Studio resolution: Olympus E-620   To measure and compare the Olympus E-620's resolving power we photographed the Enhanced Digital Camera Resolution Chart with it and a number of rival cameras, each using their best quality JPEG and default image tone and sharpening settings; RAW comparisons can be found lower down on this page. The lenses used were tested at every aperture setting and the best results selected for this page. Magnified assistance in Live View was used to confirm the focusing. The crops are taken from the converted RAW images, saved as High Quality JPEGs in Photoshop CS4 and presented here at 100%. Each number represents 100 lines per picture height (lpph), so a figure of 20 means a resolution of 2000 lpph.

In terms of resolving power, the Olympus E-620 delivers 2350 lpph of horizontal and vertical resolution when equipped with the Zuiko Digital 14-42mm kit lens. This score is a little higher than the Nikon D5000 despite having roughly the same total pixel count, because its pixels are arranged in a squarer 4:3 frame – so there’s more of them in the vertical axis, and here we're measuring lines per picture height. Interestingly we measured a slightly higher figure for the Panasonic Lumix G1 though which shares roughly the same sensor resolution.

The E-620's scores are however comfortably higher than the earlier E-520 which scored 2150 lpph when fitted with the same 14-42mm kit lens. The Canon EOS 500D / T1i scores slightly higher still, but is quite close because again we're only considering its vertical resolution here, which is only a little higher than the Olympus due to the frame shapes.

It's still a good result for the E-620 though in terms of technical resolving power, but has this increased pixel-density had a detrimental effect on noise levels? Find out on the next page in our High ISO Noise results page. Alternatively, scroll down to the bottom of this page where you’ll see whether shooting in RAW can extract a little more from the sensor.

We photographed our test chart in the E-620's RAW plus Large Fine JPEG mode, allowing us to directly compare images created from exactly the same data. Below are crops taken from the original JPEG file alongside the RAW version, processed in the supplied Olympus Master 2.11 software using the default settings.

Spot any difference? No, not us either. Despite a minor variation in brightness, the converted RAW file is once again essentially identical to the in-camera JPEG and shares the same resolution. Interestingly this is the same result we found with the earlier E-520, where RAW files converted using Olympus Master using the default settings were pretty much identical to in-camera JPEGs. Of course tweaking the settings may deliver superior results, and shooting in RAW still gives you greater flexibility when it comes to adjusting things like White Balance, but sadly we’re not seeing a boost in quality here with the defaults.

Now let's check out the camera's performance at different sensitivities in our Olympus E-620 High ISO noise results page.