Olympus XZ-1 Samples

The crops below show the performance of the Olympus XZ-1 next to the same ISO for the Nikon Coolpix P300
Nikon Coolpix P300. There are the only two compacts with dual control-dials and a bright F/1.8 lens. The XZ-1 uses a larger CCD sensor and its lens starts at a wide 28mm, rather than an ultra-wide 24mm. The ISO range on the P300 is 160 to 3200, while the XZ-1 supports 100 to 6400.

All images below are 100% crops from their respective cameras taken at the highest image quality available. All other settings were left at default values. These crops help determine which ISO sensitivities are acceptabe on each digital camera. As noise increases, cameras usually compensate with noise reduction which introduces softness. The point at which a print becomes unacceptably noisy is a matter of personal taste.

Olympus XZ-1	Nikon Coolpix P300
ISO 100	ISO 160
ISO 200	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 3200