Major micro
Olympus' Micro FourThirds launch, the Pen E-P1 caused quite a stir and, says Jonathan Eastland, it comfortably measures up to the hype
By launching the Micro FourThirds Pen E-P1, Olympus has played a clever nostalgia card. Never mind the fact that a large part of the market will never have heard of the innovative 1960s Pen F series of half frame film cameras, whose styling the E-P1 follows. The new Pen adds a shiny and polished stainless steel body covering, is just the right weight and, at first flirt, nestles beautifully in the hand. For the masses, this latest and very bijou-looking device, half way between a compact camera and a miniature digital SLR, should be a rip-roaring success.
For serious enthusiasts and pros looking for a second or third no-nonsense compact tool with the capacity to produce good image quality, it may be slightly less of a hit. For while the image quality is excellent, it does less well on size. With the supplied kit zoom lens, it's too small to fit comfortably in a normal-sized jacket pocket. It does better with the 17mm f/2.8 prime lens but ideally, one needs cargo sized pockets for an easy fit.
I attached a leather wrist strap with swivel to the tripod socket and spent several hours on a walkabout in a popular shopping precinct, hoping this instant access but low profile method would make me less conspicuous. But once up to the eye, or at the end of an extended arm, it's impossible for any passer-by to ignore. It's scintillatingly bright surface flashed like a CD disc in the summer sun. Currently Olympus offers the same model in all white finish and while one can see the attraction of this or the steel version, what's really needed is an all black option.
Ergonomics
A near perfectly formed and subtle bulge, on E-P1 front panel and its right rear end, provides a secure and comfortable feel. This is how the Leica M8 should have been styled and as it is, the E-P1, while a good 25% smaller than a regular M film camera, feels equally intuitive.
My initial reaction on picking up the camera was to raise it to eye level. But there is no integral optical or electronic viewfinder. An optional extra accessory shoe fitting Albada type viewfinder matching the 17mm focal length lens could not be supplied by Olympus for this review and an electronic viewfinder is still in the development pipeline. What Olympus hopes will be sufficient for most users is a large 61x41mm live-viewing screen reading directly from the CMOS sensor. I found this a big drawback but I suppose you could argue that such a screen is no different to the viewing arrangements of a medium format reflex film camera - motif composition is largely accomplished on a Rolleiflex TLR or classic 6x6 Hasselblad while looking down at arms length into the viewfinder.
But while medium format cameras use all-encompassing hoods to shield the viewfinder from extraneous ambient light, the E-P1 screen is left completely open, as it is on the majority of digital cameras. In very bright light and when shooting against it, the live image is only visible when viewed directly on axis. Move to one side or the other and the image quality deteriorates. This is when an optical or EV finder comes into its own.
Instead I gaffer-taped several different Leitz optical accessory finders into place, which made a big difference to the way the E-P1 could be manipulated. But it also meant I had to ensure the AF system selected the appropriate focus plane. In Aperture or Shutter priority mode, exposure measurement could be left to take care of itself, but shooting in manual mode prompted frequent checks on screen to ensure some degree of accuracy.
It is obvious a lot of thought was given to the operational functions of this camera. On the left hand of the top plate, immediately above the top edge of the screen, a protruding serrated dial controls the selection of operating modes. An accessory flash shoe is placed on the lens axis and to the right, the power on/off, shutter release and exposure compensation buttons form an uncluttered arrangement.
On the rear of the camera, falling within easy thumb reach, are a vertical serrated wheel for control of aperture or shutter speeds (as selected in the Set Up menu) and for captured image viewing control, a combined rotating wheel (irritatingly too loose when scrolling through the menus) cum rocker switch cursor device and an array of six good-sized buttons. A flap cover on the right hand body end hides connection ports for USB/AV and HDMI while in the base, access is gained to the battery and SD card storage compartment.
Lenses
Two kit lenses, an Olympus Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-56 ED and fixed 17mm f/2.8 M-Zuiko digital pancake, respectively equating to 28 - 84 and 34 mm on 135 format were supplied. As far as I could see, the barrel construction of these lenses is entirely made from polycarbonate material, apart from the rear chromed metal mounting plate. But, unlike some other brands, each is finished to a high standard, the pancake lens in silver, the zoom in matt non-slip black with a scalloped zoom ring. The usual and expected slock - looseness - of moveable parts such as the focus and zoom rings is not present, indicating a higher than usual standard of internal lens engineering. Both are very light, which is just as well because they cost over £300 + shipping costs for the pancake lens plus viewfinder.
In use the kit zoom lens gives an adequate performance across its focal length range, but the maximum f/3.5 aperture is only obtained at the widest end. At 18mm the default setting is f/4, f/5 at 30mm. In low light at low ISO settings, practicable shutter times are compromised and the use of some form of solid support is advisable. Crank up the ISO and you pay the penalty of increased image noise; at 400 the granular effect is already noticeable and quite patchy. At 800, medium dark tones are visibly affected and at the maximum ISO6400 setting, the proverbial salt and pepper is over everything like sauce.
