Olympus E-620

Sharpness

The highest sharpness results were found at the 29mm focal length when shooting at f/5.0, where the lens could resolve 1712 lw/ph horizontally and 1700 lw/ph vertically at the center. More on how we test sharpness.

Image Sharpness and Chromatic Aberration

Focal Length:

14.0mm

29.0mm

42.0mm

Click blue squares to change sample crops below
f/3.5 f/13 f/22
f/5 f/13 f/22
f/5.6 f/11 f/22

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.

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).