66%
Highly Recommended
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66%
Highly Recommended
Reviewed:
Jul 2009
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After a carefully constructed teaser campaign Olympus officially launched the E-P1, its first Micro Four Thirds camera in June 2009.The E-P1 is a compact mirrorless interchangeable lens camera that mimics the styling of the company's Pen range that was popular in the 1960s and 70s. The camera is built around an image-stabilized 12 megapixel sensor and incorporates a 3.0"" LCD, but lacks a built-in viewfinder of any sort, or a flash. Arguments will continue to rage about the E-P1's relatively conservative feature set and performance but few could find any serious fault with its image quality, which is easily as good as most SLRs at a similar price point. Yes, it's fractionally noisier than the best APS-C models (particularly if you turn the noise filter off to get the maximum detail), and yes, the dynamic range isn't as good as the very best-in-class cameras, but honestly we're splitting hairs here. Our overall impression of the E-P1's image quality was and remains overwhelmingly positive.
| Quick links: | Announcement | Review | Sample gallery 1 | Sample gallery 2 | Sample gallery 3 | Forum |
| Announced: | Jun 16, 2009 |
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Average rating:
4.45
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Opinion: The dream has come true. Perfect image quality in a compact package.
Problems: None.
Opinion: Hi all, the e-p1 control colour very well until iso 3200 without desaturation still very usesable until iso 6400 but depands on exposure condition. The autofocus is a bit slow due to the live view. Natural look LCD screen. Value for money. Better than my sigma dp1. Best compact i ever seen. Must own!
Problems: A bit rough & noisy even iso 100. Average speed autofocus, Canon G10 has a better speed AF. Must buy extra battery. Lack of built in flash.(but lucky no built in flash, if not battery drain even faster)
Tks Cheers!
Opinion: Pros :
Beautiful design and very well built.
Very good image quality, close to that of consumer DSLR's.
A LOT of custom settings and creative possibilities.
Cons :
Slow AF, slow start-up.
Clunky & non-intuitive menu layout.
Lack of optical viewfinder turned out to be a bigger problem than I anticipated. Composing at arms-length just doesn't feel the same as looking through a viewfinder, resulting in snapshot-style pictures.
Olympus Master 2 software is a joke.
Problems: None
Opinion: I've shot 400 photos with this camera now. I'm not all that thrilled. The images are extremely noisy at almost any ISO. Using AUTO ISO gets very odd results (ISO 400, Shutter 1/250, f11). Why not lower the ISO? The focus is not very good either. Maybe I'm not used to Contrast Detection, however, it is simply not that sharp. My "other camera" is a Canon 5D Mark II with "L" lenses, so maybe I'm hyper critical, however, there needs to be something done about the fact that the only viewfinder available is for the pancake lens, and outside, you cannot see the LCD so composure is next to impossible. I think it would have been possible, and at the same cost, to have a hot shoe based EVF with a small/short wire and a plug (to the side of the camera) so that you could use a true viewfinder if you wanted. But that's just me....
I'm going to take a serious of true test photos under all sorts of light tomorrow. If I don't see improvement, I'll ship it back. Right now, I'm very disappointed. By the way, I bought this because of the "cool retro look" - I really didn't need it!
Problems: I'm not sure if this is normal, but I find it odd, and I can't find an explanation in the manual. While you have to hold the "unlock" button to put the zoom lens in its' home position, you do not need to do this to pop it out. I find this odd. Otherwise, all seems well.
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 | 22.3 megapixels 3.2" screen Full frame sensor |
