Olympus C-7070

Reviewed March 2005

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

For some things, although it offers a larger image size, the C-7070's performance is a carbon-copy of the C-5060, the camera from which it is derived. The flash is well-suited to the lens, and provides excellent coverage from corner to corner of the frame without any light fall-off.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

At the telephoto end, the 4X zoom of the C-7070 provides a field of view that is comparable to most 3X zoom-equipped cameras, while still maintaining the advantage of a very wide angle at the other end of its focal range. Set to the equivalent of a 110mm lens, the C-7070 captures a high level of detail, revealing not only the printing screen's texture, but the small flaws of the printing process itself.

MACRO PHOTO

Two macro modes are available to the C-7070 user: the standard Macro mode and the Super Macro mode. With the standard Macro mode, the minimum distance between the camera and the subject is 20 cm (7.8 in.), and the optical zoom remains entirely useable. Zooming the lens to the maximum, which has the narrowest field of view, captures a field of view of about 8 cm (3.1 in.).

The Super Macro mode on the other hand automatically moves the lens to a position near the middle of the focal range and locks it there. This allows the camera to focus on a subject 3 cm (1.17 inch) from the lens, capturing a field of view of approximately 3.1 cm (1.21 inch) when measured horizontally.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

Although the C-7070 provides a RAW format, it is more complicated to use than the TIFF format since it involves the extra step of converting the image. This photo was captured using the TIFF mode, which yields the highest image quality of which the camera is capable.

The resolution and sharpness of the images the C-7070 yields is impressive, as demonstrated by the image section cropped from the full-size TIFF image that is shown below.

Images captured at the wide end of the C-7070's focal length range reveal that distortion is well-corrected, and it is only at macro distances, and at the widest angle end of the zoom, that some barrel distortion can be seen.

ZOOM PHOTO

Set to 80 ISO the C-7070 captures images that contain very little noise, even in deep shadow areas such as is the case here, and as can be seen below. Similarly, the telephoto end of the focal range yields images that are free of pincushion distortion.

Metering is also reliable, be it the iESP system, which is an averaging pattern, or the Centre-weighted pattern.

NIGHT PHOTO

As this camera is capable of long exposures, a couple of photos taken at night are included.

The C-7070 has a Manual mode shutter speed range that can capture an exposure of up to 15 seconds. In addition, the Manual mode also provides a Bulb mode which allows the shutter to remain open as long as the shutter release is held in, to a maximum of 2 minutes.

Regrettably, capturing long exposures while holding down the shutter release tends to cause some camera movement, and in turn blur the image. Therefore, without the optional battery pack, and the optional wired remote control, the 15 second exposure is about the only way to ensure a sharp image.

The fact that the Bulb mode is only truly practical if two other pieces of equipment are purchased is somewhat regrettable. A simple infrared remote control, to open and close the shutter when the camera is set to Bulb mode, would have been welcome.

Set to capture a 15 second exposure, and to the lowest sensitivity of 80 ISO, the C-8080 produces excellent long exposures that are filled with detail.

Noise reduction, enabled in the camera's menu, is also available with the C-7070. The noise reduction process is the standard dark frame system, a process that captures a second exposure of the same duration as the actual photo, but without opening the shutter. The system allows the ambient noise to gather in the dark frame, and that information is then used to remove the noisy pixels from the first exposure.