 Fantastic Walk-Around Camera |
| Review Date: August 22, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Jeef, |
I was definitely on the fence about this camera for a while. I currently own a Nikon D60 and a Canon point-and-shoot, and thought I was just buying this camera just because of the need for a new camera body. I was reading forums for such a long time, putting up with probably the snarkiest debates between what brand is better, prime and zoom, etc. and I just went ahead and decided on this camera.
I absolutely LOVE this camera! There's something about the aesthetics of the body, the ease of the menu system (although it takes a little getting used to) that really opens up this camera to experimentation. I'm a sucker for retro styled cameras and this definitely brings old school charm with modern tech. The body is pretty solid too, a nice weight and very sturdy feeling. Personally I find the few number of lenses available to be a little bit relaxing, and not as overwhelming as when I look for lenses for my Nikon.
The electronic view finder is pretty spectacular. You can actually flip the viewfinder up so you can take photos while looking down into it which is pretty useful.
Overall, this is a camera for someone looking for something less complicated, perfectly capable of taking great photos, and a feeling of liberation when taking photos. Only drawback is that the price is almost the same as a mid-range DSLR, but if anything, the compact-ness of this little camera is definitely worth it. |
Love this Micro 4/3 camera!
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| Review Date: August 15, 2010 |
| Reviewer: nuke, |
| A devout Canon person, it took courage to order an Oly product. After some getting used to the menus and controls, can't put this E-P2 down! Have owned many Canon point & shoot models over the years to supplement a bulky DSLR, but this tops them all. The optional electronic viewfinder is superb, and find myself using the back-of-the-camera viewfinder very little. Especially convenient for one who wears reading glasses, but does not wish the inconvenience of using glasses with a camera, as the menus can be displayed in the diopter corrected viewfinder. Did not even attempt to use the packaged software, as Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS5 open the Olympus RAW files. |
mixed feelings
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| Review Date: July 31, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Nikola, |
I have been using E-P2 (with M.Zuiko 14-42mm and Lumix G 45-200mm lenses) for more than a month now, and still have some mixed feelings about it.
I like the relatively small size given the quality and the number of features packed in. The selection of both prime and zoom lenses is now decent, and sensor-based image stabilization of this model means that you don't need to worry whether the lens you are buying has image stabilization or not. The camera feels sturdy and the image quality is close to what I expected for the price I paid: the noise is low, and the resolution is good.
One of the big reasons for getting the E-P2 was the ability to connect an external microphone for high-quality stereo sound recording. Unfortunately, the length of a sound memo is limited to 1 minute, so you will be forced to record a movie even if you are just interested in sound recording. Furthermore, the external microphone connects to the camera through an optional microphone adapter that plugs into the hot shoe (which is then not available for the viewfinder or flash). A simple dedicated microphone jack would have been a more elegant solution. It would also be nice to have manual control over sound level when recording.
The main dial for camera control is of size which is most appropriate for kids' fingers, and I find it very touchy.
The user interface leaves much to be desired, even after a month of getting used to it. The menus are convoluted, and naming of functions is often confusing. A typical example is the macro photography: there are "macro" and "nature macro" modes available, and neither the camera menu nor the user manual explain the difference (assuming there is any). The menu comment defines nature macro as "best for close ups of small objects," which leads me to a bizarre conclusion that "macro" setting is for close ups of large objects.
Even though the user manual specifies that in the spot-metering mode the "spot-metering area mark" indicates the position of the spot, this mark is not visible on the screen when shooting. Sure, it is in the center of the screen, but it would be helpful if it were visible. Similarly, the manual states that setting the focal length of the lens in the image stabilizer menu is disabled for micro-four third lenses, yet I am able to change this value with the micro-four thirds lens attached. I find this detail worrisome and can only hope that it is simply a glitch in the firmware.
The external electronic viewfinder offers an impressive image quality, but it is also an external piece of gear: something that makes your camera more bulky and adds complexity to handling, something you need to remember to pack with you, and make sure not to lose. I would be much happier if all the engineering and manufacturing efforts related to the viewfinder were used to upgrade the built-in LCD screen which right now offers mediocre quality and resolution.
The self timer only offers 2 or 12 second delays and a single shot, without custom settings or at least an option for multiple shots. Furthermore, there is no intervalometer.
The bracketing feature as far as I was able to tell requires the shutter button to be pressed for each of the shots - this can be a problem if you are trying to get series of perfectly registered images for later HDR processing. An option to have the complete bracketing sequence triggered by the timer would be a great plus.
For some reason, "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" is forced as the image caption in EXIF data which I have to manually remove (or waste time writing a script) when uploading pictures to online albums to avoid this all-caps self-promotion showing up as the title of the photograph. The EXIF fields for the camera manufacturer and the model already contain the information, thank you.
All in all, I am fairly happy with the physical design and quality, while most of the shortcomings are related to the software design. I hope that at least some of the issues will be addressed in firmware updates. |
Not what I'd hoped for
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| Review Date: July 14, 2010 |
| Reviewer: C. Frank, Denver, CO |
I just returned my Olympus PEN e-P2 and I thought I would post a little review for others' edification. A while back, I sold my APS-C outfit (a Canon 20D with lenses) because I wanted something that I felt comfortable carrying around...something that doesn't look like a weapon when it's pointed at you and that i feel comfortable taking on the bus or bike or to social events. It turns out that I sold prematurely as I was convinced that micro 4/3s would be the holy grail. I recently purchased the e-p2 kit with the electronic viewfinder and the 14-42 Zuiko lens. Alas, `twas not what I'd hoped.
I feel that the e-p2 is a lot closer to a highly functional compact camera than it is to a limited functionality SLR. I didn't realize just how key an optical viewfinder (combined with manual focus) is until I tried photographing my kid's track meet or shooting a landscape at night. In both, very different situations, the super-cool little add-on electronic viewfinder (EVF) was basically useless. In order to manually focus, the LCD (or EVF) picks a tiny section of the image and magnifies it so you can manually adjust the focus. The reason it's useless is that by the time you move the focus spot to something that you care about, such as my incredibly cute and talented daughter, she's moved away. In the case of landscape shooting, you have to take it off the tripod to move your view to your point of interest. Both situations were problematic. Also, at night the LCD/EVF were not helpful because those pixels just don't pick up near as much info as your eyes so at night, i just got a bunch of flickering useless pixels.
The e-p2 was great at static daytime objects that didn't require a tripod. The build quality is high, as it ought to be for a camera roughly the same price as a D90 or 50d, and it truly is a very portable stylish little beast. Controls were so-so, the main dial was designed for tiny little baby fingers and that was rather annoying.
If you can accept the limitations I've described, it's a great little camera although priced too high IMHO. I think the picture quality is really very good although I did see a little highlight clipping. The high ISO performance also seems competitive with full-blown SLRs. I really hope that this year's Photokina involves Canon/Nikon unveiling a small, optical viewfinder, interchangeable lens, APS format camera to compete with the m43 cameras because Oly and Panasonic are really onto something with these small cameras.I think the bottom line is that it would be great to have in addition to one's SLR but is no substitute. |
Wow, this is a great camera.
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| Review Date: July 10, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Edward Goldberg, |
I have been a Cannon user for many years now. Starting with film and moving to Digital. Now I have moved over to the new format. This new camera is great. The best part of the camera is the Video Modes. The still images are very good. But the flexibility of one camera for all modes is a big feature.
I use this camera for White Board Screen shots at work and for classes that I teach on Cloud Computing. As a tool for work it has been a real work horse. Good long battery life and very large SD chip sizes.
Edward M. Goldberg
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e.m.g.
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