Olympus E-620

Color (17.86)

The Olympus E-620 demonstrated impressive color accuracy, producing lower color error figures than any of the other cameras in our comparison lineup. Orange, yellow and green reproduction are spot-on, and flesh tones are also handled notably well. Saturation was just over 98%, also a particularly strong result.

What we’re testing here is how accurately a camera can recreate real-world colors, not making a value judgment on whether the captured colors are especially attractive. Yes, you can always tweak the colors in your photo with image editing software after the fact, but there’s value in having colors right out of the camera match as closely as possible the scene as you actually saw it when taking the picture. To measure this, we shoot an X-Rite ColorChecker chart under tightly controlled 3000 lux illumination, then analyze the resulting images using Imatest software to determine color error. First step is to shoot with each of the available color modes, to determine which is the most accurate — in the case of the Olympus E-620, that’s the Muted setting. All of our remaining tests are shot using this setting. More on how we test color.

In the table below we show same-size crops of each color patch in the X-Rite chart, for the Olympus E-620 and four comparison cameras, each taken in the camera’s most accurate color mode. The leftmost column shows the ideal color values from the original chart. The color names come from X-Rite.

Camera Color Comparisons					Expand
	Ideal	Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
Dark Skin
Light Skin
Blue Sky
Foliage
Blue Flower
Bluish Green
	Ideal	Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
Orange
Purplish Blue
Moderate Red
Purple
Yellow Green
Orange Yellow
	Ideal	Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
Blue
Green
Red
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan

NOTE: Because of the way computer monitors reproduce colors, the images above do not exactly match the originals found on the chart or in the captured images. The chart should be used to judge the relative color shift, not the absolute captured colors.

Color Modes (4.00)

The E-620 provides the choice of five Picture Modes, settings which adjust color reproduction along with sharpness, contrast and gradation (dynamic range). The system is explained in more depth in the Picture Effects section below. Here, we show the effect of each color setting by reproducing actual-size crops from ColorChecker photos taken in each mode (leaving out the black-and-white Monotone option).

Like most digital SLRs sold today, the Olympus E-620 supports the default sRGB color space, which is the best choice for most shooters, and the Adobe RGB color space used primarily for commercial printing applications.

Color Mode Comparisons					Expand
	Ideal	Muted	Vivid	Natural	Portrait
Dark Skin
Light Skin
Blue Sky
Foliage
Blue Flower
Bluish Green
	Ideal	Muted	Vivid	Natural	Portrait
Orange
Purplish Blue
Moderate Red
Purple
Yellow Green
Orange Yellow
	Ideal	Muted	Vivid	Natural	Portrait
Blue
Green
Red
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan

NOTE: Because of the way computer monitors reproduce colors, the images above do not exactly match the originals found on the chart or in the captured images. The chart should be used to judge the relative color shift, not the absolute captured colors.

White Balance (5.94)

The Olympus E-620 ran into difficulties in our combined automatic mode / custom mode white balance testing, with notable difficulties under two out of three illumination sources in our auto WB testing and results after setting a custom white balance that still weren’t as accurate as other SLRs we’ve tested.

We shoot a standard ColorChecker chart inside a Judge II light box, produced by X-Rite, that provides carefully controlled illumination at a variety of color temperatures. We test under incandescent, compact white fluorescent and daylight illumination. The test photos are analyzed using Imatest to determine how far the results vary from the chart ideal values. More on how we test color.

Automatic White Balance (6.93)

The results shooting in daylight using the automatic white balance mode were quite good, but fluorescent lighting produced significant color error. As for incandescent illumination, that poses a consistent stumbling block for auto white balance systems, and the Olympus E-620 followed the weak performance trend we’ve come to expect, with images that are far too warm and orange, though still not the worst we’ve seen. Taken together, the camera scored a middling 6.93 in automatic white balance mode.

The color error in daylight produced by the Olympus E-620 is certainly greater than the comparison cameras, though the shift toward overly warm tones is not so dramatic that it will jump out at you when looking at actual photos.

The auto WB system produces overly warm images under incandescent lighting, but that’s not uncommon. This is an area where manual control, whether taking a custom reading or using the included preset, is worth the effort.

