A Nostalgic Digital Camera?
After a series of now traditional leaks before the official announcement, Olympus finally announced the first camera in their new Micro 4/3 System I blogged about a while back - the E-P1. And it is a looker.
Now, looking great is subjective and it doesn’t make the camera perform well- but it is certainly a nice start. Olympus is finally taking advantage of making a smaller camera and camera system – hence this homage to their classic Pen film cameras and the retro feel.
You can spend hours reading details and looking at sample images at the DPReview site if you are so inclined. They announced it with two new lenses as well – a 17mm f2.8 pancake lens (34mm, or slightly wide, in traditional full frame 35mm terms) as well as a standard zoom. The pancake lens and optical viewfinder are shown on the body in the picture above.
So what’s so special? It’s tiny. With the pancake lens, it really isn’t much bigger than the larger point & shoot cameras, meaning it is a camera that is easy to have with you all the time. And since it will have Olympus’ latest sensor – one that is larger and can produce higher quality output than those other small point & shoots – it will likely produce images with a very high technical quality. The new Sigma DP-1 and DP-2 do a similar thing (and have a great and even larger sensor), but seem to be flawed as cameras and tools (and don’t have interchangeable lenses). Time will tell on this Olympus, but I’m optimistic they’ll get the operation right. It will also do a few tricks that are now becoming commonplace, such as shooting in multiple aspect ratios (including square!) and HD video and such.
What are the downsides? Well, you have to use the LCD for framing unless you are using the pancake with optical finder. With small size comes compromises. I suspect the autofocus won’t be as fast as the top of the line DSLRs. The lens line-up is limited as of yet. It will probably be hard to get for a while and a little overpriced when it comes out (maybe $900 with the pancake and finder?). I’m sure other faults will come out and the competition certainly won’t stand still. But if it performs as promised, it will fill this niche like no digital camera before it. And with quite a bit of style.
You can find an early look at The Online Photographer in addition to the DPReview site linked above.
- Jim Nickelson
January 29, 2010 at 2:49 am
“It seems as if you have caught the heartfelt substance of the state of affairs for the moment. While numerous appear to have left out the outstanding point of it all, what was expressed prefatory is discerning and right on the nose. Clearly I don”"t supposing that I harmonise along all details; notwithstanding, I have to admit that you have handed me reason to reconsider many of the premises that I thought that I held as unshakable beliefs in that attentivenesses. told, and now for my brain to consider a little more along a couple of some of major ideas. Summarizin it’s clear I must compliment you for you have written many good points.”
February 23, 2010 at 3:34 pm
A classmate urged me to read this post, brill post, interesting read… keep up the nice work!