Photography News Issue 30

Camera test 79

Photography News Issue 30 absolutephoto.com

Performance: ISO

ISO 200

ISO 400

Early Micro Four Thirds format cameras suffered from colourful and blotchy noise, but those days have long been left behind as the PEN-F shows with a capable ISO performance. There was the risk that cramming 20-megapixels into a 17x13mm sensor would compromise top-end ISO image quality, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. The base ISO 200 exposure was 1/2sec at f/8 with this scene taken at twilight. The Raws were processed through Olympus Viewer 3 with no noise filter applied. No in-camera noise filter was used either. Images were viewed on-screen at 100% to make a judgment. Images are very clean at the lower ISO speeds and it was by around 1250 that you can see the beginnings of noise in areas of even tone but image quality was still impressively high. I think if you had to, even ISO 3200 could be used for

critical purposes and good-size enlargements. There is quite obvious noise in areas of plain tone but it’s certainly not objectionable and its impact is can be mitigated with some noise reduction in software. Detail degradation is well controlled and images at this speed don’t look mushy. By ISO 6400, noise is evident and more obtrusive but to be honest, quality is still pretty good and it is only beyond this speed that noise levels shoot up and images look very gritty. For curiosity’s sake, I shot the same scene on the 16-megapixel Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mark II. Side-by-side comparison reveals that the EM5 Mark II has a better noise performance noise from ISO 800 onwards although to be fair, there is little in it and that differential is maintained up to ISO 25,600. Going back to the PEN-F, it’s a very usable camera at higher ISOs for top quality results.

ISO 800

ISO 1600

ISO 6400

ISO 12,800

Full-frame image

ISO 25,600

OMD E-M5 Mark II ISO 1600

Full-frame Normal Raw

High Res shot JPEG

High Res Shot Raw

Performance: HighRes Shotmode The PEN-F’s 20 megapixels is enough resolution for most purposes but if you want even more then the camera’s High Res Shot is what you need, assuming the subject suits. In this mode the camera’s electronic shutter takes eight sequential shots with the IS system moving the sensor half a pixel between each shot. The files are then combined in- camera – the process takes a few seconds – to give a higher resolution result. The camera needs to be on a tripod during the whole process and any attempt at shooting moving subjects

just did not work. I did try handholding for a picture of a building on a sunny day and even at 1/1600sec I got multi- imaging effects. The self-timer mode does not work in High Res Shot but when setting the mode you get the option of setting a time delay before exposures are made. You are also limited to a top ISO of 1600, a minimum aperture of f/8 and the IS mode is switched off automatically. The resulting High Res Shot JPEGs and Raws are 50 megapixels and 80 megapixels respectively. In file size terms this is 20MB and 130MB respectively, as opposed to 10MB and 18MB in normal shooting.

Opened in Photoshop, a High Res Shot JPEG measures 8160x6120pixels and the Raw 10,368x7776pixels. For comparison a normal full resolution file is 5184x3888pixels. Shooting simultaneous JPEG and Raws in High Res Shot mode, you get an .ori file which is normal sized Raw file but needs to be processed in Olympus Viewer 3. The shots here were done with the 17mm f/1.8 lens at f/8 and ISO 200. Images were processed identicallywith no sharpness added using Olympus Viewer 3. The extra detail gain is obvious so if you want the ultimate image quality from the PEN-F then High Res Shot mode is worth using – but remember, it only works on static subjects with a tripod-mounted camera.