Olympus E-30

Noise Reduction (5.54)

With noise reduction turned off, the noise levels rapidly increase to 5% at ISO 3200. Even at ISO 400, it sits at slightly above 1.5%, which is noticeable in the images at full size. Turning on noise reduction does noticeably drop the noise levels, but at the cost of image sharpness. For an example of how this will affect your images, our Sample Photos section includes shots taken at various ISOs.

Noise is spread across colors and gray (luma). While all of these areas are unusually high, luma is a particular culprit, and breaches 6% noise at ISO 3200. More on how we test noise.

The miserable performance in the noise section of our review is a distinguishing feature of this camera, unfortunately. It’s small sensor size and reasonably high megapixel count combined to produce a decidedly sub-par result. To test noise levels, we shoot the X-Rite color chart at every available ISO, at all noise reduction levels, and use Imatest to measure the levels of noise across red, green, blue, yellow and luma. The score for this section is based on its performance across all noise reduction levels. According to Olympus, if you use Live View for extended periods, you may hit even higher noise levels than we found, due to the sensor heating up from repeated use. All of these tests were shot using the viewfinder only.

Normally, when we run this test, we turn any sort of dynamic range adjustment off. With the Olympus E-30, this feature is called Gradation, and cannot be switched off, but rather is set to Normal, Auto, High Key and Low Key. Our tests were run initially with Gradation set to Auto, but we subsequently learned that this setting can noticeably increase noise levels. We have since re-shot these tests with Gradation set to Normal, and adjusted our scoring accordingly. However, even with Gradation set to Normal, the noise levels of the E-30 are still problematically high with noise reduction off. With noise reduction on they are now at more acceptable levels, if you don’t mind taking a significant hit to image sharpness.

ISO Options

Below you can see 100% crops for each of the cameras at every available ISO. The E-30 runs the gamut of ISO 100 to 3200, in 1/3 or 1 EV. The camera features ISO bracketing for three shots, in ±0.3, 0.7 or step.

Focus Performance

The Olympus E-30 uses TTL contrast detection for focusing, when not in Live View. It has 11 focal points, shown below. The focal point can be set to any one of these, the entire range, or a cross of five points. If there’s one setup you find yourself using frequently, you can set this as the ‘home’ autofocus point, which the camera will default to. In low light situations, the flash functions as an autofocus assist lamp by firing a brief burst of light. This illuminates very well, but is incredibly distracting for any candid shots you may be attempting to make.

If your lenses are causing you trouble, and not focusing quite right, the E-30 can store autofocus microadjustments for up to twenty registered lenses.

There are five focus modes available, in combination between auto and manual.

Long Exposure (7.93)

With longer exposure times, the E-30 struggled with low color accuracy and high noise levels, ranking it below the four cameras we compared it to. For this test, we look at how well the camera handles long exposures in low light, testing for color accuracy and noise levels, with noise reduction both on and off. We shoot under dim 20 lux illumination at ISO 400, analyzing the X-Rite color chart using Imatest.

The results in this section have changed slightly since this review was originally published, though it did not affect the overall comparative ranking of the tested cameras. Our testing procedure calls for turning off dynamic range adjustment (which Olympus labels ‘gradation’) when performing any noise-related testing (this includes both the Long Exposure section and the Noise section that follows). However, the Olympus E-30 does not offer an ‘off’ option. In our first round of testing, we used the Auto setting. Based on reader input, we experimented with the Normal setting and determined that it does improve image noise performance in the core noise tests that follow. While still not an ideal solution based on our standardized testing procedures, we decided to rerun all the relevant tests with gradation set to Normal. This produced an improvement in our noise testing, shooting under relatively bright illumination, but under low light conditions, the original Auto setting actually produced marginally better results, by roughly 0.3%. For consistency’s sake, we scored based on the Normal mode scores below. More on how we test long exposure.

The E-30 produced reasonably accurate color reproduction until the longest exposure time, 30 seconds, where it overexposed even as low as 20 lux.

The noise levels were disturbingly high across the board, and using noise reduction made matters even worse. Long exposure noise reduction works by taking a second exposure of the same length directly after the first, but with the lens closed. The logic being that the noise of the second image can then be subtracted from the first, and it will be smoother overall. The problem with this logic is that noise is inherently random, so for the E-30, it worsens the situation overall. With shooting from 1-15 second exposures, noise levels were slightly worse with Gradation set to Normal rather than Auto, which is the opposite of what we saw with high ISO noise.

As stated above, the E-30’s battle with image noise let it down in this test. The photographs came out covered with the distinctive speckle of high amounts of image noise, which dragged down the score in this category, even further than its already below-average color accuracy.