The E-3 Dynamic Range and Noise

Dynamic range is the measurement of light that a camera can read between 0 black and 256 pure white. If a camera can only read 3 stops of light, nearly the whole scene will be either black or white. If a camera can read 10 stops of light we are reaching the level of photographer that we have in high-end film cameras, with the majority of highlights and shadows captured within the shot. Overall the E-1 did do a good job capturing the highlights and shadows, but it still is ways off from high-end film. The E-410/510 did a good job for consumer cameras, but still they were even further away from the goal than the E-1.
(stops of light test)

Within a camera, each photocell, or you can think each pixel within the camera is a cup, which holds light, and the smaller the bucket the less light it can absorb. So for the E-3 and L-10, what Olympus and Panasonic have done is reduced the wires used to connect each pixel to make a larger cup to absorb light. This equals greater dynamic range, and even less noise. In addition to that, within the last four years digital camera technology has changed at an astonishing rate. So just as the doomsday sayers said that the 4/3 system would never reach 10 Megapixels, Olympus with the latest generation of cameras has, and done it well.

As you can see because of technology changes even the light acceptor is larger on the E-3 than on the previous generation of cameras

The Chart above compares the Dynamic range of the E-3 to its competitors. This chart takes a combined average of R, G, B and Y (Luminious) channels.

With the E-3 the Blue channel was the weakest and brought the DR down by 1 whole stop. so at ISO 100 R/G/Y are around 10 stops, but the Blue is around 9 stops, so it averages to 9.88.. But overall for a "Small sensor chip" It does as good or better than its competitors. On the day that the E-3 went out for a stroll with the 40D I would say that that my DR was greater than the 40D. But we were shooting Raw. My guess is that this chart is with Jpeg's.

On all these charts click on the image and you will be able to download a PDF of the data.

Because of the smaller sensor, noise has been as big of a concern, or bigger than, Dynamic range. But as you can see the E-3 compares nicely to the competition.

Click on the chart for a 100% view of the target

Here is a comparison, basically I setup my GretegMacbeth chart, and while focusing on RGB, and White to Black you can see how the noise gets worse as it goes. From the one above I used mixed lighting. It was a combination of Tungsten, florescent, and even TV. Just to keep the camera guessing. As you can see at ISO 800 there are superb results, once you hit ISO 1600 it is not bad at all, but see my notes in the next shot. ISO 3200 you can use if you like noise. Also at ISO 3200 you can see banding (really I don't think you can do much with it, if I was shooting PR than it's fine though.)

Click on the chart for a 100% view of the target

This second shot, I took with my FL50R's set to Auto and manually compensated for the desired effect. I underexposed the ISO 1600 by 1/2 a stop, and then brought it back up in PS using levels. Basically you can see if you compare it with the previous shot, it does begin to break down with noise, but again ISO I would most of the time not worry about noise reduction on most of my shots, except in the shadow areas, where I often fix noise with even ISO 200 after I bring up the shadows a bit. At ISO 1600 though I would probably apply noise reduction globally. All of the above images were shot in Raw with 0 noise reduction applied. If you shoot Jpeg's many are reporting that they prefer the noise filter to be set for low, to avoid a plastic look. From my limited experiences with Olympus Studio or in camera jpeg's True Pix III did a very good job handling the the noise and dynamic range with the E-3.

Overall, I would place the E-3 as a very good camera up to ISO 800, and quite usable at ISO 1600. Within the blacks you will experience breakdowns at ISO 3200 so if you don't have to push it that far I would recommend you don't. (Not that I even shot ISO 3200 film or even ISO 1600 color film)

ISO Sensitivity -

ISO sensitivity shows how well a camera can absorbs available light, the higher the ISO the worst the noise tends to be. In addition now when a camera is set to ISO 100, often times it isn't truly ISO 100. For example in the photos below you have a Canon 40D, Nion D200 (I didn't have a D300 to test), and the E-3. At ISO 100 both the Nikon and Canon were nearly 1 stop darker than the E-3. So when I metered at 1/125 at f4.5 with the 40D and the D200 the E-3 was over exposed by 1 stop. So after we did the first round of testing, I pulled out my light meter and read it to be where the E-3 metered at. What does this mean? It can mean a lot, but at the very minimum if you use a light meter your camera needs to be close or else you will never be able to get everything spot on. The higher the sensitivity the less light it takes to take a photo. However, the higher the number the more noise is introduced into your exposure. However the screen shots really don't do the differences justice.

From the chart above it appears that the E-3 is closest to the norm.

White Balance -

Overal The E-3 has a very accurate external WB sensor, however at ISO 100 and 200 it shows the E-510 to be better. Really I find that hard to believe in real life settings. It was good but I feel like I had more shots with the E-510 that I had to correct the WB than with the E-3.

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