Olympus PEN E-P5 w. VF-4 Hands On Preview

Olympus is introducing today the new flagship of their PEN line, the PEN E-P5. This camera is not meant to surpass the E-M5, which has been the best mFT camera from Olympus but also belongs to another line, OM-D. However, Olympus has incorporated most of E-M5´s features into E-P5 and made some of them even better. 

Mr. Toshi Terada presenting the E-P5 to European press last month. (These presentations are the culprit of leaks like we have seen again with E-P5. Journalists and ethics...)

New PEN E-P5 is faithful to the orginal PEN F in styling. Even the size is practically the same in all three directions.

Maybe the subject line should have been first impressions. I have tried a pre-production E-P5 shortly, but then only to get those first impressions. There and then I did not take any images with me to see on computer screen because I was supposed to have an E-P5 to test in the beginning of this week. Sadly test sample shipments to Europe were postponed to next week... So, now I write about how I see E-P5 compared to OM-D E-M5 and shortly about those first impressions with camera in hands. I´ll write more after I have checked how certain features are working in practice

How is E-P5 compared to E-M5?

Technically E-P5 is roughly E-M5 minus EVF and weather sealing but with a built-in flash. As E-P5 is a newer model by a year, many features are enchanced. Here´s the list of main features compared to E-M5:

- Same sensor and processor

- New extended ISO setting LOW, which is ISO 100.

- New shutter with 1/8000 second as the fastest speed. (Equal to best DSLRs. With ISO 100 combined possible gain towards shallower DOF in bright light is 2 aperture steps compared to E-M5.)

- Shorter shutter lag: Normally 50 ms. In release mode ”Short” with IBIS off: 44 ms. (Equal to best DSLRs. Increases power consumption slightly.)

- Same 5-axis IBIS, but now with automatic detection of panning. (No need to change into special IS mode as with E-M5. Live View is also stabilized, of course.) 

- Same AF, but now with option for smaller AF points. Olympus calls it Super Spot AF. Smallest spot at 14X magnification is 1/70 th of diagonal screen length. Besides this there is also same smaller AF point as introduced in E-PL5.

- Fastest sequential shooting with AF (AF-C + Tr) is now 5 fps, and E-M5 equal 9 fps with IBIS off and AF locked to first frame.

 

- Similarly two control dials, but now complemented with a 2x2 Dial Control which doubles the functions of dials. (Example: In 2x2 Dial position (1) control dials may be for adjusting Aperture and Exposure compensation. Switching 2x2 Dial to position (2) changes control dial functions to WB and ISO. These are configurable.)

- Similar menus with same highly customizable controls.

- Start-Up is now 0.5 sec. (Fastest in mirrorless cameras. Fuji X-E1 has the same as limited feature.)

- Histogram can now be displayed during Live Bulb Shooting for assistance in adjusting the exposure.

- One-push (configurable into Fn button) switch between normal shooting and AE bracketing.

- 3.0”, markedly sharper, 1.04 million dot LCD touch-panel with fingerprint resistant coating. It is tiltable in the same way as in E-M5.

- Flash sync time for built-in flash 1/320 s.

- Mysets can be configured into Mode dial like in E-PL5.

- Same BLN-1 battery, but number of shots is up to 400 from 360 with E-M5 according to CIPA/Olympus test standard.

- Metal body with no visible screws except in the bottom plate.

Completely new features:

- New optional hi-res viewfinder VF-4. (See below.)

- Built-in WiFi with smartphone (iOS and Android; Olympus Image Share app) connectivity and interactivity. (See below.)

- Focus Peaking on MF Assist with black or white accent. Peaking can be configured to Fn button.

- Photo Story (as in Olympus XZ-10 to create template based photo montages in-camera on the go.)

-  Automatically generated time lapse movies with interval shooting function. Up to 99 shots to make a max. 10 second movie.

Other:

- Three colors: silver, black and white.

- Limited premium model with wooden grip.

- Premium accessories: Leather Camera Bag, Leather Body Jacket and Leather Strap.

Not available:

- Weather sealing.

- Optional extra grip. (Lack of extra grip is something I discussed with Mr. Toshi Terada and expressed my opinion for the need for such extra.)

Lenses:

- Now M.Zuikos 17mm F1.8, 45mm F1.8 and 75mm F1.8 will be available both in silver and black as regular options and both colors have same price.

Built-in WiFi

When the WiFi button in the upper left of the screen is touched, a private connection screen with QR code will appear. Read the camera´s QR code with a smartphone. Connection will start and smartphone shows thumbnails of all the images on cameras memory card. Easy. Images can be loaded to smartphone and shared from there.

