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Reviews: Olympus Pen E-P1


Olympus Digital Pen

Micro Four Thirds digital camera
Olympus-Pen
A lovely camera that lives up to all the hype.
Drawback: lack of a viewfinder
(see E-P2 above)
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Oh, hasn't Olympus got them all talking! The new digital Pen has commanded numerous comments across the web and in magazines. Some people love it, some hate it (mainly because they think it is an innovation too far). Some have even attacked Olympus for innovation and then told them to carry on being innovative!

If you want size, weight, pixel counts, facts and figures, they are all over the web (a very good site for camera reviews is www.dpreview.com). I want to concentrate on quirks, tips and, some might think crazy, linkups that are possible. Hey, I love crazy experiments with different lenses and vewfinders and I love quirky cameras.

Viewfinder v screen

First, let's get an obvious problem out of the way. The main cause of angst for all enthusiasts is the lack of a viewfinder. This can be a huge problem, especially in bright light, when you cannot see the screen to focus or compose. With autofocus, the first problem partly goes away - if (and it's a big if) you trust the camera to focus exactly where you intended. Personally, I prefer to turn off multi focusing points on any camera I use and to autofocus using just one point.

There are ways around the viewfinder problem (using an external one attached to the hotshoe) and this actually forces you to use some of the skills gleaned when using cameras back in the "good" old film days, which I will explain later.

No pop-up flash

Where's the pop-up flash? Olympus has ditched that, too. Actually, who really cares? Pop-up flashes on most cameras are pretty underpowered and often useless with a zoom lens. Why not attach a much more powerful flash to the hotshoe? That takes me back to the comment I made about using old skills. Few 35mm film cameras had a pop-up flash (until later when digital was in its youth). Some, like the minuscule Rollei 35 (it was smaller than many point and shoot digitals today), not only lacked a pop-up but also had bizarre hotshoe arrangements to counteract their small size (pictured right).

I have successfully attached several flash units to the Pen, including a Contax TLA140 (which is nice and small). The TLA was made for the Contax G1, a fantastic 35mm rangefinder. Switch everything to manual on the TLA for the Pen and you get some great flash images. The Contax flash came in a tiny case that clipped on your belt as well.

Er, not so fast

So the two major problems of owning a Pen are solved. Er, not quite. What happens when you want to use flash and a viewfinder? In a nutshell, you can't - there is only one hotshoe. I'm working on it... perhaps there's a double hotshoe somewhere. Still, during the times you will mainly be using flash (except for fill in, of course), the screen is likely to be visible anyway.

Pancake lens and viewfinder

A 17mm pancake lens is available for the Pen, with a viewfinder that attaches to the hotshoe. They both come at a meaty price, though, and availability wasn't too good at the launch.

Try this at home

I once bought a Voigtlander 15mm screw lens with a viewfinder to attach to my Epson RD-1 digital rangefinder. Then I discovered an adapter that attached Leica M lenses to the Pen. So, you can guess what happened next... Voigtlander screw attached to M mount, attached to M adapter, attached to Pen.

The Pen (being micro four thirds) multiplies the 15mm to a 30mm lens (wider than the dedicated pancake). Focusing is manual (like many adaptions), but it forces you to think about shots, instead of the point-autofocus-shoot-and-shoot-again scattergun of auto everything.

With a bit of practising, it is possible to use the Voigtlander's dedicated viewfinder attached to the hotshoe to get close to a decent composition.

Since then, I have also used Leica M and Olympus OM lenses on the Pen, to great effect and used the Voigtlander viewfinder with the standard 14-42mm lens (the viewfinder is even closer to the 14mm wide angle of this zoom lens).

Manual focusing

All these prime lenses attached to the Pen via adapters need to be focused manually, of course. And the instructions for the Pen are not exactly brilliant.

So, here's a tip that will save you a lot of time trying to work it out.

When the manual lens is attached, press the info button (information display button) until you get the green square of the zoom display. Press OK and the screen will zoom. Focus on your subject and press OK again.

There is another way of focusing to which I have already alluded. If you don't know already, now is the time to learn focusing skills using the marks around the outside of these prime lenses. Called hyperfocal focusing, this method is very much easier than it sounds.

When employed, you do not have to look at the screen, or keep fiddling with the focus, and can use an attached viewfinder with confidence.

For a good explanation of hyperfocal focusing, go to this webpage.

Conclusion

The Pen is a beautiful camera, but it's an enthusiast's camera. It also produces some excellent results.

Yet, because of some limitations, I would not carry it around as my only camera of choice. If I were to carry one camera at a time (I always have some sort of back up, even if it is a point-and-shoot) I would prefer to carry the Panasonic G1 micro four thirds (which is what I used to take these pictures of the Pen).

The G1 can do everything the Pen does, is lightweight and very small for an "SLR" (it doesn't have a mirror, so is, strictly speaking, not a single lens reflex). And it can take the same combination of lenses and adapters.

Unfortunately, the G1 is not so damned pretty as the Pen!

olumpus pen 2
rollei 35 2

Above: The Olympus Pen E-P1 with a 28mm (56mm equiv) Leica Summicron M mount lens attached to the Novoflex micro four thirds adapter. Stunning, but OTT. Leica M lenses are best kept for Leica Ms!

pen voigtlander

Above: The Olympus Pen E-P1 with 15mm Voigtlander screw lens
mounted on a screw to Leica M mount adapter and coupled to a Novoflex M to micro four thirds adapter. The lens acts as a 30mm (35mm equivalent). The Voigtlander has a dedicated digital viewfinder, which gives the 35mm equivalent view of 22.5mm.
Ah, you say that will never do. With a bit of practise, it works. But remember, the viewfinder gives a 3-2 aspect ratio, while the camera is squarer, at 4-3

leica

Above: The Olympus Pen E-P1 with 14-42mm Zuiko lens

Left: The Rollei 35TE 35mm film camera with a hotshoe underneath. To get better flash, you turned the camera upside down

This Rollei is fitted with a Contax TLA140 flashgun made for the Contax G1 film camera. It works well, manually, with the Pen.

Pen-OM

Above: The Olympus Pen E-P1 with a 24mm (48mm equiv) Olympus OM-System Zuiko lens attached via a Lumix adapter (for the G1). Almost looks at home, doesn't it?

by Peter Greenhalgh

Olympus Pen E-P1 picture examples:

black and white photos using the Voigtlander 15mm lens

Olympus Pen E-P1 examples

Olympus Pen E-P1 RAW example: download (13mb)
Copyright protected. This is an example of the RAW image only. Please do not steal the image. It can be traced.

 

UPDATE: Olympus Pen E-P2
The E-P2 is essential the same camera as the E-P1, but with an electronic viewfinder.
This turns it into a brilliant travel camera.