Olympus Stylus XZ-2 iHS Digital Camera Review

Image Quality

The XZ-2's image quality is something of a mixed bag. Sharpness numbers are good, if not exceptional, and pretty much right in line with what we saw from the earlier XZ-1. The camera doesn't oversharpen its JPEGs, which is always nice to see, and color and saturation levels are extremely accurate. On the other hand, high noise levels are countered by even higher noise reduction, rendering the upper ISO settings all but useless. Low-light performance is also poor, and distortions aren't exactly brilliantly controlled. Video is also a wash, with great sharpness but odd codec issues and poor results in dim lighting.