Camera´s playback screen has also a share button. Touching share button adds share icon and these images can be viewed in smartphone with a one-time connection. Touching send button sends images. Afterwards camera can be turned off, if needed, via smartphone.

Wireless shooting via ”Touch AF Shutter”

This is a remote control function where camera´s Live View monitor can be displayed on a smartphone. By touching image on smartphone screen you can autofocus on subject and release shutter. There are two restrictions: E-P5 itself cannot be operated while connecting to WiFi and the only available shooting mode via WiFi is iAUTO.

GPS via WiFi

Another feature of built-in WiFi is transferring the GPS log acquired by your smartphone as geotags to photos in camera´s memory card.

Electric viewfinder VF-4

At the same time with E-P5 Olympus is introducing a new hi-res electric viewfinder, VF-4. It has a 2.36 million dot LCD panel, which is again markedly better than 1.44 million dots in E-M5 or VF-2. VF-4 shows 100% field of view and has 1.48X viewfinder magnification. Eye-sensor is now included in VF-4.

VF-4 is hinged in the same way as VF-2 plus it has locking pin to secure it to hot shoe.

VF-4 magnification compared to other cameras as 35mm camera equivalent magnifications: Nikon D7100 0.61X; Canon EOS 7D 0.62X; Panasonic GH3 0.67X; Nikon D800/D4 0.70X; NEX-7 0.71X; VF-4 0.74X; Canon EOS 1DX 0.76X.

This new EVF has big optics which means also sharp and distortion-free image up to the corners. Looking through VF-4 made me quite happy.

More technical stuff: Image display time lag is 32 ms, eye sensor switching time lag 0.4 s. VF-4 will be compatible with earlier Olympus mFT bodies with an upcoming firmware update for each body. And yes, VF-2 and VF-3 are compatible with E-P5.

Photo from back shows how big the eye piece is. Also eye sensor is visible here. VF-4 has practically the same measurements as VF-2, it only looks boxier. 

Hands-on

When OM-D came, shooting with it felt cramped until I got horizontal grip. That was because I was used to shoot with E-P3 and VF-2. VF-2 sits higher on E-P3 than OM-D´s EVF relative to shutter. Horizontal grip on E-M5 moves right hand slightly forward, adjusts wrist angle and corrects the right hand position, at least for me. Now with E-P5 and VF-4 everything felt very natural. Thumb rest gives support and both dials are easy to use when camera is on eye. I only miss a somewhat bigger grip than E-P5 has now. It would support fingers when camera is hanging with wrist strap.

VF-4 is a big improvement, literally. Viewfinder image is so big, nice and sharp. The difference was most obvious when I raised my E-M5 on eye again.

That´s all I can say for now. Shooting technique with E-P5 plus VF-4 is not really different from shooting with E-M5 because of similar configurability. More on this later.

Olympus E-M5 plus 17mm F1.8 lens. Key West, Florida, USA, 2013

Personally

Of course, with E-P5 plus VF-4 the technical quality or even style of my images would not change in practice compared to E-M5. For me E-P5 is not really different from E-M5 there. The difference is in seeing through camera, the experience. VF-4 would help in focusing and precise composing. This would definitely be the biggest helper and change here. Related to this, the shorter shutter lag would help with VF-4 when composing things which are moving in viewfinder area. These are the most important improvements over E-M5. 

Of other features I would pick ISO 100, but the image quality and possibly limited DR must be seen first. Also every now and then doubling of dial functions by 2x2 switch, 1/8000s shutter speed and automatic panning detection could be handy. I would not miss weather sealing but the missing extra grip is worth complaining. And again, that´s just me, my preferences.

Compared to any previous PEN, E-P5 plus VF-4 is a huge improvement.

The next OM-D 

For some of us E-P5 actually moves our expectations to the next model in OM-D line. I know pretty much what will be the big highlight of this body. Quite obvious to everyone seeing E-P5 should be that the next OM-D series model goes well above E-M5 in features. Incorporating VF-4 should be just one of them. And that is all I can say now...

Prices in Europe and availability

E-P5 body = 990 €  /  E-P5 + 14-42mm zoom kit = 1099 €  /  E-P5 + 14-42mm zoom + VF-4 kit = 1249 €  /  E-P5 + 17mm F1.8 + VF-4 kit = 1449 €  /  VF-4 = 279 €. These will be available during the lastter part of June. There is no E-P5 + 17mm F1.8 kit like some rumor sites have speculated. 

