Performance
Sample
photos
The camera gives pleasing skin tones, with
excellent results under our controlled lighting in the portrait shots. Color is
very good, the camera delivers good levels of detail.
Portrait
in Studio\ 1/160 sec \ f/11.0 \ 105 mm \ ISO 100
Mushroom
\ 1/160 sec \ f/5.6 \ 105 mm \ ISO 400
Stone
\ 1/30 sec \ f/3.5 \ 18 mm \ ISO 320
Loch
Lomond \ 1/160 sec \ f/5.6 \ 92 mm \ ISO 320
Boat
\ 1/60 sec \ f/4.5 \ 35 mm \ ISO 220
Land
Rovers \ 1/160 sec \ f/6.3 \ 28 mm \ ISO 100
Light
\ 1/80 sec \ f/5.6 \ 98 mm \ ISO 6400
Lens
performance
The 18-105mm VR lens provides a wide zoom
range and has a minimum focusing distance of 45cm, which is best when using the
full telephoto zoom. Purple fringing is clear in areas of high contrast and
even worsens in the corners, but this is not a problem in the majority shots.
Barrel distortion is visible at the wide end of the lens and pincushion distortion
at the telephoto end, although this can be adjusted by switching on the Auto
Distortion Correction feature.
Wide
\ 1/250 sec \ f/8.0 \ 18 mm \ ISO 100
Active
D-lighting Low \ 1/200 sec \ f/5.6 \ 105 mm \ ISO 100
The
Hermitage Trees \ 1/100 sec \ f/5.0 \ 18 mm \ ISO 100
Macro
Snow Drop \ 1/640 sec \ f/6.3 \ 105 mm \ ISO 100
Dynamic range is quite well; the camera
gives reliable exposure in a variety of conditions. Dynamic range can be
extended by using the Active D-Lighting option or alternatively the built in
HDR shooting mode, example of this can be found below.
ISO
noise performance
The noise performance is excellent right at
ISO 3200. At ISO 6400, noise starts to appear clearly and detail suffers though
results are still very good. At ISO 12800, detail loss further but results may
still provide useful. Noise is worst at ISO 25600 as expected; however, noise
performance is still better at these higher ISO settings than the D7000 despite
a higher number of pixels.
1/6
sec \ f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 100; 1/13 sec \ f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 200; 1/25 sec \
f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 400 (from left to right)
1/50
sec \ f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 800; 1/100 sec \ f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 1600; 1/200 sec \
f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 3200 (from left to right)
1/400
sec \ f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 6400; 1/800 sec \ f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 12800; 1/1600 sec
\ f/5.6 \ 52mm \ ISO 25600 (from left to right)
White
balance performance
AWB
Tung \ 1/5 sec \ f/5.6 \ 26.0mm \ ISO 100 (left) and Tung Preset \ 1/8 sec \
f/5.6 \ 26mm \ ISO 100 (right)
AWB
Flu \ 0.5 sec \ f/5.6 \ 26mm \ ISO 100 (left) and Flu Preset 3 \ 0.5 sec \
f/5.6 \ 26mm \ ISO 100 (right)
Auto White Balance (AWB) performance is
quite impressive under tungsten light with a very warm result and a more
neutral result using the tungsten preset. Again, AWB is very good under fluorescent
lighting, with the fluorescent preset giving an excellent result. White balance
settings can be changed on the screen.
Other
sample photos
HDR can only be activated in camera when
shooting JPEG; we have shown you two examples above, with the option set to
normal and high. There are additional settings of low, very high or auto and
the camera will combine two shots to create the shot automatically.
HDR
Norm \ 1/160 sec \ f/5.6 \ 105mm \ ISO 100
HDR
High \ 1/160 sec \ f/5.6 \ 105mm \ ISO 110
Digital
filter
The camera does not feature a built in
panoramic mode so you will have to do this manually on your computer, instead.
Effects on the mode dial lets you shoot with several of different effects
applied. Moreover, these affects are: Night version, Color Sketch, Miniature,
Selective color, Silhouette, High Key and Low Key. Many effects can be applied
in playback. Picture control allows you to choose from Standard, Neutral,
Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait or Landscape and these can be customized letting
you adjust sharpening, contrast, brightness, saturation and hue.
(From
left to right): sample photo in Color Outline, Color Sketch, High Key and
Landscape Color
(From
left to right): photo in Low Key, Miniature, Monochrome and Neutral Color
(From
left to right): photo in Spot Color Red Green, Standard Shot, Vivid Color and
Silhouette
Video
Video options are 1,920x1,080 resolution at
30/25/24p with 720 at 60/50, quality includes high or normal. You can set to
microphone sensitivity manually or automatically as well as set which SD slot
you want your videos recorded to. You can also set whether you want to record
from the 1.3x cropped area.
