Olympus PEN E-P1

Motion (7.95)

The Olympus E-P1 records HD video using a 30p frame rate and a 1280 × 720 resolution. The camera also has a standard definition, 640 × 480 option that records with a 30p frame rate as well. Numerous other video-capable DSLRs on the market are beginning to offer Full HD (1920 × 1080) recording with a variety of frame rate options. When viewing the videos below, remember that they have been heavily compressed during the YouTube upload process. More on how CamcorderInfo tests motion.

The E-P1 captured decent motion that was smooth and had an average amount of blur. The camera did have a strong presence of artifacting around the edges of lines in our motion test. You could consistently see fuzz and pixelation on the lines in our two rotating pinwheels. The Nikon D5000 showed roughly the same amount of artifacting, but the E-P1 rendered a far smoother moving image.

The Panasonic GH1 has a lot of frame rate options for recording video. You can shoot Full HD using a 24p rate, or you can record 1280 × 720 video using either a 30p or 60p frame rate. The camera’s Full HD mode captured choppy motion that didn’t appear very smooth and had a lot of blur. The lower resolution modes produced much smoother video, so they are more desirable if you shooting a scene with a lot of motion. Unfortunately, these lower-res modes don’t have the same level of sharpness as the 1920 × 1080 Full HD option.

The Nikon D5000 didn’t do well with motion at all. It rendered motion that was extremely juddery and choppy, had significant artifacting, and captured a lot of frequency interference. Straight lines appeared jagged and crooked (almost like a lightning bolt) in our motion test, and there was significant amounts of pixelation and blocking in the RGB pinwheel. The camera captures video at a maximum resolution of 1280 × 720 and uses a 24p frame rate.

The Canon T1i does allow for 1920 × 1080 video recording, but it does so using an odd frame rate—20p. This frame rate is very unusual, as most cameras and camcorders don’t offer anything lower than a 24p rate. Footage recorded in the 20p mode looked crisp and clean, but the motion had a very different look than 24p or 30p frame rates. You can shoot 30p video on the T1i, but only when using its lower-resolution 1280 × 720 mode.

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Video Sharpness (9.77)

Like the Nikon D5000, the Olympus E-P1 doesn’t capture Full HD video. Its video resolution tops out at 1280 × 720—which is still high definition—it just doesn’t have as many pixels as Full 1920 × 1080 HD video. Despite its lower resolution, however, the camera managed to put up decent numbers in our video sharpness test. The E-P1 measured a horizontal sharpness of 600 line widths per picture height (lw/ph) and a vertical sharpness of 650 lw/ph. These are slightly better numbers than the Nikon D5000 earned, but they are significantly lower than the Canon T1i and Panasonic GH1—both of which record Full HD video. More on how CamcorderInfo tests video sharpness.

Low Light Sensitivity (1.67)

The low light sensitivity on the Olympus E-P1 wasn’t terrible, but its performance wasn’t anything special. The camera needed 20 lux of light to reach 50 IRE on our waveform monitor—a light level that is similar to what the Panasonic GH1 and Canon T1i required in the same test. The E-P1’s kit lens opens to a widest aperture setting of f/3.5, which isn’t very wide. Using a faster lens that allows for wider aperture settings would likely increase the camera’s low light sensitivity. This is one of the benefits of using a camera with an interchangeable lens system.

The E-P1 records all video using a 30p frame rate, so we didn’t have any alternate rates to try out in this test. The Panasonic GH1 offers three frame rate options (1080/24p, 1080/30p, 720/60p) and the Canon T1i offers two (1080/20p, 720/30p). The table below shows the low light sensitivities of these other DSLR cameras when using their alternate frame rates.