Compared to...

Studio scene comparison (RAW)

For a (more) level playing field for comparison we also shot our studio scene in RAW mode with each camera and converted it using Adobe Camera RAW. Because Adobe Camera RAW applies different levels of sharpening to different cameras (this confirmed) we had to use the following workflow for these conversions:

  • Load RAW file into Adobe Camera RAW (Auto mode disabled)
  • Set Sharpness to 0 (all other settings default)
  • Open file to Photoshop
  • Apply a Unsharp mask: 80%, Radius 1.0, Threshold 0
  • Save as a TIFF (for cropping) and as a JPEG quality 11 for download

This is our standard studio scene comparison shot taken from exactly the same tripod position. Lighting: daylight simulation, >98% CRI. Crops are 100%. Ambient temperature was approximately 22°C (~72°F). Camera settings as per previous pages.

Sony DSLR-A700 (RAW) vs. Canon EOS 40D (RAW)

Sony DSLR-A700 (RAW)
Canon EOS 40D (RAW)
3.4 MB JPEG (4272 x 2848)
3.1 MB JPEG (3888 x 2592)

Using our benchmark RAW converter (Adobe Camera RAW) means that the image processing pipeline becomes standardized between the two cameras and better allows us to see the true performance of the camera sensor. It's fair to say that the A700's image looks considerably more detailed and sharper from RAW and that its extra pixels are now beginning to demonstrate more detail (although in reality you'd have to be printing very large images to see this difference).