Portraits & Skin Tones
We shot some samples of Caucasian skin tones in the studio. Our subject has a fair, redhead (Irish) complexion - never an easy target for any camera, digital or film. This is also an interesting glimpse at how the cameras are positioned in the market.

Skin rendering is the most consumer-oriented aspect of a cameras processing. If it’s important that point-and-shooters like the camera, you’re going to see nice, rich, warm tones that are not necessarily accurate, but pretty. (Sound systems do the same thing; a system for an audiophile is going to be accurate, while one for a teen market is going to have big bass and empty midtones- what they like to call “pretty noise”.)

Here’s where we see some big differences

Olympus E-P1

The Olympus shoots a great rendering. We’re seeing all of the tones, from the warm cream tones all the way into the shadows, avoiding the unpleasant magenta cast we used to see commonly in digital files. This is a camera firmly pointed at the point-and-shoot market.

The Nikon tested very accurately on Imatest, but here, it’s not so pretty.
 

Nikon D5000

We’re seeing a general “graying” of the tones. Although the detail, color, and contrast are being held in the RAW file, the JPEG is just not, well, nice. This is probably the best example of color accuracy not being preferable to “pretty” rendering.

Canon T1i

The Canon hits square in the middle of the other two; it's not quite as snappy as the Olympus, but prettier than the Nikon.

All this can be addressed by adjusting the picture styles in-camera; however, the out-of-the-box JPEG performance clearly favor the Olympus E-P1