96/12/07: Digital camera comparison: color guide

$Id: comparison.html,v 1.37 1997/01/16 04:22:49 itojun Exp $

Short essay of how we did it is here. (in Japanese)

Things to note

Quality control

X-axis (Horizontal) is divided by picture quality mode. Some camera controls picture quality by JPEG compression ratio. Those cameras are marked with "[JPEG]" icon. Some camera controls picture quality by changing pixel size. Those cameras are marked with "[SIZE]" icon.

If there's special note on quality control, there will be somthing like "[SIZE*1]" icon. In that case, refer to the comments in the last part of the page.

Other control facilities

Some camera can control Exposure, some camera can control focusing, and some camera can select zoom and normal lens. If there are some choices, we try to show them in Y-axis (Vertical).

Data downloading methods

If we download JPEG file by serial connection for the camera, it will be marked with "[SERIAL]" icon. If we download JPEG file via memory card for the camera, it is marked with "[MEMORY]" icon. Pictures downloaded by other methods are marked with "[OTHERS]" icon.

Some of data was drained with nonstanard method (method not the same as the manufacturer-supplied one). In that case, there will be somthing like "[MEMORY*1]" icon. In that case, refer to the comments in the last part of the page.

What is the "true" color of the target?

We used the first book (of three books set) in DIC (Dai-nippon Inc Corporation) color guide 1. It is fairly standard color guide for specifying color when you order color print to printing shop.

We have taken AgCl(normal film) camera image for comparison. The scanned data will be posted here too.

How these cameras were placed?

Cameras are placed so that they will capture almost same range of the view. They are not placed at the same place. Tripod was moved when switching from one camera to another. Therefore, it is not our purpose to compare the image angle; our purpose is to compare color, sharpness, compression noise and edge noise.

What is the lighting condition?

(detail will be pasted here)

Skill level of the operator

Some of the cameras listed below are borrowed from the owner, and the owner was not present at the event. In that case, operator of the camera may not be familiar with the camera he is operating. Also, we experienced some troubles while downloading image data from that kind of cameras. For keeping fairness of the evaluation, we denote that kind of case by "<NOVICE>" icon.

Results

Canon CE300 serial: ? 320x240 [OTHERS*4]	lens		-
	Normal F2.8
	Macro F2.8
Canon PS30 serial: ? 320x240 whitebalance=Normal [OTHERS*6]	whitebalance	lens	-
	Normal	Normal F2.8
		Macro F2.8
	Room	Normal F2.8
		Macro F2.8
Casio QV10 serial: 1001762A 480x240 resized into 480x360 [SERIAL*8]			-
Epson CP100 serial: 3A50004511 [SIZE] [SERIAL]			High(640x480)	Std(320x240)
Epson CP200 serial: 3H80000779 [SIZE] [SERIAL]			High(640x480)	Std(320x240)
Fuji DS-7 serial: 6314550 [SIZE] [MEMORY*3]	Focus		Standard(640x480)	Economy(320x240)
	Middle
	Macro
Fuji DS-8 serial: 6401167 640x480[JPEG] [MEMORY*3]	Focus		Fine	Normal
	Middle
	Macro
Kodak DC20 serial: EKP62101132 493x373 [SERIAL*6] <NOVICE>			-
Kodak DC25 serial: ? 360x360 [SIZE*5] [SERIAL] <NOVICE>			High	Std
Olympus "Camedia" C-400L serial: 13001099 [SIZE] [SERIAL]	Focus		High(640x480)	Economy(320x240)
	Normal
	Macro
Olympus "Camedia" C-800L serial: 18004147 [SIZE] [SERIAL]	Focus		High(1024x768)	Economy(512x384)
	Normal
	Macro
Ricoh DC-1 serial: FT105976 768x576[JPEG] [MEMORY*1]			Normal	Economy
Ricoh DC-2E prototype serial: 010016 768x576[JPEG] [MEMORY*1]		Exposure	Fine	Normal	Economy
		+1.5
		+0.9
		auto
		-0.9
		-1.5
Ricoh DC-2L serial: 101845 768x576[JPEG] [MEMORY*1]	lens	Exposure	Fine	Normal	Economy
	Normal(35mm)	+1.5
		+0.9
		auto
		-0.9
		-1.5
	Zoom(55mm)	+1.5
		+0.9
		auto
		-0.9
		-1.5
Sega SJ-1 "DIGIO" serial: P60016923 [SIZE] [MEMORY*2]			Std(320x240)	Memo(160x120)
Sharp VE-LS5 "ViewHunter" serial: ? 626x480 [SERIAL] <NOVICE>	lens		-
	most wide
	most zoomed
Sony DSC-F1 "Cyber-shot" serial: 104871 640x480[JPEG] [SERIAL*7]		Exposure	Fine	Standard	Economy
		+2.0
		auto
		-2.0

