Digicam Roundup: $150

General Image Quality

For these pictures, the cameras were reset to their factory default setting. Then, they were set to their highest quality recording setting. The pictures were then taken in Auto mode unless stated otherwise. Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size image. The crops below the thumbnails are 100%. All images are sRGB.

Fuji A330
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As the above crops demonstrate, the Fuji A330 has no major problems to speak of. We are pleased to see that the A330 is able to capture pictures with impressive detail without over-sharpening the images. Notice the lack of jaggies in these images. The images are well-exposed with a reasonable amount of saturation. Also, we are unable to spot any significant chromatic aberrations in any of the images. Overall, the Fuji proves to have very good image quality.

Kodak CX7330
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The Kodak CX7330 image quality is not too bad overall. The images all appear to be well-exposed with a decent level of detail. In addition, we couldn't find any chromatic aberrations. One of the main problems we noticed is that the CX7330 uses a bit too much sharpening, resulting in jaggies along lines. In fact, in the third crop, you can see how over-sharpening appears to result in the loss of detail. The other problem is the visibility of JPEG artifacts throughout the CX7330's images. These JPEG artifacts are a result of highly-compressed images in an attempt to lower the size of the files. We expect better-looking JPEGs from the highest quality option.

Olympus D-540
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Unfortunately, it also shares the over-sharpening problem that we saw in the Kodak camera. This results in the common appearance of jaggies. The camera also appears to produce images with a relatively high contrast compared to the other cameras. In the 2nd and 3rd samples, the Olympus proves that it can capture some fine detail despite its over-sharpening problem.

Sometimes it is easy to look at the pictures from each camera and see which is best. Unfortunately, this is not one of those cases. Each camera is capable of producing some decent-looking pictures. All three cameras had no problem producing well-exposed and well-saturated images with no signs of chromatic aberrations. In fact, the differences between these cameras are rather subtle. We found that the Kodak and Olympus cameras both seem to have an issue with over-sharpening. Upon close inspection of the images produced by these two cameras, we found unsightly jaggies to be common. In the case of the Kodak camera, we also found JPEG artifacts caused by the camera's over-compression of its images. Overall, we prefer the look of the Fuji A330's images because of their smooth, yet detailed appearance.

Night Samples

Fuji FinePix A330	Kodak CX7330	Olympus D-540
(0.8 sec., f/2.8, ISO 100) Click to enlarge.	(0.5 sec., f/2.8) (Click to enlarge.	(0.5 sec., f/2.9, ISO 50) Click to enlarge.

In this comparison of each camera's night setting, the Fuji A330 proves to provide the most detail. We can see some chromatic aberrations in the Kodak image along with some jagged lines ("jaggies"). The Olympus D-540 comes close to matching the quality of the Fuji. However, it falls short with more noise and an overall soft appearance. The Fuji camera also has the advantage of a 2 second maximum shutter speed, while the Kodak maxes out at 0.5 sec. and Olympus at 1 second.

Movie Mode

Fuji A330	Kodak CX7330	Olympus D-540
(320x240, 10 fps) Click to view.	(320x240, 15 fps) Click to view.	(320x240, 15 fps) Click to view.

As you might expect from a $150 point-and-shoot, the video modes on these cameras aren't too spectacular. However, there are some noteworthy differences between them. For example, the Fuji camera is the only one that will limit the duration of the video clips (60 seconds at 320x240). The Kodak and Olympus cameras with allow you to record until you run out of space. Also, the Kodak camera is the only one that will record audio along with the video. The Olympus camera offers the most recording control. For example, it is the only camera out of the three that lets you utilize the optical/digital zoom (while recording), adjust white balance, and set exposure compensation.