Olympus PEN E-PL1

Color (14.55)

While the E-PL1 couldn’t match the stand-out color accuracy of its more expensive brand mate, the Olympus E-P1, it did handle both tint and saturation very well. The natural color mode was the most accurate, and was used as the basis for our scoring, but it’s worth noting that the portrait and muted modes also produced very low overall color error readings. More on how we test color.

In natural mode, saturation was a reasonable 97%. Only the vivid mode was significantly oversaturated, at an appropriate 110%. Dark skin tones, purplish blue, orange yellow and magenta were reproduced with particular accuracy in natural mode, while bluish green, purple and vivid yellow were particularly off-hue.

Camera Color Comparisons
	Ideal	Olympus PEN E-PL1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Nikon D5000	Samsung NX10
Dark Skin
Light Skin
Blue Sky
Foliage
Blue Flower
Bluish Green
	Ideal	Olympus PEN E-PL1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Nikon D5000	Samsung NX10
Orange
Purplish Blue
Moderate Red
Purple
Yellow Green
Orange Yellow
	Ideal	Olympus PEN E-PL1	Olympus PEN E-P1	Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1	Nikon D5000	Samsung NX10
Blue
Green
Red
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan

NOTE: Because of the way computer monitors reproduce colors, the images above do not exactly match the originals found on the chart or in the captured images. The chart should be used to judge the relative color shift, not the absolute captured colors.

As shown in the following score comparison chart, the E-PL1 fared well in our color accuracy testing against some stiff competition — the D5000 and E-P1 are two of the strongest cameras we’ve tested in this area.

Color Modes (4.00)

There are five straightforward picture modes; vivid, natural, muted, portrait and monotone (i.e., black and white). There is also an i-Enhance setting that analyzes the image, picks out the predominant colors and emphasizes them to produce a more dramatic effect. Finally, there’s a custom setting that lets you tinker with the settings for any of the provided pictures modes and save the results for future use. The available variables include contrast, sharpness, saturation and gradation, which is the Olympus term for dynamic range adjustment.

The following chart includes same-size samples taken from our test shots in each color mode.

White Balance (5.75)

We were disappointed with the inaccuracy of the E-PL1 white balance system, given the strong performance of the E-P1 here. We expect to find problems when the automatic white balance system encounters tungsten light bulbs, and the E-PL1 was no exception, but it proved less accurate under daylight than any of the comparison cameras, and not much better under fluorescents. And while taking a custom white balance reading produced better-looking photos (particularly under incandescents), the white balance is still less accurate than we expect to see.

Automatic White Balance (8.46)

The automatic white balance setting underperformed when compared to the other tested cameras. Daylight isn’t usually much of an auto WB challenge, but the E-PL1 found difficulties even here.

Incandescent lighting often produces orange-hued photos when shooting with auto WB. The E-PL1 results here are bad, though the Nikon D5000 and Samsung NX10 were even worse under these lighting conditions.

The color reproduction under compact white fluorescent lighting using automatic white balance isn’t awful, but the E-PL1 still trails all but the totally flummoxed Nikon D5000 in our comparison group.

Custom White Balance (3.04)

Take a custom white balance reading and your indoor photos taken with incandescent lighting improve dramatically. Under fluorescent and daylight illumination, though,the expected level of improvement didn’t materialize.

As shown below, the E-PL1 underperformed the pack in white balance accuracy.

White Balance Options (9.50)

The E-PL1 offers eight white balance presets, including three types of fluorescent illumination.

White balance settings are reflected in the Live View image on screen, so you can see the effect of changes made using the live control or super control panel as you make them. Fine adjustments can also be made to any white balance setting (auto, preset or custom) via the custom menu. In this case, the Live View display isn’t active, but you can take a preview image (by pressing the movie button) and see the results of your fiddling without leaving the adjustment screen.

If you set the display to multi view, you can see previews of four potential white balance settings at once, scrolling through your options before committing.

The procedure for taking a custom white balance reading is straightforward. With the live control menu cursor on one-touch white balance, pressing the INFO button brings up the setting screen. Point at a grey or white surface, press the shutter button and you’re done.

White balance bracketing is available, with three images recorded from a single shot, with increments of 2, 4 or 6 steps set separately for the amber-blue and green-magenta axes.

Long Exposure (7.30)

In our long exposure testing, we measure both color accuracy and image noise at shutter speeds from one second to 30 seconds, under low light. The Olympus E-PL1 image noise results were very close to those found with other Micro Four Thirds cameras we’ve tested, including the Olympus E-P1 and the Panasonic GF1, all of which are notably higher than the Nikon D5000 and Samsung NX10, both of which use larger APS-C format sensors. For color accuracy, the E-PL1 color error is pretty high across the range of shutter speeds, though not as far off as the Panasonic GF1. More on how we test long exposure.

Shooting in the most accurate faithful mode, color error under low light is significantly higher than in our bright light testing. Saturation, though, remains nearly the same under both shooting conditions.

The long exposure noise reduction system actually resulted in noisier images across most shutter speeds. This is not that unusual and, if you think about how this type of processing works, not surprising. With long exposure noise reduction enabled, the camera takes a shot with the shutter open and then takes a second shot with the shutter closed. It then analyzes the noise pattern in the second, dark exposure and tries to mathematically eliminate that pattern from the actual exposure. Problem is, noise is inherently random, so the patterns in the two shots are unlikely to match unless there’s some consistent flaw in the sensor. It’s rare that we see this type of processing produce any significant gain, and in this case we’d leave it off entirely for low-light shooting.

The two cameras with APS-C sensor basically clobbered the Micro Four Thirds models in this test.