Olympus E-PL5 Raw Comparison

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Olympus E-PL5 RAW Comparison

See crops below to compare the Olympus E-PL5's (12-bit) RAW image quality to its big brother, as well as a few recent compact system cameras.

RAW Comparison with Olympus E-M5, Panasonic G5, and Samsung NX200 RAW files converted with ACR, no NR, no sharpening Daylight-balanced illumination
Olympus E-PL5	Olympus E-M5	Panasonic G5 ISO 160	Samsung NX200 ISO 100

N/A, ISO 100 not supported.	N/A, ISO 100 not supported.

Olympus E-PL5 ISO 200	Olympus E-M5 ISO 200	Panasonic G5 ISO 200	Samsung NX200 ISO 200



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 400	Olympus E-M5 ISO 400	Panasonic G5 ISO 400	Samsung NX200 ISO 400



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 800	Olympus E-M5 ISO 800	Panasonic G5 ISO 800	Samsung NX200 ISO 800



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 1,600	Olympus E-M5 ISO 1,600	Panasonic G5 ISO 1,600	Samsung NX200 ISO 1,600



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 3,200	Olympus E-M5 ISO 3,200	Panasonic G5 ISO 3,200	Samsung NX200 ISO 3,200



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 6,400	Olympus E-M5 ISO 6,400	Panasonic G5 ISO 6,400	Samsung NX200 ISO 6,400



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 12,800	Olympus E-M5 ISO 12,800	Panasonic G5 ISO 12,800	Samsung NX200 ISO 12,800



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 25,600	Olympus E-M5 ISO 25,600	Panasonic G5	Samsung NX200
		N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.	N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.

As you can see, noise in E-PL5 RAW files is very similar to its big brother, the E-M5. The E-PL5 also does better than the 16-megapixel Panasonic G5 and the 20-megapixel Samsung NX200. Excellent performance, though contrast in the red leaf swatch is a little low.

Here's a comparison with some moderately priced APS-C models.

RAW Comparison with Canon T4i, Fuji X-E1 and Nikon D7000 RAW files converted with ACR, no NR, no sharpening Daylight-balanced illumination
Olympus E-PL5	Canon T4i ISO 100	Fuji X-E1	Nikon D7000 ISO 100
		N/A, ISO 100 not supported.
N/A, ISO 100 not supported.

Olympus E-PL5 ISO 200	Canon T4i ISO 200	Fuji X-E1 ISO 200	Nikon D7000 ISO 200



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 400	Canon T4i ISO 400	Fuji X-E1 ISO 400	Nikon D7000 ISO 400



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 800	Canon T4i ISO 800	Fuji X-E1 ISO 800	Nikon D7000 ISO 800



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 1,600	Canon T4i ISO 1,600	Fuji X-E1 ISO 1,600	Nikon D7000 ISO 1,600



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 3,200	Canon T4i ISO 3,200	Fuji X-E1 ISO 3,200	Nikon D7000 ISO 3,200



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 6,400	Canon T4i ISO 6,400	Fuji X-E1 ISO 6,400	Nikon D7000 ISO 6,400



Olympus E-PL5 ISO 12,800	Canon T4i ISO 12,800	Fuji X-E1	Nikon D7000 ISO 12,800
		N/A, ISO 12,800 not supported.


Olympus E-PL5 ISO 25,600	Canon T4i	Fuji X-E1	Nikon D7000 ISO 25,600
	N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.	N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.

The Fuji X-E1 Adobe Camera Raw conversions are by far the cleanest here, but they look as if some filtering has been applied, spreading out chroma noise and attenuating luminance noise while reducing acuity in the process. We're not sure if this is a deliberate attempt at noise reduction (something we don't like to see in RAW files), or just a by-product of the interpolation algorithm needed to demosaic the X-E1's unique 6x6 filter array.

The Olympus E-PL5 compares favorably to the cameras using conventional sensors, producing noise levels that are pretty much on par with the 16-megapixel Nikon D7000 and slightly better than the 18-megapixel Canon T4i. That's a remarkable achievement considering the E-PL5's pixel pitch is significantly smaller than both, at about 3.7µm versus 4.7µm for the D7000 and 4.2µm for the 7D.