Some e-420 landscape shots + other stuff

[Raist3d]

The landscape are at Vasques rocks...







Full gallery:


VasquesRocks2

[Raist3d]

Those wondering about SAT + DR:

(yes, it's crooked)

[keepright]

Congratulations on your new camera! I'm liking the photos, how are you liking the camera?

[Raist3d]

I like it quite a bit and enjoy it taking it out more than the E-3. I sold my E-3 recently.

As for IQ & DR- I posted in another forum it's about 0.4 to .6 (2/3rds) more DR than the e-410/e-510. It's on par with the E-3 on DR at the low ISOs.

The processing is close to the E-3 but I would say the E-3 still has a "something" that makes it more '3d/high quality' particularly once you hit ISO 800 and up. The e-420 is close though and at low ISO is really close and has some of that 3dness too.

The e-420 has numerious tweaks and improvements over the e-410, it's hardly just a "tiny revup." All those things add up.

- Raist

[alert_bri]

Hi Raist, it's funny - I regard the E-420 as having an E-3+ sensor - slightly sharper detail, but it could be that I rarely shoot at the higher ISOs.

Looks like you had some fun with those landscapes, which lens did you use?

Kind Regards

Brian

[Raist3d]

Originally Posted by alert_bri

Hi Raist, it's funny - I regard the E-420 as having an E-3+ sensor - slightly sharper detail, but it could be that I rarely shoot at the higher ISOs.

I honestly think the E-3 is better in both processing and sensor. ISO 3200... and there's just "something" they do... the e-420 is close indeed... I am trying to pinpoint what exactly they do...

Looks like you had some fun with those landscapes, which lens did you use?

14-54mm, with polarizer. I really want that pancake to come out so I can shoot with a prime for a lot of stuff. I have been mulling buying the PannyLeica F1.4 instead though...

Kind Regards

Brian

[Ellie237]

Hmm, they're nice. They're the first pictures I've seen from the E420

[alert_bri]

Here are some of mine from this afternoon... hope you don't mind me sharing here Raist? I disagree about the E-3 having anything magically better than the E-420







Kind Regards

Brian

[SecondFocus]

Great photos Brian, very impressive!

[alert_bri]

Thanks SecondFocus, the E-420 is a fabulous landscape camera imho - and I find a superb ZD quality zoom lens to be invaluable for composition in the field.

Kind Regards

Brian

[Raist3d]

Originally Posted by alert_bri

Here are some of mine from this afternoon... hope you don't mind me sharing here Raist? I disagree about the E-3 having anything magically better than the E-420

No, don't mind. I like the flower but I find the composition off. The 3rd is my favorite one and I like it quite a bit. Nice "lines" / diagonals and nice contrasts going on.

As for the E-3, well, some people believed the e-420 had the same sensor and we know how that turned out to be (*pinch pinch* )

Here's a couple of shots that hopefully express my point on the E-3. The last is out of focus a bit.

This is an ISO 800 shot:



What I find striking of this shot is the tonality, the colors and the detail, how it held in that situation. At ISO 800 the e-420 would have come darn close to this but I feel there's a subtletly in the color/detail that the E-3 picks up.



The following one is a bit out of focus but of interest is that it is an ISO 3200 shot in quite difficult lighting:



And now for a dramatic psycho crop of it:



The interesting thing to note here is the grain. At ISO 1600 I find the e-420 grain a bit coarse or as coarse as the ISO 3200 of the E-3 (and perhaps a bit coarser). AT ISO 1600 the E-3 seems superior to me.

That said, the e-420 is indeed fantastic and the low ISO's are really hard to tell apart form the E-3 in general. Also of course, the only fair thing would have been to take the same shots with both, but I don't currently have that luxury, but I have taken many shots in similar situations in low light and the E-3 just seems to be it would do a better job.

The E-3 shots in general seem to "pop out" more to me, though again the e-420 is not bad by any means.

Anyhow, just my opinion from my experience using both cameras. Of course, I ended up hating the E-3 in the end... but I'll still give it credit where I think it's due.

- Raist

[alert_bri]

Hi Raist,

Originally Posted by Raist3d

As for the E-3, well, some people believed the e-420 had the same sensor and we know how that turned out to be (*pinch pinch* )

I don't know, how did that turn out? I haven't seen anything definitive... only an opinion that it's the same sensor as the L10 - although I haven't seen any problems with moire fringing.

Don't work too hard... have a great weekend.

Brian

[Raist3d]

Originally Posted by alert_bri

Hi Raist,

I don't know, how did that turn out? I haven't seen anything definitive... only an opinion that it's the same sensor as the L10 - although I haven't seen any problems with moire fringing.

Olympus Japan's team lead engineer said in an interview that the e-420 is a new sensor from the ground up. Different form the E-3, different from the e-410, different from any other Olympus camera. It's not the E-3 sensor, and it shows when you go to higher ISO.

That said, all my assessments of the e-3 outdoing the e-420 in high ISO are in jpegs, so maybe the e-420 does indeed behave like the E-3's, but the jpeg process/pipeline of the E-3 is more refined at the high iso's.

As for being the same of the L10- keep in mind the moire doesn't have to do with that- that's just the AA filter and that's easy to "pick and choose" assembly wise. So having moire or not doesn't have anything to do with using the L10 sensor or not.

Also let's keep in mind that Olympus before has always said "like the E-3", "similar to the E-3" which does not equal "same as the E-3."

Don't work too hard... have a great weekend.

Brian

Thanks man. I got a couple of snaps to post that show the new highlight retention of the e-420... hopefully tonight later on.

Also I think I got a shot last night, we'll see.

- Raist

[Paul Shields]

Interesting examples Raist. One thing I notice in the 100% crops is the 'bittiness' that I initially found in the E-3. Are these JPEGs straight out of camera? I've found that shooting RAW suppresses these quite a bit, and the noise is very easy to deal with.

[Raist3d]

Originally Posted by Paul Shields

Interesting examples Raist. One thing I notice in the 100% crops is the 'bittiness' that I initially found in the E-3. Are these JPEGs straight out of camera? I've found that shooting RAW suppresses these quite a bit, and the noise is very easy to deal with.

They are out of the camera except for a crop. Not sure what you mean by bittiness (i.e. it looks digital?). I set the sharpness to +1. the e-420 runs like the E-3, soft. The e-410 runs by default hyper sharp

- Raist

PS: more shots to come

[Paul Shields]

Yeah, I mean you can see the sharpening artifacts. They look just like those on the E-3. It's like a mosaic effect. I've found turning sharpness down to -2 removes them, and you can then control the sharpness with more finesse via whatever editor you use.

[alert_bri]

Hi Raist, may I nip in with one from this evening? just before sunset :

E-420, 1/250s f/6.3 at 14.0mm (28mm EFL) iso100


I save as full size, sharpness 0 from Studio, then finish in LightZone, reduce and apply final sharpening for the web before saving as jpeg.

Kind Regards

Brian

[Raist3d]

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