-p-

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Hands-on Preview

Olympus has today introduced their new m4/3 camera line, OM-D, and its first body, the E-M5, and a bunch of accessories including two new lenses. 

Some time ago I had the first chance to try this new camera. At that time there were only two E-M5 cameras in Europe and everything was very hush hush. I was not allowed to take the camera out of that conference room. Also it was a pre-production sample, which are useless for real testing. Anyhow it still was possible to try handling the new camera and get an impression of its new features. This blog tells what I see as interesting in this new camera. If you read me using expressions like better or markedly better, they are based on experience with E-P3 + VF-2. Right now I have no hard test or comparison data of anything. I will have a production sample in about two weeks to really shoot with E-M5.

Size

As you can see in these two pictures, E-M5 is small. It´s a lot smaller than at least I would think when looking at Olympus product shots. At 121 x 89 x 42mm it is smaller than E-P3 + VF-2 combination in EVERY dimension. Below is a comparison of E-M5 with Olympus OM-4, E-620 and E-5.

Construction

E-M5 is built around a magnesium alloy body. The body is dust- and splash-proof to the same standard as Olympus E-5. Red lines in the image above show the layout of sealing parts in body as well as in the optional landscape and portrait grips. Right now E-M5 is the smallest dust- and splash-proof body among all interchangeable lens type digital cameras. The pre-production body I tried felt solid and well made, but these samples are not always up to production standard. This body had a couple of buttons that were said to be not as final.

EVF

E-M5 viewfinder has the same 1.44M dot (800x600 RGB pixels) resolution as Olympus VF-2. Olympus doesn´t tell who is the manufacturer but my guess is that E-M5 has the latest version of the panel type used in VF-2. 

A new feature is the possibility to have all info collected below the image. Info field can have a blue background like here or everything can be against black. This image shows only a small fraction of possible information. Because of info field, the image will then be smaller. Here black shows the whole viewfinder area and image proportions has been chosen to be 3:2. Now image magnification is 1.0X (50mm lens). With native 4:3 setting image magnification is 0.92X. You can also fill the whole viewfinder area with 4:3 image and then image magnification is 1.15X. All the info is now superimposed on image with the same general layout as with E-P3 + VF-2. Of course you can also turn all info off. Field of view is of course 100%.

Viewfinder optics is new. It was easy for me to see the whole area sharply even with my glasses. New optics allows also a wider diopter adjustment range between -4 to +2 diopter. Eye point is 18mm at -1.

Frame rate has been doubled, it is now 120 fps. You can also choose the old 60 fps. According to Olympus, the absolute color quality of viewfinder image is better at 60 fps. There and then I couldn´t really see any difference. The real difference is 120fps giving you a lot smoother experience with moving subjects and while panning. 

Another improvement with moving subjects is a markedly shorter refresh time of EVF. E-M5´s new TruePic VI image processor has separate processors for saving images and LiveView. Now EVF seems to be on almost all the time. According to Olympus, the lag is shortened to 29ms.

Stabilized EVF is another real breakthrough. Viewfinder image is always stabilized when in body stabilization (IBIS) is on. Always means here also video and with every lens. This means a marked benefit when using long focal lengths, shooting macro and using magnifications with manual focusing. Viewfinder stabilization actuates when you press shutter button halfway down.

EVF has now an eye sensor. When you move the camera to your eye, the image is displayed on the EVF. When you move the camera off your eye, the Super Control panel is displayed on the backside monitor. You can have the backside monitor to display the image by pushing monitor button on the right side of EVF structure. 

EVF is not tiltable. You can use Olympus (4/3) angle finder with E-M5. You can also take off accessory port cover and add a VF-2 on E-M5 and have a tilltable EVF. The combination may be funny looking but totally functional. 

16MP Live MOS sensor

E-M5 has a new (for Olympus at least) 16MP sensor instead of the 12MP sensor used in E-P3. It might be the same sensor as in Panasonic GX-1 or not. Olympus doesn´t tell. Comparing some specs from these two cameras makes me think the basic sensor could be the same. But there is lot more to a sensor. Olympus is now using a version of their ”Fine Detail Processing” technology which was introduced in E-5. That is an implication of E-M5 having a thin low pass (AA) filter which is good for sharpness. Olympus is using their ”Real Color” technology which is related to used RGB array. E-M5 is reading the sensor at up to double speed compared to previous cameras and that has benefits in fps rate, continuous autofocus and video quality. 

