Olympus Pen E-P1 Review - Independent Test Pen E-P1 Digital Camera

Review: Olympus Pen E-P1 Digital Camera

Posted on 16. Sep, 2009 by Robert Bluffield in Review

There is no doubting the fact that the new Olympus Pen is an extremely fine and versatile camera. It is not an SLR but an interchangeable lens compact camera with performance that equals many DSLRs. It is well constructed, has an aluminium body and it is crammed with features that allows a wide level of control to capture superb images. However, I am confused about the camera’s potential market. With a manufacturer’s listed price a penny under £700, in anybody’s book this is an expensive camera. Unless you are somebody who is not averse to spending lots of money on gadgets, this is hardly likely to appeal to many who simply wish to upgrade from a compact although its stylish looks will appeal to some. For the more serious photographer it may be altogether too gimmicky and this may steer them in the direction of a more conventional DSLR of a similar price. This, I believe, leaves a potential market somewhere between two groups of buyers; the company executive/employee who requires a small, yet high resolution camera to record aspects involving their work, and the well-heeled enthusiast who cannot resist buying the very latest gadgets. This may seem a little unfair, but I feel Olympus has created something of an expensive hybrid with the Pen E-P1 although I don’t intend this to be in any way derogatory.

The Pen E-P1 may also deliberately be aimed at la small element of long time users mature enough to have owned the iconic Pen 35mm half frame camera from when it evolved in 1959 and lasted in one form or another until the 1980s. Olympus has felt it necessary to emphasise this pedigree by including the strap-line on the camera body that proudly proclaims ‘OLYMPUS PEN since 1959’ as if to remind sentimentalists of its heritage. In its day, the original Pens were indeed very fine little cameras that would fit snugly in the pocket and would produce 72 images of excellent quality on a standard 36-exposure 35mm film. During the 1970s my flat mate had one; it went everywhere with him, and although his father owned a camera shop he chose the Pen over all other cameras, so this must prove something. The original Pen, in its various guises, carried certain kudos, but although it may still be regarded by some as a classic, these popular cameras no longer fetch much money as collectibles. This is no surprise, considering more than 17 million units in the range were produced, with plenty of working examples still about. Aficionados of the camera may be interested to learn more about its history and development here.

The Pen got its name allegedly because the camera was devised to be as simple to use and carry as a pen. This may have been the case with the film version but with the growing number of features being added to the armouries of digital cameras, it would be difficult to fit the latest Olympus into a pocket in spite of the manufacturer’s efforts to make this possible. Certainly the Pen E-P1 is reasonably small (120.5×70x35mm) but not as small or as light as most compacts. The size is partly made possible by the pancake lens that has to be extended manually before use, and the mirror-less format, but it is still fairly heavy, weighing in at 335g without a lens. As to ease of use; it is not overly difficult, more fiddly, and it takes a considerable time to become familiar with the wealth of features and functions. Novices may find this extremely frustrating, even irritating, and may be put off by having to wade through a lengthy 160 page manual particularly if they have little prior knowledge of the workings of digital cameras. I found some of the functions a little difficult to work out but, like all things, with patience and increasing utilisation things become more familiar and the user will probably then opt to become discerning over which features they personally find most useful. Olympus claims that the Pen is the smallest camera on the market to have interchangeable lenses; it may well be, but considering that the E-P1 also has the dual capability of being able to capture high quality 12.3MP still images as well as (1280×720 resolution) video at 30 frames per second, with stereo sound, this may influence more people to consider it especially if they have the desire to shoot both genres without being bogged down by separate pieces of equipment.

