Newbie help with Olympus please

[johnabenna]

Hello - I hope this is in the right forum, apologies if it's not :-)

I've been an avid point-and-shooter since my early teens but now want to venture a bit further into photography. For Christmas I've been offered a new camera with a budget of about £550.

I really like the look of, and also have read good reviews, of the new Olympus PEN models. I cannot seem to find much difference other than price between the E-PL3 and the E-P3.

Here in Bangkok, the E-PL3 is about £500 with 2 lenses in a kit. At the moment every shop I go to doesn't seem to have the E-P3 in stock, but they say it will be about £150 more expensive.

From what I can read on the Olympus website, the more expensive E-P3 has some extra art filters and but can only take 3fps when sequence shooting and has a built-in pop-up flash, whereas the cheaper E-PL3 perhaps has a few less art filters but can shoot up to 7fps and still has a flash, although it is detachable (but still comes in the package price).

Could anyone give me any advice on if it's worth the extra or if there's something glaring I've missed? I know this is the Olympus forum, but I have also seen the Sony NEX system. Would you recommend this over the Olympus?

[autofocus]

Unless it's the particular sizes of this series of cameras, or you are enamored with Olympus, neither would be my recommendation for a starter kit. Not that this should influence your decision, but news released yesterday about Olympus hiding from the public ~$1.8B in loses wouldn't sit well with me...but that's just me. I believe your budget would put you in the range of entry level DSLR's from Canon and Nikon. Both will offer a better long term path in upgrades, lenses, and supported products overall, not to mention all the third party products available to these two marques. A Sony DSLR would also be worth considering...just my thoughts

[johnabenna]

Autofocus,

thanks so much for the quick reply - any advice or comments are truly appreciated. The reason I have initially looked at them is because of their size. I want something that I can put a pancake lens (gosh I hope this is the right term - I mean the smallest flat lens) on for going out in the evening, but then for when I go on holiday, sight-seeing, I can put on something bigger and better for zooming.

I'm so used to having my little Canon Ixus in my pocket, that I think a bigger DSLR might mean I leave my camera at home more and rely on my iPhone's measly camera.

I didn't know about the Olympus news, but just read about it. Would that mean if they went bump I wouldn't be able to put any more lenses on a new PEN if I bought it? hmmmmmm. thought I had this one nearly sussed :-/

[autofocus]

OK, you've narrowed down the decision to size being the driving force in your decision, and now I can understand your reasoning. And as far as Olympus going bust, I would have to say that's probably not likely, but what they did (or didn't do) would color my thoughts about them as a company. If I were personally making a purchase decision for this type of product I would start by doing a lot of research on all the available brand/model options. First, and foremost would be how they compare in IQ. I would want to see how they all compare relative to noise at high ISO settings. Of course cost and budget is always important, but looking at what your upgrade cost on additional lenses would also be very important. Plus, who offers the greater breadth of products for those future purchases, not to mention who is more committed to long term product support to this format. FPS would only be important to me if I planned to do a considerable amount of action shots. I also see that Nikon has introduced a new series in this format, but to be perfectly honest, I have done 0 research on any of these, so I couldn't really recommend one over the other. But, if I were buying, I'd be googling all those test comparisons before I took the credit card out of my wallet. Good luck with your decision.

[johnabenna]

Thanks again...from all my research and review-reading it seems it doesn't get 'noisy' at high ISO...and infact seems to be the main thing people say is great about it. Just seen they also sell lens converters for it so there are hundreds to choose from long-term. Thanks for the advice and hopefully i'll be able to post some pictures after christmas :-)

[inkista]

I know a pro who routinely prints at large sizes who's moved completely to micro four-thirds (and the Olympus cameras) as his primary system. But what he shoots (fine art photography) fits the system and he's a superb printer.

For my tastes, the micro four-thirds high iso noise performance is good, just not fantastic. But then, I routinely shoot with a 5D Mark II. An APS-C sensor is still going to beat a four-thirds sensor on this, but it could be at the hair-splitting, pixel-peeping level that doesn't matter to most folks. Four-thirds is certainly more than acceptable in this regard, and loads better than any sub-1" sensor can produce. It all depends on what you plan to shoot, and how much light you're going to have. What ISO levels you need is a personal matter.

I'm not so sure that it matters whether or not Olympus gets delisted from all its legal issues and ceases to be a corporate entity, because I'm pretty sure someone else would swoop in and purchase them, like Sony did for Minolta, and Ricoh with Pentax--or at least the medical imaging and micro-four thirds divisions. The SLR four-thirds division might be another matter.

