My love hate relationship with the Olympus E-P3

Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2

LOVE

Design.

Looks.

Image Quality.

OLED Screen.

Works really well with the 12mm f/2.

Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2

Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2

I saw this and thought of this.

Olympus E-P3 Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4

Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2 - Multi image Panoramic stitch.

Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2 - Multi image Panoramic stitch

Olympus E-P3 Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar - Multi image Panoramic stitch

Olympus E-P3 12mm f/2

HATE

Fiddly and small controls.

Complicated menu system.

Using manual focus lenses is (you've guessed it!) fiddly and complicated.

My Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 "rattles" away incessantly - "aperture dancing" or the "rattlesnake effect".

There seems to be an EVF bug which stops the magnification button working properly. I have two and they both work perfectly on an E-PL1 but not on the E-P3.

Lower thumb wheel works when it feels like it and its really easy to alter other controls next to it.

Touch screen is very erratic. Sometimes works perfectly, sometimes not.

Shutter delay.

Sony NEX-C3 plus Voigtlander and Zeiss lenses

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Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2

When I put together my Sony NEX-C3 review I talked about using the C3 with two of my Voigtlander lenses. The 28mm f/2 Ultron and 75mm f/2.5 Heliar. http://soundimageplus.blogspot.com/2011/08/sony-nex-c3-review-and-user-experience_17.html  At the time I wasn't able to use Photoshop ACR to process the images, however I was extremely impressed with the quality and sharpness.

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

Now that I'm able to use Adobe Camera Raw, I'm even more impressed. 

 

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5

I'm using the NEX-C3 a lot lately. I've already said that I won't be keeping this camera when my NEX-7 arrives and though I love the image quality, I'm still not a fan of the design. However, if the NEX-7 is what I hope its going to be, then a familiarity with the NEX system and getting some idea of what lenses to use with it will be a useful exercise. 

Though for many uses, the e-mount lenses will be fine, it strikes me as a good idea to see what other lenses can produce. It seems crazy not to try and come up with a combination that takes full advantage of all those pixels. Consequently, I've been trying the Voigtlanders again, and next I'm going to be using the Nikon primes I have to see what works best.

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2

The results from these, and my Zeiss 50mm (see below) are simply superb. Using the focus peaking feature on the NEX-C3 enables precise focus and even without a viewfinder, makes using manual lenses relatively easy. I'm assuming that the NEX-7 will have the focus peaking included, though I haven't seen that it does. 

Below I've put together some samples with 100% blowups to demonstrate just how sharp these m-mount lenses are on the NEX. These are shot with the Voigtlander 28mm and my Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar. I used the same settings that I have saved for the 18-55mm zoom and 16mm f/2.8. In fact the images have ended up over-sharpened, showing that the m-mount primes are somewhat crisper than than the e-mount lenses. I have had to come up with a setting that takes this back a bit.

I'm very impatient to see how they work on the NEX-7, but I guess I'll have to wait, like everybody else.

Sony NEX-C3 Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar

Sony NEX-C3 Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2

Sony NEX-C3 Voigtlander 28mm f/2

Olympus E-P3 with Zeiss 50mm T* Planar

One of the first things I tried with the E-P3 was how it worked with my Zeiss 50mm T* Planar. 

Using manual focus lenses on the E-P3 is easier than with the E-P2. It uses the system in the E-PL's i.e. pressing the zoom / magnification button enlarges the focus point. I don't know if this is my imagination but the VF-2 viewfinder image seems clearer and sharper. It certainly seemed much easier to focus the lens than on other Pens. This has removed the need to change screens that I had to do with the E-P2. 

Unfortunately you still have to click the button to get out of the magnification screen, unlike the Panasonic system where you just touch the shutter button, which is a much better and quicker system.

I took the following images using the Zeiss lens. I have uploaded the original, straight out of the camera camera, jpgs to flickr so you can see what these are like.

As is my practice, I have shot these at -0.7 to protect the highlights and increase the saturation. 

The images are very sharp but do have some luminance noise and a "grainy" look, even at ISO 200. This is very similar to results I've had from all the Pen cameras and indeed the Panasonic GH2 does the same.

My initial impressions of the E-P3 sensor is that it produces results very similar to to previous Pen sensors. However I do have a suspicion that the anti-aliasing filter has been slightly weakened. The images look marginally sharper with a slight increase in noise. However its early days and I need more time to assess this.

So in terms of using MF lenses, better than the E-P2, though still not as easy as the Panasonic cameras with the built in viewfinder.

