Compared to... Fujifilm FinePix F10

Below you will find a studio comparison between the Canon PowerShot A700 and Fuji FinePix F10. The F10 isn't really direct competition (it only has a 3x zoom lens and little in the way of manual control), but it has been highly praised for its low noise at higher ISO settings, so we thought it would make an interesting comparison for the A700's new ISO 800 mode.

Studio scene comparison (@ ISO80)

  • Canon PowerShot A700 : Aperture Priority mode, ISO 80, Default Image Parameters,
    Manual white balance, +0.67 EV compensation
     
  • Fuji FinePix F10 : Program mode, ISO 80, Default Image Parameters,
    Manual white balance, +0.67 EV compensation
     
  • Lighting: Daylight simulation, >98% CRI
Canon PowerShot A700
Fujifilm FinePix F10
ISO 80, 1/50 sec, F5.0
ISO 80, 1/70 sec, F4.3
2,357 KB JPEG
2,967 KB JPEG

The results from the A700 are surprisingly good, with very low luminance and chroma noise (which is actually marginally lower than the F10) yet very llittle evidence of heavy noise reduction. Edge to edge detail is excellent, and the colour rendition much more natural - and accurate - than previous A series models (which tended to 'overcook' reds). The F10 is - if you look really closely - managing to to pull a little more fine detail out of the scene, but the A700 has slightly better edge-to-edge sharpness - quite an achievement given the zoom range on offer. The results are typical Canon in many respects; clean and very slightly over-processed (they have that 'smooth, but sharpened' look), but in reality there is very little here to complain about.