Olympus E-PL1 review – better quality, slow speed
Thumbs Up:
Able to shoot RAW+JPEG in every mode including iAutio and Art Filters; better picture quality; excellent built.
Thumbs Down:
Slow shooting performance; sluggish auto-focus; low-resolution display; short battery life.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The Olympus E-PL1 is powered with TruePic V image processor and 12.3-megapixel High Speed Live MOS. It features micro-SD card slot, Supersonic Wave Filter (SWF), Sensor Dust Reduction, 2 Field of View Crop Factor, Frame movie shooting mode, Optical image stabilization, face detection, white balance bracketing, and 324 exposure metering zones. The maximum shutter speed is 1/4000 second and minimum is 60 second. The X-sync speed options are 1/2000 second and 1/180 second.
The 2.7 inches LCD display has format of 230,000 pixels. The E-PL1 has inbuilt mono microphone and pop-up flash. The flash features hot-shoe flash terminal, wireless-off camera control, flash +/- compensation, and 7 guide numbers. The flash modes are Red-eye reduction, Rear curtain sync, Flash OFF mode, Slow synchro, Fill-in mode, and Auto-mode.
The Micro Four Thirds lens is aspherical in nature. It has 14-42mm focal length and F/3.5-5.6 aperture that features 3x optical zoom. The camera has TTL contrast detection auto focus and 225 auto-focus points. The minimum focus range is 9.8 inches and maximum viewing angle is 75°.
The E-PL1 has EV 0-18 (ISO 100) exposure range; exposure compensation of ±3 EV range, in 1, 1/2 or 1/3 EV steps, and auto-exposure bracketing of 3 steps in 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1 EV steps. It has three types of white balance: Automatic, Presets, and Custom. The white-balance presets are Fluorescent light (Warm white), Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (daylight), Tungsten light, 2000K-14000K, Overcast, Daylight, Shade, and Flash.
The light sensitivity levels are ISO Auto (200-1600), and ISO 100-3200. The shooting programs are Night Scene with portrait, Panorama assist, Portrait mode, Nature macro, Sports mode, Night scene, E-portrait, Beach/snow, Anti-shake, Landscape, Fireworks, Documents, High key, Children, Low key, Sunset, and Macro.
The special effects include Black & White Magenta, Black & White Yellow filter, Black & White Orange filter, Black & White Green filter, Black & White Blue filter, Black & White Red filter, Gentle Sepia, Grainy Film, Soft Focus, I-Enhance, Portrait, Pin Hole, Monotone, Pop Art, Natural, Diorama, Vivid, Sepia, and Muted.
The Olympus E-PL1 has self-timer delay function of 2 and 12 seconds. The additional highlights are Digital image stabilization (video mode), Shadow Adjustment technology, Camera orientation detection, Scene Detection Technology, Display brightness control, RGB primary color filter, Highlight point display, Digital noise reduction, 720p HD movie recording, Digital image rotation, USB 2.0 compatibility, In-camera red-eye fix, Shadow point display, PRINT image matching, Full-time Live view, Built-in help guide, Saturation control, PictBridge support, Sharpness control, Resizing an image, Histogram display, Cropping an image, Contrast control, Inbuilt speaker, Audio recording, Direct print, DPOF support, and AF/AE lock.
The connector set includes 1×HDMI output, 1×Composite Video output, and 1×USB. The supported operating systems are Windows XP SP2/Vista/7 or later. The E-PL1 has 1150mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 290 shots. The maximum operating temperature is 104°F and minimum is 32°F. Accessories supplied inside the box are USB cable, Video cable, shoulder strap, lens cap, dust cap, body cap, battery, drivers & software disc, and user manual.
Razzle Dazzle:
The Olympus E-PL1 is 4.5 inches wide, 2.8 inches tall, and 1.6 inches deep and weighs 12.4 ounces without EVF. Where the Olympus E-P models has traditional film design, the E-PL1 has a design inspired from Panasonic Lumix LX and Canon PowerShot G series. Its aluminum and plastic body does not give the tanklike feeling of E-P modes. On the contrary, it feels sturdy and provides comfortable grip while holding in hands.
Inside Dope:
The interchangeable lens cameras appealed most of the enthusiasts. However, their expensive price tag of more than $800 is making them not affordable for budget conscious users. They are capable to record videos and their big sensors are providing better picture quality even at high ISO levels than that of small digital cameras. In contrast, their alternatives – larger digital SLRs with optical viewfinders and kit prices are starting from $600. Previously, Olympus has tried to capture the market with E-P1 and E-P2 interchangeable lens cameras, but they does not have inbuilt flash even at high price. Now, the company has launched the Olympus E-PL1 with its Micro Four Thirds lens and 12.3-megapixel Live MOS. It costs $549 for body only, while its 14-42mm lens kit costs $599.99. The Olympus 14-42mm Micro Third lens costs $299, while both Nikon and Canon dSLR 18-55mm lenses are priced $199. However, the Micro Four Third lenses are more compact than the other dSLR lenses.
