C700 CA and Moire patterns

Are the chromatic aberration and Moire patterns that show up in the C700 pictures dependent on the particular zoom settng beng used or are they inherent in the lens design independent of zoom?

In other words, would the pictures be comparable to those of say a C2040 if no zoom beyond 3x is used?

I am deciding between a C2040 and a C700 but the CA and Moire patterns (as seen in the review and gallery for the C700 on this site - the picture of the gentleman in a suit) really bother me. I do think the 10x lens is worthwhile and would be willing to live with these artifacts if they only show up at the higher magnification ranges.

Thanks for any insights.

Henry

I bought the C-700 a few days ago and have been enjoying it. About the chromatic aberration, it seems to me that when it does show up it seems to show up more in wide views, rather than zoomed views.

Here are some of my own sample shots. Please let me know what you think.

http://inJapan.net/doug/c700-1/
http://inJapan.net/doug/c700-2/
http://inJapan.net/doug/c700-3/
http://inJapan.net/doug/c700-4/
http://inJapan.net/doug/c700ZoomTests/

and some movie clips:

http://inJapan.net/doug/taos9thbirthday

Thanks for sharing your pictures, Doug. They look pretty good to me and

although a few have significant CA and even a few Moiré patterns (in the box of boxonshelf3-10x.jpg - you really have to be looking for them), the 10X zoom is really nice to have. I guess CA is determined by the light to dark contrast, more or less independent of zoom.

Overall, the camera does a pretty good job, though. It enables pictures that would just not be possible with the C2040. I assume 10x optical zoom can do a much better job than 3.3x digital zooming/cropping of a picture taken with a 3x optical zoom.

I guess the other price-comparable camera would be the C3000 but again, the 10x zoom gives you so much composition versatility that it seems the right way to go.

Did you go through some of this evaluation before deciding on the C700?

Doug Lerner said:

I bought the C-700 a few days ago and have been enjoying it. About
the chromatic aberration, it seems to me that when it does show up
it seems to show up more in wide views, rather than zoomed views.

Here are some of my own sample shots. Please let me know what you
think.

http://inJapan.net/doug/c700-1/
http://inJapan.net/doug/c700-2/
http://inJapan.net/doug/c700-3/
http://inJapan.net/doug/c700-4/
http://inJapan.net/doug/c700ZoomTests/

and some movie clips:

http://inJapan.net/doug/taos9thbirthday

Click to expand...

Haha. I feel like I spent more time deciding on the camera then my house.

I was trying to decide between the C700 and 3040. After the Olympus rebate on the 3040 they are only about $80 difference here.

The lens / pixel / CCD specs on the 3040 are obviously better. And I was concerned about the CA problem, which I had read a lot about.

But I kept on getting drawn back to the 10x lens. I decided not to go with the 2100 because of size and also connectivity. The 2100 doesn't "automount" which I find a big nuisance.

I wasn't worried so much about the Moire patterns, but was concerned about the CA.

I went back and looked over my old Nikon photos - I've taken thousands with my Coolpix 700 over the last couple of years - and even though I never once noticed them, sure enough, there was CA plain as day, when you know what you are looking for!

I decided to go for the C700, knowing that a certain number of photos would have noticeable CA, willing to compromise on that (knowing I could fix them up later on my computer if necessary - though usually just shrinking them down solves the problem) because I love that 10x zoom.

Unlike other people's reports I have not had a problem with the fact that the lens is not "stabalized", as you can see from my sample photos.

And the battery life is great!

Basically I am pleased.

doug

p.s. I would still love to get a hold of Camedia Master 2.5 if anybody has a link for me!

Henry said:

Did you go through some of this evaluation before deciding on the
C700?

Click to expand...

Also in the owners opinions section for the C-700 I came across a great tip on how to remove CA from photos. It works amazing!

Example -- with CA:



Example -- fixed CA:



-SFK
(To email me remove STOPSPAM from my address.)

SFK said:

Also in the owners opinions section for the C-700 I came across a
great tip on how to remove CA from photos. It works amazing!

Click to expand...

Please tell me the tip!

doug

It's here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/read_opinion_text.asp?prodkey=oly_c700uz&opinion=2359

SFK

Doug Lerner said:

SFK said:

Also in the owners opinions section for the C-700 I came across a
great tip on how to remove CA from photos. It works amazing!

Click to expand...

Please tell me the tip!

doug

Click to expand...