Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
 Fantastic Camera March 11, 2010
John N. Marzich (arroyo grande, ca United States)
Was tired of my big canon 40d and big lenses. Great pictures but too large hour after hour. This camera took an indoor shot with no flash at over 1000 iso and looked excillent!
Very portable and the depth of field looks more 3d than just a flat sharp picture. I have owned an e-300 and e-510 and new olympus had a major idea with the high end Zuiko lenses.
Have 2 panasonic lenses and they are excillent also and made in japan.
World class camera minus a built in flash.
Tons of horsepower in a small package February 12, 2010
JAGFB (ID)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Overall we are very pleased with the E-P1. The micro four thirds form factor is great in that we are not lugging a full sized DLSR around.
We have only had this camera for a couple of week and are learning the ropes.
Will provide more information in this review as we get more time with it.
The camera is extremely solid and I am sure that it is going to be with us for a long time.
I love it February 12, 2010
J. Montgomery (Maine)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
For this camera, either you "get it" or you don't. For me, I love it. For several years my camera of choice was Hasselblad. I do fine arts portraiture, often in monochrome. With my Hasselblad, I loved the quality of the image, the square format, the projected image on a screen for composition, the quality of the camera itself and the versatility of the system. Now that I have gone digital, the Olympus Pen is my main shooter - for less than the cost of a Hasselblad lens. Image quality is top rate. In fact, it is often too sharp and I soften (selectively) in photoshop. I set it to shoot in square format (one of several options) and i enjoy the projected image for careful composition and understanding of the subtlety of the light falling on my subject. This camera works great for me because my subjects are sitting still. If you are trying to get a grab shot of those geese flying overhead, forget it. This is not a camera for sports or nature photographers. But for portraiture and landscape it is great. The camera body quality is top rate. I shot with Canon prosumer slr's for several years and never warmed up to the plastic, light weight feel. By contrast, while Olympus Pen is not heavy, it is "dense". Solid. And with the adapter, I am able to use my old lenses from my 20 year old Olympus OM4 (another great camera). I love that versatility. Negative comments? I do very little video, but for interviews I would like to have had an external jack for a microphone (added on the newer model). The menu choices are excessive and confusing, and the documentation -- of course -- is poor. Its all there, but if you are trying to go for a simple experience you have to figure it out. Other than that, the camera is a tremendous success. Just be sure you know what you are about with your photography so you will know whether this is a good fit for you.
 A good camera, but definitely a "niche" camera... December 17, 2009
Harry M. Shin (Livermore, CA USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
1. For reference sake, I've used many cameras before (film and digital) and thus realize that there is no "perfect" camera. For most photographers who are "into" photography, they will agree with my contention that you need at least two cameras; one for "serious" work (ie typically a DSLR, but not always) and a compact camera for snapshots (which is also an important part of one's personal photography).
2. With the above said, I have a DSLR (currently E-620), I have a fairly compact camera (Ricoh GX200), but for various reasons, I wanted a smallish camera with HD video (a fair amount exist, most of which was much more compact than the EP-1) that also has good image quality (which for me also means the ability to shoot RAW)--> which really narrowed down the choice to the EP-1 and the Panasonic G1. I'll conclude this rambling point, by noting that it's important for folks to realize that the EP-1 is a niche camera; ie it does produce nice quality images, it has many (not all) performance features more similar to DSLRs than compact cameras, but it is NOT a compact camera... nor is it as big as a DSLR, even the smallest DSLR. I just wanted to make this point, because even though it is smaller than any DSLR, no matter what most folks say, unless you solely use the pancake lens, you are not going to be putting this into your pocket. Even if you did exclusively use the pancake lens, the entire unit is relatively hefty (which is a testament to the construction) and thus most folks wouldn't feel comfortable walking around with this thing in their pocket. Thus on a personal side note, I've come to the conclusion that I'll use / need a DSLR for my "serious" work, EP-1 for most family shots, family travel vacations (ie excellent image quality equal to that of my E620 but without the bulk, HD video etc...) AND a true compact for those situations where I actually need to carry something in my pocket (ie Birthday dinner etc...).
