notes-camera-ep1Review

E.V.I.L. update 5/2010

if you want a small camera...

micro four thirds system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_Four_Thirds_system

if you can stand not getting a zoom lens, the pancake primes apparently make it actually sorta small. with the zoom, it's smaller than a DSLR, but still not "small". the Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 (GF1 kit) prime is supposed to be good (no in-lens image stabilization, though, so you'll want a body with stabilization).

my comments on the E-P1 just after i bought it are below

however if i were buying one today i'd get the Panasonic DMC-GF1; apparently it has slightly worse IQ, but it has a built-in flash.

if you want a viewfinder there's the Panasonic DMC-G10, or Olympus E-P2

if you want good video recording, be sure and get the Panasonic Lumix 14–140mm HD f/4–5.8 lens (GH1 kit); it has silent continuous autofocus. you may just want to get the GH1 in this case, although it's relatively large

note that some of the above bodies have in-body image stabilization and some don't. i think in general the Olympus do and the Panasonic don't, but i'm not sure.

You might also look into E.V.I.L APS-C cousins of micro four thirds. APS-C's sensor is a bit bigger than Micro Four Thirds, but that means the lenses are a bit bigger, too. You can use all the old APS-C lenses (but they weren't made with compactness in mind, so they'll be too big).

dpreview.com is apparently the site that has the best reviews of camera hardware

i haven't really been keeping up with camera stuff since i bought the E-P1, so this may be out of date.

Short review of the Olympus E-P1

Note: I am a beginner and so my opinions on cameras is fairly worthless.

My picture-taking taste is a little unusual (though by no means unique); I don't take many pictures of people; my favorite pictures are of clouds, skies, and landscapes. My usual goal with pictures is to capture some feeling of beauty that I had when I looked at a certain place. Sometimes I also like to take a picture of some weird-looking object (I particularly like antennas, power substations, and pipes). I like to take short video clips, also, to capture, for example, things blowing in the wind, or cute animals.

The Olympus E-P1 is the second digital camera to be created which is not very large, yet which has a large sensor (the first is the Sigma DP-1 and DP-2, which I am counting as one; they are apparently similar, with different fixed lenses). The DP-1 didn't get such a hot [review at dpreview.com, however, which is the camera review site that I primarily rely upon; also, it doesn't have an interchangable lens.

The idea is that, with its large sensor, the E-P1 gives "DSLR-level image quality" (camera nerds sometimes abbreviate image quality to IQ) in a camera that is smaller than DSLRs. DSLRs, because of their large sensors, are said to have better image quality than compacts. Also, with a large sensor, you can have one thing (one distance, actually) in focus, and other relatively nearby things blurry. You can't do this as much with small sensors (so, it is easier to have everything in focus in compact cameras; but it's harder to have somethings in focus and some things out of focus, if you want that).

Large sensors give much better performance at higher ISOs (there is a tradeoff between light level, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO; at lower light levels you must either make the shutter speed longer (increasing blur), make the aperture wider (decreasing the working distance around the focal plane; but another problem with this is that each lens has a widest aperture, and often you will hit that limit), or make the ISO higher (which makes the picture grainier). So, the upshot is that when you are not in bright light (i.e. even on an overcast day or in the early evening), and you don't have a tripod, you won't want to make the shutter speed too long (because it would blur), and you'll have some constraint on the aperture, so you'll have to raise the ISO -- and the larger the sensor, the less graininess this will cause. Examples of high-ISO graininess can be found on many camera review sites ("ISO elevators"). Large sensors apparently also give better colors and wider dynamic range (the difference in brightness between the dimmest spot and the brightest spot that can be captured in one image without clipping/saturating) -- these are differences are less pronounced, however. Also, for widest dynamic range, what you really have to do is to use exposure bracketing.

Interchangable lens cameras are part of a "system", which refers to the universe of all of the compatible lenses (and cameras compatible with those lenses; and related accessories). Some of the main systems are Canon's system and Nikon's system. One important part of a system is the "lens mount", i.e. a standard for compatibility between a set of cameras and a set of lenses. Some lens mounts include Canon's EF-S mount, Nikon's F mount, the Four Thirds system mount, and the Micro Four Thirds system mount. The E-P1 is part of the Micro Four Thirds system, which specifies a smaller sensor size than Canon and Nikon's APS-C systems (APS-C is a sensor size; Micro Four Thirds sensors are about 80%, by area, of those systems; but still about 6x larger, by area, than compact cameras). The smaller sensor size allows the system's lenses to be smaller. Micro Four Thirds supports adaptors that allow you to mount lenses from most of the other popular systems (but again, those systems' lenses will be larger, so you may not want to).

