FA+
Shop
New Gear! Olympus PEN EPL-2 Review!
13 years ago
General
So a friend pointed me to Adorama as they were clearancing out their new and refurbished EPL-1 and EPL-2 equipment. I wound up going with a refurbished model so I could get an extra lens for roughly $70 more then a body and a single lens alone. Either way, it was an incredible steal at about half of what the camera retails for.
In addition, I bought a used Olympus flash gun and a wide angle prime lens for cheap (seperate purchases) All and all I got the the camera, 3 lenses and an external flash for around $700. Considering the lenses alone are $200-300 a piece and the flash unit new is about $225, not a bad complete starter kit for a new system.
Does this mean I'm selling my Canon and lenses? No. This camera is a suppliment to the Rebel. You will notice I will be uploading things from both. The canon has a dedicated macro lens and works better for macro as the Olympus has a shallower DOF for starters. This shallow DoF makes the Olympus awesome for landscape and urban photography where you want everything crisp and in focus.
Anyways... the overall verdict, I am very happy with the camera, espically for what I spent on it. It means future upgrades I'll have two lens systems to decide on, which will be more painful on the wallet, but in both cases I'm being realistic. I'm not shooting with insane hardware.
I've also found the Olympus can do a lot of things the Canon cannot do and the Canon can do a lot of things well the Olympus PEN is not so great at. They seem to compliment each other well, and I have a smaller body for trips and cons and such to boot.
One interesting thing to note. Olympus changed the battery between the EPL-1 and the older E series and the EPL-2 and newer run on a newer high capacity battery. I can pull 650-800 photos/video mix off a single charge, while friends who have the older style battery are lucky to get 350. For this reason alone I'm much happier that I went with the EPL-2.
So I'll summarize some of the differences between my two camera systems, and observations about the camera in general:
Olympus PEN EPL- 2
Pros:
-Small and lightweight
-Metal Cased Body
-Able to do ISO in 1/3rd stops (so you can do ISO Settings of 250, 320, 500, 1000, 1250 etc in addition to the standard 200,400, 800 etc)
-Quieter. faster AF then most larger SLRs
-Quieter shutter then the T1i (but not as quiet as an XXD or XD series camera)
-Constant AF on video mode. Only two SLRs outside of the Mirorless systems have this right now.
-Better manual controls in Video mode then the T1i
-Shoots in the same quality as the T1i for video.
-Has a small, compact wide-angle prime lens which I lack for the Canon.
-Can see approximate results of exposure/ White balance changes on the fly. I've found they are approximate only and there is allways variation from the actual photo. Still a lot more accurate then shooting through the mirror.
-Hardware ISO up to 6400
-RAW images are much smaller then the T1i. (due to a less MP sensor and other technical details and how it records Data) Seems to be roughly 1/2 the size on disk.
Cons:
-No Viewfinder (Can get a digital one for $160 which may be a later upgrade)
-Digital Viewfinder would take up hotshoe mount.
-Great for taking snapshots, but for pro-longed shooting the Rebel is more comfortable to hold
-More prone to Camera Shake due to the size and ergonomics. Shooting with a Monopod helps incredibly.
-No trigger control wheel, and the smart menu is more cumbersome to change settings
-A touch, but just a very slight touch noisier then the Canon at all isos.
-Tends to saturate contrast and black levels. In some cases this is a benefit others a curse. Generally correctable in Photoshop
-Tends to underexpose photos and photos are darker when imported then the preview given. Again, not by a ton, enough that its an easy fix in photoshop/ lightroom
-Point AF is not as accurate as the canon. They are all area focus spots vs the pin focus of the SLR. The faster re-focus does make up for more misfocuses however.
-Better battery life then the EPL-1 but still far worse battery life then the Rebel T1i with a dual battery grip installed.
-Manual focus is not as precise as the SLR, nor nearly as easy to engage (you have to change it in a menu VS a switch on the lens)
-Very limited Lens selection (for now) compared to the canon. Less specialized lenses.
I'll add more to the list, or do a true comparison of the two in another journal. Suffice to say- I'm very pleased with the new system, but at the same time have no immediate nor future plans to sell the canon. If nothing else, there may be times where I'll be carrying both cameras on me, to have a better range of options without switching lenses. Much easier to have one camera set up with a polarizer when needed rather then screwing on new lenses or filters if you are doing photography in variable light as an example.