Nikon D5100 and Olympus E-PL1 image quality comparison

A comparison of files from a Nikon D5100 plus 55-300mm zoom and an Olympus E-PL1 plus Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar.

The lenses were chosen to see how 12MP m4/3 with a very good lens would compare to 16MP APS-C with a good, but not great lens.

The shots were taken on a tripod, all identically processed in Adobe Camera Raw. I chose f/11 as an aperture which would do both lenses justice, and shot the samples at ISO 100, 200, 400 & 800.

Click on the results to go to flickr, choose Actions > view all sizes and the full-resolution files are available.

ISO 100

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

As you can see the Olympus shots are warmer. In terms of sharpness they are very similar. I was surprised at how well the Olympus shots compared at ISO 800. I was expecting the Nikon shots to look much better. 

Overall it shows once again just how good m4/3 is, if a good lens is used. A top-quality Nikon prime up against the Olympus kit zoom would probably show different results and I may give that a try at some point.

So, an "entry-level" DSLR (with the obvious qualification that this is the same sensor as much higher specified cameras) compared to a m/43 camera with what is now probably the old m4/3 sensor.

My point here is that, with very few exceptions, many cameras now give similar results. Its pretty much a given now that the majority of the cameras we use from 12MP > are all capable of of excellent results, and the choices we make are probably determined by other factors.

50mm "standard" lens.

By the final day of my Devon trip I was working with just the Leica M9 and Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar.

I always thought it interesting that depending on the composition a 50mm lens can seem to be either a semi-wide or moderate telephoto lens. They are much more versatile lenses than they are often given credit for.

One great advantage is that when creating multi-image panoramas they give a very natural perspective.

Leica M8 - Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar lens

Thought I'd try some shots with the Zeiss 50mm on my M8.









Very impressive indeed. Quite extraordinary sharpness. The M8 does give sharper results than the M9, not by much but I can see it.

Who's a Nikon Fanboy then?

I wasn't expecting to like these cameras, the D7000 and the D5100 quite as much as I do. After years of complaining about the bulk and weight of DSLR's I am surprised that I actually like using these two.





While being very appreciative of the quality that cameras like the Nikon D3X and Sony a850 produced, their size was sometimes daunting. Like wise the efficiency and all-round versatility of the Canon 5DMkII and 7D was admirable. They just weighed a lot!

However with these two Nikons, particularly the D5100, I don't seem to want to use anything else at the moment.

Quality images, ease of handling, controls and menus that work to the benefit of the photographic process instead of hindering it, great build quality and ease of use have all contributed to this. Added to this the 3 zooms I've bought are excellent. The combination that really works for me however is the D5100 plus the 16-85mm zoom.



I've used it for several hours at a time and it doesn't feel like a weight or a burden. I'm using it with a £5 handgrip I got off ebay and it literally feels like an extension of my hand. I never actually disliked DSLR's, I was simply frustrated that I couldn't find a combination that produced quality results and was not a weight to carry around. If the D5100 is an indication of how things are going to be from now on, then the DSLR is far from dead.

Hopefully we'll get cameras that retain optical viewfinders for a few more years and certainly the quality / size equation that CSC's have gone some way to solving seems to be starting to influence the more traditional camera manufacturers. 

The D7000 looks enormous next to the Leica M9, but take off the battery grip and the weight difference is less than it would seem from the picture. The D7000 is a camera I'll be using less for long-distance walking, if at all, but will be very useful in many situations, where speed and versatility are required.

With me its always been about weight and not about size. After many years I have a couple of DSLR's I actually want to use, rather than I think I should.

Leica M9 on new footpath - M9 and Sigma SD1 file comparison.

Selecting a camera to take out is simpler these days. Firstly there's less to choose from and since the Leica M9 now has a clean sensor I'm using that a lot more. The relative lightness of the camera with the one lens option I use on it (Zeiss 50mm f/2 T* Planar) worked well yesterday as I explored and photographed a new circular footpath created by the National Trust.

I shot several multi-image panoramas.

M9 SIGMA SD1 COMPARISON

One of the samples on the Sigma SD1 website is of a field of crops.

http://www.sigma-sd.com/SD1/sample-photo/img/SDIM4759.jpg

I shot something similar on the M9 yesterday, and have uploaded it to flickr at full resolution so you can see a comparison.

Direct link here:-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45203414@N06/5755747544/sizes/l/in/photostream/

See if you can spot the insect on the original size file.