willie_901
Veteran
The local camera store let me play with the EP-1 for as long as I wanted to yesterday.
All I can say is that I was wrong about the EP-1 being unsuitable for rangefinder-style photography. The LCD screen works well for manual focusing. I did not even play with AF mode because I really don't care about AF mode. There are two manual focus zoom modes, 7X and 10x. For me the 7X is more than enough zoom. I think 10X would be useful for tripod work. I'd like a 4x or 5X zoom option. I used the kit zoom (adapters and the 17mm pancake are due to arrive later this month). For electronically compatible lenses (any m-4/3 or 4/3 lens), the auto zoom MF feature is nice. I put the camera in manual focus-zoom mode with the lens set to 14mm for most of the time. Thankfully when the camera is turned off in this mode, it wakes up in this mode. This way I could get a feel for how I would use the camera with my manual focus lenses. I was surprised at the ease of use. Except for my shaky hands in 10X zoom mode, there was nothing frustrating at all using manual focus. I am concerned about keeping the camera position fixed once focus is set without having my eye to a finder. I held the camera as close to my face as possible so my arms were not extended at all. I can see how just pressing the shutter could move the focus point when DOF is shallow because the camera is not held to the eye. Of course with the small sensor size, a razor thin DOF will not be common for the lenses and subjects I intend to use and shoot. The method I would use is to frame, focus zoom, focus and shoot. I can imaging how a viewfinder would facilitate this process. Either way, one will be able to see what's outside the frame and adjust. When an external finder is not available, one could un-zoom the LCD view and re-frame if the aperture was sufficiently narrow. I am not fussy about framing accuracy when shooting with a RF camera (I use a DLSR with a 100% finder when framing accuracy is important). I think the CV 15/4 would be a super candid/street lens. The LCD is just clear enough for manual focusing in normal light. Since it was mostly cloudy, I did not take the camera outdoors as I would not have gotten an idea about using the LCD in bright direct sunlight. I have no reservations about manual focusing this camera.
The metal body felt nice in my hand. There is no sense of cheapness or frailness at all. I now realize the sensor image stabilization is valuable to me in the EP-1. Because of the small sensor size, shooting with a wide angle-of-view means slow lenses (f 4) and the EP-1 does not have the sensitivity of a high-end DSLR. At this point it looks to me like the EP-1 has a signal-to-noise ratio similar to my D200. ISO 400 is as high as I'd want to go for color and ISO 800 would be the maximum for B&W. This means having vibration reduction available for every lens that can be mounted to the camera is valuable (unless there is significant subject motion in which case the EP-1 will let you down for wide angle-of-view applications).
So, I was wrong. The EP-1 is a viable option for some rangefinder camera photographers. I must say that the EP-1 is a real temptation for me. I have no reservations about using one daily. At this point I do not plan to add the EP-1 (or any other digital camera) to my bag. But this has more to do with how much I enjoy using my ZI-M and how I like the look of film (even scanned film) for the projects I'm currently working on.
All I can say is that I was wrong about the EP-1 being unsuitable for rangefinder-style photography. The LCD screen works well for manual focusing. I did not even play with AF mode because I really don't care about AF mode. There are two manual focus zoom modes, 7X and 10x. For me the 7X is more than enough zoom. I think 10X would be useful for tripod work. I'd like a 4x or 5X zoom option. I used the kit zoom (adapters and the 17mm pancake are due to arrive later this month). For electronically compatible lenses (any m-4/3 or 4/3 lens), the auto zoom MF feature is nice. I put the camera in manual focus-zoom mode with the lens set to 14mm for most of the time. Thankfully when the camera is turned off in this mode, it wakes up in this mode. This way I could get a feel for how I would use the camera with my manual focus lenses. I was surprised at the ease of use. Except for my shaky hands in 10X zoom mode, there was nothing frustrating at all using manual focus. I am concerned about keeping the camera position fixed once focus is set without having my eye to a finder. I held the camera as close to my face as possible so my arms were not extended at all. I can see how just pressing the shutter could move the focus point when DOF is shallow because the camera is not held to the eye. Of course with the small sensor size, a razor thin DOF will not be common for the lenses and subjects I intend to use and shoot. The method I would use is to frame, focus zoom, focus and shoot. I can imaging how a viewfinder would facilitate this process. Either way, one will be able to see what's outside the frame and adjust. When an external finder is not available, one could un-zoom the LCD view and re-frame if the aperture was sufficiently narrow. I am not fussy about framing accuracy when shooting with a RF camera (I use a DLSR with a 100% finder when framing accuracy is important). I think the CV 15/4 would be a super candid/street lens. The LCD is just clear enough for manual focusing in normal light. Since it was mostly cloudy, I did not take the camera outdoors as I would not have gotten an idea about using the LCD in bright direct sunlight. I have no reservations about manual focusing this camera.
The metal body felt nice in my hand. There is no sense of cheapness or frailness at all. I now realize the sensor image stabilization is valuable to me in the EP-1. Because of the small sensor size, shooting with a wide angle-of-view means slow lenses (f 4) and the EP-1 does not have the sensitivity of a high-end DSLR. At this point it looks to me like the EP-1 has a signal-to-noise ratio similar to my D200. ISO 400 is as high as I'd want to go for color and ISO 800 would be the maximum for B&W. This means having vibration reduction available for every lens that can be mounted to the camera is valuable (unless there is significant subject motion in which case the EP-1 will let you down for wide angle-of-view applications).
So, I was wrong. The EP-1 is a viable option for some rangefinder camera photographers. I must say that the EP-1 is a real temptation for me. I have no reservations about using one daily. At this point I do not plan to add the EP-1 (or any other digital camera) to my bag. But this has more to do with how much I enjoy using my ZI-M and how I like the look of film (even scanned film) for the projects I'm currently working on.
