Sanyo Xacti J4
Review Date: November 5th 2004
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the default 4 megapixel 2288 x 1712 mode, which gives an average image size of around 1-1.5Mb.
Noise
There are 4 ISO settings available on the Sanyo Xacti J4 which you can select at any time. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
ISO 50 (100% crop) |
ISO 100 (100% crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% crop) |
ISO 400 (100% crop) |
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The noise levels look very good at ISOs 50 and 100, with some noise starting to appear at ISO 200. By ISO 400 the quality has deteriorated, but overall a good performance from the Sanyo Xacti J4.
Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. There is no sharpening option that you can change on the Sanyo Xacti J4, so you will have to accept that the out-of-the camera images are a little bit soft and will require further sharpening in an image editor.
Original 100% Crop |
Sharpened 100% Crop |
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File Quality
The Sanyo Xacti J4 has 5 different image sizes available, with 4M (2,288 x 1,712) being the default option. The camera has an algorithm that uses three pixel-interpolation filters to increase the default size up to the 6M and 8m settings. Here are some 100% crops which show the various sizes.
WEB (640 x 480) |
2M (1,600 x 1,200) |
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4M (2,288 x 1,712) |
6M (2,880 x 2,160) |
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8M (3,224 x 2,448) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Sanyo Xacti J4 dealt extremely well with chromatic aberrations, so much so that I struggled to find any examples amongst the images that I took for this review! You can just see a hint of purple fringing in the crop below, but overall the camera produced some of the best images in terms of chromatic aberrations that I have ever seen.
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Macro
The Sanyo Xacti J4 has a pretty amazing Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just 2cms away from the camera. This does introduce other problems, such as the shadow of the camera getting in the picture, and softness in some parts of the image if a large aperture is chosen by the camera (as in the example below).
Macro Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
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The first image shows how close you can get to the subject whilst still being able to auto-focus (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Sanyo Xacti J4 are standard on most digital cameras - Auto/Forced/Off/Red-eye. These shots of a white wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
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Flash Off |
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Auto Flash - Wide Angle (37mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (104mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly - the first set to Flash, the second set to Flash - Red-Eye.
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Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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| Flash On with Red Eye | Flash On with Red Eye (100% Crop) |
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Flash On and Flash - Red-Eye produced very similar results, with no red-eye in either photo!
Night Shot
The Sanyo Xacti J4 has a scene mode called Lamp, which allows a maximum shutter speed of 4 seconds, which is fairly useful if you're interested in night photography. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
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Night Shot (click to view full-sized image) |
100% Crop |
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Overall Image Quality
The Sanyo Xacti J4 produced a very pleasing set of test images. Although the 4 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera and ideally require some post-processing before they can be printed, every other aspect of image quality was more than satisfactory. Noise is very well controlled at the slowest ISO settings of 50 and 100, only becoming visible at ISO 200 and more so at ISO 400. The Sanyo Xacti J4 dealt brilliantly with chromatic aberrations, which only appeared in a few sample images and even then were extremely well-controlled and difficult to find. Macro performance was also excellent, allowing you to focus a mere 2cms away from the subject. Overall a very good performance in terms of image quality from the Sanyo Xacti J4, with only sharpening (which you can't adjust) spoiling an otherwise impeccable performance.
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PhotographyBLOG is a member of the DIWA organisation. Our test results for the Sanyo Xacti J4 have been submitted to DIWA for comparison with test results for different samples of the same camera model supplied by other DIWA member sites.