The Olympus E-PL1

[tspore]

Olympus Announces the E-PL1 today as a budget friendly µ4/3 camera. Opening up its camera line to a whole new group of photographers.
Basic information can be found here.

[Johannes]

Thanks Tony.

What is the difference between MMF-1 and MMF-2 apart from color?

[clark666]

"At the heart of the E-PL1 is a large-size image sensor that's the same sensor as the one inside the Olympus E-30 and E-620 Digital SLR models."

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...q_v=c79b90090f

So, there is an enhanced data processing system, Truepic V, and hopefully, the anti alias filter on the sensor has been reduced in strength

More resolution and less weight! So, do I keep the E-620 that I just bought?

[Johannes]

Another question, Tony .... what is 'L' version lens(es) apart from plastic mount?

[tspore]

I didn't get a body from Olympus, but I think as they are trying to get a camera price point down and open it up to those who want a professional type camera at a very affordable price they have for the most part came up with the E-PL1.
The body does look a bit more plasticy and it is missing a lot of controls that the E-p1/2 has. But for a inexpensive camera it is well worth looking at.

Here is a great video:


Here is a decent preview from Mac World.

[RickeyG]

Awesome. I predict one of these for my pocket this summer,,,,, with a lens adapter of course.

[olddigiman]

Pity, they should have at least put on a front control wheel. OK, I understand that the camera is geared to P&S types who want to upgrade without going the full DSLR route. But there's no effective path in this camera to usable additional control if the person wants, it's just a P&S with a big sensor, and the current P&S crop does just filne with moderate enlargements, so there's no real rationale for the camera as spec'd. The menu driven stuff is pathetic if you want to control parameters while you're shooting. I can't believe how amazingly wrong Oly is consistently getting it with the design of these cameras. Pathetic.

[epark1281]

at first glance i thought this was going to blow the competition out of the water.
But considering that there's no relatively accessible way to select shutter speed or aperture aside from menu selection, i don't think i'll go in this direction. Really, is putting a control wheel on the camera going to shoot the price another $100? $200?
Makes no sense to me. Why not have modes for both P+S shooters and enthusiasts?
It wouldn't cost them that much more money.
Thumbs down.

[ckrueger]

$700 for the 9-18? Bummer. I was expecting $500.

[minh0204]

My first manual camera was a Sony W7 compact. No A or S mode, but it does have M mode where you can change shutter speed + aperture (only 5 steps if memory is right) and I had a lot of fun experimenting long-shutter exposure. The control is NOT terrible at all, press left/right to adjust A and up/down for S. Took me a few minutes to figure out. I haven't recalled any situation where I could't get the shot without the wheel (although I was rather inexperienced at that time) and needless to say it served me well for my learning purpose.

The E-PL1, in my opinion, is similar to the Ipad: no USB nor Flash? who needs those stuffs? This camera is not targeted at us camera-geeks/freaks but the more general public, who spends no more than a moment to decide on a camera and even less to learn how to use it. 3 cheers for Oly in this brave decision.

Originally Posted by epark1281

at first glance i thought this was going to blow the competition out of the water.
But considering that there's no relatively accessible way to select shutter speed or aperture aside from menu selection, i don't think i'll go in this direction. Really, is putting a control wheel on the camera going to shoot the price another $100? $200?
Makes no sense to me. Why not have modes for both P+S shooters and enthusiasts?
It wouldn't cost them that much more money.
Thumbs down.

With all those fancy dual aspherical lenses and High refractive index glasses, $700 seems like a steal!

Originally Posted by ckrueger

$700 for the 9-18? Bummer. I was expecting $500.

[johnblue3]

Originally Posted by epark1281

at first glance i thought this was going to blow the competition out of the water.
But considering that there's no relatively accessible way to select shutter speed or aperture aside from menu selection, i don't think i'll go in this direction. Really, is putting a control wheel on the camera going to shoot the price another $100? $200?
Makes no sense to me. Why not have modes for both P+S shooters and enthusiasts?
It wouldn't cost them that much more money.
Thumbs down.

Some time ago, I wrote, posted a complaint about how tedious the secondary wheel was on the E-Px cameras. I suggested that they might improve the thing by somehow improving that arrangement through firmware upgrade. Well it appears that they have done something even better, they have eliminated the wheel(s) altogether. I've been reading the manual for the E-PL1 and here is how it's done in Manual Mode:

1. Rotate the mode dial to M

2. After pressing +/- button(^), use the (<>) to choose the aperture and the up/down arrow button to choose the shutter speed.

This is a snap compared to fumbling with that secondary wheel in the midst of all those arrow functions.
So it appears that they have addressed several big concerns about the E-Px cameras in this release:
Built in Flash
Able to control FLxxR Flashes
No secondary wheel required
One button direct video record
EVF and Microphone Port
Available Underwater housing

As far as I can tell, the only thing left is Camera Control.

[Michael Meissner]

Originally Posted by johnblue3

So it appears that they have addressed several big concerns about the E-Px cameras in this release:
Built in Flash
Able to control FLxxR Flashes
No secondary wheel required
One button direct video record
EVF and Microphone Port
Available Underwater housing

As far as I can tell, the only thing left is Camera Control.

Well it would be nice if Olympus decided to license some modern video codecs, so that if you want to shoot video, you aren't limited to ~ 15 minutes or so.

I must admit to being puzzled by the number of people that seem to need instant changes to the shutter speed and aperture. I tend to select the mode (P/A/S) based on what I'm trying to shoot, and generally set the aperture or shutter in A/S modes once based on the situation. I can see where if you are constantly changing your settings you might need this, but with my style of shooting, I don't.

My C-2100UZ (and C-8080WZ when I had it) did not have any dial except the mode dial. To change aperture/shutter speed you used arrow buttons, just like the E-PL1. Particularly if you are just moving to the next/previous aperture/shutter speed, it was just as quick as the dial. I didn't have to menu dive to change the settings. I don't see the E-PL1 manual at Olympus just yet, but I would imagine there is probably a mode where you can use the arrow keys to change the settings.

[MikkoH]

So it's 600$, I would still have to invest another 200$ for the viewfinder to be able to use it. And then it wouldn't be so pocketable, and how am I supposed to use a flash? The buttons look really crippling, for the price of the useless record button they could have had a dial! And what's up with all Pens having an on/off -button instead of a switch? I hate them!
In the meanwhile, wheres my 300/4-lens??

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Michael Meissner

Well it would be nice if Olympus decided to license some modern video codecs, so that if you want to shoot video, you aren't limited to ~ 15 minutes or so. ...

The time limit isn't directly a result of the CODECs employed, but a limitation of the wrapper file format chosen, AVI. AVI has maximum file size limit. With any one CODEC, frame size, and frame rate combination that maximum file size works out to some time limit. With the lower resolution option in the E-PL1 the AVI format's maximum file size it reached at about 14 minutes.