Olympus XZ-1 Samples

The crops below show the performance of the Olympus XZ-1 next to the same ISO for the Nikon Coolpix P7000
Nikon Coolpix P7000. These cameras have a large sensitivity range, starting at ISO 100 and going up to ISO 6400. They are advanced fixed-lens digital cameras with larger-than-average CCD sensors and dual-control-dials to operate their manual controls. The most significant difference between them is the lens which is much longer (7X vs 4X) on the P7000 but does not have a bright aperture (F/2.8 vs F/1.8).

All images below are 100% crops from their respective camera taken at the highest image quality JPEG setting available. ISO, aperture and white-balance were set on camera. Other settings were left at their default values. These crops help determine which ISO settings is acceptable on these cameras. As noise increases, most cameras compensate with noise reduction which introduces softness. The point at which a print become unacceptably noisy is a matter of personal taste.

Olympus XZ-1	Nikon Coolpix P7000
ISO 100	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 6400

Although until ISO 400 differences between these similar sensors are minimal, the P7000 starts taking the lead at ISO 800 by retaining more fine details. Its lead increases slowly after that until it can claim at least a one stop advantage. Coincidently, that lead is similar to the gap in maximum aperture beween these two models, at least on the wide-angle side. This means that under similar circumstances, these cameras will produce images of similar quality.