Photography News Issue 39

Photography News | Issue 39 | absolutephoto.com

Camera test 55

Performance: ISO

ISO 200

ISO 800

TheOlympusOM-DE-M1Mark II’s ISOspans ISO64 (low) to 25,600.When carrying out my ISO test I shot indoors where there was a lot of artificial lighting as well as some natural light coming from a window behind the miniature arena that was my subject. I set my aperture to f/8 and shot in aperture-priority mode, working my way up the ISO settings. Starting at the low ISO setting of 64 the images are perfectly clear and free fromnoise, and it isn’t until ISO 1600 that we start to see a slight bit of grain in the images. Moving on up to 6400 the noise starts to become more evident, with it increasing much more at ISO 8000. Finally at the top end of ISO 25,600 we can see that the noise has dramatically increased, with much of the detail within the image lost. Shooting with an ISO of around 1600will give some noise, but its texture that can be easily removed in post-processing without impacting your images too much. If required, I’d happily shoot at 1600 and maybe even higher, but would aim to stay below 6400.

ISO 1600

ISO 3200

Original image

ISO 6400

ISO 8000

ISO 16,000

ISO 25,600

Right The Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II performed well with noise only becoming evident at around ISO 1600. Noise was obvious by 6400 with a more dramatic increase from 8000 up to 25,600.

Comparison: Mark II vMark I

TheOlympusOM-D E-M1 Mark II’s ISO

Original image

ranges from64 (low) to 25,600

E-M1

E-M1 II

Above The OM-D E-M1 Mark II’s higher resolution sensor gives bigger prints without interpolation; 17.2x12.9in at 300ppi, which compares with 15.3x11.5in from the Mark I. The shots above were taken at ISO 200 with the 12-40mm f/2.8 lens at f/8 and enlarged to give the same image size. At ISO 200 the difference isn’t great but the benefit of the new sensor is more apparent at high ISO settings.

Left Bird of prey portrait taken with the Olympus M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8 lens. ISO 320, 1/160 sec, f/1.8.

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