Sony DSC-S70 Digital Camera

Image Quality

Perhaps the most important part of any digital camera's job is reproducing images. Our inclination with the S70 was that with its Carl Zeiss lens and its 3.3 megapixel CCD that it would produce fairly accurate colors and crisp images.

To put this hypothesis to the test, we took out our GretagMacbeth color checker described in detail in our Digital Camera Review Guide. Let's see how the S70 interpreters real life colors:

Actual colors.

S70 colors.

As you can see, the S70 consistently seems to produce colors that are a bit on the light side, making them brighter than normal. The white and gray reproduction are good, with a washout not really becoming apparent until the full black color. Other colors, such as the light red, just appear lighter in the S70's eye. All in all the color reproduction of the S70 is not bad at all, as it is better that it consistently produces light colors than producing different problems with different colors.

Next, to judge the optics of the S70, we turn to our IEEE resolution chart, shown below.

Click here to enlarge.

As you can see with our close up images, the Sony S70 begins to loose detail horizontally at 9. Vertically, detail is held for a bit longer, with the lines becoming solid at about 9.25. Finally, with the 5 degree offset, the lines remain visible in the 9 box.