I don’t often write about cameras and stuff, but the Olympus EP1 finally anounced at a press launch in Berlin does on the face of it look as if it may be something special. Not least because with the 17mm lens (34mm equiv) and external viewfinder it can double as a reasonably portable and very capable compact camera for those times when you want to travel light. The body is about 120.5 x 70 x 35 mm (plus some protrusions) and weighs only 335g and the pancake 17mm f2.8 only 22mm long and 71g, with the VF-1 viewfinder adding 20g. A total weight of less than half the body only for my D700. If you want a flash the FL-14 is 84g with the 2AAAs adding a little more.
Unlike the other current Micro Four Thirds offering, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1, the E-P1 doesn’t have a viewfinder, enabling it to be considerably more compact. This still rules it out for some kinds of photography, and I certainly won’t be abandoning my Nikons for a while.
The first thing I did on reading more about the EP-1 on Digital Photography Review was to go to their hands on preview but I found a more useful set of sample images on the Photography Blog which were taken with an actual production camera and I could to download a full-size sample file taken at ISO 1600. The 12.3 MP jpeg made with the 14-42mm lens on a production camera was a 5.8Mb file. It’s not perfect but very adequate, and doubtless the results from a RAW image would be better.
A perhaps small added advantage for me is that almost any lens can be fitted to the micro four Thirds system camera using suitable adaptors. Olympus supply one to fit all my old OM series lenses, one or two of which might be useful with the body, and perhaps more usefully, any Leica M fitting lens can also be used. Apparently the results with some modern Leica lenses on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 are exceptional.
Frankly I don’t much like the EP-1’s “stylish design” with a deliberately retro glance to the old Olympus Pen. At the bottom of the first page of the DPR feature is a pair of pictures comparing it with the Panasonic Lumix L3, which to my eyes looks so much better. Perhaps in time an all-black version will evolve (as well as the black and silver version there is an even more hideous light taupe and white body.) And as on almost every other camera there are now the built in “art filters” to really f**k up your pictures and gain Flickr kudos.
I’m probably not going to rush out and buy one as soon as they come into the shops in July, but suspect I may not long be able to resist. It isn’t a cheap camera and the 17mm with VF-1 costs rather more than the zoom. It will also be interesting to hear how well the body works with other lenses, and perhaps in particular with a wider zoom than the 14-42mm.