Olympus E-P1
July 7th, 2009, 3:22pm by MikeThe other day when we were all in NYC, Jake and I had a conversation where I was wondering why SLR cameras seemed to be the only ones that got any respect. Why can’t you have a point-and-shoot that has interchangable lenses, great optics, a shutter, and no mirror. The only thing we could come up with was the size of the film vs the size of a sensor, but still, that seems unrelated to the necessity of having a mirror.
Olympus apparently was up to the challenge. Their 12.3 megapixel E-P1 camera looks to be what I was thinking of — no viewfinder (just an LCD), but interchangable lenses (it comes with a 14-42mm lens, maybe to keep the overall size small). And it shoots 720p, which is good (though the still quality was noted in Engadget’s hands-on review as “not quite D90 quality”).
What do you guys think? Would you buy this over a point-and-shoot? I guess you get more flexibility, but at a hefty cost. What are the advantages of a DSLR over this? Is a viewfinder that looks through the lens all it’s cracked up to be?
July 7th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
It’s an interesting question… that Olympus is one of these new-fangled Micro Four Thirds cameras that have been coming out in the last year (it might be the second one?). Here’s what Wikipedia says to be the disadvantages relative to DSLRs:
Disadvantages of Micro Four Thirds compared to DSLRs
* Fewer dedicated autofocus lenses available (so far)
* Electronic viewfinder is noisy in low light
* Electronic viewfinder suffers from small lag making capturing fast moving subjects difficult compared to optical viewfinders that give a real time view of the subject
* Changing lenses can expose the sensor to dust, compared to DSLRs which have a shutter protecting the sensor
IMO, the speed of my DSLR is probably it’s best quality, and I don’t know whether the autofocus mechanism and shutter lag of these Micro Four Thirds cameras would be more similar to a DSLR or to a point-and-shoot. I know that when I switch my D90 to Live View, it starts to autofocus based on contrast detect, rather than phase detect, and it takes much longer to focus.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Actually, Emily’s E-420 is also a four-thirds camera (not micro, AFAIK), and looks pretty good side-by-side with the Pen. The autofocus in live-view works much better than with most cameras, from what I hear, since it’s designed like that from the ground up.
As Mike is well aware, I spent most of the weekend trying to convince Derrick & Emily to get the 25mm pancake lens to pair with the E-420. While the weight savings alone is substantial compared to the standard 14-42mm lens, the real selling point is the form factor, as it could easily slip into a pocket without a big lens. The same is probably true, to a lesser degree, with the D40 (if paired with a pancake-ish lens… not sure if one is available).
The Pen paired w/ that pancake lens would be absolutely killer as a walkaround camera, despite some limitations.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
So the D40, like the D60 and the new D5000, does not have an in-body autofocus motor, so that really rules out the cheap 50mm/1.8 lens that I have (which does not have autofocus in the camera). Nikon makes a 35mm/1.8 and a 50mm/1.4 lens that does have AF, so one of those would be the prime lens to consider for the D40 (I’d probably go with the 35mm). Since they do not zoom, they are indeed much smaller (plus, their wide apertures make them suitable for low light and blurry background photos). But of course, you lose the flexibility of a zoom lens.
You guys have time, though– Lucas is much more photogenic at this age than he was as an infant :).
July 7th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Oops, I meant that the 50mm/1.8 lens that I have does “not have autofocus in the LENS.”
July 7th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
We’re not really in the market for anything new right now — I was more thinking of the conversation that Jake was referring to, trying to convince Derrick and Emily to buy a new lens for their camera. Derrick really likes the idea of a small, easy-to-carry camera, and was saying he was thinking a point-and-shoot was more along the lines of what they wanted. This Olympus seemed like it would make both Jake and Derrick happy. Just trying to be the peacemaker…
As for the D40, it couldn’t fit into a normal person’s pocket, regardless of the lens.
Joanie is a big fan of Kelvin’s shots of Lucas (so am I, but it’s her camera!), so I can see us coming for advice on lenses as time goes on…
July 7th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Also, in answer to Kelvin’s first comment — I still don’t really get why a micro four thirds is worse. Why does it have to have more shutter lag than an DSLR? In theory, a point and shoot doesn’t even have to have a shutter, right? Which makes it seem like it should have potentially less shutter lag.
It sounds like with the shallower body, you can’t have autofocus motors in the camera, which means you can’t use certain legacy lenses, and also, the depth of field of the smaller lenses is lower (which suits Kelvin’s style perfectly anyway).
In the future, will cameras like this take over? They seem more in line with most consumers’ desires in a digital camera (well, except for the price…).
July 7th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Shutter lag is not a precise term, since you’re right, a point and shoot doesn’t have a shutter. By that, I mean just overall the lag between pushing the button and taking the shot– I can take 5 pictures with my DSLR in the time it takes me to take one with my point and shoot. It probably just takes that much longer for the point-and-shoot to grab focus and take the shot. The older Canon point and shoots were terrible at this, and while the new ones are better, they are not nearly as fast as DSLRs. Now I don’t know why that’s necessarily the case, and I don’t know whether the micro four thirds solves the problem or not.
I guess I don’t understand what problem these cameras is trying to solve, coming from either the P/S side or the DSLR side. Is the main advantage over a DSLR the size? Video capability?
Conversely, is the advantage over a P/S the swappable lenses? Image quality due to larger sensor? I still think it’s too big for the bulk of the compact camera market, who probably place little to no value on the idea of swappable lenses.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
I’m with Kelvin on this. I think the E-420 is a better compromise… not much heavier than the Pen, a lot less expensive, has a real viewfinder and has a more satisfying shutter sound. We should’ve made a trip to the camera store in NYC, probably the only place in the world (Adorama or B&H) where they’d have all these cameras and lenses in stock.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
The Pen actually doesn’t even have an electronic viewfinder, which is a deal breaker, IMO. But I’m taking this as a hypothetical discussion, and most models would have an EVF, I’d hope.
EVFs are nice in some ways– they show the actual exposure for one. I had one on my old Fuji bridge camera, which probably colors my assessment of these cameras– it had a better lens, but ultimately, still had all the foibles of a point-and-shoot.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Excuse my ignorance, but what does it mean to have a micro four thirds camera? I thought I was getting Emily a DSLR – did I end up getting her the wrong camera 🙂 Given that we already have what we thought was a DSLR, I think we’re giving serious thought to getting another point and shoot to replace our aging Cannon 450.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:33 am
I really don’t understand why they are called that either, but “micro four thirds” refers to this new standard of cameras that have interchangeable lenses and larger image sensors but are otherwise like point-and-shoot cameras, at least technologically (no real shutter, no mirror). As Jake pointed out, Emily’s camera is known as a “Four thirds” camera, but it’s a true DSLR (mirror + shutter). I’m not sure what it has in common with the Micro Four Thirds cameras, if anything.
I’m not really going to weigh in on what kind of camera you should get– Obviously, you’ve seen the pictures that Jake and I have been taking, and you are inclined to get a point-and-shoot. Fair enough :).
July 10th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
The four-thirds camera and micro 4/3s cameras use the same lens mount, so a lens for the E-P1 will work on the E-420.
The four-thirds just refers to the aspect ratio… they have a 4:3 ratio unlike DSLRs which are 3:2.