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The DSC S650 produced quite a strange set of test photos. For once I was more impressed by the indoor shots in poor light than with any of the other test photos I took.

My biggest gripe about the outdoor scenic type shots is the focusing. The pictures are simply not as sharp as I like to see. This is not just towards the edges of each shot but even towards the centre I feel the shots could be sharper. This is true of all three shots, one with the zoom lens half extended, one with the zoom not used at all and the final shot with the lens fully extended.

Another issue I have is that many of the test shots could have been brighter. This is true of all the outdoor test shots to some degree, but especially the second test without the zoom in use.

The glare of the sun also causes the camera a problem. The shots were taken on a very sunny day, but there is still a level of detail lost that I think could be improved on.

Colours are strong. This can be seen in the skies and with the darker green foliage in the outdoor shots. The test shot for colour shows the strength of the blue, but unfortunately areas that should be white have a blue tinge and areas that should be yellow have a green tinge as the blue mixes in.

Next up is the outdoor portrait. This is another photo where I feel it could have been brighter. I have no problems with the skin tones, but I would like to see the entire photo lightened up a notch or two.

Oddly the two lowlight photos are the best. Perhaps the camera works at its optimum with the flash on. The indoor portrait is well focused although it could also be lighter. There is no evidence of red eye in the shot.

In extreme lowlight the camera is able to focus well again. In this test the camera is fairly close to the beer bottles and the camera is able to lock onto the subject and focus successfully.

Focusing is not a problem with the macro shot. Again the problem is a lack of light.

Looking at the two test shots taken with higher ISO settings they are a big disappointment. Whilst it is rare for a camera to do well in this test the results show a lot of noise and deterioration even at ISO 400. At ISO 1000 the photo hits the dreadful mark.

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Shutter Lag and Recycling Times

The shutter lag delay for taking a single photo was 0.41 seconds. This is just above average. For five photos it took a respectable 8.30 seconds. Turning the flash on and repeating the tests is a whole new ball game. Times increased dramatically to 2.21 seconds for a single photo and 22.67 seconds for five photos. Sometimes it seemed to take an age to get the camera to focus with the flash turned on.

You can compare this camera to other models by taking a look at the Shutter Lag Comparison Table.

Features

The 3x optical zoom lens has a focal length equivalent to 35 - 105mm in 35mm format. The zoom power of the DSC S650 can be increased by using a feature called smart zoom. More and more smart zoom becomes available as you decrease the resolution you are shooting at. A maximum of 14x smart zoom is available at the lowest resolution. 6x digital zoom is another alternative.

For lining up shots there is a 2" LCD screen. This is made up of 115,000 pixels. I must say I found the screen more or less impossible to see in bright sunlight. It was by far the worst camera in this area out of the ten I was testing at the time.

The flash works up to 3.5m. This falls to 2m when the zoom lens is in use. Flash modes are Auto, Forced Flash, Slow Syncro and No Flash. Red eye reduction is also available.

There is the usual selection of scene modes. These are Twilight, Twilight portrait, Soft snap, Landscape, Beach, Snow and High Sensitivity. By selecting the type of scene you are about to photograph the camera is able to use what it considers to be the optimum settings for the shot.

Shutter speeds and aperture size are controlled automatically. The shutter speed works in the range 1 - 1/2000 seconds. The maximum aperture is f/2.8 - f/4.8. For close up work you can get to within 5cm of the subject.

A number of more advanced functions give you access to Exposure Compensation (+/-2.0 EV, 1/ 3 EV step),White Balance (Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash), Metering (Multi Pattern and Spot) and ISO (Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000). You can also adjust levels of sharpness.

There is a burst mode. This allows you to take up to three shots at a maximum speed of 1.5 frames per second. You can also use the self timer when you would like to appear in the shot. The self timer offers a two or ten second delay. The DSC S650 also comes with a couple of special resolutions. The first is for playing back photos on a widescreen television. The second takes photos the ideal size for making 6 x 4" prints.

You can record movies at a maximum resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The top speed is 30 frames per second. Sound can be recorded and although zoom cannot be used while the movie is in progress

By request, this is shot two of two to show the difference between using the Zuiko Digital 70-300mm alone and using it mounted to the EX-25 extension tube.

The ZD 70-300mm has a minimum distance of 4 feet for autofocus to be effective, and 3.2 feet for manual focusing. With the EX-25, you can move closer to the object and still be able to focus, resulting in a slight boost to magnification. While I did not measure the distance to the subject here, I'd estimate that it was within two feet. (I am a bad judge of distance - whether that's right or wrong, it is for certain between 1.5 and 3 feet, because I moved in closer than in the first shot.)

In this shot I grew frustrated with my tripod and did it by hand, aiming at the same center point. I manually focused as far as was possible and moved until the image was in focus; this should represent the maximum magnification possible with this combination (which should be 0.67x according to Olympus, but I can no longer find those numbers on their website... maybe I dreamt them up.)

The object in question is a quarter. Aperture was cut back in order to assure sharpness. The batteries in the FL-50R ran dry around this point, so I increased the power on the camera's pop-up flash and used that in order to keep shutter speeds sanitary.

Verdict: there's a slight increase in magnification potential, but nothing earth-shattering. Rather, what makes using the EX-25 with the 70-300mm so special for macro is that you can get closer to the object and still focus. Until Olympus releases a 100mm macro lens, this may offer the best combination for a range macro lens under the Zuiko Digital brand. By comparison, the more traditional use of the ZD 50mm macro + EX-25 offers 1x magnification, but you need to literally be on top of your subject in order to focus. On the other hand, the difference in magnification between the ZD 70-300mm alone vs. with EX-25 is not immense, and I can conclude that I've used the EX-25+70-300mm combination in situations where the 70-300mm alone would have sufficed.

(Note that Sigma has a 105mm macro lens capable of 1x magnification. Olympus' 100mm macro lens was supposed to be released this year, but they said the same thing last year - looks like we'll hear it again next year.)