Tag: olympus

Olympus Colors – E-P1 or E-1 ?

As a owner of the legendary Olympus E-1 for almost 6 years now, I am still keeping this camera for many reasons. The rock solid body, the excellent handling, and of course, the signature Olympus color. Even I also have the E-300 and E-510, I still think in most of the times this “old” E-1 camera can out-perform the other two cameras I have easily – as long as you compare the output colors only.

And then six months ago, Olympus released their first Micro Four Thirds camera E-P1 and I am very pleased to find that the straight-out-of-camera JPEG colors are as good as the E-‘s1. In dpreview.com, there was one member gave these two cameras a blind test and it confirmed my findings. Looks like Olympus again did some magic in the latest image processing engine.

In fact, the more I use my E-P1, the more I have a feeling that I can leave my E-1, E-300 and E-510 at home … followings are some E-P1 pictures from Australia.

Sydney Bridge

Hervey Bay pier

Kata Tjunta

Olympus E-P1 – initial impression

To me (or many amateur photographers), the holy grail of travel photography is to have good image quality in a small package. Even though I have couple of small DSLRs and compact digital cameras, it is still a very tiring trip if you need to take two bodies, a few lens, flash, batteries, monopod, digital wallet etc. with you all the time.

And after years of waiting / researching / praying, finally there is one camera can deliver all the goodies I want – stylish, small, good image quality, low noise in high ISO, and some no-brainer idiot-proof special effects. It is the Olympus E-P1. Even I like it a lot, for now, it is not the perfect camera yet. For example, there is no EVF, no flip-out LCD VF, and there are not many good lens available yet. However, I guess I can keep researching / praying …

Anyway, some photos:

Photo of St. Sulpice Church, Paris

It is a rather old photo, taken a few years back. Just resurrected it from the hard-disk and earlier this month submitted to DPreview.com’s “Church Interior Photos” Challenge. And luckily, this photo was ranked number 22 out of the 300 submissions, with 2648 votes.

I then submitted it also to the local Olympus user group’s 5th anniversary photo contest a few days ago and it’s voted one of the top ten. Love it … and I hope you like it as well.

St. Sulpice Church, Paris

Olympus E-P1

Couple of days ago, Olympus launched one of the most innovative cameras in recent years – E-P1 … a compact camera with a size of DC, but with quality and features of a DSLR. What strikes me most in the past few days is not the excellent feature set of the camera, but how people evaluate this new camera – even before they get one.

Some said they hate the body color – they want it in all black, instead of the current two offerings – White and Silver. Some said they want an EVF (Electronic View Finder) on top of the Liveview LCD, even though all the DC in the market except one has an EVF. Some said a built-in flash is a must, but according to the sample pics in DPreview, E-P1 can handle in-door shooting environment comfortably with ISO 3,200 and 6,400. And some said they will not buy it because the LCD is not high resolution enough, or because it is not water-proofed. Of course, some said it is too expensive, or too big, or too small etc., etc…

Seriously, are they real photographers, or just professional whiners ?

Olympus E-P1

So, is E-P1 a good camera ? I don’t know yet, but as Imaging-Resource.com put it:

Just when we thought it was all going to go SLR, Olympus … makes an introduction that changes everything.