The Dimage EX 1500 handled the high contrast of this scene very well, producing an image with good tonal balance and contrast, holding detail in the model's shirt quite well, yet not plugging the shadows too badly. Waiting impatiently for the sun to get to the right angle, we found ourselves in a race with a rapidly-approaching cloud front, the first wisps of which were drifting across the sun by the time these shots were taken. The result was that the lighting here isn't quite as contrasty as is usually the case, although for this shot, it wasn't too far off. By contrast, the EX 1500 nailed it pretty well with no adjustment. The bright colors of the flowers came out very accurately, neither too bright nor to dull.
Flesh tones are excellent also.
Again, an excellent performance. Detail in the model's hair is exceptional, and the very low compression setting makes for no detectable JPEG artifacts. Again too, skin tone is excellent. Again, the absolute ideal is probably midway between, although the default setting here produced a somewhat darker image than in the wider shot above. Overall though, the EX 1500's metering seemed to be unusually accurate.