally like to see LCD monitors as close to 100 percent accuracy as possible, the S75 turned in a very pleasing performance.
The S75 also performed very well in the macro category, capturing a minimum area of just 2.29 x 1.72 inches (58.11 x 43.58mm). Detail and resolution both look great, with most of the fine details in each object completely visible. Color balance also remained accurate throughout the image. The details of the brooch and two coins are nice and crisp, though the printing on the dollar bill is a little soft (the camera probably based focus on the brooch and the larger coin). We also noticed a slight barrel distortion from the lens' wide angle setting. The S75's built-in flash had a hard time throttling down for the macro area at such a close range, producing washed out color and a large hot spot in the upper left corner of the image.
The S75 did an excellent job in the low-light category, as we were able to obtain very bright, clear images at light levels as low as 1/4 foot-candle (2.7 lux), at the 100 ISO setting. Images were still usable at the 1/8 and 1/16 foot-candle light levels (1.3 and 0.67 lux) for the 100 ISO setting, which is commendable. The 200 and 400 ISO settings produced similar results, though we noticed a magenta color cast at 400 ISO, starting at the 1/16 foot-candle light level (0.67 lux) and gradually fading with the brighter levels. Noise levels were very low at the 100 ISO setting, increasing slightly at the 200 ISO setting, and nearly doubling at the 400 ISO setting. Still, the noise level looked pretty good overall, and had a relatively small grain pattern. (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 S75's low-light performance into perspective, an average city night scene under modern street lighting corresponds to a light level of about one foot candle. Given the S75's ability to capture images at even darker light levels, the camera should be able to handle most night shooting situations.
Overall, we were very impressed with the S75's performance. Building on the already good performance of the S70, the DSC-S75 increased its low-light capabilities, handled difficult lighting well, and recorded exceptionally sharp pictures with wonderful color. These results, along with the camera's extensive exposure controls, the S75 is well-suited for just about any shooting scenario.
Conclusion
Overall, we found the Sony DSC-S75 to be a very pleasing update to the already excellent S70 model. The addition of a fully manual exposure mode and adjustable ISO settings expanded the already excellent exposure controls, and made the camera features perfect for pros and amateurs alike. New camera electronics have further improved the already excellent image quality and speeded some aspects of camera operation. We greatly appreciate the simplified user interface, which employs a less involved LCD menu than previous models, and provides far more external controls, dramatically decreasing the reliance on the LCD monitor. Maintaining the compact size and easy portability of its predecessors, the S75 is a welcome addition to Sony's Cyber-Shot digicam line, with a wide range of features that should please almost any consumer. Our only (minor) complaint was the lack of provision for nonproprietary external flash units. In every other way though, we found the S75 to be of excellent design, and a real value leader with Sony's aggressive pricing at introduction. Very highly recommended!
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