Evaluation of mainstream digital cameras in Engadget laboratory in the United States

Evaluation of mainstream digital cameras in Engadget laboratory in the United States

Tim Stevens, published on May 2009 19 pm 1:30.

Summer is coming, holidays are coming! Good travel wishes will also appear in people's minds, and these good wishes will soon become good memories and beautiful photos. Some people may choose to hang a SLR camera around their necks or slung it around their waists, but more people will still choose a smaller and more portable card machine. Because of the huge size of SLR cameras, even some aspiring photographers sometimes have to choose a card machine to shoot.

Now, apart from economic reasons, there are countless card machines suitable for different pockets on the market, which can be put into large and small wallets for professional photographers or amateurs to choose from. Then, let's see who can take the lead in these products this summer.

target

We can't test the cameras on the market one by one on the website. Let's have a rest in the heated debate after dinner, and then see which latest camera will become a hot product this summer. Set an upper limit of $400, and then filter them down one by one until the results appear, and then we start to choose from them. However, some products we wanted to test (such as Panasonic DMC-TZ7) were unfortunately unsuccessful. The final nine products have different designs and functions, ranging from the lowest 125 to the highest $400, with an average price of $240.

Before further testing, let's introduce these finalists.

Nikon Coolpix S220? The smallest number

Photo resolution:100000 pixels

Video resolution: 640 x 480

Zoom: 3x optical zoom, 35- 105mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 80 - 2000

Aperture: 3. 1-5.9

LCD monitor size: 2.5 inches

Battery capacity: 740mA

Market price: 125 USD.

Nikon Coolpix S220 is the cheapest of the nine models, about 125 USD. If you shop around, it may be cheaper. Such a cheap price can buy a lot of modern technology: ready-made 10 million pixel print photos, video resolution of 640 x 480 VGA level; Triple optical zoom lens, optical stabilization system, maximum aperture 3.1; Although the highest ISO value is only 2000, considering that the noise after the ISO value exceeds 400 is within the acceptable range, it is obvious that this camera is suitable for outdoor photography.

My first impression of this camera is that it is simple and compact, but it never looks like a cheap product. The packaging materials in the box look even more upscale than those used in some expensive cameras. The metal body feels cool and strong, but the sound of the lens motor is boring, which makes the durability of the camera inside questioned.

Photo resolution: 10.2 million.

Video resolution: 640 x 480

Zoom: 5x optical zoom, 38- 190mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 80 - 1600

Aperture:: 3. 1-5.6

LCD monitor size: 3 inches

Battery capacity:1020mA

Market price: 180 USD.

Kodak EasyShare M380 is the second cheapest of these products, with the official selling price and market price of $65,438 +080. It is only 50 dollars more expensive than Nikon Coolpix S220, but it has a bigger LCD screen and a larger focal length. The maximum aperture is also 30 1, and the maximum ISO value is 1600, but if you can't tolerate particle noise like us, ISO400 is also the actual maximum.

After unpacking, the plastic body of M380 feels a little low-end compared with the loose buttons of S220. However, the mode selection wheel at the top of the fuselage makes it easy and fast to operate the camera (although we once mistook it for the shutter button), and the flash off button at the top is also a good design. The USB charging function is also a good design, which saves us the trouble of bringing an adapter.

Canon PowerShot A 1 100 is? Elevated battery box

Photo resolution: 1265438+ megapixels.

Video resolution: 640 x 480

Zoom: 4 times stable dimming, 35- 140mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 80 - 1600

Aperture: 2.7-5.6

LCD monitor size: 2.5 inches

Battery capacity: 2 AA batteries

Market price: 190 USD.

Canon PowerShot A 1 100 IS costs 190 dollars in most online stores, which is more expensive than Kodak EasyShare M380 10 dollars. It has larger pixels, smaller focal length and larger aperture than Kodak EasyShare M380. The ISO value is the same as the first two paragraphs, but ISO800 is the acceptable bottom line.

From the appearance, Canon PowerShot A 1 100 is one of the cheapest products in this group. Its plastic body doesn't attract much attention, and it feels very thin in your hand. When shooting a video, you can even hear the creaking sound. However, it feels comfortable to hold it in your hand, and the AA battery compartment makes it more convenient and cheaper to take pictures in the wild. However, this battery box makes it look like a pregnant woman.

Kodak EasyShare Z9 15? big shot

Photo resolution:100000 pixels

Video resolution: 640 x 480

Zoom: 10 times stable dimming, 35-350mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 100 - 1600

Aperture: 3.5-8.3

LCD monitor size: 2.5 inches

Battery capacity: 2 AA batteries

Market price: 190 USD.

