Compared to...

Studio scene comparison (RAW)

For a (more) level playing field for comparison we also shot our studio scene in RAW mode with each camera and converted it using Adobe Camera RAW. Because Adobe Camera RAW applies different levels of sharpening to different cameras (this confirmed) we had to use the following workflow for these conversions:

• Load RAW file into Adobe Camera RAW (Auto mode disabled)
• Set Sharpness to 0 (all other settings left as default)
• Open file into Photoshop
• Apply a Unsharp mask: 80%, Radius 1.0, Threshold 0
• Save as a TIFF (for cropping) and as a JPEG quality 11 for download

This is our standard studio scene comparison shot taken from exactly the same tripod position. Lighting: daylight simulation, >98% CRI. Crops are 100%. Ambient temperature was approximately 22°C (~72°F). Camera settings as per previous pages.

Canon EOS 400D (RAW) vs. Nikon D80 (RAW)

Canon EOS 400D (RAW)	Nikon D80 (RAW)
2,985 KB (3888 x 2592)	2,909 KB (3872 x 2592)

The following observation, unchanged from our Nikon D80 review: Having removed the camera's image processing from the equation is very revealing, there really is no difference in the underlying images, both ten megapixel sensors (CCD in the D80 and CMOS in the EOS 400D) capturing the same levels of detail.