Olympus E-P1: Mini Review and Hands-on

By: Jamie Pert | Posted: July 2, 2009 | No Comments
Filed under: Digital Cameras, Electronics

Olympus’s newest camera the Olympus E-P1 has been one of the most highly anticipated cameras due for release this year, this is due to its retro design mixed with its modern technology.

Engadget recently put the camera through its paces and here is a quick run through of what they thought. First of all the camera is quite expensive retailing at around $800, with this price tag users will demand an exceptional standards.

Aesthetically the camera looks and feels like a camera Olympus would have designed in the 60s, the camera seems very rugged and is not too heavy, and compared to other DSLR cameras it feel extremely compact. You can see a gallery of pictures of the camera here.

To the rear of the camera you can see a 3 inch LCD which is said to be extremely hard to see in outdoor daylight, therefore when outdoors you have to almost shoot photos with the camera blindly as there is no viewfinder either. The standard settings and photo options are all easily accessible via the controls on the rear, and after using the camera for a short while you do not feel lost in its menu structure.

The photo quality can be seen here, as you can see the stock lens can produce some exceptional photos at a wide range of distances. Our early impressions of the image quality from the E-P1 are mostly positive, this is accomplished by the impressive autofocus. However as mentioned above outdoor shots sometimes seemed more luck then judgment.

As for video shooting reviews came back very positive, the 720p video is said to be ‘breathtaking’ and the only criticism is that sometime when the lens is focusing the lens motor can be heard during playback, obviously this usually would be worked around by having a audio input for a microphone, however the camera does not have one. Check out the video below to see the video quality.

From what we can tell the camera only has to slight imperfections worth mentioning, these are that it has no viewfinder and it has no audio input for microphones.

Check out Engadget for the full review which shows sample pictures, photos of the product, sample videos and a lot more.

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