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Olympus PEN E-P1 12.3 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens (Silver Body/Black Lens)
List Price: $799.99
Price: $799.00
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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| 12.3-megapixel interchangeable lens digital camera; Micro Four Thirds format |
| Includes 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko digital zoom lens |
| In-body Image Stabilization; 3-inch HyperCrystal LCD with Live View function |
| Record HD video with high-quality audio; in-camera creative features (for still images and video) |
| Capture images and video to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included) |
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Accessories
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Customers Reviews
2009-11-19
Love it!
Long story. My first SLR was an Olympus E-510. After using it a while I started going down this slippery slope of using and acquiring OM glass. I had no problem with the 2x conversion, but the small OM lenses were just screaming to be used on a smaller body. I then purchased an OM2 just for experimenting around and started doing the unthinkable; shooting film. (I've never shot film before.) The small size made it so much fun to carry around; more-so than the E-510. Being glued to the OM2 made me crave an even smaller digital SLR or even a digital range-finder. So I began looking at the options.
Epson RD-1? No slouch, but a bit rare and on the pricey side. Leica M8? Maybe if I sold a kidney. M9? Yeah right. Maybe if I sold half my organs. E-420? Loved the way it felt, but it didn't have the E-510's IS to compensate for the smaller/slower Olympus primes; specifically the 25mm pancake. E-620? This one seems okay; smaller form-factor, IS, better ISO performance, and an awesome swiveling LCD. As much as I loved the E-510, I sold it for an E-620. Besides for the funny red-ish indoor WB, I loved nearly everything about the E-620. But there was one little problem. Despite it's smaller size, the OM2 was still making it kind of jealous. The OM cameras were just thinner, sexier, and craved my attention a bit more. As much as I tried to avoid m43s, I knew I had to at least give it a chance. So I tried it at a store, loved it, and reluctantly sold the E-620 and most of my 43 glass to fund the E-P1 and the 20mm Panny prime.
All I have to say now is "wow!" What a relief to finally have something to carry around and make digital photography fun. You know how they say the best camera is the one that you always have on-hand? Well for me, the E-P1 is it. I try to avoid the technical stuff as much as possible, but ISO is good, image-quality is stellar, and the size is perfect. Carrying a digital camera around is no longer a personal debate, but now it's a deliberately unconscious act. I'm used to Olympus menus, so it took me about 10 minutes to learn the ins-and-outs of the camera. As for the focusing complaints that I hear about, it's really not that bad. It's actually quite good, in my opinion. I'm not a bird, sports, or action shooter so the focusing problems that others seem to pick up are nearly unnoticeable to me. (I use the center point and recompose, or select a different focus-point when needed.) I guess if anything sucked really bad, it would be the Olympus Master software. I've hated it since the E-510 days. But then I would be rating software--not the camera.
The E-P1 isn't perfect, but for me it is. The camera might not be a winner for some, but I can honestly see myself using the E-P1/20mm combo until it malfunctions. (I mainly shoot primes and rarely go beyond 50mm in full-frame.) If you're a DSLR user and simply want a small and nice camera to carry around and have fun, the E-P1 is a great choice. And as your one and only camera? It depends on what you do, but it's working out splendidly on my end. I highly recommend the E-P1.
[One more thing, even after playing a camera version of musical-chairs, I still have the OM2 and a set of primes. :o) Although they're not Leica-legendary, I truly believe the OM cameras are timeless classics.]
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2009-11-10
A professionals second camera
The Olympus PEN EP-1, and its soon to be released followup the EP-2 with the added digital viewfinder, are the perfect second camera for those traveling professional photographers. Lightweight but powerful. With the optional lens adapters, from Olympus as well as secondary manufactures, the range of glass for the body is unlimited. The original PEN line of compact cameras were, and still are, classics. Olympus has done it again.
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2009-10-17
Great camera, lowsy software - Mac user
I've moved from a Nikon SLR to the Olympus EP-1. I was looking for a smaller camera that took SLR quality pictures and this fits the bill. Build quality feels superior to Canon/Nikon although time will tell. After a recent trip up the coast and through the woods of Maine I'm very pleased with the results. Getting used to having no viewfinder takes more than a week or two.
I use a Mac and store and edit programs with Aperture. Aperture, even after three months has no support for the RAW (ORF) files produced by the camera. The JPEG's import just fine.
