Olympus E-P1, week 1

After almost one full week with the new camera, I figured I’d share my initial impressions for those who may be interested.

First off, I’ve got to give thanks to the company that made it possible for me to own the E-P1, Amazon.com. They continue to amaze me. Somehow, someway, I received a magic tracking number last Thursday night and my Olympus E-P1 Pen was delivered last Friday afternoon, even though it wasn’t supposed to arrive until this Tuesday. I don’t know how or why it happened that way, but a huge thank you goes out to the folks at Amazon – or at least to the stock picking droids that randomly chose my order for early shipment. I hope you are oiled well.

Right out of the box I was impressed with the camera’s heft and small size. The little sucker feels damn solid, and has what I would consider to be the perfect size-to-weight ratio. It feels like a camera should feel, slightly heavy and definitely not cheap and plasticky in any way. The brushed aluminum and metal alloy body is very attractive, and really does makes it look like an old film camera. In fact, everyone – and I mean everyone – who has glanced at it so far has asked "What’s that, an old film camera?" They’re blown away when I tell them it’s digital. If the lcd screen were somehow covered up on the back, i doubt people would ever question it being a film camera.

After charging the battery for what felt like an eternity, I fired it up and immediately noticed how alien almost all of the controls felt. I’ve been living in Canon SLR land for the last several years and it’s going to take a good while to get familiar with the Pen. No fault of the camera, I’ve already had "rookie syndrome" several times where I’ve missed shots because I was fumbling around looking for certain settings. They’re pretty easy to get to, but there are a lot of them. I doubt many SLR’s have all the layers of customization that this little camera has. It’s been a few days, and I still find myself frequently checking the user manual to find out what some of the settings do and where to go to change them. In a lot of the reviews and previews I’ve read online, some folks seemed to be really hung up about the lack of a viewfinder. I must say, however, it hasn’t been that big of a deal for me. You get used to it very quickly. There have been a few instances where I’ve just turned off the lcd and shot from the hip with half-decent results.

The good: 

• Size – About as compact as I’d want a camera to be. Any smaller would be difficult to hold. Lens does add to the overall size a bit , but it’ll still fit in your cargo shorts or jacket pocket.
• Shutter – Respectable "click" noise and virtually no shutter delay. Very nice.
• Focusing – AF speeds are totally acceptable for this style of camera. Do not expect MKIII or D3 focusing speeds from it, and you’ll be fine. There’s also a great mode that allows you to go from AF to MF (with zoom) just by turning the focus ring on the lens. This works very well for fine focus control.
• Sensor – 12.3 MP with low noise delivers image quality comparable to a middle-class SLR. ISO800 is quite usable, although I’m still playing with the in-camera NR. Will probably keep it set to "low".
• Menu – Insane amount of options & customizations in the menu. Steep learning curve. Be prepared to sit and read the manual several times.

The bad:

• Menu – Insane amount of options & customizations in the menu. Steep learning curve. Be prepared to sit and read the manual several times.
• Lens – It’s a kit lens. Gets the job done for now, but I’m eagerly anticipating adapter rings and seeing what this thing can do with some decent glass on it. Checkout this article from B&H about upcoming adapter rings.
• Limited number of adapters and lenses available (right now), and the lenses that are available may be small, but they ain’t cheap.
• Files – Processing / Developing images with Olympus software isn’t very intuitive *sucks*. Can’t wait for ACR/LR/DNG support. C’mon Adobe!
• Battery – Takes a while to charge, could last a bit longer.

In a nutshell, the Olympus E-P1 Digital Pen feels like a mid-range SLR trapped in the body of a point and shoot. A hybrid, if you will. If you’re looking for image quality that rivals a 5D with an 85mm f/1.2 attached, or the focusing performance of the D3, look elsewhere. This isn’t that type of camera. The Pen IS however a very, very capable, fun and portable camera, marred only by the limitations of its kit lens at this point. As more and more lenses become available for use, I think the potential for this little guy will truly be recognized.

Coming from someone who has owned a 5D, 5DII, 20D, 30D, 1DMKIII, G9 and countless other small point and shoots, I can say that the Olympus Pen is a fantastic "take anywhere" camera. It bridges the size and performance gap between SLR’s and P&S’s incredibly well. So far, there hasn’t been a trace of buyers remorse and I’m very happy with the results the camera is already producing from my rookie hands. Since work has been kicking my ass recently, I don’t have a lot of super-interesting sample photos, but I’ll try to gather a few more for the gallery below after this weekend.