Olympus XZ-1 review

Olympus has finally produced a 'serious' compact camera

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Olympus XZ-1
This is the first Olympus compact camera to feature one of the company's esteemed Zuiko lenses and boasts a maximum aperture of f/1.8

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As part of our review process we've implemented a new testing procedure. To test the Olympus XZ-1 image quality, we shot our resolution chart.

If you look at our 100% crops below or download the images and view the central section at 100% (or Actual Pixels) you will see that, at ISO 100 the Olympus XZ-1 is capable of resolving up to 22 (line widths per picture height x100) in its highest quality JPEG files. Examining images of the chart taken at each sensitivity setting reveals the following resolution scores in line widths per picture height x100:

test chart

JPEGs

ISO 100

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 100 Score: 22 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 200

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 200 Score: 20 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 400

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 400 Score: 20 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 800

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 800 Score: 18 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 1600

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 1600 Score: 14 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 3200

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 3200 Score: 12 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 6400

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 6400 Score: 12 (Click here to view full-res version)

Raw files

ISO 100 raw

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 100 Score: 22 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 200 raw

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 200 Score: 20 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 400 raw

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 400 Score: 20 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 800 raw

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 800 Score: 18 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 1600 raw

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 1600 Score: 18 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 3200 raw

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 3200 Score: 16 (Click here to view full-res version)

ISO 6400 raw

Olympus XZ-1 Review: ISO 6400 Score: 14 (Click here to view full-res version)

Angela Nicholson