Head to Head Comparison

Below you can find a studio shot comparison between the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-T33 and the Olympus Camedia C-5060WZ at ISO 100. Both cameras were mounted on a tripod and the shutter was released by the in-camera timer. There is no Aperture priority or Manual exposure mode on the Sony, so "Auto" was used instead of A used with the Camedia camera. Both of them were set manually to the appropriate WB, ISO and exposure compensation settings.

Low ISO performance

• Sony DSC-T33: Single Shot mode, ISO 100, Fine Quality, Tungsten White Balance, Default Image parameters +0.7EV Exposure Compensation. Zoom lens at 7mm.
• Olympus C-5060WZ: Aperture Priority, ISO 100, Fine Quality, Tungsten White Balance, Default Image parameters +0.7EV Exposure Compensation. Zoom lens at 9mm.
• Lighting: 2x500W Tungsten 3200K studio lamps with diffusion umbrellas

Sony DSC-T33	Olympus C-5060WZ
ISO 100, F3.5, 1/13sec	ISO 100, F5.6, 1/8sec
Original Image (2.09 MB)	Original Image (2.34MB)

As seen above, the DSC-T33 performs surprisingly well with ISO 100, even when it's compared to an awarded 5MP prosumer camera. Even though in most cases the C-5060 WZ is able to produce a sharper image containing more detail, the Sony is able to give comparable results. Despite the slight colour cast due to the not so accurate WB preset and a bit of underexposure, when it comes to colour rendition and contrast, the Sony really shines. The Olympus may produce a more neutral and correct colour balance, but the overall saturation in many cases is lower than real life.

Fine tuning image parameters or post processing with the appropriate software may give the Olympus' images the edge, but Sony impressed us with these results. Point-n-shoot cameras shouldn't lack image quality after all. Perhaps this performance justifies a bit, the DSC-T33's high price tag.

It is also worth noting that both cameras give a bit of a grainy look when rendering colours in their images; still this is worse in the C-5060's case. Perhaps this would make things difficult in post processing, as USM sharpening will easily produce sharpening halos and actually decrease image quality.