Testing Out the Olympus EP-1June 17, 2009 By Theano Nikitas
Reviewer Theano Nikitas spent the day with the camera during the Olympus press event, and offers this report: It’s easy to be charmed by a good-looking camera like the Olympus EP-1 and I was smitten from the beginning, especially with the limited edition white/khaki model that comes bundled with a silver lens. Sweet. Other than a few shots with the 17mm prime lens (that thing is tiny!), I mostly used the 14-42mm kit lens since it provided the most versatility. Attaching the FL-14 flash for fill light added almost no weight to the set-up and came in handy since the sun was nowhere to be found on Coney Island. Getting up to speed with Olympus’ new user interface didn’t take long, although I got tripped up from time to time trying to remember where I had seen one or another of the camera’s many features. Navigation is generally easy, with only a few exceptions. The camera has enough features to keep most people happy. I especially liked the digital leveler—which came in very handy as we motored our way to Coney Island on a water taxi. And, don’t laugh, I do like some of Olympus’ art filters (in moderation, of course) and the Pop Art filter was perfect for Coney Island’s colorful attractions. Judgment is still out after only one day of shooting but initial impressions left me underwhelmed with the LCD, pleasantly surprised by the EP-1’s performance and generally impressed with still image quality (it’s hard to talk about video quality from a quick look on a laptop). No camera’s perfect but as a first generation product, the EP-1 shows a lot of promise for now and the future—not as a DSLR replacement, of course, but as a lightweight option for those days when you want to travel light. Related story: PDN Pulse: Early Impressions of the Olympus EP-1 |
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