Testing a production camera will tell the truth about sensor related to image quality. Right now I can only say that IQ will be better than with E-P3. Olympus speaks about highest sensitivity, lowest noise and widest dynamic range in their E-series. ISO range is now 200 - 25600.

Five Axis In Body Image Stabilization, IBIS

The newly developed 5 axis IBIS unit is a huge element compared to E-M5´s volume. I have outlined it here with red. It contains also Olympus SSWF sensor cleaning unit. I have not seen the units or pictures of them side by side but I think this structure is some three times as big as the one in E-P3. IBIS unit forces EVF electronics situated above EVF, which together with accessory port dictates the height of EVF box.

This is the first and only 5 axis image stabilization in interchangeable lens cameras. Those five stabilized movements are shown above. So far Olympus IBIS has been able to compensate for pitch and yaw. Canon has in some lenses also a stabilizer capable of compensating for horizontal and  vertical moves. Roll compensation is not possible at all in an optical stabilizer. According to Olympus, this new IBIS system is effective for up to 5 full EV steps. They had the same claim for E-5 IBIS but it was effective for a lesser amount of camera movements.

IBIS works with all lenses and this new MSC type IS is as good for video as stills. Olympus says that the new IBIS removes rolling shutter effect ”dramatically” from movies. Also it stabilizes the video if you walk during shooting. 

FAST Autofocus

FAST AF is Olympus´ name for their AF system, F.A.S.T. being an acronym for Frequency Acceleration Sensor Technology. Olympus claims E-M5 AF being the fastest AF system in intechangeable lens cameras.

For single shot AF, S-AF, the focusing speed should be roughly the same as in E-P3. It is based on the same 120 fps readout from the sensor as in E-P3. Maybe new algorithms and new processor make it even faster and boot response time is shorter. Couldn´t tell because Olympus MSC lenses focus so fast also with E-P3.

For continuous AF (C-AF) and AF tracking (Tr) everything is changed. Firstly the system reads video signal from sensor at double speed, 240 fps. Turning camera around and from far to near and back with C-AF on, showed that the camera keeps staying focused significantly faster than E-P3. TruePic VI has a new and separate object tracking unit just for calculating subject movements. It should give a ”vastly improved” predictive AF, as Olympus puts it. The system is based on face, color and pattern recognition. It can calculate movements, not only in changes in horizontal and vertical movements, but also in the rate of change in object size. That means 3D Tracking AF. Continuous, 3D tracking AF works up to frame rate of 4.2 fps. This will be one of the most interesting features to test later!

I know many 4/3 system users are disappointed to hear that C-AF and Tr do not work with 4/3 lenses. Only S-AF is available. I did not try S-AF speed with any of 4/3 lenses.

Manual focusing is a lot easier with stabilized EVF. Enlarged view options are 5X, 7X, 10x and 14X.

Sequential shooting

There are two mode settings for sequantial shooting, L and H.

L: 3,5 fps; or with IS OFF 4.2 fps. Buffer capacity is 17 RAW images. In JPG shooting there is no buffer limit.

H: 9 fps (IS and C-AF OFF). Buffer capacity is 11 RAW or 17 JPG images at best quality.  

Video

Video recording has now MOV, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, as a new recording format. It is Full HD with 1920x1080, 60i. Sensor output is 30 fps, recording 20 Mbps. Maximum recording time is 29 minutes. Video is stabilized by IBIS as told above. There´s no more need for software stabilization. The true effect of Fine Detail Processing, Real Color, reduced rolling shutter and removal of aslant jaggies in movies will be seen later.

Built in microphones are on the sides of EVF box, as can be seen in the image below. They have wind noise reduction.

Configurability and handling

In this example I have Aperture priority chosen on the left, like I normally do. In basic use I would set aperture with main dial and exposure correction with sub dial. Shutter button is in the middle of sub dial. Autofocus is mapped into Fn1. This makes handling very easy and I can keep the camera on my eye all the time. Most of the time there is no need to interrup shooting because of camera. 

With E-M5 at factory settings, pressing Fn2 and rotating main/sub dial would call and make active in EVF any of functions: highlight/shadow control, white balance control, magnification control and aspect control. You can do all these adjustments on the fly while keeping on shooting. But the again, Fn2 and many other buttons are configurable. So, what will be my final configuration for E-M5 button functions and dials is still open.

