TVSD vs SONYbs DSCV1

[dirk]

Hi Ken,

if you upload your test-images in our test-images gallery (NOT the normal photo-gallery), you can upload also tiff files and sizes up to 8MB.

If you upload in the test-images gallery, please send a note to the webmaster to get the images approved.

Dirk

Dirk

 

[yinkhoon]

Edmund, yes the V1 does have its advantages over the contax, but similarly the contax has its advantages over the v1 too, including T* coating, much longer battery life, a top LCD control panel for battery conservation (it is also easier to avoid handshake when u use a digicam like a normal camera held close and tight to your face instead of hands outstretched out in front of you), much smaller, more pocketable bulk and weight, nicer asthetics, and of course the delicious titanium casing.

But Edmund you do make many good points in favor of the V1, thanks for highlighting them to us! Just trying to balance things a bit too now...

The rest of us may also like to check out this site http://imageevent.com/otto/5mpcompact, which has test pictures taken by four different 5mp compact cameras including the Canon Powershot S50, an Olympus Camedia C-50, a Contax TVS Digital and a Konica Revio 500. Quite interesting!

 

[loom]

Dear Khoon,

From the website you've mentioned I think TVSD simply stands out. The s&les of S50 looks very much like the one I got from S30, which are dull and flat. This is even true if you look at the pictures shot in the overcast days (e.g. the harbor with ships). I've been looking for a buyer of my S30 but has not much success.

The following is from a very good friend of mine who works in the IT industry in San Jose:

"As for TVSD, well, believe it or not.
It has the lowest noise level among
all of the 5MP cameras using the
Sony 1/1.8" CX452 sensor! G5, V1, whatever.
It also has the best black level performance
among them all! Many un-educated
people saw TVSD's s&le pictures
on websits, found noises, then started
to say TVSD was noisy. The truth is
that the noises they saw are directly
coming from the CCD sensor. The Sony
sensor is a very noisy one. Even Sony's
own V1 can not straighten out the problem.
TVDS has the cleanest signal path
from CCD sensor, A/D circuit, to
the digital stage. It simply uses
better components. The Zeiss lens'es coating
and better anti-reflection treatment
in the lens help a lot on reducing
the dark current(this is another
of saying that a lens has very low noise.
Lenses have noises? Surely they have!
They are optical noises. Ever wonder why
Contax lenses can do so well with shadow details?)
To put everything, TVDS is the only
CX452 based digicam which can produce
pure black and has the richest shadow tone."

 

[yinkhoon]

Dear Sheu,

Wonder on what basis your IT friend makes the observation that the contax has the lowest noise level among 5mp cameras using the Sony 1/1.8" CX452 sensor? Did he see a test report on all these cameras or something?

 

[loom]

Hi Khoon,

Basically he did lots of comparisons and research when he bought the TVSD two months ago in japan. Besides, the s&les are available readily on the internet.

Hope that helps, or I can ask him. To my understanding he is fully satisfied with the TVSD even after a side-by-side comparison with RTSIII+Velvia.

Best, Shu-Hsien

 

[james]

Would you let me know if a review was made of the Konica KD-500 against our favourite the TVSD?

 

[Finneybear]

Hi Khoon,

I am the IT guy Sheu was talking about. Actually he's not exactly right. I am in the chip design business, have dealt with quite a few digicam chips these years.

You can do a simple test yourself: Open a s&le photo in Photoshop, open the Level tool historgam, shift the triangle mark at the right bottom to the left. The further left you go, the brighter the image it will be. This process will also enhance the noises in the image. By counting the number of noise spots,
you will see how clean the image is. Canon and other companies engineers are doing the same thing to check noises.

DPreivew just posted tests on V1, G5, and 5400. You will see that how noisy the Sony 452 sensor is.

Anyway, I am still amazed by how much shadow detail I can pull from TVSD.


-finney

 

[yinkhoon]

Finney,

I agree the sony 5mp 1/1.8 (ICX452) sensor is a noisy one.. I wonder if the updated version ICX455 which will replace the 452 has any significant improvement, but i doubt it... 5 megapixel is simply stretching the limits of this tiny sized sensor, to the point where only the lower ISO speeds of 80 to 100 are usable without too much noise. Great as the contax tvs carl zeiss t* lens is.. I can't help feeling its true abilities and potentials are greatly limited and held back by the small sensor size, which at 7.18 X 5.3mm size, is only 4.4% the size of a 35mm film (36 X 24mm)!

But that is a problem that all compact camera makers face, not just Contax. Hopefully, in the next generation of digital compacts (next year?), the 5 megapixel 2/3 sized sensor (ICX282x) will be used instead. That should make for even lower noise in a Contax TVS Digital II!

In the meantime, enjoy..

 

[rico1]

Greetings, Khoon.

I have the old Nikon CP-900 (small sensor) and the Canon D30 DSLR (big sensor). As you can imagine, the difference in shadow noise is night and day! For my purpose, dynamic range is more useful than resolution, especially when I can boost the EI to a fairly clean 800.

But another benefit of large sensors is the greater depth-of-field. For my photographic style, this is immensely valuable. Even Finney's positive review of the TVSD cannot elevate its DOF characteristic above the other 1/1.8 P&S models.

To get away from digital, I like to shoot film: CZ Planar 50/1.4 at wide apertures gives a lovely effect. The D30 with EF 50/1.4 is also able to blur the background very well. As for the digital P&S, they are delightfully small, but everything is in focus -- ouch!

 

[Finneybear]

Yes, Rico, I totally agree with you. TVSD is only good for snapshots. The limited aperture setting and DOF are always a concern.

Khoon,

I really do not feel the situation will have any improvement with those new Sony sensors. Power consumption and compact size always have the higher priority. The only foreseeable cure will be a powerful image processor or a better analog front end. Again, this will not happen soon.

-finney