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Olympus E-P2 Compact System Camera (14-42mm lens & VF-2 electronic viewfinder) Black

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Another very welcome addition is a built-in autofocus illuminator light, in the form of a bright orange LED on the front of the camera (previous PENs were notorious for their reluctance to focus in low light). The autofocus system has been updated too, with 35 zones covering most of the image area. The movie recording specification has also been significantly upgraded, and the E-P3 can now capture full HD 1080i60 movies in AVCHD format. The E-P1 managed to fit most of the company's excellent E-620 DSLR into a comparatively small, beautifully styled metal case in a way that appealed to far beyond the camera-geek demographic. It was not without its problems, however - the main one being its autofocus system that was rather sluggish when compared to Panasonic's G-series. Also its control system, inherited wholesale from the E-System Four Thirds DSLRs, didn't always perfectly translate to the way its buttons are laid out (The newer, simpler E-PL1 and firmware updated Panasonics make this more apparent than it was at the time of review). Because of the way viewfinders are measured (using a fixed lens, rather than a lens of equivalent magnification), you also need to take the sensor size into account, so the numbers in the diagram below are the manufacturer's specified magnifications divided by the respective 'crop factors'. As you can see, the VF-2's 1.15x magnification (0.58x once crop factor is taken into account), makes it bigger than most APS-C cameras and equal to largest optical viewfinder that Olympus makes - that of the high-end E-3 DSLR. The camera’s Mode dial right on the top left of the chassis is a model of proper design. It is clearly visible, yet because the adjusting ring is buried underneath the top panel, with only an edge to be turned by thumb, it will never be accidentally mis-positioned. Kudos to Olympus for an elegant solution to a problem that all too many cameras have. As with its predecessor and other cameras in the E-series with Art or ‘Magic' filters, these digital effects are applied at the time of capture which means write speeds are inevitably a couple of seconds longer than for regular images. When shooting using certain filters, such as the new Diorama, the screen's refresh rate slows dramatically providing a jerkily relayed image as the camera struggles to provide a preview of how the eventual image may look. Rather than try to follow this we found it best just to take the shot and delete any experiments we weren't happy with - we weren't wasting film after all.

The image quality is maintained when we look at colour reproduction as well. Images look natural and the full gamut of colours is delivered with effortless competence. Images just look very good indeed. Flesh tones are smooth and natural, delicate hues are reproduced as convincingly as the more intense colours. Both the colour charts and greyscale are rendered well. However, rather than charts it is real-life subjects that we photograph and there is no area in which the E-PL2 fails us – it indeed shows a very high level of performance. I would describe its colour as warm neutral, which is certainly especially an advantage for pictures of people. When retracting the lens for transport its necessary to locate the release tab, somewhere on the left side of the zoom (depending on the zooms position), and then to slide it forward so that the lens can be collapsed. The electronic viewfinder on the E-P2 is much better than the one on the GF1, and is included in the kit price, but on the other hand it is larger. The GF1 has a built in flash, while with the E-P2 one has to buy an accessory flash and forgo the use of the electronic viewfinder when it is being used.

DxOMark provides objective, independent, RAW-based image quality performance data for lenses and digital cameras to help you select the best equipment to meet your photographic needs. The E-PL2 has the same 12.3 Megapixel sensor as the E-PL1, but a larger and more detailed 460k / 3 inch LCD screen. And where the E-PL1 was button-only operation, the E-PL2 gets a rear panel control dial. Other hardware changes include a new battery design and compatibility with the USB remote shutter release as well as the expanding range of accessories designed to fit the accessory port behind and below the hotshoe. Possibly in response to criticisms of the E-PL1’s poor dynamic range at 100 ISO, the sensitivity on the E-PL2 starts at 200 ISO and extends to 6400 ISO. The range of ART filters has been updated and they can now also be customised.

