About the C-60, DCRP review said:
"Overall image quality was good, but not great. My main beef with the
C-60's photos is noise. There's too much of it, and frankly I'm not
surprised -- the more pixels you stuff into a tiny sensor, the worse the
noise is going to be. Noise doesn't just add "grain" to your images, it
eats away at details too. The C-60Z's photos have what call a "video
capture look", a kind of fuzziness. Here are two crops from images in
the gallery
<http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/olympus/c60z-review/gallery.shtml>
that show what I mean::
"In terms of photo quality, I was a bit disappointed with the C-60.
Photos are well-exposed and colorful, but noise levels are higher than
average, most likely due to the tightly-packed pixels on the 1/1.76"
sensor. I also noticed some strange horizontal lines in some of my
photos, which may just be specific to my camera."
"I was not impressed with the startup speed of the C-60Z. While it
extends the lens quickly, the camera spends an eternity reading the xD
card. All this adds up to a startup time approaching 7 seconds."
"
The hybrid AF system on the C-60 gives it above average focusing speeds,
with a typical delay of a little over half a second. If the camera has
to hunt a bit, it may take a second or longer to lock focus. Despite not
having an AF-assist lamp, the C-60 focused very well in low light
conditions.
The camera does very well in the shutter lag department, with no major
delays, even at slower shutter speeds.
Shot-to-shot speed is excellent, with a delay of just over one second,
assuming you've turned off the post-shot review feature."
Steve's Digicams says:
"You can see a visible "roughness" in open blue sky areas. This is
visible in both JPG and TIFF images, so it isn't compression artifacting
but rather some sort of imager noise."
"Initial power up takes about 7 seconds, most of which is the time
needed to extend the lens and read the xD card, larger xD cards extend
the powerup time. Shot to shot times in SHQ are about five seconds when
using the flash and four seconds without it." If that 7 sec figure is
with the 32mb card that comes with the camera, a card big enough to be
useful could be real trouble.
imaging-resource does praise the shutter/focus performance in their
review, but were less impressed with image quality.
* Slightly soft images, particularly in the corners at telephoto
focal lengths
* Noticeable image noise at ISO 200, nasty noise at ISO 400
* Image noise may "surprise" users shooting in auto mode (a trait
common to most point & shoot digicams though)
* A fair bit of chromatic aberration in the corners when shooting at
the wide angle end of the zoom's range
I'd be looking at the Stylus 410 too.
Unfortunately, imaging-resource hasn't reviewed the stylus 410. Even
their limited "quick" review of the 400 doesn't mena anything because
the 410 is a pretty significant upgrade.
Steve says:
"The second generation of the Stylus Digital line, the 4.0-megapixel CCD
sensor is combined with an enhanced image processor called TruePic
TURBO™ that significantly improves image quality and delivers faster
overall processing speeds for rapid startup, shutter release and playback.
Shutter lag was a fast 1/10 of a second when pre-focused and 7/10 of a
second including autofocus." He didn't say anything about shutter lag in
the D-60 review, I don't know why.
"From power up to first image captured measured approx. 5.5 seconds,
this includes the time it takes to slide the lens cover door open and
extend the lens itself."
"Shot-to-shot delay averaged 2.5 seconds without the use of the flash
and about 5 to 6 seconds with the flash." Much quicker shot to shot
without flash, but is that with review on?
"I was pleased with the overall image quality in SHQ 2272x1704 mode.
We've recommended many Olympus cameras in the past for their highly
accurate white balance and exposure systems, and continue to do so with
the Stylus 410."
"Four-megapixels of resolution is all that most users need, whether you
need web images, email attachments, 4x6", 11x14" or larger size prints,
this camera has got an appropriate resolution size for you. The majority
of our samples were sharp, well exposed, showed true color, and were
nicely saturated. However, there was an average amount of noise in
low/high contrast areas."
You can't tell I was recently checking out small P&S DCs can you? :-)
I think the 6mp of the C-60 is marketing driven, rather than performance
driven, but they are by no means the only manufacturer caught in this
mess. And I like the splash proof aspect of the Stylus.
Moose
Mark Marr-Lyon wrote:
>I've been looking for a similar beast for use by me and my wife. According to
><http://www.imaging-resource.com>, the Oly C-60 seems to fit the bill rather
>nicely. Shutter lag of about 1/3 second, which is quite good for consumer
>digicams. It seems pretty commonly available at under $400, so isn't too
>expensive. Anyway, I'm pretty sure we'll be getting one.
>
>
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