Image capture device comparison

Now that I've taken a lot of pictures of hummingbirds, I can use it to compare some image capture methods. The 5 contenders are:

1. Canon PowerShot SD450 (5 MP CCD)
2. iPhone 4 main camera (5 MP backlit CMOS)
3. Keeble & Shuchat (Kodak Gold 100)
4. York Photo (Fujicolor 100)
5. Snapfish (Fujicolor Superia 400)

Hummingbirds in trees

Powershot SD450

Keeble & Shuchat

York Photo

Snapfish

No iPhone entry in this category, but we can see some trends here:

• Touch-ups performed: increase contrast on Powershot photo, nothing on K&S scan, increase contrast and decrease brightness on York and Snapfish scans.
• Better sharpness and less grain on Powershot. This is probably due to greater resolution. I don't think it's the optics (though there is greater depth of field there), and I'm pretty sure we're not at a resolution where film grain would be visible.
• Color distortions on overexposed regions of the Powershot images. I think this has to do with the way digital sensors vs. film saturates.

Hummingbirds at feeder - backlit

The lighting isn't great here, but I can take these pictures without even getting up from my desk, so I have lots of them.

Powershot SD450

iPhone

Keeble & Shuchat

York Photo

Snapfish

A surprise video entry from the Powershot! In a fair comparison, the iPhone probably takes better video, but the digital point-and-shoot has tele zoom (17.4mm with a 5.75 x 4.31mm sensor) and a flat bottom so I can set it down on a table.

• Touch-ups performed: nothing on Powershot, iPhone, or K&S scan; decrease brightness and increase contrast on York and Snapfish scans.
• Still better sharpness and less noise on the digital natives compared to the film scans. I think a better quality scan would make it a fair fight.
• Color is pretty nice on the iPhone and K&S scan.
• As an aside, you can really notice different optics by comparing the depth of field here. The iPhone lens has a larger relative aperture than the 35mm SLR, but the focal length is so small its depth of field is huge. Same with the Powershot, though to a lesser degree.

Hummingbirds - better lighting

Keeble & Shuchat

York Photo

The K&S scan again shows off brilliant, saturated colors, and the York scan is more muted and drab. I really think it's the scan quality (and subsequent in-shop software enhancement) rather than the lighting or film. This one also came out really sharp - I wonder why that is. I guess you get what you pay for.

Conclusions

• Powershot doesn't do color as well as film and requires more touch-ups than the iPhone. Its autofocus is also slow. But at least it's a real camera.
• iPhone lacks flexibility. There's a reason why there's only one iPhone photo...
• Keeble and Shuchat did a great job on the scans, color-wise. Wish it were higher resolution and less expensive, though.
• York Photo and Snapfish are real cheap, but the scans kinda suck. We'll have to see how Scancafe does, because York/Snapfish + Scancafe is still cheaper than Keeble & Shuchat.