To measure and compare the Olympus E-400's purple fringing caused by lens chromatic aberrations and sensor
blooming, we photographed a test chart with areas of very high contrast
using it and a number of rival models.
We used the kit lenses at their widest and longest focal lengths with
the apertures wide open. The crops are taken
from the upper left corner of the chart and presented here at 100%.
Like the other kits tested here, the E-400 and 14-42mm lens exhibit coloured fringing at wide angle, but very little when zoomed-in to telephoto.
Olympus E-400
Using ZD 14-42mm
Canon 400D / XTi
Using
EF-S 18-55mm
Olympus E-500
Using
ZD 14-45mm
Panasonic L1
Using
Leica 14-50mm
14-42mm at 14mm f3.5
18-55mm EF-S at 18mm f3.5
14-45mm at 14mm f3.5
14-50mm at 14mm f2.8
14-42mm at 42mm f5.6
18-55mm EF-S at 55mm f5-6
14-45mm at 45mm f5.6
14-50mm at 50mm f3.5
Olympus E-400 macro comparison
To measure and compare the Olympus E-400's macro performance we photographed
a custom chart using it and a number of rival models with their kit
lenses.
Each camera was positioned at a distance and set to a focal length which
delivered the maximum possible reproduction.
The dark lines are 10mm apart and the result is not cropped. Smaller areas
are preferred in this test.
The image left was taken with the Olympus E-400 using the Zuiko Digital 14-42mm kit lens.
14-42mm at 42mm f8
Max area of 68x50mm
Like most DSLR lenses, the greatest macro reproduction was achieved with the lens zoomed-in to telephoto. There the Olympus E-400 and Zuiko Digital 14-42mm captured an area measuring 68x50mm.
This is fractionally bettered by the Canon kit lens, but is comfortably superior to both the Leica 14-50mm and the Zuiko Digital 14-45mm lenses.
