E-M5 vs. E-P3: JPEG Image Quality

Below I have combined test charts shot with E-M5 and E-P3 at various ISO settings. Settings while shooting:

• Lens Zuiko D. 50mm f/2 Macro @ F4
• JPG Large Fine (I saved also RAW files to be compared later) (note: there is no visual difference between files saved at Large Fine or Large Super Fine jpeg compressions at 100%, unless you start to do heavy post processing)
• Picture Mode: 4 Muted @ Contrast -2, Saturation -2, Sharpness -2, Gradation Normal (note: normal means Olympus standard jpeg gamma curve)
• Noise reduction & noise filter: OFF
• Equal aperture and shutter speed settings in both bodies at corresponding ISOs

JPG files were opened in Photoshop, normalized and cropped equally. E-M5 crops are 100%. E-P3 crops were enlarged to same size through Bicubic Smoother interpolation. All images are slightly sharpened. No noise reduction applied. (All test shots have gone through automatic normalization which sets certain amount of lowest values of lowest channel to zero. In E-P3 shots you can see more black outline between white and black than in E-M5 shots. Anything stronger than what I did would lead into losing detail in shadows. I left corrections as they are, and that´s why some E-P3 scales look lighter than the same ones with E-M5. You can copy test charts and tweak them if you want to have another "look".)

I chose to enlarge E-P3 files because I am interested in seeing quality in same size prints. This is closest to that situation on screen. Just remember: To see any real difference in sharpness at ISO 200 to 400 you need to print larger than A3. 

E-M5 is markedly better in every regard: sharpness, signal to noise ratio, dynamic range... . At higher ISOs E-M5 gains about two stop improvement. This result comes from new sensor with more resolution and better pixel per pixel quality, thinner low pass filter and impoved JPG processing.

I will post later more images and compare RAW files.

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Image below E-M5, M.Zuiko 12mm f/2 

• ISO 200, @F6.3
• JPG Large Fine
• Picture Mode: 4 Muted @ Contrast -2, Saturation -2, Sharpness -2, Gradation Normal
• Noise reduction & noise filter: OFF
• Crops 100% from brightest and darkest area without any modifications

Image below E-M5, M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8

• ISO 1600, @F2.5
• JPG Large Fine
• Picture Mode: 4 Muted @ Contrast -2, Saturation -2, Sharpness -2, Gradation Normal
• Noise reduction & noise filter: OFF
• Normalization and slight sharpening in Lightroom 3
• Crop 100%, no noise reduction applied

Olympus E-P3 JPG Image Quality

Compared to E-P2 new E-P3 has also a new sensor and new image processor. According to Olympus image quality has improved by one stop.

Above: E-P2, ISO 800, Camera JPG Standard, NR Normal, Extra sharpening in LR3. Below: E-P3, same settings, No extra sharpening. (100% crop, Zuiko D. 50mm 1:2 Macro @ F4.0).

I shot a series of JPG test images with both camera´s ”even” ISO settings. At base sensitivity there is naturally no difference in resolution. When sensitivity goes up, E-P3 becomes gradually better so that at ISO 1600 it corresponds to E-P2 ISO 800 or is slightly better. Actually E-P2 image had to be helped with an extra sharpening to bring it closer to E-P3. Noise or graininess is stronger in dark grays in E-P3 image. From this point of view Olympus claim is true.

As can be seen in these frames  E-P3 image shows a watercolor-like smearing where structure or definition runs out. E-P2 has graininess in those areas. This difference in character is evident through out all ISO settings. Depending on subject smearing may not be seen at all at low settings and E-P3´s images can be very brilliant. Obviously it is sort of brilliance, that´s the best description I know, that Olympus seems to be after here. At higher ISO settings smearing can become disturbing if also reds spread and shadows have blotchiness.

Anyway, personally I do not like this kind of way to render as I already mentioned while writing about M.Zuiko 12mm images. I think also that this effect removes E-P3´s superiority starting from ISO 3200. I hope Olympus will  change rendering to be more like before. Now Olympus has been too much after clean, smooth and sharp look. A prompt firmware update, please!

My result and opinions here are strictly true only for camera JPGs at default settings. You can tweak the settings but still the same trend stays. Resuts could have been very different for E-P3 if I had swithced NR off and sharpening to minimum and tweaked those in post processing. But doing so would only make JPG shooting pointless. JPG´s whole idea is to produce as ready images as possible.

There was no RAW converter profiled for E-P3 and that prevents us from going any closer to the real capabilities of E-P3 sensor. Below, as an example, the same E-P2 exposure as camera JPG and converted from RAW in Lightroom 3. It is possible to squeeze out even some more resolution with Lightroom. And then you can get more out of tonality, dynamic range and colors, which I have left out of this blog. I will come back to this subject when I get an E-P3 profiled RAW converter

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Above: E-P2, ISO 800, Camera JPG Standard, NR normal. Below: Same picture, RAW conversion in Lightroom 3. (100% crop, Zuiko D. 50mm 1:2.0 Macro @ F4.0)

Olympus E-P3 w. M.Zuiko 12mm 1:2.0

With E-P3 Olympus introduced also a much waited for high quality prime lens. This beautifully finished lens answers very well also to my needs. In 35mm vocabulary it corresponds to a 24mm lens.

Images above show this lens in its autofocus (left) and manual focus positions. Focusing ring works in the same fashion as seen earlier for instance in Mamiya 645 lenses. When you pull focusing ring forward, it covers distance scale and lens obeys camera’s AF system. Rotating the ring does not affect focusing distance then. When you push the ring backwards, distance scale is revealed and you can focus manually. Camera´s AF is disconnected. Besides distance scale you have also depth of field scale which makes zone focusing very handy. 

As an extra, if you have mapped AF into a thumb button, after setting distance you can pull focusing ring forward and distance setting is kind of saved from changing unintentionally. 

Below are shown a few images shot with E-P3 + 12mm combination. They are shot as JPGs because there was not yet a reliable RAW converter available. I think Olympus needs to re-evaluate their JPG processing in E-P3. It has some quirks relating to surface structure or micro contrast and sharpening which I really don´t like. I did not have time nor interest to test JPG settings combinations enough. My opinion on the 12mm lens is very, very positive  and fascinated in every way, but these images do show some JPG oddities.

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