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A range of general test shots are shown over the next two pages. In some cases, the full size image has been reduced for bandwidth purposes, and a crop taken from the original full resolution image has been placed below it to show the overall image quality. Some other pictures may be clicked to view the original full-size image.

Click to enlarge

Here's my usual detail test shot of the West Window of Exeter Cathedral, for you to compare with other cameras. See below for a full res crop, or click to see the whole picture.

The level of fine detail is very low for an 8MP camera. I've seen 5MP models that do better than this.

I must apologise for the late posting of these next three pictures. I re-shot my usual distortion test, because I thought that I must have moved the camera while shooting, or possibly used the wrong setting, but in fact the image quality really is that bad.

The M873's low-quality lens produces severe barrel distortion, getting worse towards the edges of the frame, and the very poor edge sharpness is visible even at this image size. The image is also noticeably darker towards the edges of the frame.

This was taken with the camera mounted on a tripod, and using the self-timer to ensure no camera shake. You can see now why I went out this morning and re-shot it. The level of detail and sharpness at the centre of the frame is appalling.

At the edges of the frame the image quality is even worse, with severe distortion, chromatic aberration and major blurring. Worse still, this was the sharpest corner.

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