This section of the review has been moved here because it was based on a pre-production DSC-F707 (but some of it is still valid).

Compared to the Minolta DiMAGE 7, contd.

Continuing to compare the Sony DSC-F707 to the Minolta DiMAGE 7 we switch to our standard 'liquor bottles' scene.

Note: Comparison shots below were made with a pre-production Sony DSC-F707, a production comparison can be found here.

Scene comparison

Cameras were reset to factory defaults. Aperture priority was used on both cameras to use an aperture of F5.6 (or as close as possible), ISO 100, various exposures were taken and the two with the closest balance (histogram) were selected. White balance was set to Manual Preset. Lighting - 2 x 800W studio lights with dichroic daylight filters bounced off a white ceiling reflector.

Sony DSC-F707 (pre-production)	Minolta DiMAGE 7 (v021e)
ISO 100, F5.6, 1/2 sec, JPEG FINE Straight from camera	ISO 100, F5.6, 1/4 sec, JPEG FINE Converted to sRGB
Sony DSC-F707	Minolta DiMAGE 7 (v021e)
Sony DSC-F707	Minolta DiMAGE 7 (v021e)

Looking at the overall tonal balance the DiMAGE 7 shot appears slightly 'flat' with lower contrast, shadow areas are a little lighter but noise is also quite evident. Again, the F707's Clear Color noise reduction seems to work very well. Resolution wise the F707 appears to be able to pull that little bit more out of the finest details (see the watch face, black text on the colour patches and the Martini label).

Colour is clearly far brighter and more vivid from the F707, it's also (to my eye) more accurate, especially the white wine bottle, the Gin bottle and the colour of the Cyan patch (which the DiMAGE 7 has turned a dark blue). All this praise aside the F707's overexposed red problem has raised its ugly head again on the orange, pink and red crayons.