Design & Appearance

Visually the Olympus Pen has an extremely attractive retro appearance that closely resembles the compact 35mm half frame Pen F camera launched in 1963. It is sturdy, beautifully constructed and is available in two colour schemes (silver/black or white/tan). His and hers? The front is, as expected, dominated by the lens which is removed using a simple release catch to its left. Apart from a firm rubberised grip on the right and a couple of logos, the front of the camera is free of controls. The rear, business side of the camera is dominated by the 3 inch 230k LCD screen to the left, with a rotary D-pad control on the right used to adjust the settings. This has an OK button in the centre of four surrounding pads used to control ISO, auto focus, white balance and other functions. To the left of this are four small, neatly aligned buttons that control the auto focus/auto exposure lock, the navigation button for scrolling through the taken images (still and video), image delete button and menu controls. A fifth button set slightly below the control pad labelled ‘info’ will, when pressed, display the current settings in use. Adjustments to the main shooting functions; tone, colour, image quality (including RAW option) ISO setting, metering, AF mode and driver/self timer are all made using the D-pad via the menu, while exposure control can be set using the unusual roller control feature that is partially recessed into the top right of the back plate. This uses click stops that can easily be set by turning the control using the thumb. Selections can be determined by scrolling the clear on-screen quick menus that are similar to those on many Olympus compact cameras. The main mode dial is partially recessed into the upper left top plate of the body and is used to change the exposure priority modes (aperture/shutter/programme/manual/auto and scene). The Pen E-P1 offers an optimum range of manual controls including fully customised colour profiles; adjustable tone gradation and image aspect ration control that can be changed from the 4:3 default to 3:2, 6:6 and 16:9. The camera also offers nineteen different scene mode programmes that includes high and low key, panorama, portrait, nature macro, macro, night scene and action and six Art Filters; high saturation pop art, pin hole, pale and light colour, soft focus and grainy film options as well as double exposure. Shutter speed setting ranges from 30 seconds in B mode to 1/4000th sec and the ISO can be set in one third EV increments from 100 to 6400.

The right of the top plate contains the on-off button (neatly illuminated with a green ring when turned on), shutter release button and exposure compensation button with the rotary control dial on the left and optional flash hot shoe in the centre. There is also a button, located next to the on/off switch, marked SSWF that relates to the Super Sonic Wave Filter, the useful cleaning system used to remove irritating dust from the camera sensor.

Lenses & Image Quality

The Pen E-P1 has a high-speed TruePic V image processor and micro four thirds live sensor, also employed in their E system DSLR cameras, which were jointly developed with Panasonic. The Pen also has a micro four thirds lens mount that accepts the two specific Zuiko lenses; the fixed focal length 17mm f2.8 (that I did not have the opportunity to review) and the ultra-sharp 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 with ED glass. With an appropriate adaptor Olympus E and OM system optics can also be used. Auto focus is provided using a multi point/centre point contrast detection system and the camera has sensor shift image stabilisation to considerably reduce camera shake. Exposure preferences can be set to multi pattern, centre weight or spot metering. The white balance, as expected, can be adjusted to most lighting conditions such as bright sun, shade, fluorescent, tungsten etc although I prefer to leave cameras set on auto white balance and adjust the balance post-capture using Adobe Photoshop because I shoot most of my images as RAW files. With this in mind, the Pen can be set to fine or normal compression JPEGs and RAW (up to 3 frames per second) or on video in AVI motion JPEG format with a file capacity of 2GB. The camera uses an 1150mAh Li-ion rechargeable battery (supplied) that slots smoothly into a recess in the bottom of the camera below the hand grip. This port also contains the media slot that accommodates SD or SDHC memory cards. The E-P1 also has built in AV out, USB 2 and HDM1 ports enabling a direct connection to be made to a digital TV…

Overall Impression

I found the Olympus Pen E-P1 a pleasure to use although the choice and range of optional settings could be confusing making me doubt whether many serious photographers would bother to use some of the in-built features. The camera is fairly heavy for its size but it is well balanced, handles easily and is comfortable to hold. I found the overall image quality generally exceptionally good, equal to many larger DSLRs but it lacks something by not having a built-in flash. Although it would have added to the overall size and weight of the camera, the exclusion of its own flash could be a mistake Olympus lives to regret that is hardly helped by the cost of the optional dedicated flash (£160). This considerably raises the overall price beyond many DSLRs that do come with an onboard flash. The requirement to carry an extra item somewhat diminishes the advantage of building a small, neat camera in the first place that I find difficult to comprehend. I am also alienated by having to rely on an LCD screen to compose my images especially when it is difficult to judge what the camera is seeing in brightly lit conditions when the sun tends to wash out the screen. A clip on viewfinder is available (again, as an expensive option at around £100) to use with the non-zoom 17mm lens, but this will hardly be favoured by the majority of users. The camera would also benefit from having an in-focus indicator light to overcome the difficulty of knowing when the camera is in focus using the LCD screen. However, despite these criticisms, in my opinion most users will gain far more than they might lose by buying an exceptionally well constructed camera that is capable of producing superb image quality both in still and video formats.

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