Compared to...

Studio scene comparison (higher sensitivity)

As well as shooting our studio test scene at each camera's lowest sensitivity we also shot it at ISO 800 and 1600. All of these cameras use some degree of noise reduction and or sharpness reduction to keep noise in check, however the Canon EOS 350D manages to keep the cleanest image with the most detail. The E-500's new noise reduction filter ('with NF' below) does a good job of reducing the visibility of chroma noise artifacts at ISO 800, but as we can see more at ISO 1600 this is at the expense of detail. With or without the NF option the E-500 looks softer than the EOS 350D and E-300 at ISO 800 or 1600.

ISO 800

Olympus E-500	Olympus E-500 (with NF)
Canon EOS 350D	Olympus E-300

ISO 1600

Olympus E-500	Olympus E-500 (with NF)
Canon EOS 350D	Olympus E-300