Dynamic range
Having a smaller compact camera sensor, the Olympus XZ-1 has, of course, a more limited dynamic range than a DSLR, and as a result highlights are quite easily burnt out. At the darker end of the scale it is possible to brighten shadow areas but, due to the noise this causes, little detail can be resolved.
This makes photographing high-contrast scenes a real battle between whether to exposure for the highlights or the shadows.In a more general scene with less contrast, the dynamic range is
obviously far more forgiving and by tweaking the shadows by up to 1EV it is possible to recover some detail without introducing too much image noise.
Olympus XZ-1 Dynamic range: Score – 8/10
