The Olympus E-P1 is Coming: Time to Start Saving Nikon D5000 vs. Canon EOS Rebel T1i: ISO Comparison Redux

Three Different Cameras Interpret the Same Scene: Olympus E-620 vs. Nikon D90 vs. Canon 5D Mark II

3 comments

Posted by Patrick on Jun 8, 2009 in Cameras

Interested in cameras, photographers, and tutorials? Then consider subscribing to our RSS feed to stay up to date on the latest in photography related news at Neutralday.com

While it isn’t exactly the most convenient thing in the world, on rare occasions both of my current test cameras, the Nikon D90 and the Olympus E-620, along with my own personal camera, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, will all come with me for a photo outing. Typically it’s just one test camera, with perhaps the 5D2 in tow as a reference point, though the E-620 usually travels solo, it’s just too much of a shame to waste the fun of its small form factor with anything else. That said, for this test shot I brought all 3 cameras, set them all to f/8 and 28mm, with each also set to auto white balance. What I was curious about was how each camera would meter the scene, and to keep things easier and more inline with typical use, I set all to their “entire scene” metering options. For the 5D2 this is “Evaluative” mode, on the D90 it’s called “Matrix” metering, and on the Olympus E-620 it’s called “Digital ESP” metering. It’s important to point out that no exposure compensation was used on any shot, all cameras in their neutral picture style, and set to ISO 100. I’ll also mention that judging image quality isn’t fair here, given variation in lens qualities. Getting these waterfall shots is usually tricky, because it’s very easy to blow the highlights in the water. That’s exactly what’s happened with the Olympus E-620 here, and to a lesser extent the D90. In their defense both were recoverable quite easily in Adobe Camera Raw with a touch of the recovery slider. As for the 5D2, it managed to save all the highlights in this shot (certainly not always the case). For the record, all the cameras made it clear that some highlights may have been blown.

Forming an opinion is tough and entirely subjective, but there aren’t huge differences between the 3 in overall look, with just some minor variations in tone and WB interpretation. If I had to choose, I prefer the 5D Mark II’s depth but one could easily look like the other with just seconds in Lightroom or Photoshop.