Photography News Issue 37

Photography News | Issue 37 | absolutephoto.com

Camera test 49

There are other nice points of physical design that deserve a mention. The dioptre correction eyepiece can’t be moved by mistake and the LOCK slider is a good feature that means every control is locked down when used. Setting up and finding your way around the Quattro doesn’t take long. That is probably in part due to key settings having dedicated buttons and not having any extra function buttons to think about – on some cameras there are so many function options that you can easily forget what each button does, especially in the heat of the moment. There is much to like about the camera’s handling although it took me a little while to get used to the right-sided EVF placement. Leave the camera on for any period of time and the body gets warm, especially around the lens plinth where the supporting left hand sits. It tells you something inside is working hard and that is reflected in battery life – I was getting around 200 shots per full charge. An ECO mode which dims the monitor when the camera isn’t used for 10secs is available. I mostly used the sd Quattro in manual and aperture-priority AE modeswith themulti-segment mode doing the metering. The exposure system proved very consistent and accurate with perhaps a tendency to underexpose by maybe 0.3EV to

give richly saturated results. If you prefer your Raws exposed to the right you may have to dial in some extra exposure. Generally, though, no problems so full marks to the exposure system. Less impressive was the AF system despite having combined contrast- and phase-detect systems. There is a nine-point selectable mode and a Free Move option which covers nearly 70% of the image area and gives freedom within that area to pick a focus point. In both modes, the active focus zone has three size options: spot, regular and large. Moving the focus point around is done with the four-way control cluster after having pressed the focus mode control (the button with nine dots) directly below. There is no direct access method. Autofocus could be twitchy even in good light and could struggle even in bright interiors even in single AF mode. Autofocus was swift and silent but it would often pass through the point of focus and back to lock on but it can need a tweak of the focus barrel to get sharp focus. The EVF image could be better to help check precise focus. The sd’s AF is fast but it is not as sure-footed as its mirrorless rivals. It is too hesitant for subjects where you need near-instant lock-on. Of course, for subjects like landscape and architecture where time is less of an issue, the AF system is fine.

Above The sd Quattro gave impressive straight-out-of-the-camera JPEGs with the exposure system acquitting itself very well giving consistently rich results.

ISO 100

ISO 400

Original image

ISO 800

ISO 1600

The sd Quattro has an ISO range of 100 up to 6400 – there are no expansion settings. Shoot at ISO 100 and image quality is excellent with very low noise, bags of detail and rich colour saturation. That standard was maintained at ISO 200 but by ISO 400 colour saturation was less impressive. Pictures of a Datacolor SpyderCheckr test chart revealed that the vibrancy of the red and blue colour squares dropped off from ISO 200 to 400 and noise levels were higher too. That said, ISO 400 performance is perfectly respectable and good enough for critical use. Move up to ISO 500 and there was a much more significant quality fall off which was a surprise given the small step up. Noise was about the same but saturation was significantly less good and, in the Performance: ISO

case of the colour test chart, the red and blue colour squares exhibited a bleed effect into the grey surround. Noise levels at ISO 800 were still not too bad but the colour saturation issue was even more significant by now. If you have no option but shoot at ISO 800 then the results won’t be too bad and the noise can be lessened and saturation boosted in Photo Pro but personally I’d be wary of going much further up the speed scale. Critical performance at high ISOs is not essential for every photographer and if your specialism means ISOs of sub-400, then the sd Quattro can be counted as a capable performer producing pictures with excellent detail, colour richness and low noise. If, though, you’d like the option – however occasional – of venturing beyond ISO 1600 this may not the camera for you.

ISO 3200

ISO6400