In addition, I bought a used Olympus flash gun and a wide angle prime lens for cheap (seperate purchases) All and all I got the the camera, 3 lenses and an external flash for around $700. Considering the lenses alone are $200-300 a piece and the flash unit new is about $225, not a bad complete starter kit for a new system.
Does this mean I'm selling my Canon and lenses? No. This camera is a suppliment to the Rebel. You will notice I will be uploading things from both. The canon has a dedicated macro lens and works better for macro as the Olympus has a shallower DOF for starters. This shallow DoF makes the Olympus awesome for landscape and urban photography where you want everything crisp and in focus.
Anyways... the overall verdict, I am very happy with the camera, espically for what I spent on it. It means future upgrades I'll have two lens systems to decide on, which will be more painful on the wallet, but in both cases I'm being realistic. I'm not shooting with insane hardware.
I've also found the Olympus can do a lot of things the Canon cannot do and the Canon can do a lot of things well the Olympus PEN is not so great at. They seem to compliment each other well, and I have a smaller body for trips and cons and such to boot.
One interesting thing to note. Olympus changed the battery between the EPL-1 and the older E series and the EPL-2 and newer run on a newer high capacity battery. I can pull 650-800 photos/video mix off a single charge, while friends who have the older style battery are lucky to get 350. For this reason alone I'm much happier that I went with the EPL-2.
So I'll summarize some of the differences between my two camera systems, and observations about the camera in general:
Olympus PEN EPL- 2
Pros:
-Small and lightweight
-Metal Cased Body
-Able to do ISO in 1/3rd stops (so you can do ISO Settings of 250, 320, 500, 1000, 1250 etc in addition to the standard 200,400, 800 etc)
-Quieter. faster AF then most larger SLRs
-Quieter shutter then the T1i (but not as quiet as an XXD or XD series camera)
-Constant AF on video mode. Only two SLRs outside of the Mirorless systems have this right now.
-Better manual controls in Video mode then the T1i
-Shoots in the same quality as the T1i for video.
-Has a small, compact wide-angle prime lens which I lack for the Canon.
-Can see approximate results of exposure/ White balance changes on the fly. I've found they are approximate only and there is allways variation from the actual photo. Still a lot more accurate then shooting through the mirror.
-Hardware ISO up to 6400
-RAW images are much smaller then the T1i. (due to a less MP sensor and other technical details and how it records Data) Seems to be roughly 1/2 the size on disk.
Cons:
-No Viewfinder (Can get a digital one for $160 which may be a later upgrade)
-Digital Viewfinder would take up hotshoe mount.
-Great for taking snapshots, but for pro-longed shooting the Rebel is more comfortable to hold
-More prone to Camera Shake due to the size and ergonomics. Shooting with a Monopod helps incredibly.
-No trigger control wheel, and the smart menu is more cumbersome to change settings
-A touch, but just a very slight touch noisier then the Canon at all isos.
-Tends to saturate contrast and black levels. In some cases this is a benefit others a curse. Generally correctable in Photoshop
-Tends to underexpose photos and photos are darker when imported then the preview given. Again, not by a ton, enough that its an easy fix in photoshop/ lightroom
-Point AF is not as accurate as the canon. They are all area focus spots vs the pin focus of the SLR. The faster re-focus does make up for more misfocuses however.
-Better battery life then the EPL-1 but still far worse battery life then the Rebel T1i with a dual battery grip installed.
-Manual focus is not as precise as the SLR, nor nearly as easy to engage (you have to change it in a menu VS a switch on the lens)
-Very limited Lens selection (for now) compared to the canon. Less specialized lenses.
I'll add more to the list, or do a true comparison of the two in another journal. Suffice to say- I'm very pleased with the new system, but at the same time have no immediate nor future plans to sell the canon. If nothing else, there may be times where I'll be carrying both cameras on me, to have a better range of options without switching lenses. Much easier to have one camera set up with a polarizer when needed rather then screwing on new lenses or filters if you are doing photography in variable light as an example.
