Comparison of Olympus E-P1 and Sigma DP2

A few days ago I bought an Olympus E-P1 with 14-42mm knowing that soon the rumors of a new camera in the PEN line would be laid to rest by an announcement from Olympus. In fact, the official word came just over a day later.

The price was good, just under US$500 for body and kit 14-42mm lens from a previous owner who had put about 400 clicks on it in five months. Warranty still virgin. Not caring about in-body flash, I am happy with the choice.

To give you the perspective of this report, I have a Sigma DP2, and image quality is priority one. When there is enough light, the DP2 produces marvelous images.

Too many times on overcast winter days I fought to hold the DP2 steady at a sadly long shutter time. Or, on aperture mode, I pushed EV down for shorter shutter time, hoping to get something not too dark.

Hence the plunge for the E-P1. It has in-body stabilization unlike the Panasonic GF1. It is not so light hungry as the Sigma DP2.

Olympus stabilization is amazing to a Sigma user. Shooting landscape with the Sigma, I get blur at 1/30 and 1/40 second. I get stable images at 1/4 second with the Olympus. In addition to IBIS, something else may be operating here: the Olympus with lens weighs 20 ounces versus 13 ounces for the Sigma. Weight and perhaps different pressure needed to depress the shutter may mean less movement of the Olympus when pressing the shutter.

An image comparison

As expected, the best DP2 images have more depth of color, sensuous color variation, and an indescribable texture not obtained from the E-P1. When trying to capture a really beautiful bit of nature, the DP2 is superior - but for many shots, especially those that are about content or message, both cameras give excellent quality.

The DP2's inferior resolution will often render background foliage as mush. The E-P1 does not.

The E-P1 images seem to need and accept more aggressive sharpening, within the confines of restrained sharpening in general. Start from a raw file in Picture Window Pro, it typically takes radius 1, amount 90 or 100 percent. With a DP2 raw file, the amount is 30 to 60 percent. (Both of these are PWP Advanced Sharpening settings, more refined than typical sharpening.)

Here is a scene shot with both cameras.

The Olympus image from a slightly modified JPG out of the camera:

The Sigma image from a slightly processed raw file:

For a variety of reasons this is not a well-controlled scientific comparison. For one thing, these are downsized JPGs. For another, I find it difficult to make the Olympus ORF raw file better than the out-of-camera JPG. Perhaps over time that will change. Any hints, folks? The camera was set for Natural Picture Mode modified by contrast -1, saturation +1, and sharpness +2.

The Olympus camera did not fix the blown highlight near the tip of the memorial torpedo. I tried adjusting brightness curves, but I found no quick fix.

The Sigma has more dynamic range, hence less of a problem with that highlight area.

The colors are not really comparable, since there are Olympus camera adjustments, and I boosted the Sigma saturation and pulled down the blue a bit. Still, I see a richer color tonal spectrum in the Sigma image . This is not the best image to show off the Olympus, which often produces brilliant colors, although sometimes brittle, too, if that makes sense.

The better resolution of the 12MP Olympus is clear over the 4.6MP Sigma. Yes, those are full-color Foveon pixels on the Sigma, but they do not count for three times as much; more like Bayer 7MP.

Enough from a five-day user of the E-P1.

Sky looks nicer on Foveon. Otherwise I see no drammatic differences in pictures.

Really debated over comparison.

Thanks for sharing your results oh this! I think that what we have here is absolutely comparable in terms of IQ results at web size.

Just to add from myself I see a bit better glass from the Sigma on these, center to edge sharpness is clearly perfect, while there is a bit softness at the edges even at web size in the Oly shot. Also I would expect a bit better DOF (if needed) from the Sigma due to the larger sensor and good prime lens with perfect "sensor diagonal to focal length" ratio, when wide open it gives BG bokeh and DOF more like a Leica 8 than like a m4/3.

Thanks for sharing!
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Yanko Kitanov
Янко Китанов

Thank you for posting the pictures.

I do agree with what said about the colors of Olympus, I would add they are festive but a little bit brittle to my eyes.

Colors of Sigma look more relaxed , they are the colors of the world I would like to live in.
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'Life is something that happens to you while you're making other plans'.
M. Millar

Not like it'll ever happen, but getting that Foveon sensor with a m4/3 mount and IBIS would be really nice ...

Yeah ... I'll just keep dreaming ...

This will be a Leica killer LOL, really I mean it!
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Yanko Kitanov
Янко Китанов

Sigma's up-sized shot is actually better, at least for the given crop. It has more detail and damn it looks like it actually has comparable absolute resolution in the real world(unlike the studio tests). And the DR is a totally different story, which once again should be better on the panny if we trust the studio comparison tables and charts (and we don't LOL )
How did you upsize this crop - bicubic smoother or just bicubic normal, or?
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Cheers!

Yanko Kitanov
Янко Китанов

Thanks! It's amazing. I guess below ISO800 the Sigma stays just as good as the m4/3 when upscaled and better in 4MP and smaller sizes( for screen, web, A4 or smaller prints)

This was the last drop for me. I am buying the Sigma for sure. Only I'll go for the 40mm as I love this FL in terms of composing and also like to take street portraits.

Is the DP2 glass faster than the DP1(I know the cam itself is a bit faster, but the glass is more important to me as I shoot MF anyway), or they will both need for example ISO200 where the panny can go with ISO100?

Thanks again!

Cheers!

Thank you once again for your thorough advice!

The downscaled shot of the m4/3 shot looks good in the first link, still the second link is much better to my eyes(it's just personal preference) I agree that the panny pancake is just great glass.

I have a little lower budget although, so the DP2 from amazon for $540 is the best bargain I found, I might even have budget left for a small Metz bounce flash for it.

Cheers!
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1/25sec. and thats all...anything can fit in it

Yanko Kitanov
Янко Китанов

The Sigma has completely failed to resolve that Mini you can see in the G1 shot

Nick

seattlesteve wrote:

If I understand you correctly, given good lighting you'd choose to shoot with the DP2? I feel like there might by a DP2 in my future. Thanks again for posting.

You'll see any of the Foveons often described as "light hungry", they really need good light to show off their best results. On the other hand, when you give them that light, the results, both in detail and color, are stunning.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigmadp2/page19.asp (more detail than Sony A330)

Here's DPR's studio raw comparison between the E-P1 and the DP2:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigmadp2/page17.asp

DPR: "... even in a large print it seems unlikely that the extra pixels on the Olympus sensor would give you any advantage."

The letdown is the rest of the camera. It's a cranky, quirky, spoiled little brat and it has more than its fair share of faults. Sigma owners are just willing to put up with it because we are that much in love with the image quality (or we're just touched in heads, depending on who you listen to).
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sigmadp2/page23.asp

seattlesteve wrote:

If I understand you correctly, given good lighting you'd choose to shoot with the DP2?

More or less, yes. The image quality of the DP2 is the major thing, almost hypnotic at times.

In real life, though, which camera do you carry? Light conditions change suddenly. For a couple days I carried both in two pockets of a jacket. For a couple of days only!