The Olympus E-PL1 has dedicated video recording button and movie mode on the dial. Its operation and control layout is quite similar to the Olympus advanced cameras. You will find the menu, info, delete, and playback buttons on the right side of LCD display. Above them, there is a customizable function button that can be assigned to invoke any function including waterproof protector attachment toggle, movie record button, toggle the LCD backlight, pull up MyMode settings, capture unsaved test picture, override raw settings, use manual focus, reset AF area to its home location, manual white balance, provide depth-of-field preview, and face detection mode. You can also disable this function button. You will find a four-way toggle with middle OK button that provides access to exposure compensation, flash, drive mode, and auto-focus area selection. It also allows adjusting shutter and aperture from its arrow buttons.
The Info button allows cycling through some display choices: selectable thumbnail previews of white-balance and exposure compensation, image only, grid/scale display, basic settings with a histogram, and detailed current settings. The Super Control Panel shows both frequently required and rarely used shooting options including Picture Tone, black-and-white filter, gradation, saturation, contrast, sharpness, compensation, and white-balance. You will also get simplified version of settings while cycling around display’s outer edge that allows quickly adjusting AF target (customizable, auto using 11 AF areas), face detection, auto-focus, metering, ISO sensitivity levels, flash options, image quality an size, aspect ratio, image stabilization mode, drive mode, white-balance, aperture and shutter speed.
The main target of the Olympus is to provide a better digital SLR camera to attract those who only need a basic point-and-shot camera. The company has also included a iAuto mode that includes sliders for adjusting these settings with live view: image warmth, saturation, express motions/shutter speed, brightness (exposure compensation), and background blur (aperture). You will also get some Shooting Tips in the Olympus E-PL1.
We like this interface as all the settings only requires up/down arrow to adjust and press OK for applying. The Olympus E-PL1 not only provides entry-level features, but it also offers preset auto feature set, full manual and semi-manual. The additional highlights are default and upper bound options for Auto ISO, ability to capture RAW+JPEG in any mode, and separate horizontal and vertical pan optimized image stabilization settings. The HDR mode is limited to three-frame bracket.
The E-PL1 has Art Filters like most of the Olympus cameras. The Gentle Sepia is for tweaking sepia, while the Diorama simulates the blur and miniaturize effects of shift/tilt lens.
The time from power-on to first shot is 1.8 seconds. The average shot-to-shot time is 2 seconds and 2.7sec with flash. The shutter lag is 0.9 second in bright lighting and 1.4 seconds in low light. The continuous shooting speed is 3.3 frames per second.
In contrast, the shutter lag for Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 is 0.5 second in bright light and 0.6 second in dim light. Whereas, it is 0.4 second in bright light and 0.7 second in dim light for Canon PowerShot G11. What’s more – the shot-to-shot time is 0.7 second and 0.9 second with flash for the DMC-GF1. It is 2.5 seconds with and without flash for the PowerShot G11.
As a result, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 performs faster than the Olympus E-PL1. It may be due to Micro Four Third lenses as they work slow and focus excessively.
The overall picture quality of the Olympus E-PL1 surpasses most digital SLRs in its price range, but does not match the Pentax K-x – noise leader. The pictures are the best up to ISO 800, while they start to soften with less noise at ISO 1600. The ISO 3200 will be an emergency option where do you not want to consider the quality. Olympus had tweaked the noise reduction for providing clean images. The noise profile of the E-PL1 is better than that of E-P2. The default noise reduction for JPEG is good and tends to be sharper than default settings for row.
The Olympus E-PL1 delivers excellent color accuracy with good dynamic range, but the colors look a bit saturated with a bit hue shift. The sharpness appears normal in default Natural picture mode. The camera shows crispy details rather than oversharpened them. The manual shooting capabilities and video quality is good in its class. You can manually set the aperture, but not the shutter speed. The display has small size and low resolution.
The battery life of the Olympus E-PL1 is 290 shots.
Olympus positions its E-PL1 as good alternative for the digital SLR cameras for the persons who want a step-up from entry level point-and-shot cameras. It provides much better quality than normal cameras, but is relatively slow.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need a compact camera with interchangeable lenses and better quality and can overcome a bit slow performance, then we will recommend buying – Olympus E-PL1. However, you can also check the Panasonic Lumix GMC-G10 and Samsung NX10.
