Another factor, when considering the E-1 and E-300 is the Kodak CCD
sensor. CCD sensors are generally thought of as being noisier than
CMOS. That wasn't always so, but Canon kinda had some success there
and everybody associated CMOS as being superior. The development of
CCD came to a screeching halt and everybody shifted over to CMOS.
"CCD" was evil, "CMOS" was good.
While there are SOME inherent gains in CMOS, there are two specific
areas of advantage to CMOS which has made it possible to produce
lower-noise images. The on-chip noise-reduction is one, and the lower
power requirements are another. Lower power means less heat
generation. This second bit has been erased, though, as more and more
circuitry is being added to the sensor.
Back to the E-1, though, not all the noise is what it seems. Kodak,
with their imaging partners (Nikon, Olympus, Leica, etc.) added a
little bit of "special sauce" to the in-camera processing. To minimize
the bottom bit noise buildup and stair-stepping, "dithering noise" was
added to the image. This was done in-chip as well as in-camera.
Olympus cranked the dithering noise up a bit more because of the
blue's tendency to stair-step. More modern sensor designs have reduced
the issue with the blues, but the E-1 and the E-300 remain about the
only SLRs (Kodak DCS-14N being one of the others) that induce
dithering noise to equalize the shadow noise with the rest of the
image.
In other words, instead of just having bad stuff in the shadows,
Olympus/Kodak chose to make bad stuff appear everywhere.
This dithering noise is present at base ISO, and does appear to ramp
up with increasing ISO settings at a slightly lower rate. This means
that ISO 200 is about as clean as ISO 100 and ISO 400, while noisy, is
still very well behaved. I had misspoke earlier about the ISO boost,
though. ISO 800 is still using bias current offset, whereas 1600 and
3200 are ISO boost. ISO 800 is the highest "native" ISO in the E-1 and
the dithering noise is adjusted upward to still keep the shadows
matching the highlights in regards to noise levels.
Back in 2009, I had published the following test. I believe this is an
example of an image shot at ISO 100, but underexposed 5 stops. That
would be ISO 3200 equivalent with no bias current applied to the
sensor.
http://zone-10.com/cmsm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=474&Itemid=1
In 2010, I published a followup test, showing the extremes of pushing
and pulling of E-1 files. The point of both of these is just how well
behaved the shadows are in E-1 RAW files. Yes, the files are noisy by
today's standards, but for the working professional who needs to save
a shot at a wedding in spite of the fact that the flash didn't fire is
reassuring. You CAN'T do this with many cameras.
http://zone-10.com/cmsm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=493&Itemid=1
Finally, back in 2008, in response to all the hair-pulling about the
Nikon D700, I wrote this one about shooting the E-1 at high ISOs. All
the images were taken at ISO 1600. Again, compared to the
latest/greatest, it's obviously a few generations behind, but the
images remain malleable and very useful.
http://zone-10.com/cmsm/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=376&Itemid=1
Furthermore, these images were RAW converted back in 2008. I think
it's important to note that the latest version of ACR (Lightroom) is a
huge improvement in noise control over anything we had available in
2008. I've had great fun going back and revisiting E-1 images taken 10
years ago.
I'll probably be able to get the cameras out one of these evenings to
do some head-to-head tests.
Back to one thing I wrote in a previous response. It is very important
with the E-1 that you protect the highlights. The shadows are VERY
forgiving, the highlights no so much. I'd rather ETTR with the E-1,
but honestly, the best way to shoot the E-1 is nailing the midtone
exposure right smack dab at midtone.
AG Schnozz
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