Olympus PEN E-P1 Comparative Crops

The Olympus E-P1 is compared to its closest competitor, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1, and a recent DSLR the Pentax K-7
Pentax K-7 to illustrate the compromise in having a smaller form-factor interchangeable lens camera. To see how such a camera compared with a fixed-lens camera, see the comparative crops for the Panasonic GF1. The images below are 100% crops from each camera set to a fixed ISO, repeated for each ISO setting. The GF1 does stop one short with a maximum ISO of 3200 instead of 6400.

The Olympus E-P1 turns in an impressive performance, producing low noise and detailed images that almost match the DSLR. There is probably less than 1/2 a stop difference between those. Although there are reasons to believe the EP-1 and the GF1 use the same sensor, Panasonic has much more heavy-handed noise-reduction which cause its images to loose sharpness as ISO is increased. In terms of noise we can see that the Olympus EP-1 stands its own quite well even when compared with larger-sensor cameras.

Colors are somewhat over-saturated in this shot and a bit too yellow but this can be toned down using the camera's image settings. There is certainly little to reproach of EP-1's image quality in terms of sharpness and exposure though.