3. Sorry for the long personal ramblings above; so here are my other brief impressions:
a. Build: very solid. As noted via others, kind of relatively heavy, but for me, that's a good thing.
b. Image Quality: I shoot RAW all the time, very good image quality.
c. HD Video: I'm not a video expert, but it's overtly better than my regular resolution videos via my other digital cameras. Via apeture priority mode, you can set the apeture and then one can also adjust the exposure via exposure compensation. It would be nice if there was a manual focus assist like when one shoots photos (ie having an enlarged image). The continuous focusing mode is lame and thus one needs to focus manually or single focus lock (which is basically like shooting manually). Supposedly the EP-2 will be able to track subjects better in video mode. Unless one shoots subjects which come to / fro in the video and shoots long segments, the above problems should not be much of an issue.
d. Focusing: ... it's not bad. It's not great, but I didn't expect anything super great in the first place. When using the zoom kit lens, it is definitely fast enough for 90% of situations. I agree with many that it is irritating that the camera has to refocus each time you press the button, but in the end it's a minor annoyance. I haven't used the pancake lens with the EP-1 yet; I'll get it soon. Another very important point in regards to focusing, the EP-1 has this very cool feature that if one is in manual or S-M focus mode (I think that's what it's called), as soon as you touch the focus ring, you'll get a 7x or 10x view on the LCD--> translation, it is the quickest manual focus via LCD I've come across thus far. It's so quick and accurate (because you're actually doing the focus) that when I use my 4/3 Olympus lens on the EP-1 (ex: 12-60mm or 9-18mm) I always use the manual focus method and it works fairly well.
e. Lack of Flash? It's a nonissue for me because I rarely ever use an onboard flash. When I need a flash, I use a hotshoe flash (ex: Olympus FL-36 or better yet--> Olympus FL-50R). But I do agree that having a built in flash is important, especially the smaller the camera you have simply because the purpose of having a small camera is to avoid carrying other gear... like a flash.
f. IS: I assume it works. It works in my E-620 and this was one of the reasons I stuck with the Olympus Line; ie the G1 doesn't have in body IS. To me, this feature is more important than having an onboard flash that I might use 1% of the time. I use IS a fair amount.
g. LCD: I've used the camera in various conditions, including the worst LCD shooting situation; sunny day at the beach. Yea, it can be challenging in such situations but again, only in certain conditions: trying to manually focus at telephoto. For most shooting situations while at the beach, on a sunny day, using autofocus--> no problem. I just turn up the LCD to max brightness.
h. Other stuff: frame rate is decent, turn on / off time is ok, writing to card seems ok--> ie none of this issues have been noticeable or an irritating issue to me.
4. In summary, it's a no brainier that this camera is more than capable of producing great images and it has the flexibility that all serious photographers want. I would say the primary issue that one has to clearly figure out in one's mind is for what purpose one envisions using this camera. It is not a DSLR replacement, but in many instances it could provide similar images (at least non-full frame DSLRs) and it is NOT a replacement for a true compact camera. It is a niche camera that is capable of some very good images.
Olympus EP-1: The Best Compact DSLR December 15, 2009
J. Cauchi
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've had a 35 mm, film, Olympus camera for more than a decade which always took great pictures and still works great . After the Olympus, when digital cameras came put, I used mostly phones for digital picture taking-2 (Sony) to 5 megapixels (Nokia). So, when I decided to upgrade and found that Olympus was releasing a compact DSLR, I decided to get it to see if the quality was still there. I was amazed by the quality and good design of the camera. But, of course, I was also looking for the DSLR quality of the pictures and was not disappointed. I took a lot of pictures of moving people and still life-plants and trees, etc, and all and all the picture quality was excellent-don't forget to focus-video was also great when there is light around but it uses a lot of memory.
I think, it's better to get the 17 mm lens to have a smaller body overall and much easier to carry around-and the FL-14 flash is a plus-very light..
All and all the EP1 is an excellent upgrade from a standard point and shoot camera since it's much more compact than the standard DSLRs-Nikon, Canon, etc.-and it takes pictures/videos with about the same quality as a standard DSLR.
Olympus EP1 Pros and Cons:
Pros:
1. Excellent modern, fancy, high quality design.
2. Menus are easy to use
3. Very nice high quality pictures and videos.
Cons;
1. Low resolution screen
2. No integrated flash or light (Videos)
3. Video mode uses a lot of memory.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
|
