Digital Camera side by side test pictures I took

[c627627]

• Canon Powershot A610 5MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom

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• Kodak EasyShare Z730 5MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Zoom

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• Canon PowerShot A60 2MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

[techun]

mm mm canon

[c627627]

I thought I upgraded from 2MP Canon A60 to a 5MP Kodak Z730 with its so called "professional-quality Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon 4x optical zoom lens" which also got great reviews, some putting it ahead of Canon.

Then I took side by side comparison pictures to discover my old Canon A60's 2MP shots were warmer, more lifelike and generally more inviting than the 'famous' 5MP Kodak and its fancy lens.

This is especially true of pics of people.

I plan to do side by side inside and night shots next.


Any suggestions on how to make Kodak compete with the Canons, as you can see the outside pics are clearly inferior and when I take pics of people, the skin comes out pale...


or do you think the Kodak pics were not as bad in comparison?

[shard]

My buddy is a professional developer, and he says that the kodak is the most raw, but the A610 is the most pleasing to the eye. I would go for the A610 myself also.

As for the kodak making it look good, drop the white balance down, and up the color saturation a bit.

[c627627]

Thank you, that's exactly the kind of post I was looking for. Apparently, in the affordable range, Kodak and Canon are top brands, right?

1. Is it me, or do these Kodak shots look inferior to you all too?
2. It's even more noticeable when you take pics of people, they look pale and kind of (there's no other way to put it) "sickly" in Kodak shots when compared to Canon. So I'm looking for a way to tweak Kodak:

a. you say White Balance, there are: Auto, Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent settings, which one brings the WB down?
b. color saturation: what setting would that be?

[dicecca112]

1. Is it me, or do these Kodak shots look inferior to you all too?

they are, I will never by a Kodak digital ever again. Had one hated it. No settings at all, no options to change anything.

And I would set white balance to either auto, or for those outside shots Daylight

[khiloa]

My mother has a Canon similar to the PowerShot A60 and loves it. I think that is the one I would recommend.

[Krieger]

Yeah that Kodak picture looks terrible. I have a Canon A80(over 6k pictures taken) and can't say enough about it. I'm actually going to buy a Rebel XT or the 20D in a few months when I get the cash...

Personally I like the A610.

[FudgeNuggets]

To me the Kodak looks the worst, the A60 is a bit better and the A610 is NICE!!!
I have a Kodak and am thinking about buyiing a new camera. I may look into a canon (not the 610, want more than 4x optical) if the price is right.

[David]

I have a Canon A620 and I am very very happy with it.

Example pic: (resized from 7MP to 1000x750)

http://www.oc-rev.com/imagehost/files/1/maydipbeach.jpg

[ManOman]

I too have the Canon A620 and love it to death.
I previously had a Kodak and will never use them again. The pictures on the Kodak had much more noise.

[Quailane]

Personally, I LOVE THE Nikon D70s! All I can say is that the pictures are PERFECT! I mean, you can really tell the difference. Also the different lenses are so cool. The wide angle lens has about a 170 degree view! The flash is perfect and the pictures are too. I can't possibly imagine anything better.

Seriously, if you have ever thought that indoor photos could possibly be better in any way, the D70s will show that the pictures turn out looking better than real life! Seriously, I can't imagine how this thing can be improved upon!

PS:
This camera is orgasmic!

[David]

Moved to Imaging and Display devices.

[wa77ss]

I am getting that Cannon A620 within the next week or two. It has such a kick ass picture.

[Albaholic]

I have a A620, I love it but ill be stepping up to a D70s or d200 soon (nikon)

[dfonda]

Hmm must be my eyes. Tho the canon pictures are brighter(almost as if the flash filled in?) I see much more detail and possibly a truer darker richer green to the leaves in the Kodak. If you study the leaves they show deteails which the canon's lack. IMHO.

[Echo_]

why did you use flash?

[shard]

What flash? that is just natural sunlight.

[Michael Warren]

Some simple color correcting would make that Kodak image look the best since it seems like it has more detail.

[SuperFarStucker]

the whitepoints on the cameras are clearly different. I would wager the kodak is set too cool. Direct sunlight (depending on time of day) is between 5000-5700 K which has a yellow tinge to it ('warm'), which is why the Canons image looks more vibrant and natural. The kodak also looks slightly over exposed. Honestly those could both be operator error or incorrect camera settings. I'm certain any of these will suit you well but from the images I would give the Canons an insubstantial edge

[c627627]

All right, it turns out that Kodak ships with default setting of NATURAL COLOR which makes objects look like they do in post #2 of this thread and if you take pictures of people, they turn out pale and as if they're ill.

