Olympus E-P1 Micro Four Thirds digital camera - part 2 - the basics

by Scott Carmichael (RSS feed) on Jun 18th 2009 at 12:00PM

I just spent the past 2 days playing with the new Olympus E-P1 digital camera. Before I continue, let me quickly describe what kind of photographer I am - 95% of the time, I'll have my camera set to "auto" and the remaining 5%, it is set to manual by mistake. As a geek, I got in on the whole DSLR craze very early, and got out of the craze after just 2 weeks.

I've always found DSLR's to be too big, too complicated and too overwhelming. So, when I initially read about the new Olympus E-P1 camera, I was very interested, as it appeared to be everything I like in a camera, but still able to offer me the features and quality of a large digital SLR.

Now on the camera itself - anyone who knows a thing or two about photography will know what the Olympus Pen was. The Pen was the first half-frame camera produced in Japan, and one of the smallest to take regular 35mm film. The entire Pen line was a massive success, but the last one was developed way back in 1981. The first Pen hit the market in 1959, which just so happens to be 50 years ago, which is of course the perfect time to relaunch the Pen using current technologies.

The basics

Inside the camera is the same large sensor that you'll find in a DSLR camera, capable of shooting in 12.3 megapixels. The unit features in-camera image stabilization and an ultrasonic lens cleaning technology called "Super Sonic Wave Filter" - how cool is that?

Having image stabilization inside the camera means lenses won't need the technology in them, which should keep the price of lenses to a minimum. Some of the highlights built into the camera are:

720p HD video recording
Audio recording in PCM Stereo
Multiple art shooting modes (pop art, soft focus, pale&light color, light tone, grainy film and pin hole)
Interchangeable lenses using the Micro Four Thirds system
Stainless steel body available in metal/chrome and white
3" LCD
Digital leveler built in (this is way cooler than it sounds)

Tomorrow I'll start showing some of the features up close, in the meantime, enjoy some of these photos I took using the camera. I uploaded all the images in their original, unedited format, just click "hi res" in the top to see the full size photo, and remember; I am not a professional photographer by any means, so go easy on me!