But you may also want to take a look at Panasonic's micro four-thirds models, like the G3, GF3, and GX1, as well as the Sony NEX system.

The main differences between the EP-3 and EPL-3, according to dpreview:

Faster continuous shooting: up to 5.5fps vs. 3fps
Tilt/flip LCD display vs. fixed OLED screen
Lower resolution screen (460,000 vs. 614,000 dots) in 16:9 vs. 3:2 aspect ratio
No thumb dial
No orientation sensor
Slower flash sync speed of 1/160th vs. 1/180th of a second
Four fewer Art Filters (Loses Pale Light & Color, Light Tone, Gentle Sepia and Cross-Process)
No built-in flash (clip-in unit included)
No level gauge

The differences between the EPL-3 and the EPM-3 (again, dpreview):

LCD is fixed, rather than E-PL3's tilting version
PEN Mini has no mode dial and fewer external controls
PEN Mini is slimmer, due to fixed LCD, slightly smaller and lighter.

[ravncat]

Originally Posted by inkista

because I'm pretty sure someone else would swoop in and purchase them,

Yeah, I suspect panasonic might want that division. Either way, don't worry about buying into micro 4/3rds because even if olympus goes goodbye, panasonic is still around making micro 4/3rds.

I find my ep-1 is good to about iso 800, higher iso is "ok" with good exposure and noise reduction, but i don't hesitate to go to 800. (Same as ep-3 sensor, ep-3 level has faster focusing and general camera response) There's a pretty big difference in control between the mini pen's and the ep-3. ep-3 will give you better "manual" control. If you don't mind more automation, the mini may be the way to go.

As for NEX, you're looking at not so great manual control, with a very good sensor, but you don't really gain any compactness in the lens choices unless you stick to the pancake. The NEX are good cameras, and certainly have small camera bodies, but there's definitely not much of a size gain when it comes to the lenses. If you're looking between the two systems, the key is if the lenses you're going to want are there, or are coming.

[johnabenna]

inkista - thank you for all the info. I think I have my heart set on a white E-P3 now though and I think the lens options available are really good and also you can get the lens fit adapter-thingy-majigs too :-)

ravncat - also thanks for the advice. I have been reading reviews on the NEX and watching videos and they all say that there aren't many lens options available and that it isn't really a 4/3 camera, just a compact interchangeable lens camera. Plus I think even just down to the lenses I would like to be able to buy the ones available for the E-P3 :-)

[ssssnake529]

I have an Olympus E-P2.

It's a terrific camera. I shot with an SLR for many years, but when it came time to replace it, I went to a micro 4/3 system.

I see no reason to buy a DSLR. DSLR's are big and bulky, and are limited by their mirror construction. DSLR's are the past. Mirrorless is the future. With today's technology, there's really no reason to have a DSLR mirror in a camera. I'm not the only one who is of this opinion. Read more here: Stuck In Customs HDR Photography

The olympus range of micro 4/3 cameras are very nice. I like the in-camera stabilizers (Panasonic puts their stabilizers in the lenses, not the camera.) Controls are well laid out, and the build quality is quite good.

There are a wide array of excellent lenses available for the micro 4/3 system.

I would recommend the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 prime lens. It's a great length for multi-purpose use, and the lens I leave attached to my camera most of the time.

The Olympus 45mm f1.8 prime lens is a very high quality short telephoto. Perfect for portraits or people oriented street photography where you need a little more distance than the 20mm will give you. The Olympus 50mm f2.0 macro is also superb, but you will need a micro 4/3 adaptor. If you shoot macro, the 50mm might be a better option than the 45mm.

For zooms, the Olympus 9-18mm is a great wide angle zoom, that is very compact with good image quality.

The standard Olympus 14-42 kit zoom is ok, but I don't use it all that much. I prefer the primes.

I think you will be happy with the Olympus PEN camera system. I've had mine for a while, and really enjoy it.

[Aegea]

Having just recently bought a Pen E-P2,and having shot with a D90 for a couple of years, I'd say the m43 has two weaknesses and one strength compared with the DSLR. The weaknesses are the high ISO performance, which is definitely worse, and the limited lens selection (e.g., no fast zooms, no native fast telephotos). The strength is, I take it with me when I would have left the D90 at home. I don't think the ergonomics are generally as good as the D90,but that's partly me not being familiar with the camera, I think. Manual focus is definitely easier with the P2 and the EVF II. Since I shoot a bit of MF legacy glass this is an important plus for me, but probably not for most people. I'll definitely be keeping both systems.