Manual focus isn’t a problem with such a wide-angle lens and I normally set focus to infinity. The other lens I often use is the Olympus ED 14 – 150mm F4 – 5.6 11. I use this on both the EP2 and the EM5 Mark 11 as my “shoot everything” lens. Another lens that I enjoy using is the Samyang fully manual 12mm which is excellent in low light and has a reasonable distortion free wide-angle. The camera’s metal tripod bush is located slightly to the right of centre on the bottom panel which means the lens mount is mostly to the left of it. It nonetheless provides a pretty stable base for a tripod. Alongside it on the right is the battery and memory card compartment, the latter supporting SD (HC and XC) formats, with Class 6 recommended to support HD movies and burst shooting.That the E-PL2 has a built-in flash is taken by many a sign that this is a ‘step up’ camera – aimed at high-end compact owners looking to move up a notch in terms of control and versatility. Neither of the two cameras that sit above the E-PL2 in the PEN range has a built in flash and nor does Sony’s NEX-5/3, but the Lumix GF2 does. images (100% with Live View) with BLS-1 and Toshiba Class 6 SDHC 4GB card under CIPA testing standard The Olympus E-P2 is a compact camera with a DSLR-sized sensor and removeable lens mount. Announced in November 2009, it’s an enhanced version of the E-P1 launched just five months earlier. Like that model, the E-P2 is based on the Micro Four Thirds standard jointly developed by Olympus and Panasonic to deliver DSLR quality and flexibility without the size, weight and perception of difficult operation. Depends on compression ratio or number of pixels (Large normal mode: approx. 12 with Toshiba Super High Speed type "Class 6" 4GB) The inclusion of the VF-2 in the E-P2 kit does however go some way to make up for the average screen inherited from the E-P1. Like that model, the E-P2 is equipped with a decent-sized screen at 3in, but one with a disappointingly average 230k resolution. This is in contrast to the more detailed 460k screen of the Panasonic Lumix GF1. While the GF1’s screen is preferred under ideal conditions, it is however important to note the Olympus screen remains more visible in direct sunlight thanks to lower reflections. See our Olympus E-P1 review for full details on the screen and menus.

Following the accessory port, the other enhancements to the E-P2 over the E-P1 are more modest, although still useful. Arguably the most important of them concerns improvements to the autofocus, at least in terms of capabilities if not actual speed. Unlike the Panasonic Lumix GF2 and the Sony NEX-3/5, the Olympus E-PL2 has a physical mode dial. Its eight positions select the four PASM exposure modes in addition to iAuto, ART, SCN and movie.

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are just a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes by changing the Picture Modes. Some of the Art filters can now be modified – one or two variations on the original filter slightly adapt the effect. Grainy Film provides a second, less contrasty and grainy option, Pin Hole offers a choice of vignette styles and several of the filters now also provide a framing option. The flash has a quoted guide number of 10 at 200 ISO. Dividing that by the E-PL2 14-42mm kit lens’ maximum aperture of f3.5 gives a maximum flash distance of 2.82 metres. That may not seem like a hugely powerful flash, and it isn’t, but it is comparable with many recent compacts (manufacturers of which are fond of quoting maximum flash distances at higher ISO settings). It’s fine for reasonably close subjects and, of course, the E-PL2 has a hot shoe which means you can mount an external flash, or use the built-in one to remote trigger models such as the Olympus FL36R i-Enhance is the first entry in the E-P2’s list of Picture Modes, although Natural, the third option, remains the default for the camera when set to PASM. Switch the camera to iAuto though, and i-Enhance is automatically applied whether you like it or not as no other Picture modes are available

Dimensions without protrusions are given as exactly the same as the E-P1, and the weight too is identical at a body-only 335g. Handling wise it still resembles a foreshortened Olympus E-Series DSLR with esoteric yet fun features such as the Art Filter in-camera digital effects, and less esoteric but very useful in-body sensor shift image stabilisation. Unlike the latest raft of point and shoots though, there's not been a resolution hike to 14 megapixels. At its heart beats the same 13.1 megapixel Live Mos sensor (12.3 MP effective) found in its sibling last year. Just like Fujifilm's X100, the Olympus PEN E-P1 generated a lot of excitement at its launch thanks to its elegant traditional styling. And, in common with the X100, the shooting experience didn't always live up to the high expectations that its classic looks might have engendered. The E-P2 was a slight reworking of the E-P1, doing little more than adding the ability to use the excellent VF-2 electronic viewfinder, and could still be a slightly slow and awkward camera to actually use. ISO range is from ISO200 to ISO1600, but this is extendible to ISO6400. White Balance offers Auto plus a wide choice of pre-sets as well as custom setting.

But in June 2009, Olympus finally revealed the camera responsible for our most-read preview ever - the E-P1. The company was able to do what very few of the current big players could - build on a history of compact photographers' cameras. And, in doing so, appeared to provide the camera we'd been asking manufacturers to make for many years - a small camera with a good level of photographic control and a large sensor (only Sigma had really tried this before). As to be expected, using our 14-42mm test lens at maximum ISO 6400 setting on the E-P2 reveals a uniform dusting of noise plus softened detail. Up to and including ISO 400 it's a clean bill of health, with noise creeping into shadow areas at ISO 800 and extending across the entirety of the image at ISO 1600. Olympus could have cut things there but at this price users will expect the higher ISOs provided, hence we have the options of ISO 3200 and ISO 6400, the appearance getting incrementally more 'gritty' the higher up we go. languages / 27 European languages (e.g. English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Czech, Dutch, Danish, Polish)

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