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Author Topic: Olympus E-P1 first impressions  (Read 2131 times)

cjmonty

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Olympus E-P1 first impressions
« on: July 10, 2009, 09:50:55 pm »

While its not a MFDB camera, its my new everyday camera and the backup to my P45.  I'm re-posting this topic here, from the general equipment forum, in case any other MF users might find this useful.
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I just started working with my new Olympus, and I thought I'd throw up a few quick reactions. I know several people are looking into the camera, so here's my opinion on a few issues I was interested in.

I have previously used the Ricoh GX-200 and Canon G10.

Form Factor: great- it's better than I was expecting, but no better than the G10. It feels e bit thinner and wider than the G10, which gives a secure hold with one hand. That said, the non-retractable kit zoom lens adds a noticable inch. This may be vying to replace the G10 (it certainly replaced mine), but you are no longer dealing with the easy to pack and protect brick shape of the point and shoot world. There is plenty of room for case makers to come in and offer RF shaped cases for this little wonder, because no fitted point and shoot pouches will do the job. Right now I've got it wrapped in a Jerry-rigged softwrap pouch with a YStrap. Not ideal.

Live View: works well, and I don't miss the viewfinder much. Haven't tried any noon sun shooting yet though. Olympus did do a brilliant job with the manual focus- it zooms into 100% on full MF, but the real joy is a AF/MF hybrid mode, which is basically AF that switches to 100% fine-focusing is you start rotating the focus ring on the lens. Works really well.

Image Quality: My G10 had already gone on via eBay, so I couldn't do a head-to-head IQ test. So instead I set up my Phamiya P45 next to the Olympus, both on tripods and at roughly equal "normal" focal lengths. Both shot a highly detailed print from 10 feet, 4th of a second at f/5.6, ISO 200. Took several self timer shots with each, all RAW, processed with no sharpening in Capture 1 and the surprisingly similar-looking Olympus Studio Pro.
I down-scaled the Phase One tiff to the size of the 12MP E-P1 Tiff. Bicubic regular resizing.

My unscientific results:
The Phase One images look sharper pound for pound, but not by leaps and bounds. If you use even modest sharpening in C1, the difference becomes much greater- compared to the Olympus images sharpened either with the raw processor or Photoshop CS3. All this is to be expected, given the MP and sensor differences. More detail is always more detail. All things considered though, I would be willing to use the E-P1 for a professional job, in a pinch.

But that's not news- the surprise is that these files were much, much cleaner in appearance than my old Ricoh and G10 files. The small sensor files always seemed to end up with a stilted brick-work structure at 100%. They were beautiful up to a certain size, but just betrayed a wrongness at fine detail. The Olympus pixels just ended up looking like a fine grain structure at 100%.
I imagine it might be similar to the Sigma performance, but with 12 instead of 5MP. I've never used the DP1 or DP2, but now understand their devotees excitement. Great files, small(ish) camera.
I'm happy.
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tashley

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Olympus E-P1 first impressions
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2009, 05:14:13 pm »

I'm with you on most of this: I also have a Phamiya with P45+, a 5DII, M8.2m DP1 (gear slut, me?) and got rid of a G1 recently.

The files are great at lower ISO , deteriorate at 200 thru 400 but remain surprisingly good to 3200. I, like you, would use them professionally in a pinch if shot at lower ISO. But I don't trust the AF, which is slow and inaccurate and needs MF tweaking as you suggest. I also don't trust the IS, which seems often to make matters worse. After very extensive testing I've decided as a rough rule of thumb to turn it on at shutter speeds equal to or slower than 2x focal length.

M lenses of 50mm and over are very nice on it though I have seen a fair amount of CA on the 50 Lux when shooting contre jour. The 90mm macro gives fantastic results. But M lenses shorter than 50mm give blurry edges as they did on the G1.

I'm not yet convinced by the kit zoom though the more I use it the more I think that it's high proportion of soft shots are due to either camera shake, poor IS, poor AF or diffraction over about F9.

Usability needs tweaking: accessing the zoomed MF mode with a non-native lens is far too clunky and in live view mode one should be able to customise one info screen instead of having to page through four or five to get all the info you might need.

Last of all, and ignoring the kit zoom, the camera feels great. Solid without being heavy, nicely balanced and nicely finished. I have the white one (pimpy I know but the only colour they had) and I get more comments on it from strangers than anything since the M8.

Me like.

Tim
« Last Edit: July 13, 2009, 05:14:41 pm by tashley »
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Derry

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Olympus E-P1 first impressions
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2009, 07:18:22 pm »

was at the camera shop today seeing what all was new and the comments from behind the counter was the EP1 would be selling well but it is so over priced,, neeless to say they won't be pushing that Oly to try and sell unless directly asked for

they did comment they have sold many 620s and still moving some E3s,,

Derry
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cjmonty

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Olympus E-P1 first impressions
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2009, 09:46:13 pm »

Quote from: Derry
was at the camera shop today seeing what all was new and the comments from behind the counter was the EP1 would be selling well but it is so over priced,, neeless to say they won't be pushing that Oly to try and sell unless directly asked for

The "overpriced" issue with the E-P1 is a little overblown... while most people think of it as a competitor to a G10 or D-Lux, its not in the same class spec wise.  The comparable Canon would probably be the Rebel T1i (15MP CMOS, HD video, w kit lens: $810).
The closest Nikon might be the D5000 (12.3 Dx CMOS, HD Video, kit lens: $850)

If you count the lack of optical or lcd viewfinder as a deal breaker, then yes at $799 the Olympus isnt for you.  However, in real terms a mirror or optical viewfinder doesnt add any value- I really doubt there will (or should) be any non-full frame actual "SLRs" in 5 years- a digital viewfinder a la the Panasonic G1 does the same thing with less space.  

The switch to rangefinder form factors will be continued by other manufacturers, simply because it makes more sense with digital.  Hopefully that will then lead to interesting and useful advances in camera design, breaking free from the legacy shapes of the film era.
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