Picture Effects

The DiMAGE S404 allows you to control three variables of its internal image processing algorithms, they are colour saturation, contrast and sharpening. This gives the photographer a good range of flexibility in controlling the way the final image will look, or even simply setting up the camera for his preferred balance. Below you'll find samples of the same scene shot with different values for each of these settings.

The S404 provides one level of adjustment 'plus or minus' the normal (3 in total for each parameter), the DiMAGE 5 and 7 offer two levels of adjustment (5 in total for each parameter).

Picture Effects: Saturation

Images re-saved to sRGB colour space [info]

Saturation Low	Saturation Normal	Saturation High

It's refreshing to see more manufacturers taking notice that the users of their cameras would prefer control over certain post-processing parameters. Here you have the choice of neutral, strong or very strong colour.

Picture Effects: Contrast

Images re-saved to sRGB colour space [info]

Contrast Low	Contrast Normal	Contrast High

Contrast Low provides a nicely balanced image with a well preserved 'bottom end' (shadows) and maintains highlights without clipping so much. Obviously a low contrast does have the side effect of making colours look less saturated.

Picture Effects: Sharpness

Sharpness: Hard

Sharpness: Normal

Sharpness: Soft

As you can see both Hard and Normal sharpness settings introduce visible sharpening artifacts (such as white halo's around black detail). It's also worth noting that increasing the sharpness setting also makes the S404's Bayer interpolation artifacts more visible (can be seen as the dotted effect on the minutes line above).