Olympus E-M5 destroys the PEN E-P3 in high-ISO tests

News

  • February 20, 2012 at 10:09 am

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Olympus OM-D E-M5 MFT camera in black side with 12-50mm lens

We’ve been covering the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) digital camera ever since it was initially rumored and following the official announcement two weeks ago, we now have a long wait until it finally ships this April. We’ve already done a spec comparison to other high-end mirrorless cameras and we’ve seen how it sizes-up against the competition, but of bigger importance is how it actually performs and especially in low-light — a sticking point for the otherwise excellent MFT format.

The first high-ISO test of the Olympus E-M5 showed some promise, with little noise or artifacts up to ISO 3,200. During the weekend, Four-Thirds User has posted a high-ISO comparison between the E-M5 and the previous generation Olympus PEN E-P3. As previously, the test was done with a pre-production version of the E-M5 but the results are impressive.
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First high ISO test images from the Olympus OM-D E-M5 digital camera

News

  • February 13, 2012 at 1:33 pm

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Olympus OM-D E-M5 wet - water drops dripping off

We can’t deny that the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds (MFT) digital camera stole our hearts. However the big question in our minds has been on how the camera would perform at low light and/or high ISO. Typically, Micro Four Thirds cameras have lagged other mirrorless cameras with larger sensors, like Sony’s NEX series, in this regard.

We’re still far off from the April ship date of the Olympus E-M5, so we can’t yet test the low light and high ISO performance on a production unit, however a number of high ISO shots taken with a pre-production model have been doing the rounds.
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Panasonic GH2 MFT camera now hacked for video up to ISO 12,800 (video)

News

  • November 10, 2011 at 9:53 am

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GF2 ISO 12,800 video

We’ve already covered how the Panasonic GH2 had been unlocked, using a custom firmware, and could now record video at an amazing 176Mbps. The latest version of the hack now removes the ISO 3,200 limit when recording video, so that you can push the camera to record up to ISO 12,800. Now, one would think that video at such high ISO would be rife with noise and completely unusable.

Well, it turns out that, although noise is there, it’s not as bad, and the hack allows the GH2 to become an amazing low-light shooter. This is especially true when shooting video in B&W where the noise just looks like film grain. It’s pretty mind-blowing that you can shoot such video with a sub-$1000 digital camera. You can find details on how to apply the firmware in by following this link.

Two videos showing off the GH2’s high-ISO low-light B&W video capabilities await for you after the break.
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Sony Alpha A65 in-camera JPEG vs. RAW high ISO image quality test

The Lab

  • October 28, 2011 at 1:45 pm

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Sony A65 ISO 800 test - RAW vs. JPEG vs. RAW with noise reduction applied

Having had the Sony Alpha A65 in our hands for a couple of days now, we are slowly getting to grips with what this 24-megapixel APS-C Exmor sensor SLT shooter is capable of. One of the first things we noticed, during our initial hands-on with the A65, was the level of noise in the images at ISO 800 and higher, but also the high level of in-camera noise reduction applied to JPEGs. I have to confess that using the Fujifilm X100 for the past few months has certainly spoiled me in terms of low-light high ISO performance and out of the camera JPEGs; but that’s another story.

A higher level of noise is expected at the camera’s full 6,000×4,000 output resolution, as is usually the case with packing more pixels in the same sensor area. A lot of this noise will become non-visible as you scale down images for print or screen uses. Starting with a higher level of noise at a higher resolution is not all that bad. However, because of this — the larger images and noise levels — we’ve found that the images from the camera benefit from some serious post processing. Note, our findings with the A65, will also apply to the A77.
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