Technically, they are properly exposed images.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=139636\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I agree.
Canon could have gone a lot farther with tone compression, saturation, etc. but then people would whine that the images have been manipulated too much.
As stated, the images were process "using RAW Image Task" (on-camera processor?). No other mention of post processing. I think it's valuable to assess images that have had little done to them in post. It provides a better basis for judgement.
The detail in the landscape photo is very revealing, I think. Upon scrutiny one can find individual people scattered throughout the scene with good clarity. In certain areas of the brick work and foliage I can see where the AA filter kicked in. The image also shows that the lens is
very capable of at f8. I see no chromatic aberrations in any of the lower corners.
The night scene is a good candidate in which to see how the on-camera noise reduction algorithm worked. I think the lack of noise is impressive, but I do see some blotchiness in certain areas of the sky. The overall handling of scene contrast is impressive, too.
The portrait is revealing in two areas. One is the chromatic fringing on the pearls, the other is highight retention. To me, the chromatic fringing is unnatural and a negative point for the camera. The highlight retention (in the dress fabric) is a plus. They don't mention whether or not highlight retention mode was on (it's a custom function) so I assume it was off.
The tossed food photo is interesting because it shows specular highlights amid saturated colors of the food. There is much less chromatic fringing than in the pearls of the portrait. There is also a bit of noise in the dark areas of the scene -- a telling detail for ISO 200. Another thing to point out is the level of saturated red. The reds are not totally plugged without textural detail. There's plenty of gradation of saturation and good textural detail. This tells me that the on-camera function settings function with good accuracy.
I look forward to more images!