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.