Results, Color fidelity, User friendliness

JO September 2006	Features Section	Comparison of digital SLR cameras 5

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was tested with new single-use standard AA batteries (Duracell, NVSA Belgium).

Results

A summary of the results is presented in Table 2.

Color fidelity

For these results please refer to the section on individual cameras in Table 2. All images were taken in JPEG mode.

User friendliness

Unfortunately, no camera produced satisfactory results in the factory default ‘automatic’ mode. This is because the manufacturers assume that the camera will be used for normal photography and the ‘factory default settings’ reﬂect this: the aperture will be programed to be comparatively open in order to give the ﬂash unit an increased range. Therefore, all cameras had to be adjusted at least once (initially) before taking satisfactory images.

Quality of the viewfinder: Inter-observer reproducibility

Quality and size of the viewﬁnders were scored with 100% consistency between the observers.

Quality of the macro-flash

Recharge times varied considerably and some of the units were true ‘ring-ﬂash’ units (Canon), whilst others were more like ‘close range dual ﬂash units’ (Nikon). However, there was no discernible difference regarding the homogeneity of the light.

Cameras

In the next section cameras will be discussed in alphabetical order according to manufacturer:

Canon EOS 350 D and EOS 20 D (Canon Inc., Tokyo, Japan). The Canon EOS 350 D has 8 million pixels and has a plastic body. The camera has a small viewﬁnder (7th place), which is not particularly bright (6th). Handling characteristics are essentially identical to the EOS 20 D (please see below).

The EOS 20 D, which has 8 million pixels, has a sturdy magnesium-alloy body. The size and brightness of the viewﬁnders were amongst the best (3rd and 2nd place, respectively).

After initially setting both cameras to aperture priority (f522) a second adjustment had to be made to allow for adequate ﬂash synchronization in this mode. Unfortunately, the ﬂash synchronization mode is hidden in one of the sub-menus. However, once this was set up, only the aperture had to be adjusted between intra- and extra-oral views.

Both cameras were quite different in terms of color reproducibility: the images of the canon EOS 20 D appeared slightly blue on teeth and gums, and the EOS 350 D slightly red on gums but blue on the teeth, when compared with the original model.

For both cameras the Canon MR-14 EX macro-ﬂash was used, which had a comparatively slow recharge time (6 s) for the 100 mm Canon macro-lens.

Fujifilm S 3 Pro (Fujifilm Corp., Tokyo, Japan). This camera is relatively new and has a variety of features, which are different from all the other cameras tested. It has ‘12 million’ pixels, of which half are dedicated for

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Table 2 Test results

	Canon	Canon		Konica -
	EOS	EOS	Fujifilm	Minolta	Nikon	Nikon	Nikon	Olympus	Olympus	Pentax
Body	350D	20D	S3Pro	7D	D100	D70	D50	E1	E300	*ist DS

Macro - Lens	100 mm	100 mm	60 mm	100 mm	60 mm	60 mm	60 mm	ED 50 mm	ED 50 mm	100 mm
			Nikkor		Nikkor	Nikkor	Nikkor
Flash	MR-14 EX	MR-14 EX	SB 29S	R 1200	SB 29S	SB 29S	SB 29S	SRF - 11	SRF - 11	AF 140 C
Time for Recharge	6	6	no more	8	no more	no more	no more	4	4	9
(seconds)			than 3		than 3	than 3	than 3
Ranking Viewfinder	7	3	6	2	6	8	9	4	5	1
Size
Ranking Viewfinder	6	2	7	1	7	8	6	3	5	4
Brightness
Change of settings	aperture	aperture	aperture	aperture	aperture	aperture	aperture	nil	nil	aperture
between intra and			and flash	and flash	and flash	and flash	and flash
extra-oral photographs