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My first micro four thirds camera,
Update (4/27/2012)
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Note about Olympus service. It turns out that my camera had an issue with taking picture at fast shutter speed (1/4000s). I called the service and sent it in. It was fixed by week’s end, and was shipped it out by 2nd Day Air. It was all for free as my camera is still under warranty. I did not get a refurbished unit; I got mine back. When I tested my ‘fixed’ camera, I found everything was working as expected and no more problems at high shutter speed. Big kudos for Olympus service!
Update (2/6/2012)
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One key feature I forgot to mention is the in-body image stablization (IBIS). Olympus has the IBIS whereas Panasonic only supports the IS built into the lens. There are PROs and CONs of IBIS. However this comes in handy in many cases, and I prefer camera having IBIS where some lenses do not come with IS built-in (OIS). Some of my lenses do not have OIS, and if I do not use IBIS on Olympus, images would not be as sharp. On the other hand, people say that IBIS is not ideal for the video recording. I have not noticed much, but I can see how.
On the other hand, Olympus will announce E-M5 (OM-D family) this week. This one will support 5 axis IS (still an IBIS) which is expected to be much better than the IBIS that current models have. Some on the DPREVIEW forum say that this one will be better than OIS… we’ll have to wait for some product review for the verdict.
Important Update (11/21/2011)
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Firmware version 1.1 is now available from Olympus. It was surprising from a company that is going through a financial trouble 🙂 The firmware version 1.1 is supposed to address an issue with EyeFi (Wifi SD + memory) card. Although I do not use the EyeFi card, I thought I will give it a try and updated my camera with some worries as one reviewer on DPREVIEW.com reported that camera became ‘brick’ after the update.
I used ‘Olympus Digital Camera Updater’ software that came with my camera. I used my Mac Mini to update the firmware. Everything took less than 2 minutes, and I got large “OK” sign on the LCD display. Upon recycling the power, the camera reported firmware version 1.1 correctly. I took about 50 shots after the update, and so far so good.
My original review
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This is my fourth camera purchase this year… yet this is the best one. My other three cameras were point-and-shoot cameras that gave me some good photos but in-door shots with high iso gave me very grainy images. Nikon P300 is pretty good with F1.8; however image sensor was little too small and that results in lower image quality in some occasion.
I also have Canon T1i which takes photos with really good image quality; however I run into the portability issue. I’m not as big of a photo enthusiast (I know… I just love buying new camera) and I do not feel comfortable carrying my Canon T1i everywhere. It is simply too bulky.
My definition of ‘perfect’ camera is one that I can take most everywhere and take photos with good image quality in every situation.
I did a lot of research for the ‘perfect’ camera, and I quickly came down to the following selections:
1) Sony NEX family – Sony NEX 3, 5, C3, 5N, and 7.
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These are wonderful camera. Small, and versatile, and especially with APS-C size image sensor, image quality (IQ) rivals regular dSLRs. However the limitations are the fact that they use Sony proprietary lenses and there are limited number of NEX lenses.
2) Samsung N100/N200
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These are similar to Sony NEX. I haven’t seen them in person; however these should deliver similar IQ with the APS-C size sensors. However they do have the same issue of using Samsung proprietary lens mount + format.
3) Nikon 1, Pentax Q, and Fujifilm X100
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Ok, Fujifilm X100 has APS-C size sensor; however it has a single fixed lens on the camera. Good lens, but you cannot replace lens. Nikon and Pentax recently announced their new compact system cameras, however their system uses smaller size sensor. Pentax uses even smaller and Nikon uses sensor about 1/2 of Micro Four Thirds. I like Nikon but I felt the lens collection + size sensor was disappointment at this time.
4) Then there are Micro Four Thirds cameras… these include Olympus e-P1,P2,P3, e-PL1,PL2,PL3, and e-PM1 and Panasonic GF1, GF2, and GF3, and other G series cameras.
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Micro Four Thirds cameras can use any lenses that adhere to the Micro Four Thirds standards. Therefore there are more lens selections available at the time of my research than any other compact system cameras.
My decision was more of my…
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|A few things that Olympus won’t tell you,
I’ve owned this camera for a few weeks now, so I just wanted write a few notes about this camera that get neglected.
1. The image stabilization is only good up to 4 fps, but the default multi shot modes are 5 fps or 3 fps. To get 4 fps, you have to use a custom menu setting.
2. Always shoot in multi shot mode. Single shot mode will cause camera lag (my guess is that it waits for the SD card to finish writing in single shot mode). This lowers your shot to shot times down to about 1.5 fps as the camera will just ignore your shutter press. Shooting in multi shot mode solves this problem, at the expense of not always seeing your next shot.
3. Buy the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens if you want to take any indoor shots without a flash. The kit lens, at f3.5, is just not fast enough indoors. Your shots will come out at 1600 ISO and contain blur or noise, depending upon your noise filtering setting, usually both, because f3.5, just doesn’t cut it. Okay, that might be a little harsh – if you reduce the photos down to 25% of their original size, they will be good enough to put up on a web page, but you wouldn’t want to print them. In comparison, the 20mm f1.7 lens takes great indoor shots.
4. Nearly all the pictures you see on websites that review this camera required custom menu settings. Custom menu settings require information from the manual before you figure them out. I must have played with the custom settings for a solid two hours with the manual by my side, before I got things close to the way I wanted them.
Edit (03-Oct-2011)
5. The auto focus speed using the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens is slower than with the 14-42 kit lens. While the 20mm focuses nearly instantly in bright light, it can take up to 2 seconds to focus in low light. Comparatively, the 14-42mm has a worst case focusing time of about half a second in low light.
Edit (28-Nov-2011)
6. Buy a grip for this camera. I got a small Flipbac G2 and it made a world of difference.
7. These days I would recommend the fast focusing Panasonic/Leica 25mm/f1.4 (or Olympus 45mm f1.8) over the 20mm/f1.7 for low light photography.
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