Head to Head Test Olympus/Canon/Panasonic

[Torey]

Recently I tested the Olympus C-2100 Ultra Zoom, Canon A60, Canon PowerShot S1 IS and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10 all together. I made the same shots at the same time. I put the Image Stabilizer on the C2100, S1 and FZ10. The A60 does not have that feature. I had all cameras set to automatic. Various shots where made and compared side by side.

Bottom line:
For overall picture quality, the older C-2100 outperformed all the cameras. Hands down. It was consistently took clearer sharper pictures. This was a surprise to me because it is a much older camera and had less pixels than that all the others. The next best was the old A60! The DMX-FZ10 only performed better with macros or close shots. As awesome as the close ups were, it is not like I shoot macros all the time.

I think we consumers are getting short changed by thinking newer is better and that more megapixels means a camera is better. If you can find an Olympus C-2100 UZ or a Canon A60, grab it. You’ll pay a lot less money and get great shots.

See the results for yourself. I’ve posted the head shots on my Yahoo! Photo album. Download a few side be side pictures. See which ones you like, then look at the properties of the picture. Simply right click the picture, click properties and look at which camera took the picture.

C-2100 vs A60 vs S1 IS:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tdjlam/album?.dir=23fa&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tdjlam/my_photos

C-2100UZ vs FZ10
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tdjlam/album?.dir=d5ed&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tdjlam/my_photos

Torey

[Qarel]

Hi. There are a lot of sites testing cameras already, and they disagree with you. I downloaded the first two pics from the Panasonic comparison, and discovered you used the FZ10 in 2 MP mode to judge sharpness. Perhaps you thought the comparison was more equal that way. It wasn't. First, the FZ10 does have 4 MP, and you can use them. Not so the 2100uz. Second, the FZ10 has to simulate 2 megapixels, and obviously can't compete with a real 2 MP under those conditions.

You could compare
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C2100/FULLRES/C21DBFLF.HTM
with
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/FZ3/FULLRES/FZ3DBWBA.HTM
(not the FZ10, but the 3 MP FZ3)

Look at the card to the right in the box and tell me which one is sharper. In the flared ends of the crosses, the 2100uz is sharp to about 2, the FZ3 to about 3.

And while you are looking at those two images, don't you see that the 2100uz one has the same red cast as your sample pics?

In this case, newer is better.

Regards,

Karel