Special Report Part I: High ISO Compacts — A New Battlefront?

It is good to know that camera makers are taking some of their battles on a worthy front — by making their compacts a “truly” high ISO-capable camera rather than dishing out the same clones every six months.

While compact cameras are seeing a revolution in the past couple of years, with the introduction of an assortment of features, only a handful of them are taking high ISO shooting seriously.

Here are a couple of ISO 400 photos taken with the Canon PowerShot G6, a camera produced in 2004, which has a maximum ISO of 400. On the contrary, the newest G, the G11, is capable of shooting up to ISO 3200. No post processing is done on these images. It’s WYSIWYG.

And here are a couple more of ISO 400s, this time from the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS, which is capable of shooting up to ISO 1600 although photos taken at this setting are only useful for small prints due to excessive noise.

This one is from the SX1 IS, shot at ISO 800:

You can compare the G6’s photos against the ones taken with the G11 [see DP Review's G11 sample gallery here] in terms of high ISO performance, as well as against those taken with the SX1 IS . You can view all the SX1 IS and G6 sensitivity test shots on my Flickr site, here.

As you can see from the comparison above, not much has changed over the years in terms of ISO capabilities, with only a limited number of cameras capable of shooting at high sensitivity. The rest are better off shooting at base ISO.

From the DP Review’s samples, it is clear that the G11 is taking high ISO capabilities seriously; so does Canon’s new compact shooter, the S90.

High ISO “cheats”

To understand sensitivity, you can read DP Review’s take on the issue of ISO. There are many other resources online explaining ISO, which by the way, stands for International Standards Organization.

Despite efforts by camera makers to convince consumers of their cameras’ high sensitivity capabilities, many are not impressed by the mere numbers.

When a camera maker boasts that their compacts can shoot at ISO 1600, many are skeptical rather than convinced about the camera’s true ISO capability. And who can blame them when it has become a norm for compact cameras to shoot mostly grains at high ISO?

Needless to say, it is pointless to claim that a camera is capable of shooting at ISO 1600 when everything shot above ISO 400 is too noisy to be of any comfort.

I, for one, harbour a personal dislike for compact cameras whose ISO starts at 100 and not below. The G6 starts at ISO 50 the SX1 IS, at ISO 80; that is why I bought them.

High ISO a new frontier for compact cameras?

But things seem to be changing, thanks largely to Fujifilm, which in 2005, pioneered the high ISO performance in compact cameras with the release of FinePix F10 early that year.

This is a sample photo taken with the FinePix F10, also shot at IS0 400. Even today, not many cameras are capable of matching the ISO performance of the F10.

Fujifilm has been running the race in the high ISO performance virtually alone ever since, releasing new model after another, with the new one improving on the ISO performance of its predecessor — from the F10, came the F11 then the F30, F31fd, f40fd and culminates into newer models of 2009 such as the Fujifilm F200 EXR.

At the forefront of this long line of high ISO fighters is the latest FinePix F70EXR which boasts almost a noise free image at ISO 800, something only DSLR cameras are capable of doing.

DP Review has posted a sample gallery of the Fujifilm FinePix F70EXR which shows how capable the camera is.

The industry has Fujifilm to thank for; because despite running the race alone, the company has not lost its sight on producing high ISO-capable compacts, thus forcing the industry to take note.

The industry did take note and it is now becoming clear that unless other camera makers do a Fujifilm, they could end up being cast into some form of irrelevancy, particularly when Fujifilm has also caught up in terms of modern features in compact cameras.

Who needs other cameras when the consumers can have all the features of a modern compact camera and a very compelling ISO performance in the form of Fujifilm cameras?

Suddenly, Fujifilm is not running alone

After doing countless of laps alone on the high ISO track since the day of the Finepix F10, Fujifilm now finds itself in the company of other camera makers, who are not only running along, but also trying to speed forth.

And to the delight of the crowd of consumers, these newer entrants are not just also-rans; they come fully prepared and ready to give the pioneer a run for its money.

Canon is the latest brand to enter into the high ISO race for compact cameras with the SD90 [see Canon SD90 image gallery posted on DP Review]

Other brands have also jumped into the high ISO bandwagon in the past two years; but with the latest entry into the fray of the S90, the floodgate is open wide; and hopefully this will take the high ISO battlefront across all compact camera models in the near future.

It feels good to note that brands like Panasonic, with its ZS3 and ZS1 compacts, are also making inroads into the high sensitivity shooting and so do Olympus and Samsung.

And of course, Nikon, with its Coolpix S1000pj which boasts an ISO of up to 6400. Although it remains to be seen whether the S1000pj can wow consumers the way the F70EXR does, the camera is nevertheless a step in the right direction.

And then there is also the Sony DSC TX1 which does pretty well at ISO 400 but struggling at ISO 800.

Nevertheless, this too is a step in the right direction. The same can also be said of Sony Cyber-shot DSC WX1 which produces a respectable image at ISO 400 and capable of shooting a relatively clean image at ISO 800, and seemingly proving that there is life for compact cameras at ISO 1600.

Now that the floodgate is open, consumers can now sit back and relax knowing that in the end, they too are can have their share of winning.