Olympus E-20Olympus updates their bargain-priced Pro SLR with a 5 megapixel sensor and improved electronics<<Video, Power, Software :(Previous) | (Next): Reference: Datasheet>> Page 12:Test Results & ConclusionReview First Posted: 11/28/2001 |
Test Results
In keeping with our standard policy, my comments here are rather condensed, summarizing my key findings. For a full commentary on each of the test images, see the E-20N's "pictures" page.
As with all Imaging Resource camera tests, I encourage you to let your own eyes be the judge of how well the devices performed. Explore the images on the pictures page, to see how well the E-20N performed, and how its images compare to other cameras you may be considering buying.
Overall, the E-20N performed very well, with very good color and image quality throughout my testing. The camera's White Balance system handled most of the test lighting well, with the Manual setting producing the best results in most cases. The Auto setting had a tendency to produce warm images, in a variety of lighting scenarios. I found the range of Kelvin color temperatures effective in dealing with a wide range of light sources, although the Manual setting produced the best results on the Indoor Portrait (without flash). Saturation was a little weak overall, noticeable in the Outdoor Portrait and Davebox test target, particularly in the large color blocks of the latter. I was left fairly convinced that the E20 is actually using some broader-gamut color space than the sRGB standard that most digicams default to. This is purely speculation on my part (Olympus has made no such representation about the E-20), but would explain the slightly muted color that I consistently found in my testing. If true, it's actually very good news for photographers wishing to use a color-managed workflow, as the attainable gamut could be much larger than with purely sRGB-based cameras. The downside though, is that color right out of the camera is more subdued than it would be otherwise. Except for the slightly understated saturation, color on the E-20 seemed very accurate, apart from a tendency to push the always-difficult blues of Marti's pants and the blue flowers in the "portrait" shots toward purple. (For some reason, these specific shades of blue seem to cause problems for a wide range of digicams.)
White balance was generally very good, and I really like the E-20's use of white balance presets calibrated in degrees Kelvin rather than the customary "incandescent", "fluorescent", etc. - If you're not used to thinking in degrees K, it'll take a bit of an adjustment, but the net result is much finer-grained control over white balance. (And if you happen to have a color temperature meter, you'll be able to get the white balance right first time every time. - Although I'd like to see even smaller steps in degrees K between adjacent settings.) One note to the camera designers on this point: The lower end of the Kelvin white balance scale really needs to extend down to 2500 or even 2300K, given how reddish the incandescent lighting used in residential environments in the US is. The manual white balance option worked very well, producing excellent results under a wide range of lighting conditions.
Perhaps my strongest criticism of the E-20 is that I felt that its default contrast was really set too high. It had a tendency to want to blow out the highlights, while the midtones and shadows were still too dark. With some of the harshly-lit test subjects (outdoor portrait and far-field test), I found myself routinely setting the contrast down and the exposure up slightly to get the look I wanted. Again, not a big problem for people working in color-managed environments, you could easily profile the camera with the contrast set down, to preserve tonal range, and then correct the overall tonality in the profile itself. Something to note though.
The E-20N performed very well on my "laboratory" resolution test chart. It started showing artifacts in the test patterns at resolutions as low as 1,000 - 1,100 lines per picture height, in both horizontal and vertical directions. I found "strong detail" out to at least 1,200 - 1,300 lines though, an excellent performance. "Extinction" of the target patterns occurred at about 1,600 lines.
Optical distortion on the E-20N was higher than I like to see at the wide-angle end, where I measured an approximate 0.93 percent barrel distortion. The telephoto end fared much better, as I found only a pixel or less of pincushion distortion. Chromatic aberration is moderate, showing about two or three fairly bright pixels of coloration on either side of the target lines. (Given the Gauss lens group and extensive use of ED glass, I'd have expected to see less C.A. than I did here.)
The E-20N offers full manual exposure control and a maximum shutter speed of 60 seconds (outside of the Bulb setting), which gives the camera excellent low-light shooting abilities. The camera captured bright, clear images at light levels as low as 1/16 foot-candle (0.67 lux) at all three ISO settings, including ISO 80. Color balance was slightly warm with the Auto white balance setting, but was still fairly accurate. Noise levels remained low throughout the series, even at the ISO 320 setting. We shot sample images without the camera's Noise Reduction system at the 1/16 foot-candle light level, and noticed only subtle differences between the two shooting modes.
The E-20N's optical viewfinder was pretty accurate, just slightly tight. I measured approximately 93 percent frame accuracy at wide angle, and about 94 percent at telephoto. The LCD monitor was a little less accurate, showing approximately 90 percent of the frame at wide angle, and about 92 percent at telephoto. I'm accustomed to seeing better accuracy in LCD monitors, so the E-20N's LCD monitor leaves some room for improvement. Still, I was very pleased with the optical viewfinder's performance, and recommend using it for more accurate framing. - It's a really nice viewfinder compared to those I'm accustomed to seeing on more consumer-level digicams. It's bright, clear, sharp, and easy to use in manually focusing the lens. (!)
The E-20N performed pretty well in the macro category, though I expected a slightly smaller minimum area than the 2.92 x 2.19 inches (74.3 x 55.7 millimeters) that the camera captured. Still, the camera did a great job here, with very high resolution and crisp, sharp details. Some corner softness was present in all four corners, though it didn't extend too far into the image area. The E-20N's flash throttled down fairly well for the macro area, though it was still a bit bright.
The E-20N also did exceptionally well in my low-light tests. It's hybrid active/passive autofocus system works well down to fairly low light levels (although I don't (yet) specifically test that parametrically), but I disliked the fact that it always indicated that it had achieved focus, even when it was obviously not able to. (For instance, with the lens cap on.) It would be far preferable for it to clearly signal non-focus when it wasn't able to achieve a positive lock, so you'd know that you needed to switch to manual focusing.
Overall, I was quite pleased with the E-20N's performance. I'd really like to see its default contrast dialed down a little, and personally would probably end up shooting with it in its low-contrast mode most of the time. Likewise, I'd really like it if the camera would tell you when it was out of focus. Color and image quality were very good though, and resolution was excellent. It's low light capabilities are exceptional, and overall exposure and white balance control excellent as well. All in all, a powerful tool for advanced photography.
Conclusion
Offering a true 5.24 megapixel CCD, extensive exposure control, SLR format, advanced lens design, and improved electronics, the Olympus E-20 is a solid incremental upgrade from the E10 model. With a selling price thousands less than its competitors in the professional SLR world, it also offers higher resolution than any pro SLR within two or three times its cost. As an added bonus, Olympus' use of metal castings and other metal components to heatsink the CCD appears to have paid real dividends in the form of reduced CCD noise on long exposures. The E-20N looks like a worthy successor to the excellent E-10N before it. Highly recommended.
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