Compared to the Powershot S20 & Nikon Coolpix 950

(Make sure you've read the previous page before reading this one otherwise it won't make much sense)

...Contd. The following scene was shot with each camera from the same tripod, same lighting within minutes of each other. Cameras were set to automatic white balance, JPEG compression set to the best setting.

Interpolated Samples

In the next set of samples each of the second subject images from the Nikon Coolpix 950 and Canon PowerShot S20 were interpolated using PhotoShop Bicubic interpolation to be the same size (2400 x 1800) as the FujiFilm FinePix 4700z image, this gives a better pixel-for-pixel comparison and shows what can be achieved by interpolating upwards. Crops taken at 100%.

Subject Two: Still Life Bottles Nikon & Canon Images Blown-up (Interpolated)
FujiFilm FinePix 4700z 2400 x 1800 Untouched 1,713 KB	Nikon Coolpix 950 Interpolated to 2400 x 1800 1,011 KB	Canon Powershot S20 Interpolated to 2400 x 1800 1,151 KB

Here we can see that at equal resolution the S20 shows much better definition than either of the other cameras (as we'd expect as it's true pixel count is about 1 million more), the 950 has a less smeared image without the aberrations and pixel artifacts of the 4700Z.

FujiFilm 4700z Samples down-sampled to 1600 x 1200

Just for the hell of it I decided to try down-sampling the images to 1600 x 1200 (1.9 megapixels) which is identical to that of the 950, in theory the 4700z should at least match the 950 as it in any case has a 2.4 megapixel CCD.

Subject Two: Still Life Bottles Fuji image down-sampled
FujiFilm FinePix 4700z Down-sampled to 1600 x 1200 795 KB	Nikon Coolpix 950 1600 x 1200 Untouched 726 KB

At last! The 4700Z achieves something approaching 950 quality, although detail definition is still not as good. The point here is that we shouldn't need to reduce the image down to 1600 x 1200 for it to look sharp and detailed. SuperCCD 4.3 megapixels? Not really.