Special quality control/image downloading methods

[MEMORY*1](Ricoh DC-1/DC-2E prototype/DC-2L)

Memory card has specially formatted file called r0100001.j6i and vice versa. It is formatted by a method documented by JEIDA. By stripping off first 172 bytes, we can get JPEG image sized 768x480. To obtain image with proper aspect ratio, we invoked the following command on UNIX variant,

dd if=r0100001.j6i bs=1 skip=172 | djpeg | pnmscale -xsize 768 -ysize 576 | cjpeg -quality Q > r010001.jpg

where Q is defined as follows:

• For Fine mode images, Q=95
• For Normal mode images, Q=90
• For Economy mode images, Q=75

See here(DC-1), here(DC-2E) and here(DC-2L) for raw image files.

[MEMORY*2](Sega SJ-1 "DIGIO")

Memory card has specially formatted file called sega_001.sj1 and vice versa. By stripping off first 2560 bytes, we can get JPEG image from it.

See here for raw image files.

[MEMORY*3](Fuji DS-7/DS-8)

These cameras have jpeg file (more precisely, Exif file which has some extended tuples in jpeg file) on the memory card. Therefore, it is usually trivial to download the image; you can simply copy them from memory card.

We've modified those files so that there'll be JFIF signature.

See here(DS-7) and here(DS-8) for raw image files. Original files are named as dsc00001.jpg and vice versa on memory card. We copied them, changed name into dsc00001.jpg- and likewise, and made files with JFIF header named dsc00001.jpg and likewise.

[OTHERS*4](Canon CE300)

The camera is PCMCIA-connected video camera. Imagine video camera and NTSC capture card in single chassis; that's what it is. We grabbed video image through manufacturer-supplied tool.

[SIZE*5](Kodak DC25)

DC25 controls quality mode by changing pixel size. However, downloading tool for Macintosh (Kai's power goo) saves picture in 320x320, PICT format. Strange enough. (maybe we've made a mistake)

PICT files are hard-to-browse for most of the web browsers. Therefore, we've linked jpeg image from the page. (quality: 75 percent) We've used GraphicConverter for converting PICT image into jpeg image.

See here for raw image files.

[OTHERS*6](Canon PS30)

The camera is PCMCIA-connected video camera. Imagine video camera and NTSC capture card in single chassis; that's what it is. We grabbed video image through manufacturer-supplied tool.

The originally grabbed image was in BMP format. BMP files are hard-to-browse for most of the web browsers. Therefore, we've linked jpeg image from the page. (quality: 75 percent) We've used GraphicConverter for converting BMP image into jpeg image.

See here for raw image files.

[SERIAL*7](Sony DSC-F1 "Cyber-shot")

Windows download kit for Sony DSC-F1 generates *.pmp files. By stripping off first 124 bytes from it, you can get jpeg files. Windows download kit can generate jpeg files, however, it is very hard-to-use software (bad UI) so we avoided that.

See here for raw image files.

[SERIAL*8](Casio QV-10)

The camera holds 480x240 image inside. We downloaded 480x240 jpeg file by using qvplay (free software downloader for UNIX boxes), and resized it into 480x360.

See here for raw image files.