e5, e30, 5dmkII jpeg comparison

John Mason · Oct 21, 2010

The Canon shot is 637x637
The Oly small crops are 461x461

covering the same area. This is due to the resolution difference between 12mp and 21mp covering the same area.

Dpreview lets you expand the Canon crop a bit, but the Oly crop is already full size for the number of pixels. Just right click them and download them, then full screen them if you want to pixel peep that much.

The only way I could 'fix' them is to upsize them after the crop.
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

Palden · Oct 21, 2010

look forward to some additional images/tests/thoughts from you at some stage.

P.

CollBaxter · Oct 21, 2010

I will start off by saying I am getting a E-5 to run a E-30/5 combo as it will make the perfect combo for me.

I have noticed in the first set of shoots that the E-30 although noisier does seem to have better texture. The E-5 is a lot cleaner but looks a bit smoothed over and although sharper and cleaner looks a bit to smooth . Maybe it’s what I am used to but the E-5 looks a bit clinical (canon’ish) . The canon is well the canon and enough praise has been heaped on it on this site but it also looks clinical.

It looks like with all the noise clean up a bit of shadow detail has been lost.

My thoughts on the pictures.

Thanks for showing.

P.S. it’s good to see these real like comparisons as it show us that the older equipment (e-30) is not half bad.

--
Collin

http://www.pbase.com/collinbaxter
http://collinbaxter.zenfolio.com/

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. (George Carlin)

Ulfric M Douglas · Oct 21, 2010

Thanks for posting john.

I'm quoting these three again for a reason : to my eye the e-30 is distinctly inferior here, as if the other two are in another class above.

John Mason said:
These are crops near the center from the same 3 shots posting and the beginning of this thread btw.

e5

e30

5dmkii

--
John Mason

In tests like this, or resolving ability the e-5 is excellent.

Would it be possible to get hold of an e-pL1 with a good lens/adapter and take more shots? (As far as I know the e-pL1 has the best Olympus sensor/processor before the e-5)

Patflan · Oct 22, 2010

Thanks for the effort.

msusic · Oct 22, 2010

Hi John.
Good effort here, but I think you're doing something wrong.

First - ORF -> JPEG conversion using Oly software is not yet optimal for E-5, you can get better results using Photoshop (just rename camera to E-30 in the exif -> click on the photo and change values using Widows Vista or 7).

Then, import those fake E-30 files in CS5 and set sharpness to radius 0.8, amount 40 or so (experiment with what looks best to you).

I don't think other adjustments will be necessary, but you'll get most detail and cleanest looking image that way, more so than in JPEG/Olympus conversion.
Colors won't be the same, but for detail comparion pupores it will do.

John Mason said:
In camera Jpegs

Default settings
Live View - camera focus as opposed to manual focus - self timer delay
Auto WB as the 3 cameras picked it
Manual exposure - all 3 cameras at ISO 200 - f5.6 1/5 sec

Interesting jpeg file sizes -

e30 4.5 mp
e5 3.55 mp (lower noise or lower jpeg setting?)
5dmkii 14.6 mp

Lenses
14-35 at 25mm for Olympus
50mm f1.2 L for Canon

Lots of variables so not really for conclusions, just for fun and my own edification.

Note - 5dmkii pic was too large for dpreview so I scaled horizontal resolution to 4096 to get it to fit.

Interesting interpretations for color, exposure. E30 colors were a bit muted compared to the real quilt, e5 was closest, 5d was too bright and colors are off (reds rendered with an orangish cast, etc).

--
Cheers,
Marin

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

Our local best buy has one. I'm planning on replacing the e-p1 when the next upgrade comes along. It would be interesting. I suspect the epl1 would be very close.

And, yes, the E30 is a clear step below in ultimate resolving power.
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

The E30 jpeg engine settings were set a step higher. I found (finally) where in the E5 menu the super fine jpeg setting is. But in this test the E5 was just set to fine. You get a better idea of the ultimate clarity with the cropped raw processed shot where the JPEG engine settings are not relevant.

--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

I have 3 raw converters that support the E30 and they rendered the results in resolution in a similar fashion as Oly Viewer 2. The loss of detail the E30 has is probably the stronger AA filter. I tried a variety of unsharp mask settings as well. There just isn't as much detail in the E30 to bring out as the other 2 cameras.

It would be interesting to try a different raw converter with the E5 to see if anymore can be snagged out.

But I'm planning on getting LR 3 anyway and I'll try your suggestions, but I'll be surprised if there will be much difference.
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

I'll have some results tonight using your suggestions
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

Dan · Oct 22, 2010

Thanks John...sounds good.

If you get a chance I'd be interested in one long exposure with your widest (hope you got the 8mm!).

Take it outside at night and f2.8 or up one stop and 30 seconds at ISO 3000...ideally you're in a dark spot and we can see the noise vs stars and milky way.

Dan

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

that test should bring out the noise!

Longer exposure night shots has never been a strength of Oly vs Canon in my stable. The E5 is due for another test in that regard.

It was a very bright moon last night and very clear. I'll see what I can do tonight.
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

Not seeing where I can tweak the orf file to trick lightroom
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

no improvement so not bothering to pop it up.

What's posted is E30 with viewer 2, but I also tried the other raw converters I had and now also tried LR3. It is fundamentally not as sharp as the E5. That's a good thing actually.
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

msojka · Oct 22, 2010

This test would be very helpful, John. I'm considering 5D MkII for it's better long exposures since I do landscapes mostly. I'm not very satisfied with the performance of E-30 sensor in this area.

Anyways, thanks for great insights

--
Martin
http://flickr.com/photos/msojka/
E-30 / 9-18 / 12-60 SWD / 50-200 SWD

msusic · Oct 22, 2010

When you open a folder with your images, click on the image you want to change and then on the bottom of the window, you will have major exif data shown, and then just select the text field which says "camera model" and change to E-30 from E-5.

Example

John Mason said:
Not seeing where I can tweak the orf file to trick lightroom
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

--
Cheers,
Marin

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

not much point in reprocessing jpegs when the jpegs are from raws

I don't see any exif info on the orf files to edit. Probably need to do a low level editor to change that which is what I had to do with raw files when the e-p1 came out.

that might be a useful experiment. But I'm not seeing anything magical with LR that goes beyond what I'm posting on cameras it already supports.
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

msusic · Oct 22, 2010

Hi John,
You can change properties yourself even in ORF.

If you can't find it, email me E-5 ORF and I'll convert it to JPEG using PSCS5 to see how it compares with Olympus Master/Viewer.

--
Cheers,
Marin

John Mason · Oct 22, 2010

I see the exif editing no problem on Jpegs, but on orf's no similar options or detail appears in either vista or windows 7 for me. I wonder if at the operating system level the shell modifications to make these options show up are not present on my workstations. When I did this before on Orf's for the E-P1 I renamed them to pretend they were e620 raws which worked pretty well till native support was added. But I used a low level file editor to do it. (byte editor in other words)

If that doesn't work, I'll shoot you an email. Do you have a size restriction? I run my own email server (as a vm one room away) so I don't have size restrictions. Would you like the e30 and e5 orfs?

Downloading the trial on LR I'm reminded of why I still hate it so. But if it has advantages for raw conversion I'll be interested anyway.
--
John Mason - Lafayette, IN

http://www.fototime.com/inv/407B931C53A9D9D

msusic · Oct 22, 2010

You can send it to my email, no worries.
Here's a sample I did comparing the two

--
Cheers,
Marin

e5, e30, 5dmkII jpeg comparison

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