The software that comes with the camera is horrendous. It is very amateurish in that there is no File menu and no Quit command. It can't import pictures stored on the hard drive. And forget about editing with it. This same software is used for updating the camera, lens and flash firmware which can render the camera unusable if a problem occurs. I love the camera but wish RAW support was available in Aperture. If you don't use RAW then you can easily set the camera to JPEG only. I've had a running email conversation with Olympus Tech Support and I'm not sure they really understand how bad their software really is. I've certainly tried to tell them in a positive way offering my assistance in beta testing any new updates.
I've read other reviews here that the camera can't be used with a Mac. This is untrue. Photos can be imported into iPhoto and Aperture as easily as any other camera. Simply slip the SD card into a MacBook Pro with an SD card reader slot or use an SD card reader. Do NOT use the Olympus software or connect camera via cable (which I never do anyway). I've also imported the movies produced by the camera with no problems. Excellent movie quality.
I recommend downloading the manual from the Olympus website (the printed one included in the box has tiny print). Spending an hour or so learning the features is worth the effort. Navigating through the menu and selections is easy.
I purchased a second battery although I never needed to use it shooting photos and movies all day.
An issue is the lack of available lenses. There are no telephoto lenses available from Olympus besides the 14-42mm. The 17mm 'pancake' lens looks like a good option for low light situations if it were't for the $299 price tag (a bit steep for a camera at this price level).
Overall, I love the small-size convenience and photo quality. The camera with the 14-42mm lens is good value. If you can do without RAW format, which most probably can, then I doubt you can find a better camera.
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2009-10-14
Love-Hate Relationship with the E-P1
I was so excited about this camera that I bought it as soon as I could. I've had the camera now for a couple of months, and after quite a bit of exploring with it, I have finally come to some conclusions about it.
I should say that I am a long-time film shooter. My favorite camera I've ever owned was a Contax G2 rangefinder, which I foolishly sold a few years ago to fund my growing, and inevitably disappointing, digital camera collection. I had hoped the E-P1 would be, finally, a digital equivalent of my old Contax G2, a camera that was lightweight, beautifully built, and took the most reliably gorgeous photographs I've ever seen, regardless of light. Sadly, it's not.
The Olympus E-P1 is frustrating to use for a couple of reasons: the LCD is rather awful and the focus is difficult. I know most of the complaints about the E-P1's focus have been about the auto focus speed. Honestly that's not important to me. More important is the accuracy of the focus and ease of manual focus. On both counts the E-P1 is disappointing.
Because the LCD is not very high resolution, manual focus in low light is difficult. I am an available light photographer. I never use a flash. For this reason, though, I've always relied on either a viewfinder in the film days, or accurate auto focus in a digital camera. The E-P1's auto focus is completely great in good light. It will find focus quickly enough for me and the images are sharp. But when the light is dimmer, particularly inside, even during the day, the camera shows its limitations. I appreciate that there is a menu option to have auto focus plus manual focus, but unfortunately the LCD zoom that accompanies the manual focus is just too fuzzy to help at all. It's quite frustrating.
Equally frustrating has been the LCD outdoors when I'm shooting manual exposure. The LCD tends to show the image as being overexposed. When I take the shot and look at it afterward it is okay, which means the meter is accurate: a good thing. The bad thing is that sometimes I want to purposely underexpose or overexpose, and this becomes more difficult to see what the results will be because the LCD isn't giving me an accurate preview while I'm metering. Of course, there is no 'preview' at all when you shoot film -- you have to go just by what you know of your camera. But I don't understand digital nearly as well (though I'm trying to learn), so I need the preview to know what I'm going to get. In digital cameras, the white balance and color are so completely different than in film (and seem rather unpredictable to me -- the light changes and everything changes!) and, frankly, I don't want to do a lot of post-processing, so I'd like to be able to see what I'm going to get and make adjustments as I need to.
I have just recently tried shooting video, and as many others have pointed out, the kit zoom lens has trouble finding focus and is really, really loud about it. I haven't tried this camera with a fixed focal length lens, so perhaps the problem could be solved that way. I have noticed, though, that just as it is with still images, the lens has trouble focusing in lower light (afternoon, indoors, for instance) even when using manual focus and this is just a shame.