E-M5 is a small camera. Its handling qualities can be changed with optional grip set. Landscape grip (HLD-6G) and portrait grip (HLD-6P) change E-M5 into a different kind of tool. Landscape grip can be used alone with camera. Portrait grip only with landscape grip. Landscape grip has its own shutter button and sub dial. Portrait grip has the same plus main dial. It also has Fn1 and Fn2 buttons which can be configured to be the same as the ones in camera body or something different. Portrait grip has one battery slot. You can choose which battery is used first. Two batteries can give around 650 shots. DC-IN jack is included for operation with AC adapter AC-3.

Body with HLD-6G landscape grip seen from above shows the difference in right hand grip size. I like a system camera to have more grip than E-M5 does, so I think this is going to be my normal setup with E-M5.

GS-4 Wrist Strap is another accessory to complement grips.

E-M5 has a 610k dot, 3” OLED monitor which can be tilted up to 50º downward and up to 80º upward. This OLED monitor is a touch screen. It can be used as a Live Guide or for choosing focusing spot (also with 5, 7, 10 or 14X magnifications) and releasing the shutter. After shooting it can be used for playback with sweep gestures.

Live Bulb and Live Time

With E-M5 Olympus is introducing a new feature to set exposure and expose an image. They call it Live Bulb and Live Time. It is maybe best understood if you think about fireworks. You press release button once and shutter opens. You can see firework going up but now you can see it´s fiery path developing in OLED monitor. You watch the firework explode and grow bigger in monitor, and when you like it best you press shutter button again to close the shutter. Now, you actually have seen and know what kind of image you got! Only OLED monitor can be used here, not EVF.

There are still some technical limitations which mean what you see is not totally live. The monitor can´t be refreshed faster than every half a second. Also the number of refresh counts is limited to 25 (ISO 200). This means that with half a second refresh rate your exposure time is limited to 13 seconds. The maximum exposure time is 30 minutes with slowest refresh rate. All these parameters can be set in a menu.

Flash

E-M5 comes bundled with a small flash unit, FL-LM2. It has GN 10 at ISO 200. This flash is dust- and splash proof, the above image showing sealing parts. FL-LM2 includes commander function for wireless flash control.

Olympus is also introducing another new flash unit, FL-600R. GN is 50 at ISO 200. It has a video LED light below flash head. Video light can be used as focusing aid in still photography.

New lenses

Yes, the list goes on and, at least for me, here´s one of the most important news. Olympus introduces two new prime lenses:  M.Zuiko ED 75 mm 1:1.8 and M.Zuiko ED 60 mm 1:2.8 Macro.

75 mm lens has the same beautiful metal finish as M.Zuiko 12 mm. It is a very interesting combination of reach (corresponds to 150 mm in FullFrame 35) and speed.

60 mm Macro is dust- and splash-proof. As seen in the picture above, it offers life size 1:1 images at its nearest focusing distance of 0.19 m. Focus limiters are on the left side of barrel. E-M5 new IBIS should be quite a combination with this lens, I hope.

Bits, pieces and price

A couple more accessories: 

• MMF-3, dust- and splash-proof adapter for 4/3 lenses.
• Interchangeable eyecup EP-11

E-M5 has new battery, BLN-1 at 1200 mAh. 

There´s one new art filter, Key Line, and one new sound effect for video, Echo.

I will not reproduce all the minute details here. All the specs can be read at Olympus web sites.

As pictures have shown, there will be black and silver versions of E-M5. Faux leather surfaces differ, and silver is complemented with a traditional pattern and black with a more techno pattern. Cameras will start appearing in shops in April. Europrices around: 

• body (including bundled flash), 1100 €
• body (including bundled flash) with M.Zuiko ED 12-50mm, 1300 €. 

Conclusion

 

What more can I say than being really interested in E-M5 as camera which has a promise to go well beyond E-P3 capabilities in so many aspects. Olympus is addressing EVF and AF usability issues in action shooting which I have critized in my previous blogs. I really am not an action shooter but every now and then E-P3 can not keep up with my pace. These new IBIS features are so important for me, I have already done 99,9% of a lifetime´s tripod shooting. I like E-M5´s smallness combined with Olympus system thinking.  Being able to make one small body to adapt into many purposes is tempting. How good it really is for my photography will be seen later when I get a production sample. Two weeks... Hi-yo, Silver!

-p-

Olympus E-P1?

Olympus OM-1 was my first real camera in the 70´s. It was perfect for me and my shooting style evolved with it. Olympus XA came to complement it for cases where a small, unobtrusive camera was better suited than SLR. In my personal shooting I have never really grown out of the world of these two cameras.