However when this default setting is switched to High Color, pictures are better.

How much better, well, I can't post personal pics but this may do, let's start with

• Canon A610 - Normal (Default)

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• Canon A610 - Vivid

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• Kodak Z730 - HIGH COLOR

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• Kodak Z730 - HIGH COLOR (Indoor setting)

[c627627]

Both Kodak pics above are shown in HIGH COLOR which as you can see, barely compares to Canon's Default and Vivid (equivalent of Kodak's High Color) setting.

I didn't post Kodak's default NATURAL COLOR setting because it is so pale that for people pics it is enough to make you want to never use this camera again.



Do you still think that Kodak is worse and what other setting should I change to make it better?

[Michael Warren]

Try white balancing on something thats dark blue like some jeans and everything should look alot warmer with the Kodak.

[c627627]

Right click > Save As:
http://www.kodak.com/global/plugins/acrobat/en/service/manuals/urg00402/Z730_GLB_en.pdf

How would I do that?

There are Auto and Daylight White Balance modes.

[Pinky]

I was also thinking that the Kodak is probably setup wrong, and kinda still think it even after your last person pics. However, why is it not set to look good out of the box? Why would Kodak choose to have poor quality camera images?

I've owned several brand digicam in the past 6 years. The Kodaks I've owned were good cameras for the price, but the Nikon and now Pentax cameras were much better with more manual settings. My next camera will likely be a Canon. Hopefully I can fit it in my budget.

For what it's worth, my GF has owned 2 Olympus Stylus cameras and both are excellent quality and weather resistent for a very reasonable price (not much more than a comparable Kodak).

[Super Nade]

Mate, did you check DPR's reviews? Maybe you could try a few of their tests to obtain more differences between the two units.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0508/05082202canona610a620.asp

Kodak:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Kodak/kodak_z730.asp

I have this one (proceeds from the sale of my Allendale setup) :
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonyh2/

My main application is photography in low/ultra-low light conditions aart from the usual recreational stuff and I must say that this is an excellent buy!

[c627627]

I no longer own the Kodak because of what my personal tests showed. I tried to tweak Kodak to produce better pictures and I did succeed when I changed the default setting of NATURAL COLOR which makes objects look like they do in post #2 of this thread to HIGH COLOR which makes them look "better" when compared side by side.

This was particularly obvious when complete pictures of faces were compared.

However, they were not as good as Canon. To me the best test is when you take personal pictures and put them side by side and Canon won hands down.

There may have been better cameras in the professional and very expensive range but overall, how would you know unless you took pictures of the same thing immediately one after the other and then put them up for comparison right there and then?


There is no excuse for Kodak shipping with the inferior default setting when people tend not to read manuals thoroughly anyway...

[dropadrop]

Never had a Kodak camera, but had a few Canons.

The way I see it all digital cameras suck. Some suck more then others, and what they suck in varies from one brand to another. It would be possible for a company to make a good product, but as is they are all compromises.

SLR's are too big to carry around, and having to change lenses according to the situation is a big burden.

Point and shots are generally very bad in low light, and if not (Fuji) they have bad lenses and proprietary memory card formats.

I'd like something like a Panasonic with a Fuji lens (or the other way around), but seems like that is never going to happen. Canon is a decent compromise (I have an A75, Ixus800is and an S3is), but it's more of a "it's not bad at anything" rather then "it's good at something". :D

[Tyranos]

I've had Panasonic DMC type which was okay for a budget camera, but it was built weak, and picture quality wasn't very good. I'm selling a Casio exilim in the classifieds right now, which was a great camera with excellent pic quality but I needed something with more professional features. I ended up purchasing a Canon Powershot S3 IS and so far I love it. It's super macro mode and all the features it has are amazing, not to mention the kind of photos it can take. It was a bit expensive, but well worth the money.

[Super Nade]

Most CCD sensors are made by Sony, so that woul level things out a bit. What seems to diffrentiate various brands from one another is the metering, anti-shake and noise reduction algorithms being used.
Lens technology does not seem to be a major factor these days because the big players have this down to a nicety. Watch out for Sony,who, having acquired Konica-Minolta have impoved quite a bit.

[Mr.Guvernment]

as far as i know Canon does not get their CMOS / CCD sensors from Sony, could be why in reviews they are often very diff then the other camera's.

[JRW]

I took this shot with my Canon G6 recently: Link (http://ded.zenblue.net/IMG_4431.jpg) (5.4 MB)