Remember how we commented that A 1 100 is the cheapest camera? Kodak EasyShare Z9 15 is the champion in this unfortunate category. This camera shell is firm and the lens is flexible and stable, but this hard plastic shell is not fun at all, more like a toy than a $200 product. Even with a lot of ergonomic design, this texture will not make you feel comfortable.

If you don't care about this, you can compare it with Canon at the same price. It has more than twice the zoom and higher stability, which makes the 350mm wide-angle end more useful in hand-held shooting. It gets less light than Canon, but ISO800 is enough. This camera also uses AA batteries and has a raised battery compartment.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25? Accuracy of large screen

Photo resolution: 1265438+ megapixels.

Video resolution: 848 x 480

Zoom: 5 times optical zoom, 29- 145mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 80 - 1600

Aperture: 3.3-5.9

LCD monitor size: 3 inches

Battery capacity: 940mA

Market price: $250

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25 with soaring price has an ergonomic design equivalent to Canon. It has a longer lens, and the video shooting resolution jumps to WVGA level. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS2 feels more like a product several years ahead of schedule. Its firmness and proper weight, as well as a half-inch LCD screen make it look very different. But the big screen on this small fuselage pushes all the control buttons to the right, which makes the menu operation inconvenient. The battery cover of this Panasonic camera is the most boring in this group. You need to manually open the small latch every time you switch it on or off.

Nikon Coolpix S630? Beautiful pink

Photo resolution:120,000 pixels

Video resolution: 640 x 480

Zoom: 7 times optical zoom, 37-260mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 64 - 1600

Aperture: 3.5-5.3

LCD monitor size: 2.7 inches

Battery capacity:1050mA

Market price: $250

Nikon COOLPIX S630 may be the most attractive product in this group, not only because of its bright color. Its back is slightly bent, and your thumb can be comfortably and safely placed in the groove on the upper right. When you need to adjust its ISO value up to 6400, its direction key can be used as a wheel. In order to achieve the effect, the camera reduced the pixels to 3 million pixels, and set the photos to the gallery style. If you don't mind losing some pixels, this camera looks better in ISO6400 than other cameras in ISO 1200. But if you want to get photos without graininess, you can only set ISO below 800.

Samsung SL820 (China model is IT 100)? Heavy weight

Photo resolution: 1220 pixels

Video resolution: 1.280 x720

Zoom: 5x optical zoom, 28- 140mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 80 - 3200

Aperture: 3.4-5.8

LCD monitor size: 3 inches

Battery capacity:1050mA

Market price: $250

Samsung SL820 (China model IT 100) has the most solid feel and the heaviest weight. Put this camera in your socks and you have a special and efficient weapon to record the crime scene. It has two remarkable characteristics. The first and most important point is that it has a video mode of 720p, which makes it the cheapest camera in our test products to enter the high definition ranks. Its ISO setting is as high as 3200, but its graininess will be much more than Nikon's.

Like its sturdy body, its control keys are very reliable. The mode selection wheel is placed on the back of the fuselage, and the clear menu makes it easy for you to find the options you want. Its zoom control button is a bit strange, and there is a manual latch similar to FS25 on the battery cover. This camera is easy to operate and has USB charging function like M380.

Casio Exilim EX-FC 100? Slow motion sir

Photo resolution: 965438+ megapixels

Video resolution: 1.280 x720

Zoom: 5x optical zoom, 37- 185mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 100 - 1600

Aperture: 3.6-4.5

LCD monitor size: 2.7 inches

Battery capacity:1.300mA.

Market price: USD 365,438.

You may say it's just a gimmick, but Casio is really famous for its shooting mode of 1000fps. This function is not available on other participating models. If you want the camera to work in this mode, you must set the resolution to 224 x 64 and have enough light. Lowering it to 400fps will get a picture with a resolution of 224 x 64, but it is much worse than VGA. 720p is easy to implement, but the much cheaper SL820 can already provide this function. Lithium battery can make it work for several days.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS 1? Military rank

Photo resolution: 1265438+ megapixels.

Video resolution: 1.280 x720

Zoom: 4.6 times optical zoom, 28- 128mm equivalent focal length.

ISO: 80 - 1600

Aperture: 3.3-5.9

LCD monitor size: 2.7 inches

Battery capacity: 940mA

Market price: $400

The last one is Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS 1. Its official price is $400, and its configuration looks not much different from other cheap products: the highest ISO value is 1600 (there will be some noise when using ISO400), and the 720p video shooting function is the same as the above two models. What needs to be emphasized here is its waterproof and shockproof function, so that it will not be damaged if it falls from a height of 5 meters under the water of 10 meter. Because this camera is waterproof and shockproof, we don't expect much from its image performance, but we want to know how it will perform compared with other products in various complex environments.

