Our Verdict
I really enjoyed using the Olympus XZ-1. It handles nicely and has all the settings and features an enthusiast photographer would want. The much talked about f/1.8 lens is great in low light and creates a shallow depth of field, although it does distort at wide angles. That said, many compact cameras suffer from lens distortion at short focal lengths and most manufacturers correct this in-camera.
Despite being able to resolve a good amount of detail at lower sensitivities, images really start to suffer the effects of noise and noise reduction once ISO 400 is reached. Kept at this sensitivity or below, the XZ-1 is a great high-end compact camera if you plan to use it for travelling, but don’t expect to be making large, detailed enlargements from the images it produces.
It is great to see Olympus adding such a model to its line-up, and I look forward to seeing the next few generations of the XZ series. Hopefully, the image quality can be improved, maybe even with a simple firmware update. But for now the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 remains the compact camera of choice for the enthusiast photographer.
Olympus XZ-1 Our Verdict: Score – 81%