I guess it´s no wonder I have a special attitude towards Olympus even though I have not used any Olympus camera for a decade. XA left also a wide gap in my shooting. No digital pocket camera has been a photographers camera like it. I have tried many, not really liked any of them, even though Panasonic LX-series had already some good features. Also Leica M8 had some ingredients for me but it´s price/size/image quality ratio was not that good. In every Canon Europe Round Table meeting I have been, I have presented my wishlist with a digital XA as my number item. With no effect - so far.

Four thirds

Olympus with a bunch of other manufacturers presented a new camera system already in 2001. They called it with an awkward name: Four Thirds. This comes from 4/3 inch sensor in camera. I was attending Photokina 2002 when Olympus and Kodak made lots of noise (also literally) of system and it´s first camera, Olympus E-1. Same Photokina saw also announcement of Canon Eos 1Ds, a full 35mm size DSLR. Four Thirds -system´s sensor has an area of one quarter compared to 35mm size. There was a huge promise of smaller equipment. But for me it seemed that camera bodies and lenses would really not be as different in size as sensors. One indication was that flange back (distance from bayonet to sensor) was not better than 40mm, while with Canon it is 44mm. This 4mm advantage did not look then too significant, and it has not turned out to be that even later. What was important was that image qualities between these systems were quite different in favor of 35mm size and it has never been getting closer - on the contrary. So, I did not get the point of Four Thirds then nor ever after that.

Micro Four Thirds

Six years later, last year, Olympus and Panasonic presented a new standard which is based still on 4/3 inch sensor size. This Micro Four Thirds system throws away optical view finder and mirror system that it necessitates. Now flange back is halved into 20mm. This is now a huge benefit regarding camera and lens sizes. This system allows small and really high quality wide angle, standard and small tele lenses as well as zoom lenses starting from wide angle focal lenghts. Longer tele lenses are not affected by leaving mirror out. At the same time optical view finder must be replaced by electronic view finder (EVF). These have been really lousy so far in still cameras. Digital cameras with a longer zoom lens have had  EVFs which have been outright useless leading users to shoot looking at back LCD. That is not the best way to shoot with longer focal lengths.

This timing for m4/3 system was no coincidence as panel technology is right now reaching a breaking point for cameras. The first camera for Micro Four Thirds, Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1, had already a very usable EVF. Not yet what we are used to in 35mm optical view finders but clearly EVFs are maturing. It´s really only a question of price: how much photographers are willing to pay for a high quality EVF? Electronic view finders have several noteworthy benefits compared to optical view finders as such. When we combine this and afore mentioned size and quality potential, m4/3 has suddenly changed into a really interesting compromise of size and image quality.

4/3 and m4/3-systems have the same sensor size but no Mirror Box means smaller camera bodies and makes possible smaller and better lenses. Lenses of older system are still usable, because they can be used with an adapter. m4/3 system accepts in principe any system camera lens regardless of make and size. You only need a corresponding adapter between lens and body. Images Olympus.

Breakthrough in camera technology

This move from 4/3 system to m4/3 system is a foretaste of what will happen with other camera systems. The difference between view finder and mirror cameras will disappear. Big players like Canon and Nikon are contemplating their strategies of shifting into EVF system. They have to, otherwise fast eat the slow. These manufacturers have the luck and bane of huge lens and accessory systems. Luck, because a photographer with a considerable amount of lenses is slow to move into any new system. Bane, as they can not afford to make their old systems obsolete overnight.

Olympus Pen E-P1

After this long-winded intro I´m finally getting to the point. Olympus marketing has been building hype around a ”new Pen camera” all spring. What Pen? Are they bulding a camera for senior citizens? Even I am not old enough to have ever shot a single frame with film era Olympus Pen. I can´t understand Olympus, and this kind of marketing has raised no interest towards their new camera in me. For God´s sake, this should be the first of a totally new system for them, not a remake of some rattletrap.

Olympus E-P1 has been intresting for me because it´s should be the smallest system camera that can be built around 4/3 sensor today. It materializes small size like I have been wishing.  E-P1 is potentially my new XA if only usability and image quality are as should. Small size and price factor have necessitated elimination of EVF in this camera. I don´t mind that because Oympus has included an attachable optical view finder, which has  a viewing angle that corresponds approximately 35mm lens, my favorite, in 35mm system.

I had a chance to shoot for three days with E-P1. Best of all was a possibilty to shoot RAW images because I was given also the newest version of Olympus RAW conversion software, Olympus Studio 2. Next blog includes my experience and opinion from E-P1. Here´s already a link to a gallery, which will be renewed.

-p-