PEN Lite or Mini with 2.0/12mm for 'street'?

[Tompas]

I'm thinking about buying me an Olympus E-PL3 (PEN Lite) or E-PM1 (PEN Mini) with the new 2.0/12mm lens for 'street photography'. I'd use it with a Voigtländer optical viewfinder, so I'd either set everything manually or completely rely on autofocus and autoexposure (shutter priority).

Does anyone already have experience with such a 'kit'?

Is the hype about the fast autofocus justified?
Is its autofocus good enough to blindly rely upon it in 'street photography'?

 

[Tompas]

<thinly disguised bump>
Somethings wrong on RFF -- excited talk about new Nikons with micro-sensors but not one single reply in this very important and very RFFy thread? 😱
</thinly disguised bump>

 

[jsrockit]

Well, people may not have used either camera or the lens yet. People reacted to the Nikon negatively... not positively.

 

[paulfish4570]

i am starting to get interested in this level of digital, too, but know very near nothing about any of them ..

 

[gavinlg]

I used the e-p1 a lot with the 17mm f2.8, and I've tried the e-p3 which has the same AF as the other current model EP's.

To answer your questions, Yes, the AF is as fast as the hype would lead you to believe, and yes, you can blindly trust it. What's more, the 12mm f2 has a focusing scale and buttery manual focus ring so you can zone focus super easily. The AF is faster than my dslr, and significantly more reliable.

They're great cameras.

 

[gavinlg]

The wedding photographer Laurence Kim has an ongoing review of the e-p3 here - I've linked to the autofocus section:

http://laurencekim.com/2011/09/14/olympus-e-p3-review-part-3-autofocus/

 

[shadowfox]

Thomas, I frequently use my E-P2 and the Panasonic 20/1.7 lens on AF mode and I have never have problems with the speed of the AF.

I always scratch my head when I read people saying that the older E-P bodies have slooow AF. Just what are they shooting? but I digress...

Street-photography to me is about anticipating and composing on the go, but that is not the same as shooting let's say a basketball or football match where you *have* to have an accurate AF right when the action happens to get that dramatic shot.

So the new E-P bodies should be plenty fast for any street-photography type of shooting. And as Gavin mentioned, the distance scale on the lens is immensely useful for that purpose.

 

[nightfly]

The real question is if you can use a 24mm on the street.

For me it's a bit too wide and difficult to use something so wide and fill the frame with interesting things.

I would think 12mm on a m4/3 focusing would be almost unnecessary with the huge depth of field.

 

[gavinlg]

I always scratch my head when I read people saying that the older E-P bodies have slooow AF. Just what are they shooting? but I digress....

Yep, I totally agree here - my e-p1 was never slow at all. I never missed any shots due to the focussing being too slow. It was actually quite quick and very reliable. About a week after I got it I used it on a 4 week trip in Japan, and took about 500 photos on the street with it. AF was fine - good even.

i'm not sure how the older bodies got their reputation for 'slow' focussing but it isn't warranted. Either way, the new bodies are definitely much faster still...

 

[FrozenInTime]

The biggest thing with the new 12mm lens is that it has a traditional calibrated focus scale and depth of field markings - so there is no need to to worry about the auto focus hitting the right spot.

 

[Tompas]

The real question is if you can use a 24mm on the street.(...)

Oh, yes, I like to get really close. My current 'street kit' is a Bessa L with the Snapshot Skopar 4/25, so I should feel at home with 24mm, too.

 

[Tompas]

Thanks, everybody, for the encouraging opinions and experiences. I think I know what I'll get for christmas. 🙂