White Balance (10.53)

The E-P1 achieved a high score in this section thanks to the standout performance of its automatic white balance system, particularly under daylight and fluorescent lighting, The custom white balance reading accuracy was good, but not exceptional.

We test both the camera’s automatic and custom white balance systems by shooting the ColorChecker chart under the carefully controlled incandescent, fluorescent and daylight illumination provided by an X-Rite Judge II lightbox. The test photos are analyzed for color accuracy using Imatest, and the amount of color error from the known values of the chart patches determines the white balance results. More on how we test color.

Automatic White Balance (14.32)

Incandescent lighting (the type produced by standard tungsten household lightbulbs) always throws off automatic white balance systems, and the E-P1 was no exception. However, the results under fluorescent lights, which often produces greenish results, and daylight are exceptional.

Custom White Balance (6.74)

Taking a custom white balance reading eliminated the visible color shift under incandescent lighting, and produced good results overall. Our accuracy standards are very high for custom white balance, though, since we expect any interchangeable-lens camera to produce excellent results after taking a manual reading. Note that while shorter bars still indicate superior results in the chart below, the scale of the chart is different from those above because the error values are smaller.

The E-P1 delivered the most accurate results in our test group under daylight illumination, with photos just a shade warmer than the original chart values.

Under incandescent illumination the E-P1 was more accurate than all but the GH1, though none of the cameras tested was free from the warm orange hue we know so well from looking at indoor family snapshots.

Fluorescent light can throw an auto white balance system for a loop, as it did with the Olympus E-620, but colors in photos taken with the E-P1 under compact white fluorescents were nearly flawless.

The E-P1 received an adequate but unexceptional score for custom white balance, though it did far surpass the disappointing result from the other Olympus camera included in our comparison set. And overall, it stands up well to the competition.