rbelyell
Well-known
wow! just got mine in chrome with the 12-50mm (24-100mm) weatherproof zoom. i was truly on pins and needles waiting for this one, and out of the box it didnt disappoint.
its bigger than the ep2--higher because of the 'prism' and meaningfully thicker (not as 'jacket-pocketable') because of the 'prism' and articulating screen. it feels just a tad less solid than the ep2, which was a brick (in a good way), but definitely more substantial than the x100. very pretty, but somehow not as 'classy' as the PEN series. with the thumb rest, it feels very good in my hands. the two dials and two programmable buttons on the top plate near the shutter make eye on subject adjustments a breeze. really, having 4 adjustable gizmos right by the shutter makes a big difference. i'm not off the bat crazy about the shutter itself--it protrudes while most of my others do not. it feels a little flimsy compared to the ep2, but it is responsive and fps is VERY fast. the evf is awesome, better than the very good olly external vf, very clear and i believe 1.15 magnification. plus it has 4 different focus magnificatin settings, up to 14x. if you cant properly focus with this cam, you need to trade it in for a guide dog. ):
the lens is nothing to write home about, but it does allow for a truly WA 24mm FOV. zooming to 100 will make it a pretty utilitarian street lens. somehow the 'whole' pictures look pretty good. its only when you zoom in that you kinda say 'thats a little muddy'. then you zoom out and say, 'hmm, thats not so bad'. it is what it is. i got it for the great FOV range for street work.
the autofocus is 'holy cr*p fast'. honestly instantaneous. one really cool feature, especially for street shooting, is that you can touch any point on the articulating screen and the camera instantly focuses on that point and shoots! in a freaking nanosecond its over! and because the screen articulates, no one will ever know you took their picture! i used it only on my dog, but she moves around and i never missed focus. exposure, like the ep2, seems 1/3-2/3 bright, at least for me. white balance, colors exceed the ep2, which tended to very warm as light decreased, and didnt handle artificial light so well.
good light/color IQ is maybe not such a big improvement over the ep2, though i only used two lenses and didnt take a whole lot of pictures, but i wasnt stunned by any dramatic difference when shooting in good light, except there is a noticeable dynamic range improvement. need to do more before i make a definitive judgement. now to be sure, i was happy with the IQ, happy with the extra DR, but i guess i was hoping for more of an 'aha!' moment than ive gotten so far. having said that, the b&w files are somehow much better to my eye than the ep2, though again, i have a very small sampling.
in low light/high iso, look out! this is when you know why you bought this camera! i used three lenses, zeiss cine tevidon 25/1.4, panny 20/1.7 and summicron-c 40/2, and each of them shot great up to iso 3200! 'aha! aha! aha!' the ep2 couldnt do 800! noise is very well controlled, and theres still a lot of detail, much more than i was expecting. i have to try to compare it to the high iso leader, the x100, but i think its going to compare pretty favorably. white balance was spot on in the same artificial light that confounded the ep2, x100 and even my 5d. colors were again spot on, not the typical olly warm. no blotches, just a tiny bit of CA only seen with my zeiss cine lens, and only then when zooming in 100%. great great great.
thats it for now. many features to explore, many lenses to try out.
tony
its bigger than the ep2--higher because of the 'prism' and meaningfully thicker (not as 'jacket-pocketable') because of the 'prism' and articulating screen. it feels just a tad less solid than the ep2, which was a brick (in a good way), but definitely more substantial than the x100. very pretty, but somehow not as 'classy' as the PEN series. with the thumb rest, it feels very good in my hands. the two dials and two programmable buttons on the top plate near the shutter make eye on subject adjustments a breeze. really, having 4 adjustable gizmos right by the shutter makes a big difference. i'm not off the bat crazy about the shutter itself--it protrudes while most of my others do not. it feels a little flimsy compared to the ep2, but it is responsive and fps is VERY fast. the evf is awesome, better than the very good olly external vf, very clear and i believe 1.15 magnification. plus it has 4 different focus magnificatin settings, up to 14x. if you cant properly focus with this cam, you need to trade it in for a guide dog. ):
the lens is nothing to write home about, but it does allow for a truly WA 24mm FOV. zooming to 100 will make it a pretty utilitarian street lens. somehow the 'whole' pictures look pretty good. its only when you zoom in that you kinda say 'thats a little muddy'. then you zoom out and say, 'hmm, thats not so bad'. it is what it is. i got it for the great FOV range for street work.
the autofocus is 'holy cr*p fast'. honestly instantaneous. one really cool feature, especially for street shooting, is that you can touch any point on the articulating screen and the camera instantly focuses on that point and shoots! in a freaking nanosecond its over! and because the screen articulates, no one will ever know you took their picture! i used it only on my dog, but she moves around and i never missed focus. exposure, like the ep2, seems 1/3-2/3 bright, at least for me. white balance, colors exceed the ep2, which tended to very warm as light decreased, and didnt handle artificial light so well.
good light/color IQ is maybe not such a big improvement over the ep2, though i only used two lenses and didnt take a whole lot of pictures, but i wasnt stunned by any dramatic difference when shooting in good light, except there is a noticeable dynamic range improvement. need to do more before i make a definitive judgement. now to be sure, i was happy with the IQ, happy with the extra DR, but i guess i was hoping for more of an 'aha!' moment than ive gotten so far. having said that, the b&w files are somehow much better to my eye than the ep2, though again, i have a very small sampling.
in low light/high iso, look out! this is when you know why you bought this camera! i used three lenses, zeiss cine tevidon 25/1.4, panny 20/1.7 and summicron-c 40/2, and each of them shot great up to iso 3200! 'aha! aha! aha!' the ep2 couldnt do 800! noise is very well controlled, and theres still a lot of detail, much more than i was expecting. i have to try to compare it to the high iso leader, the x100, but i think its going to compare pretty favorably. white balance was spot on in the same artificial light that confounded the ep2, x100 and even my 5d. colors were again spot on, not the typical olly warm. no blotches, just a tiny bit of CA only seen with my zeiss cine lens, and only then when zooming in 100%. great great great.
thats it for now. many features to explore, many lenses to try out.
tony
