Wednesday 24 August 2011

Olympus E-P3 and Photoshop ACR - finally!

_8030732
Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2

Last night and before this mornings bid from Sony to dominate the Professional, Enthusiast, DSLR and CSC photographic markets all at once from here on in, (they may well succeed!) there was another announcement that gave me great pleasure. Photoshop ACR 6.5 has finally been released. 

Finally I've been able to see what the raw files from the Olympus E-P3 look like, processed in decent software. Rawker gave me the sharpness, but very flat colour and a lot of noise, and the Olympus software gave me files that looked just like the jpgs. Finally. I've been able to see what the camera is capable of.

_8231176
Olympus E-P3 Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4


_1010305
Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2 

_1010205
Olympus E-P3 14-42mm

_8231149
Olympus E-P3 Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4

And its capable of a great deal. 

It seems to me it is an improved sensor. 

ISO 200 looks as good as ISO 100 on previous cameras without the dynamic range problems.

A head to head comparison with the NEX-C3 (which the update also supports) produced sharper results for me than the Sony. (I can now do a proper test)

The 12mm f/2 is a stunning lens on the E-P3.

The 25mm f/1.4 is an even more stunning lens on the E-P3.

Following on from that last sentence, I'll be spending the rest of the day trying to sort out this "aperture clicking", which is really annoying. It doesn't do it at all indoors in low light, but since I spend most of my time photographing in bright sunlight, when it does do it, I have to find a solution.

No matter how good the NEX-7 is, it will never look as beautiful as the E-P3. I know thats not a good reason to buy it or justify my keeping it around.............  or maybe it is!!

Panasonic Leica m4/3 25mm f/1.4 Olympus E-PL1