Quality & Size Options

The E-620 offers seven image size options, but they’re not all available at once, which seems unnecessarily complicated. Three settings are offered at any given time: Large, Middle and Small. There is only one option for Large, but Middle has three possible settings, and so does Small. The size that currently corresponds to Middle and Small settings is determined via section G of the custom settings menu. It feels like it would be far simpler and more flexible just to present a dozen settings on a single menu, and let the user scroll quickly to the desired choice using the control dial.

There are four compression options for JPEGs: Super Fine (1/2.7 compression), Fine (1/4), Normal (1/8) and Basic (1/12).

RAW shooting is available in the Olympus .ORF file format, either as a standalone file or with an attached JPEG image. The JPEG is saved in Large format with Fine compression.

Dynamic Range (3.44)

The curse of high-noise images rears its head here again, affecting the ability of our analysis software to detect clearly delineated steps of dynamic range in the standard Kodak chart we shoot. The Olympus E-620 did not fare quite as poorly as the Olympus E-30 on this test, but it still ranks well below the competition.

The advantage of a wide dynamic range is the ability to maintain detail in both very bright and very dark areas, which comes in handy when shooting contrasty scenes (a light-colored building with dark shadows cast by slanted sunlight, for example) and, of course, zebras. We test dynamic range by lighting the 20-patch Kodak Gray Scale chart at an even 3000 lux, shooting it at each available ISO and a range of aperture settings. These individual images are evaluated using Imatest software, which then analyzes the results at multiple apertures to calculate an overall dynamic range performance evaluation at each ISO. More on how we test dynamic range.

Even at basic ISO 100 and ISO 200 settings, the dynamic range demonstrated by the Olympus E-620 is poor, with a top result of only four and a half stops, compared to over seven stops at ISO 100 for the $599 Pentax K2000. No matter what ISO you shoot at, you’re going to lack flexibility and fine detail in high-contrast scenes when shooting with the Olympus.

This is the second Olympus camera we’ve shot recently that produced poor results on this test, indicating an unfortunate consistency undoubtedly linked to the high-megapixel, small-sensor challenge.

Image Stabilization (5.81)

The Olympus supports three different modes of in-camera image stabilization. I.S. 1 is the basic setting for shooting with stabilization turned on. I.S. 2 is used for shooting when panning horizontally: horizontal stabilization is turned off, vertical stabilization is active. I.S. 3 is for panning vertically, with horizontal stabilization active and vertical turned off. As you would imagine, we tested using the I.S. 1 mode. And the results prove the system is useful, but doesn’t offer the dramatic sharpness gain we found when shooting with the Olympus E-30.

To test the effectiveness of a camera’s image stabilization system, we mount it in a custom-designed computer-controlled rig that recreates a consistent series of horizontal and vertical movements, designed to mimic the pattern of a person’s shaking hands at low and high levels. We shoot a brightly lit chart repeatedly and measure the image resolution of each shot using Imatest. These results are then statistically sampled to reveal the underlying pattern. More on how we test image stabilization.

With a fairly low level of shake, roughly what you’d expect from a person standing still and trying to hold the camera steady with two hands, we found the image stabilization system produced a modest loss of sharpness at the highest shutter speeds, but from 1/125 second on consistently offered a modest improvement.

Revving up the level of shake to about what you’d find when trying to shoot one-handed, or while moving, the pattern remains similar. The 1/500 second shutter speed results measuring horizontal movement indicate a larger improvement than we’d expect, which held true even when we re-shot the test. On the vertical side, there are minor differences one way or the other between having the IS system on or off until you hit 1/60 second, from which point the system consistently delivers a slight improvement.

Image Stabilization Comparison Table			Expand
	Low Shake IS Off	Low Shake IS On	High Shake IS Off	High Shake IS On
1/500
1/250
1/125
1/60
1/30
1/15
1/8

The two Olympus camera produced very different results, which is probably at least in part due to the different physical dimensions, balance, lens types and focal lengths involved. For the E-620, the system proved marginally useful, but shouldn’t be considered a major selling point when considering your options.

The chart below summarizes the image stabilization scores for three of our comparison cameras (test results are not available for the other two).