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This observation aside, the DSC-W100 is less typical in the
fact that it offers an optical viewfinder, a feature that
is less and less common on compact cameras such as this one.
Aperture: f2.8, shutter speed: 1/50
sec., 80 ISO.
Moreover, its LCD monitor, albeit
of only average resolution, offers good contrast and is bright,
allowing it to remain perfectly legible when used under direct
light outdoors.
Equipped with a Carl Zeiss
optical zoom, a certain performance level can be expected
from the DSC-W100’s lens.
Indeed, the zoom is free of distortion, either at its widest
angle — a modest 38 mm equivalent — or at the
telephoto end. Likewise, the zoom is free of chromatic aberration
throughout its focal length range, even when confronted by
a very strong contrast; a situation that can easily cause
purple fringing with many cameras.
Image sharpness is generally
good and homogeneous, but is a touch softer at the telephoto
end with the widest aperture, something corrected by the use
of a smaller aperture.
Similarly, the default Multi metering pattern evaluates
shots in a reliable and accurate way. It does, however, have
a slight bias towards the highlights, which can on occasion
cause fairly deep shadows. The up side of this bias is that
the camera generally captures details in the highlights, and
those in the shadows can be pulled out with software later,
while the reverse is nearly impossible.
Nevertheless, like all cameras, the DSC-W100 always yields
its best image quality when it is used with plenty of natural
and even light.
Aperture: f4, shutter speed: 1/30 sec.,
200 ISO.
Noise is undetectable in the
DSC-W100’s images at its lowest sensitivity of 80 ISO.
The 100 ISO level reveals a slight amount of noise in shadows,
but even up to 200 ISO, noise is minimal. Beyond this level,
images become noticeably noisy, which in turn leads to a loss
of the smaller details.
Worth underlining, however, is the fact that the noise reduction
system of the DSC-W100 is excellent when it is automatically
applied to long exposures. Using the Manual mode, exposure
times of 30 seconds at 80 ISO are noise free and show no loss
of sharpness. (See the Test Photos section of the review.)
The highest sensitivity level
of the DSC-W100, 1250 ISO, is nevertheless useable if the
image is captured in black and white, or sepia, a process
that eliminates the random coloured pixels caused by noise.
The result is an image that, albeit grainy and not very detailed
when seen on a monitor at 100% scale, has the look of an old
photograph and which, when printed out to a 4 x 6 inch (10
x 15 cm) size is sharp and offers an image quality that is
entirely acceptable.
The built-in flash of the DSC-W100
has a limited reach, and while it is well-suited as a fill-in
flash with shadowed areas or backlit subjects, it cannot be
relied on as a primary light source unless the sensitivity is
set to Auto. This allows the camera to increase the CCD sensitivity
to increase the reach of the flash, but at the cost of an increase
in noise in the image.
Although the DSC-W100 only
provides 2 levels of compression, these are available with
all image sizes.
The compression applied to images captured using the Fine
setting range from 6:1 to 7:1 — depending on the complexity
of the subject — normally avoids the loss of image detail
and does not cause the appearance of compression artefacts.
At this level of compression, images can be printed to a 8
x 10 inch (25 x 20 cm) size at 300 dpi with excellent results.
The Standard compression level,
on the other hand, is generally twice as strong — in
the range of 12:1 — and is best reserved for use with
images that will be reduced in size, or printed out to a small
size.
The DSC-W100 offers a good value.
This is a camera that offers good image quality easily, which
becomes excellent when it benefits from good outdoor light,
allowing it to capture perfect colours that print beautifully.
Moreover, users that would like to be able to experiment
with night photography will very likely appreciate the DSC-W100’s
30-second maximum exposure time, and its remarkably effective
noise reduction system.
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