Comparison of Digital Cameras

Robert G. Huenemann, M.S.E.E

September 5, 2005

I have a Nikon Coolpix 2200 and a Nikon D70s. I have been surprised at how good the snapshots are from the 2200. So I decided to do a comparison.

One of my favorite landscapes is the beach at Tunitas Creek, three miles north of Highway 84 (La Honda Road) at Coast Highway One. I took two careful pictures of this landscape from a tripod, using a timer and with similar exposures and color balance. I used the raw (NEF) file from the D70s. The 2200 was set for the least amount of compression. The 2200 file size was 666 kilobytes, and the D70s file size was 5.19 megabytes. Here is the landscape. Which camera was used? It doesn’t matter, because this JPEG has been compressed to 25 kilobytes so that the download time is reasonable.

Pacific Coast at Tunitas Creek

There is a log lying on the beach. The picture on the left is from the 2200. The one on the right is from the D70s.

There is a ‘buttress’ like feature on the cliff near the center of the photo. Here are details from the 2200 and D70s.

If you look closely at the top photo, you will see that there is a second point that extends into the ocean just beyond the one in the foreground. On this point, Globe Wireless has a large ‘antenna farm’ used for ship to shore communication. The antennas are supported by telephone poles. Again, the detail on the left is from the 2200 and the one on the right from the D70s.

Now for the bottom line. I carefully printed both of these shots on a full sheet of 8.5 by 11 inch glossy photographic paper, using the best settings on my Dell A920 printer. On those prints, it is impossible to tell which photo is which by looking at any of the three details shown above. Remember that these shots were made off a tripod, using a timer. I maintain that for ordinary handheld snapshots, two megapixels is more than adequate.

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