Banc123, you fixed my problem!

[BSK_]

I just conducted an "image quality" test between various Sony Cybershot cameras I have, some of which are used as trail-cameras. I used a P71 (3 MP), P41 (4 MP), S40 (4 MP), S600 (6 MP), and an N2 (10 MP).

I took a picture of a white sheet of paper with the word "TEST" printed at various fonts down the page, large to small, at a distance of 20 feet to see how the resolution of each camera would be able to see the different-sized lettering.

As I had mentioned, I was getting what I thought to be terrible resolution out of my S600 camera. And in this real-world test, just as I suspected, it did produce much worse (grainier) pictures than an S40 or P41. However, then I went through the camera menu and set everything back to "auto," including the ISO. And guess what, much clearer pictures than the two 4 MP cameras! In fact the difference in image quality from forced ISO to auto ISO is simply amazing.

[BSK_]

Here is the picture (actual pixels) from the S600 with the ISO forced to 400:

http://home.comcast.net/~bryan.kinkel/mypics/Resolution-Test-S600.jpg



And here's the pic from the same camera with the ISO set to "auto:"

http://home.comcast.net/~bryan.kinkel/mypics/Resolution-Test-S600-auto.jpg

[banc123]

Hopefully it holds up for you in the field. Daytime pictures should be very very clear, at night they start to yellow for past 40 ft, but still blow away the commercial brands.

I had a similar experience (but backwards) with the TRV65 Hi8 video camera. The first weekend I used it, it was crystal clear video. I then had the bright idea of changing the focus to auto thinking the camera has to be the smartest. After two weeks of terrible pictures I learned from others it really does need to be in manual mode and pre focused for the target area. Did that and it worked perfect on the test. Its in the field now and I hope to check it tomorrow.