But it's not all bad. I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the night photographs I've taken with E-P1, even though I'm shooting with the kit lens. The in-camera image stabilization is a double, triple plus. I have shot hand held in the dark, with ISO no higher than 400, and produced sharp, interesting pictures. The camera seems to be better able to find focus in the dark than in dim indoor light; perhaps because it uses a contrast detection system.
As well as the meter being very accurate, the automatic white balance is pretty good in most situations. When the subject has less color or contrast, the white balance gets quite tricky. Fortunately, you can customize the white balance quite a bit. (Unfortunately, you're having to do it with that same inadequate LCD.)
Are all of my frustrations the result of the lousy kit zoom? It's possible. I've never had any love for the kit zooms I've owned, either in my film days (I shot Nikon as well as Contax, and the Nikon came with a lousy lens) or now in digital (I owned a Nikon D80 and the kit zoom was so awful I put it back in the box after a couple days of shooting). From what I've read, the E-P1 can accept nearly any lens and therefore could really shine with a better lens.
There are so many things I love about digital photography: the fact that you can see what you shot immediately and share them or print them immediately too, and the fact that many digital cameras can also shoot video (wow!). But it is also frustrating. I suspect that some of my frustrations with the E-P1 would disappear if I had a better lens -- perhaps the new Panasonic 20mm pancake. But I'm hesitant to buy another lens, let alone an adapter plus a lens, because I'm not sure I want to keep this camera because of the LCD. A couple of years ago I bought a Nikon D80 and sold it within a year because it was too heavy and bulky, so I rarely brought it with me. This, of course, is not the problem with the E-P1. It is easy to bring with me. Instead, it is the frustration that I find when using the E-P1 that gives me pause. Perhaps if I spend more time learning about the camera, and get a better lens, I will learn to love it. Right now, though, I'm considering giving it to my husband to use in the field (he's an archaeologist), where he will only shoot in daylight. There the camera will perform beautifully.
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2009-10-14
Video incompatible with Mac OS 10.6.1, causing software to crash
There is no way to use video from this camera on a Mac OS 10.6.1 out of the box, so be warned. I have a tech support inquiry into Olympus for any fixes before I return the camera so I'm reviewing based upon the out-of-box experience. (They take up to 48 hours for response and I'll update this review with the reply).
The problem is that the .avi video files cannot be imported into the Olympus Master 2 (the software they provide and recommend quits (on both of my computers) upon starting the import process, even though I have the latest software. In other words, the video files cause their photo software to crash, which makes using the camera difficult since you need that software to import their proprietary RAW files, which will not work in iPhoto or Photoshop.
I would expect that there would be upfront fixes for these issues posted at Olympus and that these issues would be fully disclosed here at Amazon on the listing, which they are not. Mac users be warned. Olympus' support provides no acknowledgement that Apple's OS even goes beyond 10.4. If I get a usable fix I'll add it here and update my review. Hopefully there will be one and I won't have to return what looks to be a gorgeous camera with great build. For now, my rating reflects the camera being made effectively unusable on a MAC when shooting video (You have to delete the video file in-camera before being able to once again import images.
UPDATE: I received a response from Olympus within 24 hours but they provided no information about how this issue can be fixed and I've received nothing further to my inquiries in 5 days now. So they appear currently stumped and I'm on my own, unable to shoot video. So, I'm considering making a return. I'll update this review when I hear back from them.
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Product Details
Batteries Included: 1
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Olympus
Color:
EAN: 0050332169869
Floppy Disk Drive Description:
Has Red Eye Reduction:
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Olympus
Legal Disclaimer:
Manufacturer: Olympus
Model: Silver w/ 14-42mm Lens
Publisher: Olympus
Release Date:
Special Features:
Studio: Olympus
System Memory Size: |
Olympus Cameras HistoryOlympus Corporation (early known as Takachiho Seisakusho) was founded by Takeshi Yamashitaon on October 12, 1919, and initially specialized in microscope and thermometer businesses. The company is named after Mount Olympus, the home of the gods in Greek mythology.
Olympus continued the tradition of manufacturing high-quality optics through the development of camera lenses, starting in 1934. Two years later the Zuiko lens was born.
 Through its history Olympus Company has manufactured various types of cameras: medium-format cameras, fully automatic zoom cameras, 35mm cameras, EE-equipped cameras, autofocus cameras - in different series.
The history of Olympus cameras began in 1936, when they introduced their first camera, the Semi-Olympus I. It was very expensive camera for that time.
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