We don't want to test these cameras in a standard laboratory environment, but try to create a shooting environment closer to that of ordinary people on vacation. So we gave up the experience of the past years, but tried to keep the camera in automatic mode and choose the appropriate scene, unless we tried not to manually adjust the exposure when the camera could not recognize the object. All the shots don't use tripods, and each picture will be taken three times (or more), so choose the best one. Even if you take a camera with 6.5438+0.2 million pixels, today's memory card can ensure that you have enough space to take good photos.

microspur

Like: Samsung SL820 (China model is IT 100), Kodak EasyShare Z9 15.

Don't like: Nikon Coolpix S220

A small plant has a completely different color expression. As you can see in this set of photos, each camera has its own unique way to express this violet color. However, Samsung SL820 is closest to reality, with sharp images and accurate color performance. Kodak Z9 15 also performed well, only slightly red. The color performance of other cameras is biased, and the color performance of Nikon Coolpix S220 is the most unnatural.

Favorites: Canon Powershot A/KOOC-0//KOOC-0/00IS, Kodak Easyshare Z9/KOOC-0/5, Samsung SL820 (China model is IT/KOOC-0/00), Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS/KOOC-0/.

Don't like: Kodak Kodak EasyShare M380

A lush wild apple tree was selected for wide-angle and telephoto testing. The first wide-angle test will show us what the camera can capture. Z9 15 touched us again, and Canon 1 100 also performed well. SL280 and TS 1 demonstrated their capabilities at an equivalent focal length of 28mm, capturing more green than other cameras. The gloomy washed photos of Kodak M380 disappointed us. Other cameras are neck and neck, and most of them can capture bright green.

prospect

Examples: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25, Samsung SL820 (China model is IT 100), Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS 1.

Dislikes: Nikon Coolpix S220, Canon PowerShot A 1 100 IS, Nikon Coolpix S630.

This time, the subject is a foreground object in front of a large leaf background. The contrast between the square edge and the brick can well perceive the details of the photo. This time, FS25, SL820 and TS 1 all captured clear, bright and accurate images, among which Panasonic camera's image was particularly excellent. The image of S220 is good, but the color is not good. The image of S630 is a bit soft, and Canon has the same problem.

Likes: Kodak EasyShare Z9 15, Samsung SL820 (China model is IT 100), Casio Exilim EX-FC 100.

Don't like: Nikon Coolpix S220, Canon PowerShot A 1 100 Yes.

All cameras have portrait mode, which can lock the human face as the focus. This mode makes it very easy to take photos, and the photos taken are all good, which is the most common type of photos taken by people. The photo of Nikon S220 is a little soft, and so is Canon 1 100IS. Kodak Z9 15, Samsung SL820 and Casio FC 100 all took very good pictures. It is worth mentioning that the other two photos of FC 100 are very different from this one.

artificial light sources

Favorites: Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25, Canon Powershot A 1 100IS, Samsung SL820 (China model is IT 100).

Dislikes: Kodak EasyShare M380, Kodak EasyShare Z9 15.

Another test, another color reproduction setting of the camera in different environments. This time in the darkroom, only one artificial light source shines on our small subject to test the ISO self-adjustment ability of the camera. In this test, the best image of Kodak Z9 15 is blue, and the other two are green. Nikon S220 looks a little red, but classmate S630 is more accurate in color, but a little dark. Kodak M380 needs five photos to get a suitable photo, even if it looks soft. Panasonic FS25 took bright and clear images, and Canon A 1 100 and Samsung SL820 also performed well.

Video shooting

Favorites: Samsung SL820 (China model is IT 100), Casio Exilim FC 100, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS 1.

I don't like it: except the above.

None of these cameras can be used as video cameras, but Samsung SL820 is the closest. The 720p video shooting function it provides is one of only two cameras (Panasonic DMC-TS 1 is the other) that can shoot video with zoom, although it must unfortunately shoot silently to avoid motor noise. However, in other cases, it can capture high-quality sound to match the picture.

When it comes to video shooting, we have to focus on FC 100. Its high-speed shooting mode brings a lot of fun to the experiment. Once the experiment is over, just like the video above, you will find that these resolutions and picture quality are too low, lower than 1000fps, resulting in their subjects not being recognized enough. High-speed is a fun toy, but it is not the high-quality high-speed camera we want. Under normal 30fps, the video of 720p is good, but it is darker than Samsung camera, so the zoom is not enough when shooting video.

abstract

Now, you see: different cameras have different photos. No camera is completely disappointing, but we like the photo of Samsung SL820 (domestic model is IT 100) best, because we didn't expect this brand to stand out before the test, which is a surprise for us. It brings fresh colors, perfect focus, high-quality video shooting, and long-term shooting ability (only Casio FC 100 can compare with it), and it feels strong in the hand. Admittedly, it is still a little heavy, but it fits well in your pocket and looks very good. This is the camera that we have always wanted to use on holiday.