The E-P1 has 720p video.

One nice misc. E-P1 feature is a level gauge.

Problems with the E-P1 are:

If you can wait another year or two (in fact, probably only a couple of months -- but who knows?), a better camera will probably come out (probably with a small built-in flash, and less expensive, at the least -- hopefully also smaller, with a better LCD, and with 1080-resolution video capability). However, my previous camera broke, so I didn't want to wait.

Also, the Panasonic LX3 seems to be very competitive with the E-P1, although I have never used one. If you want a wider angle of view than 24mm equivalent, there is an 18mm adaptor for the LX3. The LX3 is cheaper, fits in one's (large) pocket, and has a wider angle of view (24mm equivalent) than the E-P1's kit zoom even without the adaptor. The LX3 also does 720 resolution video. The G10 is pretty good but doesn't do 720 video (which is important to me). Honestly, an LX3 probably would have been better for me, but I wanted to see for myself what all the hoopla about large sensors was about, and despite months of obsessive research on camera websites, in the end I decided that the only way I would learn would be to own one for a year or three.

After another years

(The last update to this page before this was 2010-5-20; this part was written 2011-2-25)

I've enjoyed the E-P1 a lot. It is definitely better than compact cameras -- the image quality seems to enable it to capture feelings that i cannot capture with a compact camera --- especially as one of my favorite things to take pictures of is relatively wide-angle views of clouds in the sky near sunset.

For a long time i took it with me everywhere in the messenger bag that i often carry with me, on my neck whenever i went on a walk, and in my carryon bag whenever i flew. I took a lot of pictures that i loved. However, eventually i found that it makes my bag significantly heavier and bulkier, than my neck gets a little tired when walking with it, and that when my carryon bag wouldn't close (which is always), the camera is often an easy choice of something to take out that i don't really need. Also, i've stopped taking my messenger bag everywhere and now often just wear a fleece with some essentials in the zippered pocket. The E-P1 (with 14-42 kit lens) fits in the pocket but is pretty heavy and bulky. In addition, even if i have it with me, it is never useful for social pictures at night because i didn't buy the flash (someone else always has a compact with a flash)-- ironic because if i had a flash, then i suspect that this camera would have substantially better image quality than a compact for that situation. I don't use it much for videos because the main things i would want to take videos of -- trees and clouds moving in the wind -- really require higher resolution than 720p.

It's interesting that i often do find myself trying to take a picture at sunset or even after and wishing i had a faster lens. So now i understand why all those photo experts care (i understood intellectually before but it's nice to understand from experience too).

I considered buying a pancake prime but i am cautious about spending the money and i find that, although my favorite pictures are wide angle, i do very often take pictures up to about 20mm (40mm equivalent), and it seems that the extra time to change the lens might deter me from taking pictures (especially if i am walking with other people and don't want to delay them too much). So i am in the incorrect position of having a relatively expensive interchangable lens camera without realizing the benefits of interchagable lenses. However, someday once i get up the nerve, i'll probably buy a wide-angle lens (i'd like a 12mm (or 10mm, if they had one) but the only MFT 12mm prime that i know of is pretty expensive) and either a 17mm or a 20mm.

On wideness, i know that you are supposed to just take a bunch of photos and stitch them together later when your lens isn't wide enough, but i find that i never get around to the stitching process. The stiching seems to be quite involved if you want to stick both horizontally and vertically and to do bracketed HDR also in the same image. So, given my laziness, the wideness does matter for me. Similarly, although i save both JPGs and RAWs, i find that i never get around to fiddling with the RAWs, so the JPG quality, including white balance, is important to me.

I am enjoying the E-P1's resolution and image quality and do not need improvements in those areas, although a faster lens or higher-ISO-tolerating sensor would be great. I don't mind the slow focus.

ideally, the next upgrades for me would be:

today i took a look at what is available right now and here's what i think:

So my conclusion: