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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Olympus EP-1



Ever since I saw the mockup of this camera a few months ago, I have been very interested in seeing what it really was and what it could do. Well, Olympus finally announced the EP-1, which they are calling the digital PEN. I was really excited to maybe see a digital rangefinder.

Our current photo kit is a Nikon D80, but it is just too big to carry around all the time. And our little Lumix's are great for snapshots, but just don't have the control we would like. So I thought the EP-1 would be the perfect in-between for walking around. But then I saw that there's no through-the-lens viewfinder? Any manual focusing is done through the LCD, which seems a difficult solution. I've tried to do this on a Leica D-Lux, but it was pretty much impossible. What is the point of having SLR quality sensors and optics if you can't control the shot the same way?

I would love to get my hands on one of these to test it out and if it actually fills the gap between our full blown dslr and little point-and-shoots. Olympus, if you're out there...

2 comments:

  1. I have a d-lux too! I wanted the digilux instead but couldn't afford it. This camera looks like a brilliant step towards dslr territory...bummer about focusing through the lcd though, thanks for pointing that out, i was too distracted by this camera's sexiness.

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  2. In order to have a through the lens optical viewfinder, the camera needs to have a mirror and prism. This makes the camera much larger. The smallest cameras from Olympus' 4/3 system, Canon and Nikon are about as small as it gets. The Micro 4/3 system makes the camera smaller by not having the mirror and prism. It is a compromise in size because it has the large sensor and a compromise in control as it will be harder to operate in manual modes. It really has to be the sweet spot for you. I just like how someone is thinking outside the box.

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