Photos taken under fluorescent illumination were subtly but significantly too warm, an apparent attempt by the WB system to overcompensate for the inherently cool tones of fluorescent bulbs.

Custom White Balance (4.94)

Taking a few extra moments for a custom white balance reading cuts the incandescent lighting problem down to size, producing only minor shifts toward the cooler side under all three illumination sources. The scoring in this test is stringent, though, and the Olympus was not as accurate here as competitive models.

The Olympus E-620 underperformed all the cameras in our comparison group, including its brand-mate E-30, when it comes to overall white balance performance.

White Balance Options (9.00)

The Olympus E-620 offers eight white balance presets in addition to auto WB, manual white balance setting and direct white balance entry in degrees Kelvin. The three settings for fluorescent bulbs is a useful addition, given the different color temperatures available with different bulb types.

The procedure for taking a manual white balance reading requires that the programmable Fn button has to be set to One-touch WB mode, which requires a trip deep into the bowels of the menu system. If you’re the type of photographer who cares enough to take manual readings, you’ll probably just set the Fn button and leave it as a white balance control, which pretty much defeats the purpose of having a programmable button in the first place. Unfortunately, there’s no other way to set a manual white balance.

Once the button is properly programmed, taking a reading still requires some manual dexterity: you hold Fn down, point at a white surface and hit the shutter button. If you’ve already said you want Fn to be the white balance control, wouldn’t pressing just that one button make more sense than requiring a combo move? There is one bright point to this procedure, though: you don’t have to set the camera to manual white balance mode and then take a reading separately. The act of taking the reading sets the camera to manual WB mode.

The white balance setting can be manually fine-tuned along the Amber-Blue and Green-Magenta axes. each in 15 increments. Unlike some cameras we’ve used, there is no interactive way to see the effect of these fine white balance changes while shooting. You can press the AE/AF lock button and take a temporary preview shot at the current setting, allowing you to see the effect without leaving the fine tuning screen, but each change has to be previewed separately.

Three-step white balance bracketing is also available, a handy way to hedge your bets. A single image is taken, and saved in three different flavors. Adjustments can be made in either or both of the Amber-Blue and Green-Magenta axes, in 2-step, 4-step or 6-step increments.

Long Exposure (7.91)

Our long exposure test is a two-stage process, measuring both color error and image noise over a range of shutter speeds (1, 5, 10, 15 and 30 seconds). The Olympus E-620 outperformed the more expensive Olympus E-30 substantially in the color error testing, but both had mediocre results for long exposure image noise (as we’ll see in the Noise testing section below, image noise remains the Achilles heel of Olympus SLRs overall). As a result, the combined long exposure score for the E-620 is superior to the E-30, but far surpassed by the Canon Rebel XS and Nikon D90.

Our long exposure testing procedure calls for illuminating the X-Rite ColorChecker chart evenly at a low illumination level and shooting it at five shutter speeds, with and without long exposure noise reduction. Ordinarily we turn off any dynamic range optimization system for this test, since it can affect results. The Olympus doesn’t allow an ‘off’ setting, though. After some experimentation we went with the Normal setting for all of our test procedures. More on how we test long exposure.

As seen here, the Olympus E-620 maintained a strong, steady color accuracy performance across the range of shooting times, with only minor variation between photos shot with noise reduction on and off.

Image noise, shooting here at ISO 400, was also consistent, but on the high side (a shorter bar indicates lower noise levels). We did find it necessary to lower the illumination level somewhat to keep the 30-second exposure from blowing out and skewing the test results.

Based on previous testing experience, it doesn’t surprise us to note that, despite promises to the contrary, turning on long exposure noise reduction actually produced slightly inferior results. The concept of long-exposure noise reduction is that the camera takes a second shot, with the shutter closed, after the actual photo is taken, then digitally corrects the image based on the noise present in that second exposure. The problem is, image noise is inherently random, leading to corrections where none is required and missed opportunities for fixes in other areas.

Neither Olympus model excelled in our long exposure testing, though the E-620 does show improvement over the previous model.