E Pee One, A Poll, are You In or Out?

[Eric T]

Yes, the art mode thing is just ridiculous.
I will wait for the next generation MFT from Panasonic.

 

[flatulent1]

My choice isn't available in the poll. I vote No, simply because I'm not interested in another digital camera that I'll rarely use. I've been very happy with film for a lot of years. My 5D is collecting dust on a shelf while I'm shooting T90s, Canonets, and my XA. Gotta get me another one of those soon.

 

[Paul T.]

I got to fondle one this morning when I was on the prowl in East London (Brick Lane & Columbia road are great places for cool camera-spotting_.

I'm really impressed by it, the screen is better than I suspected, functionally I thought it seemed far superior to my G9. (Especially as my G9's dead). Focusing seemed on a par (this was bright light); shutter lag seemed about as poor, but tha tmight have been my inexperience.

But then the friendly guy I met told me how much he'd paid for it. £700, from Jessop's. I remember the other Olympus models like the E-420 wiht the 14-42mm lens retailing around £295. That's a scary premium for being compact and cute...

 

[Larky]

I had another play with one today, and came away with the same conclusions I had the first time. This is just an expensive point and shoot with an ability to swap lenses which will attract a lot of the potential small DSLR buyers away from Canon and Nikon and towards Oly. It's pretty much entirely made of plastic, the demo model had been fondled a fair bit but was starting to show wear already. It's only been out two weeks, it doesn't bode well.

Personally I'm saving for the M8.2 and the M2.

 

[tgoods]

I ordered one and plan to use it with Voigtlander lenses via the M-mount adapter ring. Using the 15mm/4.5 paired with a 28mm viewfinder and the 28mm/2.0 paired with a 50mm viewfinder, I think this camera will be the perfect digital rangefinder. By using hot-shoe viewfinders and manual focus lenses, all complaints about the lack of a viewfinder or auto-focus issues go away. As for the low res LCD, who cares. My film rangefinder has no LCD.

I also have a 40mm/1.4, but at 80mm FOV I figure I will simply use the LCD with this lens. The camera should arrive early next week, I will follow up with impressions.

 

[tritiated]

I wouldn't buy it - a system camera that would clash with my film rangefinder (Bessa r3a); in terms of size, price and additional lenses to carry (I would prefer to use prime lenses). If I was desparate for compact interchangeable digital - would prefer the E420 (+25mm pancake) for a small digital package that would handle better.

It doesn't so far have any advantages over any other system as far as I can tell. It represents innovative steps forward and looks great - it just isn't for me. Perhaps if I was about to buy my first camera? who knows.

I can imagine my girlfriend would really like it though (until she sees the price).
Oh, and I can't abide looking at an LCD screen all the time - batteries would be eaten up in no time!
At least with DSLR you don't have to have the LCD turned on.

 

[tgoods]

I wouldn't buy it - a system camera that would clash with my film rangefinder (Bessa r3a); in terms of size, price and additional lenses to carry (I would prefer to use prime lenses). Oh, and I can't abide looking at an LCD screen all the time - batteries would be eaten up in no time!
At least with DSLR you don't have to have the LCD turned on .

But with the Micro 4/3 you would not need any additional lenses. Simply use your VC lenses via the adapter ring. With added hot-shoe viewfinders you don't need to use the LCD.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Well, you still need to focus and that's going to happen with the LCD.

 

[tgoods]

Since the camera is half-frame, you can use the 15mm to get a 30mm FOV. At f/8, this lens is in focus from 0.5 meter to infinity. No need to focus. With longer lenses or smaller apertures, yes you will need to focus a bit by feel using the focusing tab on the lens, or if necessary the LCD.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

If you're happy with a $800 fixed focus camera, I guess that works!

 

[rover]

If you're happy with a $800 fixed focus camera, I guess that works!

Do you use a prime lens on your 5D?

 

[sevres_babylone]

Oh, and I can't abide looking at an LCD screen all the time - batteries would be eaten up in no time!

I'm not sure how much battery usage is due to the LCD as opposed to other camera functions. The battery in my Ricoh GRDII lasts a really long time, while the one in my R-D1, with LCD off most of the time, lasts a lot less. I realize we're talking about different battery types, but it does make me think there are other camera functions more responsible for battery use.

 

[JoeV]

I gotta say that, although it doesn't look like a street camera (whatever that is,) my G1 sure performs like one. I use the EVF exclusively, and when not up to your face it blanks out, helping to conserve battery power. I sometimes shoot in RAW+JPEG mode, with B/W film mode for the JPEGs so I can previsualize the scene on the EVF iin B/W but still have the full-color RAW file with which to do channel mixer in post. It doesn"t look like a functional street camera, but it sure acts like one.

Appearances are deceiving; that's the fallacy of buying cameras based on what they look like, rather than how they perform.

~Joe

 

[jky]

Got to compare the Oly to a G1 this afternoon for about 20 minutes. What I wanted to inspect was the EP1's AF speed especially indoors. This obviously was not an extensive test, but I found the EP1's AF quite slow (both cameras had the zoom). It seemed to go through the entire range before it would lock focus on the subject. The G1 on the other hand was very quick - I was quite suprised at how fast it would lock on.

What did you guys think about its AF?

Perhaps a firmware update can speed things up a bit?

The zoom was the only available lens there, but I found that it pretty much negated any size advantage it had over the G1 due to it having to extend in order to be used. This was a little awkward I thought... on the other hand, I can imagine how nice this set up would be with the 17mm or the upcoming 20mm...

 

[.ken]

Yeah, firmware to a certain extent can improve these things... plus they need to have an option to disable LCD screens for those who don't use it.

 

[ABarGrill]

Well, I went ahead and bought one with the 14-45 lens. It has arrived and I plan on trying it out this weekend. I have a 28mm finder that I'll probably put into the flash/finder holding bracket. Would that make it a rangefinder for purposes of this group?

 

[splitimageview]

Fred, the viewfinder is 4:3. Why do you say the Pen is 'very large?' I always thought the original Pen was a very small SLR... 🙂

 

[splitimageview]

Looks quite a bit smaller than the S2, but extending the zoom exaggerates things. 🙂

 

[mfunnell]

Looks quite a bit smaller than the S2, but extending the zoom exaggerates things. 🙂

So try not to get it excited 😱

...Mike