The Hunt for the Best Ultra-Compact Camera

General Image Quality

For our general image quality tests, all cameras were reset to their factory default setting. Then, they were set to their highest quality recording setting. The pictures were then taken with the use of a tripod and in Auto mode unless otherwise stated. Click on a thumbnail to view the full-size image. The crops below the thumbnails are 100%.

Canon S410	Casio Ex-Z40	Pentax S40
Click to enlarge.	Click to enlarge.	Click to enlarge.
The S410 produces a sharp and well-saturated image.	In this image, the Z40 shows highly visible jaggies along the edge of the "A" in this image.	The Z40 does a pretty good job here. There are no real issues to speak of.

In this first image, both the Canon and the Pentax show a good amount of detail. The Canon appears to use a bit more default saturation than the other two cameras. Although the Casio camera produces a decent amount of detail, there are visible jaggies along sharp edges.

Canon S410	Casio Ex-Z40	Pentax S40
Click to enlarge.	Click to enlarge.	Click to enlarge.
In this image, the S410 displays an incredible amount of detail with bright vibrant colors.	The Z40 had some trouble defining detail in this crop. The camera incorrectly set itself to "Portrait" mode, which explains the blurriness.	The S40 does a decent job with detail in this crop. Notice a slight blue cast compared to the other cameras.

The Canon S410 shows its amazing ability to resolve fine details in this image. The Casio Z40 auto-detected a Portrait scene and produced a blurry image. The Pentax S40 does a better job than the Casio. However, notice the slightly cool cast on the crop. All three cameras overexposed the top of the building, destroying any sky detail.

Canon S410	Casio Ex-Z40	Pentax S40
Click to enlarge.	Click to enlarge.	Click to enlarge.
Although the Canon shows great detail, it also displays significant chromatic aberrations.	The Casio is free of chromatic aberrations. However, notice the jaggies along the edges.	No chromatic aberrations here either. However, the image is noticeably overexposed.

In this image, we detected a bit of chromatic aberration in the Canon sample. The Casio Z40 did not show any signs of chromatic aberrations, however, the jaggies are still in full-effect. The Pentax S40 is aberration-free as well and the image is overexposed.

Overall, the Canon S410 has the most impressive image quality. The only major flaw that we can find is the visibility of chromatic aberrations. But even these were not so strong as to jeopardize the overall image quality. The Canon consistently produces sharp and well-saturated images with accurate color. The Casio Z40 shows jaggies along edges and produces the blurriest pictures out of the bunch. The Pentax is a decent performer, but is not as sharp and detailed as the Canon. Also, it appears to have some trouble exposing images properly with accurate color. We should also mention that we detected noticeable corner-blurring with all three cameras - something that is common in ultra-compact cameras.

Night mode

In this section, we take a look at each camera's night shot ability. First, we compared the "Long Exposure" mode on the Canon S410 to the "Night Scene" mode on the Casio Z40.

Canon S410 Long Exposure	Casio Ex-Z40 Bestshot - Night Scene
(3.2 sec, f2.8) Click to enlarge.	(3.2 sec., f2.6) Click to enlarge.
In this crop, the difference in clarity and detail is striking. The Canon S410 captures a significant amount of detail in the background as well as the foreground (the car). In addition, the camera handles noise very well.	The Casio Z40 is not nearly as clear and detailed as the Canon. The noise level is a bit higher than the Canon and we spotted several "stuck" pixels in the sky.

This image really shows the Canon S410's ability to take clear and low-noise night images with very little light. The Casio Z40 showed an average performance and we were not happy to see stuck pixels appearing in the sky.

Pentax S40 Night Scene (portrait)

(1.6 sec., f3.9) Click to enlarge.

In this slow-sync image, the Pentax S40 shows decent low-light noise control. Also, notice that the flash produced a cool cast on the subject's skin.

Movie Mode

Canon S410	Casio Ex-Z40	Pentax S40
(320x240, 15 fps) Right click to download.	(320x240, 15 fps) Right click to download.	(320x240, 30 fps) Right click to download.

None of these cameras has a truly impressive movie mode. However, the extra fps on the Pentax does make the video much smoother. We felt that the sound quality on the Canon S410 was the best followed by the Casio Z40.