High ISO Shooting with Olympus PEN-F

If you have not read my full review on the newly launched Olympus PEN-F, kindly read Part 1 and Part 2, as this blog entry serves as an extension to my earlier review series. 

I have noticed several complains about my photographs, especially those taken in low light conditions and used as samples in my blog review purposes. These complains claimed that I was shooting in favorable lighting condition which was not representative of actual practical camera use in real life shooting circumstances. Further to that, I was accused of intentionally showing the good side of the low light capabilities of the camera by only showing good looking images. These good looking, clean high ISO images taken with Olympus cameras in my review entries could not be replicated by them in their own shooting in difficult lighting. 

Before I go on, let me make something clear here: if the lighting is crap, not matter what you do, no matter which camera you use, no matter how powerful your camera's high ISO capability is, you will still produce crap images. Lousy lighting produces lousy images, no matter how bright or how dim the light is, that is just a universal rule of photography, and a huge part (some even say the most important part) of photography is to understand, and know how to use good lighting in photography. When I shoot for review purposes, why would I want to show lousy images? My images may not be award-winning or "national geographic" worthy, but with my own best effort and ability I will make super sure that I do my best and use the camera to it's best potential. Why would I expect less from myself? 

Of course I can go on and on writing down my reasons and justifications on what I do here, and why I do things in certain ways, but that would be unnecessary and I feel no need to defend myself further. What I am more interested to do is to bring the camera out and get some shutter clicking action done. And that was what I did precisely, with the intention of pushing the ISO to it's boundaries. 

I have brought the Olympus PEN-F and shoot in some of the shittiest lighting conditions I have encountered. No, I am not trying to prove anything here, in fact there was no agenda here. I already knew what to expect from the image output of PEN-F, I have done exhaustive tests before. I am providing a whole blog entry of high ISO samples, and I know there are people who do want to have more of such samples to look at. 

From my previous reviews, I have concluded that the highest ISO setting I would go to is 6400. At ISO6400, PEN-F still produces good amount of details, while the default JPEG engine suppresses almost all traces of chromatic (color) noise, leaving visible, but not destructive luminance noise, which added structure and overall "sharp" look to the image. In fact, the image does appear clean, if you do not zoom into 100% close up view. 

1/100sec, F2, ISO6400, 12mm F2 lens

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1/25sec, F6.3, ISO6400, 12mm F2 Lens

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1/8sec, F4, ISO6400, 45mm F1.8 lens

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1/30sec, F3.5, ISO6400, 25mm F1.8 lens

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1/160sec, F2, ISO6400, 12mm F2 lens

1/100sec, F2, ISO6400

If you look closely at the EXIF data, the ISO numbers were used necessarily. For the Aquaria KLCC shots in the underwater tunnel walk area, I needed high enough shutter speed to freeze motion, as all the creatures were swimming, not slowly. Even at 1/100sec shutter speed, there was motion blur recorded, but to me, that was ok, because this particular test was not about camera or lens sharpness, it is high ISO testing. Do bear in mind I was shooting through a very thick glass which may have reduced the overall image sharpness and contrast. Nonetheless, I found ISO6400 to be the minimum ISO required for this shooting condition. 

Oh and you have to admit, shooting in a near underwater condition with overpowering blue colour cast, this was perhaps one of the shittiest lighting condition encountered. Not only was it dim, the colour balance was completely off. Thankfully the PEN-F's JPEG engine successfully rendered realistic looking images. 

The subsequent set of images other than those taken at the Aquaria were taken at super dim locations inside Starhill Gallery, KL. If you have been to Starhill, especially the lower ground, dining area (where all the extremely expensive restaurants are), you will know how dim the walkways were. They have probably the worst lighting condition of all shopping malls in KL, so why not torture the PEN-F there?

OLYMPUS NOISE FILTER

Olympus JPEG has excellent processing to get rid of noise. In fact, it successfully cleans off almost all chromatic noise, which is quite an incredible feat, while leaving good amount of useful details in the image. In the camera, there are 4 levels of Noise Filter settings that you can choose (applicable to all Olympus cameras). One thing I did differently for this blog entry, was setting the Noise Filter to LOW. I usually would set the Noise Filter to OFF for my review purposes. Since I have completed my review, for this extension I decided to use LOW, because, lets face it, a little bit of software noise reduction does go a long way of producing cleaner, better looking image. 

I shot all my images in RAW and processed them in Olympus Viewer 3 (Version 2). 

