The latest digital camera from Olympus borrows its moniker from the Pen range of cameras that the company produced back in 1959. As one of the most successful lines in the company’s long history, it isn’t surprising that the new Olympus Pen E-P1 is generating the kind of buzz among camera enthusiasts.
As Olympus’ first Micro Four Thirds camera, it brings a compact body, along with interchangeable lens and a reputation as the world’s smallest DSLR (though it really isn’t a DSLR – go figure). With looks that mimic its forbearers from the 1960s, the Pen E-P1 is guaranteed to draw attention at every enthusiast gathering you visit. That, of course, doesn’t guarantee anything about how well it performs.
Despite the retro feel, the E-P1 fosters some of Olympus’ best hardware in its guts, allowing it to perform like a DSLR (with a matching control setup) but handle like a compact camera (complete with an auto-correcting point and shoot mode).
The new optics provide crisp details and superb image quality, providing the same range as those available for “real” DSLRs like the E-620. Noise and image processing control, via the new TruePic V engine, is superb, making their effect especially poignant at higher ISO levels (the camera gets up to 6400). It sports the same art filters as the E-620 as well, which leads to impeccable shooting modes and gorgeous color.
Other topnotch features of the 12.3 megapixel shooter include superb metering, multi-aspect shooting, excellent low-light performance and capable 720p video (with a matching HDMI out, to boot). All these good things, of course, are somewhat held back by the lack of both a flash and a viewfinder (which you can buy separately). Add those two in to the $800 base price and you’re pretty much set (if you can afford it, that is).
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
