During the days of film, we use to go crazy over new high ISO film speeds. We would talk about pushing the film by a stop or two to see if the grains would hold up. Needless to say the question of High ISO has been long in the tooth but people seem to misunderstand the relevancy of such things in the Micro Four Thirds system.

When you go out to buy a camera, shooting at a high ISO is often the most important consideration. This should not be the case for more casual users who often shoot in daylight. Product segmentation has always been adopted by camera manufacturers to tell the difference between low end models and high end models. For the Micro Four Thirds system, the High end model is the Panasonic GH-1, and this is determined by the larger sensor used in this particular model.

Why sensor consideration is important is that manufacturers have a tendency to package each camera differently with optional or more features without really raising the bar of the sensor performance.

Price difference is small too, but final street price will depend on country

For example, let’s look at the two models in the entry level range, the GF1 and the EPL1. Both perform similarly as you can tell from the DXO lab report, there is a slight difference in low light handling and Dynamic Range. So if you are choosing a camera based on high ISO capability, you could of course take the Lumix over the Pen but the difference is negligible. This clearly points out that high ISO capability isn’t really going to differ that much if you are choosing one manufacturer over the other. So what manufacturers do is to package them with the sort of features you may wish to use. Another factor that is often overlooked is the use of in-camera stabilization. This will greatly affect the price of upgrades if you are thinking of owning more than one lens. Lenses which have built in motion stabilizers will cost more and this is a fact. Of course you can freely use Olympus and Panasonic lenses on both these systems but there are also slight differences. For example Panasonic has added CA (Chromatic Aberration) correction into its camera firmware (the software contained within the camera which gives it the functionality) to correct color fringing. This color fringing can be seen when you have subjects with very sharp color contrast. So this will be manifested if you use a Lumix lens on a Olympus Pen camera. But before you jump to any conclusions, let me assure you that it is not that bad. Often, these fringing will only appear when you start to blow up images to poster sized prints. Generally it is not noticeable in smaller prints or in web use.

Likewise, Lumix lenses with built-in stabilizers will not work on the Pen camera as such stabilizers will have to be triggered by camera firmware. Since all camera companies keep their firmware proprietary, there will not be a chance of gaining an extra two stops should you use a Lumix lens on a Pen body.

The use of such in-camera and in-lens stabilizers is another way to deal with the question of High ISO as shooting in low light situations such as building interiors or night scenes. For such scenes, the lowest allowable shutter speed will be sufficient to capture the ambience and character of a place without blurring the image when hand holding the camera However this type of stabilizing option is not a solution if you wish to freeze moving subjects in low light.

The right sensor will get things done in High ISO. This can only be the GH-1

A subject in motion needs a high shutter speed to capture or freeze motion, this cannot be done with a low shutter speed in low light. So if you are going to be shooting moving objects in low light, High ISO becomes very important. Compared here are the two cameras, the GH1 and the EP2, as you can see the EP2 is a notch below the GH-1 in terms of Dynamic range and Low Light handling. The Pen EP2 is still marginally better than the GF1 by comparison.

The fact is that sensors do matter and the GH1’s sensor says it all. All the rest, be it the EPL1, GF-1 and Pen EP2 are using the same sensor and the marginal difference among them is attributed to the firmware that pushes the camera a bit more. In recognizing this, any consideration for a High ISO must be compared with similar sensors for the best judge of performance. There is no point in judging the marginal difference between one camera to the other if they are using the same sensors. Furthermore from the indicative price, the EP2 is more expensive to own whereas the GH1, which is about a year old now, has come down significantly in price and is a great buy for the performance it offers. There are rumors of a GH-2 coming out but that said, the sensor will be the same as the GH-1. Personally I do not see much image performance enhancements in such cases but there will be a significant change in the amount of ease of use features like touch screen and navigation. That said, it may be an attractive consideration for casual users but serious amateurs will not fall for these as there is really no significant improvement in image quality.