Here are my recommendations:

Noise Filter OFF

Highly recommended for ISO1600 and lower. Maximum sharpness and fine details are well preserved. At higher ISO settings, eg 6400 and above, high traces of luminance noise is present, and I believe many pixel peepers would cringe at the sight of that. Not me though, I am perfectly fine by leaving the noise filter OFF. Since I am not most people, I cannot speak for the general crowd. 

Noise Filter LOW

Highly recommended for ISO 3200 and above. The noise is reduced, images appear smoother and cleaner, but still retaining high amount of good detail. There is very little loss of sharpness, and this setting is the best balance of noise filtering and maintaining sharp image. I think most people would agree with this setting for high ISO shooting with Olympus cameras. 

I used Noise Filter LOW for ALL images in this entry. 

Noise Filter STANDARD

For those who will bleed out from their eyes after seeing high ISO noise, this setting will go easy on you and your vision. Noticeable and significant compromise on overall image sharpness, you will lose plenty of fine detail, but if that is not important to you, then go for STANDARD. 

Noise Filter HIGH

I see no reason to use this setting unless you want to turn your images into oil painting. 

If you intend to process the RAW images in Lightroom or Photoshop, or any other post-processing software, make sure you know what you are doing. I do not. So I rely on Olympus Viewer 3, and Olympus' already excellent JPEG engine. 

1/25sec, ISO6400, F2.8, 25mm f1.8 lens

Quick comparison of all the Noise Filters. For High ISO Shooting, I highly recommend Noise Filter LOW. 

1/40sec, F4, ISO3200, 25mm F1.8 lens

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1/60sec, F7.1, ISO3200, 25mm F1.8 lens

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1/20sec, F8, ISO5000, 12mm f2 lens

I have shared several times about tips on shooting high ISO images with Olympus camera. Here is a quick summary: 1) never, ever underexpose your images, and make sure you get the exposure right while shooting. 2) do as minimal post-processing as possible to your high ISO images, the more you manipulate the image the more deterioration your image will suffer 3) check your focus and make sure your shot is steady. always, always watch your shutter speed 4) always favor better lighting condition, if any way you can improve your subject's lighting, eg standing at a different position with better light falling on the subject, do it!

No matter what happens, always remember, your photograph will only be as good as the lighting condition. In poor lighting, do not expect miracles, even with the most advanced and powerful camera out there. Let me tell you a short story. My friends and I had a rare, and awesome opportunity to meet a celebrity photographer who traveled all the way to Malaysia. To commemorate that occasion, we took a group photograph. We were in a dimly lit hall, the light was tungsten. At ISO6400, Aperture wide open of F2.8, the shutter speed required for a properly exposed image was 1/40sec. We compared cameras, and decided to use the "supposedly" best high ISO camera (full frame) at that time. The shot did not turn out well. I would love to show you the image here but that will cause unwanted bloodshed and perhaps, created war with the said camera brand's die-hard fans. I certainly do not wish for that to happen. My point is, no matter how amazing the high ISO capabilities of the camera, you cannot change the quality of the light. 

My solution to that problem earlier with the celebrity photographer? Bounced flash off the ceiling, with much, much lower ISO setting (ISO1600 would do the trick). 

Now this brings me to another frustration that I have had for some time: so many people are expecting their cameras to perform miracles! If you do not already know, you do not expect your camera to create the magic in photography, you have to be the one to do the magic. A magician does not only rely on his technical tools alone, he has highly trained skills, innovative ideas and immense amount of passion for his craft up his sleeves. 

1/40sec, F6.3, ISO8000, 25mm F1.8 lens

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1/50sec, F2.5, ISO8000, 12mm F2 lens

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1/20sec, F4, ISO12800, 25mm F1.8 lens

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1/125sec, F2.8, ISO12800, 25mm F1.8 lens

1/13sec, F5.6, ISO8000

1/80sec, F1.8, ISO10000

It was an exciting weekend, shooting with the PEN-F once more. I still wish that the new 20MP image sensor shows more improvement in High ISO shooting. Nonetheless, I also admit that, for my own shooting purposes, the PEN-F is more than sufficient to deliver great images, confidently. Having a cap (my personal judgment, your tolerance may vary) at ISO6400, with availability of F1.8 prime lenses, and not to forget, with the help of that amazing 5-Axis Image Stabilization, the PEN-F is no slouch at all. 

I have shown you plenty of image samples. So do share your thoughts!

Olympus PEN-F is available from B&H here. 

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