Compared to...

Studio scene comparison

Canon EOS 20D vs. Olympus C-8080 WZ

As our 'benchmark' prosumer level eight megapixel digital camera the C-8080 was a natural choice for a quick comparison to the eight megapixel EOS 20D. An important difference between the two cameras is the aspect ratio of their sensors, the 20D has a film-like 3:2 ratio sensor, the C-8080 has a monitor-like 4:3 ratio sensor. To compensate for this difference we attempted to ensure that the vertical framing of the subjects was the same between the two cameras, although obviously this means we lose part of the frame on the left and right side for the C-8080.

The C-8080 also carries a 112 pixel rows (vertical) advantage over the 20D, if its sensor were scaled to the same aspect ratio as the 20D (3:2) it would have 3672 x 2448 pixels (9.0 million). Note that the C-8080's aperture of F5.0 was selected for optimum sharpness and equal DOF.

This is our standard studio scene comparison shot taken from exactly the same tripod position within minutes of each other. Lighting: 2 x 800W studio lights with dichroic daylight filters bounced off a white ceiling reflector. Crops magnified 200%. Ambient temperature was approximately 24°C (~75°F). Camera settings:

• Canon EOS 20D: Canon EF 50 mm F1.4, Aperture Priority (F9),
  ISO 100, JPEG Large/Fine, Manual WB, Parameter 2 (neutral), Self-Timer
   
• Olympus C-8080 WZ: Aperture Priority (F5),
  ISO 50, JPEG Large/SHQ, Manual WB, Default Parameters (neutral), Self-Timer

Canon EOS 20D	Olympus C-8080 WZ
ISO 100, 1 sec, F9	ISO 50, 1/1.6 sec, F5
2,859 KB JPEG (3504 x 2336)	3,798 KB JPEG (3264 x 2448)

A similar tonal but slightly different color response from the C-8080. It's fair to say that the C-8080 fares very well against the EOS 20D showing good resolution, detail and sharpness (perhaps a little over-sharpened by default but that can be changed). It's not as silky smooth as the EOS 20D (despite being set to ISO 50) but it's certainly not noisy. However turn the sensitivity up a little and we start to see the advantage of the 20D's big CMOS sensor.

Canon EOS 20D vs. Olympus C-8080 WZ (Higher sensitivity)

Camera settings:

• Canon EOS 20D: Canon EF 50 mm F1.4, Aperture Priority (F9),
  ISO 1600, JPEG Large/Fine, Manual WB, Parameter 2 (neutral), Self-Timer
   
• Olympus C-8080 WZ: Aperture Priority (F5),
  ISO 400, JPEG Large/SHQ, Manual WB, Default Parameters (neutral), Self-Timer

Canon EOS 20D	Olympus C-8080 WZ
ISO 1600, 1/15 sec, F9	ISO 400, 1/13 sec, F5
3,461 KB JPEG (3504 x 2336)	3,798 KB JPEG (3264 x 2448)

Here's a fairly clear demonstration of the difference between a large digital SLR sensor and a tiny compact digital camera sensor. Bear in mind that the C-8080 has been handed a two-stop sensitivity advantage (ISO 400 vs. ISO 1600), but it still can't get close to the EOS 20D's relatively clean image. In addition the C-8080 also appears to be suffering from 'hot pixels' which are sprinkled liberally all over the image.