Olympus has brought to the XZ-2 the successor to the XZ-1 on the market, which accompanied me in the last year as a replacement camera for a ruined on the journey GH-2 in the Far East. Had the XZ-1 quite significant deficits in image noise and the basic image quality above 200 ISO, promises especially the new image engine the XZ-2, which is the OM-D borrowed, but a serious improvement. Unfortunately, far from it. I have the XZ-2 directly with a Panasonic Lumix TZ 25 and an Olympus E-PM1 and a Canon S110 compared. The Panasonic with her again significantly smaller image sensor is in the achievable image quality at 200 ISO the Olympus XZ-2 hard to (differences are noticeable only when printing above 18x24cm). In comparison, the TZ 25 Although the fainter lens, but a much broader range of focal lengths, which is much more universal. From 400 ISO TC 25 falls towards the XZ-2 sichtbarab, but the image quality advantages of the XZ-2 fall considerably smaller from than hoped from me. Even when switched off noise reduction smearing a lot of details in the image of the XZ-2, only with the use of RAW, the pictures are a little better. The desired picture quality leap from minisensor the TZ 25 for larger sensor of the XZ-2 remains off, unfortunately, only the Oly E-PM1 (MFT sensor) shows here a very significant advantage in the detail resolution and noise performance. In addition, I noticed that the XZ-2-folding screen is very hakelig and unruly to open, Olympus has already done better (in other cameras). The camera is large and heavy for a compact, I would certainly accept even if they could then convince the image quality. But here she is back even behind a pocket compatible Canon S110, which is also considerably cheaper.
Outwardly makes the Olympus XZ-2 is a high-quality impression, convinced with relatively good processing (except for the hakelige display function), but in my opinion, can not meet the demand for a high-end compact in image quality. For what is offered is too expensive.