These effects however, are mostly only disturbing to users who persistently view images on screen at 1:1. Seen at the proper scale relative to in-camera or manipulated default resolution for Large Fine jpeg resolution, captured frames appear clean up to ISO640 and compared with film at 800 or 3200, perfectly acceptable. A 10x8inch glossy silver photo print made from a file exposed at the maximum ISO is no worse than one expected in the past from shooting 35mm colour negative film in a stadium at night at 3200. Given that the CMOS sensor in the E-P1 is the same size as the old 110 Instamatic cartridge film format and from which grubby and grainy little postcard prints were usually only possible, the new technology behind the Olympus TruePic A/D signal processing produces outstanding results.
The 17mm (34mm) pancake prime lens is small and easy to use but, as has already been noted by other observers, a maximum f/2 aperture would have been preferred by some, bringing its usefulness and wide open boke effects more in line with the old OM 40mm f/2 Zuiko of years past. Nor does this lens have any focus scale and when the manual assist function is selected, the focus ring turns 360 degs without a stop. However, as ever, it is the technology which dictates to a large extent the physical size of things and an f/2 lens of this length would have been larger and heavier than the current offering. As it is, the 17mm prime acquired high contrast and sharp images evenly across the frame. If you need AF on the street, this is the one to have, appropriately protected with a front filter and lens hood.
As previously explored with the Panasonic G1 (BJP 10/06/09), the Micro FourThirds lens mount allows you to use differently branded objectives of varying focal length. On this occasion, I used the Voigtlander VM mount and another not so cheap M mount adapter from China, with a range of Leica lenses and the new Zeiss 85mm f/f Tele-Tessar ZM. Without an EVF the fairly low resolution rear screen of the E-P1 manifests a sufficiently coarse live view to enable reasonably precise manual focus of the whole motif. As with the Lumix G1, setting the menu option to the MF (manual focus) feature crops the motif to a small segment of the image frame enabling critical focus once the AF segment has been activated. The facility works using third party mechanical objectives with any mechanical adapter but not in the same way found on the G1.
The method is, 1. set the Function button to engage the required focus mode. 2. press the Info button several times until the green AF focus area rectangle shows on the screen. 3. press OK. The small area focus segment appears on screen enabling critical manual focus. 4. Press OK again once critical focus is established to return to the full screen image. 5. Repeat the procedure for each frame.
Raison d'etre
The BJP's news editor Olivier Laurent attended the recent Berlin launch for the E-P1 and discussed it and the future development of Micro FourThirds with Akira Watanabe, head of Olympus Imaging SLR planning. In a nutshell, the company plans to expand the system. 'There will be a series of further models for other users,' said Watanabe, perhaps hinting at a pro or semi pro model.
But the E-P1 is aimed squarely at the wider consumer market. By definition, it lacks many of the features demanded by photo-graphy enthusiasts. Fully charged battery life is short by comparison with some other compact devices. Contrast AF focus performance in low light is slow and erratic. In normal daylight it is about as quick as a high end compact such as the Ricoh GX series and I would not attempt to use either one for any kind of serious street photography. When time to capture the motif permits, the AF system works well but MF invariably produces a more exactly focused frame. It's easier to set up a zone of sharp focus using the MF facility in conjunction with mechanical lenses. This also eliminates shutter release delay experienced when the camera is used in AF mode.
The lack of an integral EVF or optical finder with bright line frames will annoy some, and it's almost inconceivable that such a feature, however compromised by the compact nature of the camera, could not have been installed. I'm a frequent user of supplementary viewfinders on the Leica-M and I find them almost indispensable, but this is to confuse the issue. They work on a film camera where aperture, shutter time and lens hyperfocal distance can be set and fixed manually. On a digital camera of this type, exposure and focus settings are often accidentally changed.
Image quality obtained with the two kit lenses was good, although scaled up files looked a little soft compared with the razor-edged effects obtained with the G1 and Lumix objectives. Colour hues and motif tonal renditions were all marginally improved using Leica glass but that isn't a cue to start loading the plastic; more a heads up for those with existing collections of almost any brand lying dormant that they can be used on the E-P1.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that the E-P1 is everything Olympus intended it to be. It's an attractively retro styled, well made and thought out semi-compact digital camera, capable of excellent image performance in the right hands. Once menu settings were appropriately customised, a tight choice of most-used focal lengths selected and the camera fitted with supplementary viewfinder, I found using the E-P1 comparable to using a rangefinder. It's very comfortable and easy to control more or less single-handed. The high quality video option is a bonus but for this to be really useful, the E-P1 should, like all digital cameras, probably have been fitted with a fully articulating screen. I'm tempted and will probably be more so when a black version comes along.
