Sony DSC-S70 vs. Olympus C-3030Z vs. Nikon Coolpix 990

It seems overly simplistic to compare the Sony DSC-S70, Nikon Coolpix 990 and Olympus C-3030Z, yet they are the cameras seen to be at the top of the "prosumer digital camera" buyers list and thus they are often compared. This year will be quite different, with more quality 3+ megapixel digital cameras coming out from a larger selection of manufacturers I personally wouldn't limit yourself to looking at just these cameras.

Below I've listed features which we can back up with facts and how they rate "In My Honest Opinion". You'll have to go down this list, decide what is important to you if you wish to use it to help your purchase decision. If a feature is a matter of preference then I've not chosen a "better option".

Feature	Nikon Coolpix 990	Olympus C-3030Z	Sony DSC-S70
Body
Build Quality	Best	Good	Good
Street Price	$900	$900	$800
Sharpness	Equal		Slightly Sharper
Resolution	Equal		Slightly higher resolution
Noise	Equal
Colour saturation	Natural but conservative	Accurate	Vivid but sometimes unnatural
Chromatic Aberrations	Average	Poor	Little
Barrel Distortion	Equal
Zoom range	38mm - 115mm	32mm - 96mm	34mm - 102mm
Optics	F2.5 - F4.0	F2.8	F2.0 - F2.5
AF	Better, five area AF
Full-time AF	Yes, equal		None
Focus Confirmation	"Sharpness" display in AF & MF	Magnifying loupe, MF only	None
Metering	Matrix, CW, Spot	CW, Spot	CW, Spot
White Balance Preset	Yes	No	"Hold"
White Balance Fine Tuning	Yes	No	No
Shutter Lag	Equal		Slower
Operation speed	Good though limited to 4 images @ NORMAL	Excellent, up to 29 images @ HQ	Slow
Remote Control	Optional Wired	Supplied Infrared	None
Movie mode	QuickTime (no audio)	QuickTime (with audio)	MPEG (with audio)
Audio Annotations	No	Yes	Yes
External Flash	Yes (equal, all proprietary)
Flash Anti Redeye	Poor	Better (equal)
Flash output power control	Equal
Macro	20mm / 0.8"	58mm / 2.3"	40mm / 1.5"
Flexible program exposure	Yes	No	No
Shutter priority	BULB, 16 s - 1/1000 s (14 pos)	1 s - 1/800 s (30 pos)	8 s - 1/1000 s (19 pos)
Aperture priority	W: F2.5 - F7.0 (10 pos) T: F4.0 - F11.0 (10 pos)	F2.8 - F11 (13 pos)	F2.0 - F8.0 (9 pos) (limited by 1/30s shutter)
Full Manual mode	16 s - 1/1000 s (14 pos) + BULB	16 s - 1/800 s (42 pos)	No
Bracketing	Yes, equal		No
AE Lock	Yes	Panorama mode	No
Continuous mode	9 @ 1.6fps @ 2048 x 1536 (with more burst modes)	5 @ 3.9fps @ 2048 x 1536	None
Sharpening control	Equal
Exposure compensation	Equal (+/-2EV in 0.3 EV steps)
ISO Sensitivity	Auto / 100 / 200 / 400 (equal)		Auto (100 - 300)
Uncompressed mode	TIFF (equal)
JPEG modes	3 (Fine, Normal, Basic)	3 (SHQ, HQ, SQ)	1
Other modes			2 Colour GIF
Information display	Better (top LCD)
Playback display	Better (faster, histogram)		Slow
Picture Filters	Contrast, Brightness, B&W	B&W, Sepia, Black & White board	B&W, Sepia, Solarize, Negative
Power-on settings	Multiple user settings	Forgets settings :(
Battery Life	Equal (4 x AA batteries)		Excellent, InfoLithium
Bundle	Both missing batteries, charger and case		Good, includes battery and adapter/charger, no case
Portability		Smaller & Lighter (equal)
Usability	Split body	Fixed body
Ergonomics	Command wheel, control layout
Tripod mount	Better (rubber base)
Connectivity	USB (equal)
Storage	256MB+ on a CF card	Limited to 64MB Smart Media	Limited to 64MB Memory Sticks
Other features	Best Shot Selection	Movie editing	Night Shot long exp.
Review	Nikon Coolpix 990 review	Olympus C-3030Z review	Sony DSC-S70 review