Olympus E-620

Noise Reduction (5.36)

Turning off noise reduction entirely to maximize image sharpness produced easily visible image noise by the time we reached ISO 400, and the problem accelerates rapidly from that point. The low noise reduction setting offers a major improvement at high ISO levels, but not enough to solve the problem. And while the two highest settings maintain sub-2% image noise across the board, the loss of image sharpness is readily apparent.

The E-620 noise curves are all tightly clustered for red, green, blue, yellow and luma (gray) noise, with no single component color spiking (which can be highly visible). More on how we test noise.

It isn’t easy to cram 12 million pixels into a Four Thirds-size sensor — the individual light receptors have to be tiny and closely packed, leading to elevated noise levels, as shown in our lab testing. The Olympus E-620 tested at approximately the same noise level as the Olympus E-30, which is to say, poorly. particularly at high ISOs. Even a noise reduction system that does sharply reduce noise levels, as shown in the chart below, couldn’t tame the problem, and as expected leads to noticeable loss of image detail. Overall the two trail the other cameras in our comparison group by a wide margin in this area.

We test image noise performance by shooting the X-Rite ColorChecker chart at each available ISO level under bright studio illumination (low-light performance is tested separately). When multiple noise reduction settings are available, we shoot at each of them, and the score is based on a camera’s overall performance. Ordinarily we turn dynamic range enhancement features off for this test, since this digital manipulation can increase image noise, but Olympus doesn’t offer ‘off’ as an option. Instead, we shot at the normal setting for ‘gradation,’ the Olympus term for dynamic range enhancement.

In the most demanding, noise reduction off testing, the two Olympus models produce photos with far more image noise than any of the comparison cameras, even at low ISOs.

Crank up the noise reduction to its maximum setting for each and the playing field levels somewhat, with the Pentax K2000 actually noisier than the Olympus at ISOs up to 400, though the familiar ranking returns as we push to ISO 800 and beyond.

ISO Options

Available ISO values range from 100 to 3200. The ISO step value can be changed from the default 1 EV to 1/3 EV if you prefer finer increments.

In Auto ISO mode, both the default value to be used and the maximum allowable ISO can be set, from 200 to 3200 in 1/3 EV increments. ISO bracketing, a relatively unusual feature, is also available, providing a three-shot sequence with 0.3, 0.7 or 1 EV increments.

ISO Comparisons
Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
ISO Low
ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 100	ISO 200
Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
ISO 200
Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
ISO 400
Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
ISO 800
Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
ISO 1600
Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
ISO 3200
Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90
ISO 6400
Olympus E-620	Olympus E-30	Canon EOS Rebel XS	Pentax K2000	Nikon D90

NOTE: The images above are not used in our testing or scoring, but are included here to show real-world examples of the differences between cameras at the various ISO settings.