In
our opinion, aside from a large 7.1 megapixel resolution,
the C-7070's main point of interest is its lens. The zoom
covers a particularly useful range that begins at an unusually
wide, wide angle setting equivalent to 27mm, and extends
to a useful 110mm: a focal length range that imparts the
camera with excellent capabilities for general photography,
and will fit the needs of most people.
This
very practical focal length is packaged with first, a shutter
speed range — from 1/4000 second to at least 15 seconds,
and up to 2 minutes when the Bulb mode is used — that
makes the camera useable for most subjects; and second, all
the basic shooting modes, plus a good selection of Scene
modes that can be applied to typical compositions.
The
C-7070 provides a sensitivity range that starts at 80 ISO,
a level at which the camera yields noise-free images.
Aperture:
f4.5, shutter speed 1/50 sec., 80 ISO.
Similarly,
photos captured at the next sensitivity level of 100 ISO show
little noise, even when the flash is used. Starting at 200
ISO however, noise can be seen when the images are looked at
full scale, and noise is clearly visible at 400 ISO.
Aperture:
f2.8, shutter speed 1/80 sec., 80 ISO.
Photos
captured using the wide angle end of the zoom indicate that
barrel distortion is well controlled, and mostly corrected.
And those shot with the zoom at its maximum telephoto reveal
no pincushion distortion. In addition, images are
sharp across the entire frame, and even at the widest angle
show no softness in the corners.
Chromatic
aberration is also extremely well-controlled, and even photos
that have some back-lit elements — usually areas that
will show any chromatic aberration first — exhibit
no serious purple fringing.
Flash
photography is another of the C-7070's strong points. For
one, although small, the built-in flash is surprisingly powerful
and is able to light a 3m (10 ft) room easily. For another,
with the addition of an external Olympus flash, the camera
becomes even more capable without loosing any of the features
offered by its built-in flash.
Another one
of the valuable features of the C-7070 is that it is able
to capture images in a variety of size — an impressive
total of 9 sizes if the 3:2 format is included — and
that also offers an excellent range of formats: RAW, TIFF,
and the ubiquitous JPEG.
With
the C-7070, the RAW format is much better supported than it
was with last year's C-5060. RAW format images have a file
size of approximately 10MB, and are efficiently recorded to
a memory card in under 7 seconds. TIFF images on the other
hand are files of more than 20 MB and require 12 seconds to
save to the memory card. Both formats, however, provide a superb
image quality which, when even the smallest detail is important,
make the inconvenience of their file sizes acceptable.
Aperture:
f3.28, shutter speed 1/2 sec., 80 ISO.
Aperture:
f4.8, shutter speed 1/5 sec., 80 ISO
This
duplication can become a source of confusion, as is the case
for the Focus Modes. Similarly, some menu options appear
as greyed-out at times but not at others, and that apparently
capricious behaviour is not always explained clearly in the
camera manual.
The
upshot of this overly complex design is that occasionally
the C-7070 can become a bit frustrating to use as this
needless complexity can sometimes lead to a missed shot.
Still,
although for some things the learning curve of the C-7070
is a bit steep, the user that perseveres will be rewarded
by having mastered a camera that is almost as flexible, and
as expandable, as a digital SLR camera, and one which offers
an excellent image quality.
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