Is the Oly E-P1 good enough as a dSLR replacement?

[surge]

i too have been tempted to replace my d200 with e-p1. but have decided to keep it( anyway price super lo to sell now).

D200: fast enough to capture my daughter crawling towards me as i attempt to her photo. able to shoot a series of continous shots to capture her different facial expression when i take away her toy.

i dunno if the ep-1 can do this. haven got my set yet but have my reservations about its ability for fast shots.

but with ep-1: i would be able to capture more shots of my daughter playing with my parents when we go out ( my mum think i ki siao to bring such a big camera(D200) out.. cos its kind of hard to carry baby, baby's rojak item bag and take a picture w a DSLR.

thats my purpose for ep-1, a everyday camera. and kudos to olmypus who managed to produce a camera that wives would like...small and nice. easier to get approval for purchase too:bsmilie:

conclusion: cannot replace DSLR

 

[aryanto]

i too have been tempted to replace my d200 with e-p1. but have decided to keep it( anyway price super lo to sell now).

wait longer it will drop even more

 

[whizzard]

"A P&S will always be a P&S." - WRONG - Its a PEN.

"Start-up time will be slow," - DISAGREE

"there will be shutter lag" - DISAGREE

"and the AF speed will also be slow," - DISAGREE. OK LAR, IT IS SLOWER THAN THE E3.

"not to mention diminished low light capabilities." - DISAGREE!!

"Having said all that, the PEN seems to be a very versatile P&S and that alone is very tempting." -AGREE...

"Aarghh .... this is not good! I am really tempted to buy the PEN! Need to sell my 6-mth old G10 first." - NO...KEEP UR G10! U ARE BETTER OF THERE! THE DARK SIDE IS NOT FOR YOU!





Have u actually tried the camera or are these really your observations AFTER trying the camera? Or.....are you just misunderstood?

What's up with you????

 

[elgkh]

What's up with you????

I feel the same, having gone through the same experience...

Ultimately though, the E-P1 is not designed for capturing fast moving subjects. Although I wonder if there are techniques that can be used to overcome this?

 

[Oly5050]

Woah! Chill!

Breathe... breathe... breathe...

relax everyone :bsmilie:

planning to get this as an everyday camera if i can squeeze out some money but will still use my Nikon DSLR on weekends.

What's up with you????

Ok, ok...sorry. My bad. Din mean it to sound so loud.

 

[Atarandas]

I feel the same, having gone through the same experience...

Ultimately though, the E-P1 is not designed for capturing fast moving subjects. Although I wonder if there are techniques that can be used to overcome this?

I guess thats one of the main limitations of the Pen, it uses contrast detection in its AF which is the same as most PnS , while DSLR uses Phase detection , hence faster AF.

I guess there are tricks to overcome this , i recall reading an article on a photographer who solely uses PnS for his assignments , and he did mentioned using something like preset focus to overcome the AF speed . Maybe after some handling , Pen users will find overs to take fast moving subjects better.

Then again , this is the first release of the Pen, not sure if some of its applications can be improved using firmware updates.

 

[puraime]

the PEN is sexy. haha, but heard that the autofocus is slightly slower like most contrast based AF.
but it's size and the pancake will be a superbly fun camera to bring around.

the price is the painful part though. hope it drops and heard that oly is designing one with a viewfinder and built in flash.
either the EP-1 or the panasonic LX3 for me.

 

[spidey89]

no problems with AF for me,but if really very very dark,than AF doesn't really work well

 

[Fotophilic]

there are quite a number of things the PEN can't do, as compared to the dSLR. Read the specs and u'll know what i mean.

I don't see the PEN as a replacement to dSLR. Picture quality wise, PEN can match up dSLRs. When i buy a dSLR, its not only the image output i am after, controls, wireless commander, flash, viewfinder, lens options, grip, AF speed, etc.

PS: I shot a video of my friend's ROM using the pen. The quality is insanely marvelous, best i ever seen! :thumbsup:

 

[vicpeh]

For me, the biggest difference is composing through an optical viewfinder v.s. LCD screen. For current DSLR users, the latter is a no no. For current P&S users, the PEN should not pose any issue at all.

The final image depends on the photographer more than anything else and the photographer must be comfortable when using the camera. I treasure handling above anything else; I dun think any reputable camera manufacturer will release a technically flawed product. Too many digicams are designed more like a mini computer rather than camera these days IMO.

 

[Oly5050]

there are quite a number of things the PEN can't do, as compared to the dSLR. Read the specs and u'll know what i mean.

I don't see the PEN as a replacement to dSLR. Picture quality wise, PEN can match up dSLRs. When i buy a dSLR, its not only the image output i am after, controls, wireless commander, flash, viewfinder, lens options, grip, AF speed, etc.

PS: I shot a video of my friend's ROM using the pen. The quality is insanely marvelous, best i ever seen! :thumbsup:

I think lens options and viewfinder not so important features. It already got a good LCD and like prev mentioned, thru MMF, u get access to all the 4/3 lenses.

 

[Oly5050]

For me, the biggest difference is composing through an optical viewfinder v.s. LCD screen. For current DSLR users, the latter is a no no. For current P&S users, the PEN should not pose any issue at all.

The final image depends on the photographer more than anything else and the photographer must be comfortable when using the camera. I treasure handling above anything else; I dun think any reputable camera manufacturer will release a technically flawed product. Too many digicams are designed more like a mini computer rather than camera these days IMO.

To compose thru an optical viewfinder in a SLR, ideally, the FOV should be 100%. Otherwise....what is the point. What u see will not be what u get. Most DSLR viewfinders are slightly less than 100% - perhaps 98 or 99%. In these situations, u will be cropping like mad in your postprocessing cutting out that little thing here that u din actually compose in but in the jpeg, it is there to distract ur photo.

If I am not wrong, the LCD on the EP-1 has a 100% FOV. So when you compose, what u see on the LCD is exactly what u will get on ur JPG. Other than the battery issue, I actually do not see any other disadvantage between using an LCD to compose versus an optical viewfinder. Ok, perhaps a theoretical advantage would be if the LCD refresh rate is too slow, then ur timing may be off, but this has got nothing to do with composition. But from what I have gathered, the LCD refresh rate on the EP-1, in NORMAL operating temperatures is not an issue at all. So, I submit that for non-professional use, current DSLR users should not find issue with that.

 

[wildcat]

"A P&S will always be a P&S." - WRONG - Its a PEN.

"Start-up time will be slow," - DISAGREE

"there will be shutter lag" - DISAGREE

"and the AF speed will also be slow," - DISAGREE. OK LAR, IT IS SLOWER THAN THE E3.

"not to mention diminished low light capabilities." - DISAGREE!!

"Having said all that, the PEN seems to be a very versatile P&S and that alone is very tempting." -AGREE...

"Aarghh .... this is not good! I am really tempted to buy the PEN! Need to sell my 6-mth old G10 first." - NO...KEEP UR G10! U ARE BETTER OF THERE! THE DARK SIDE IS NOT FOR YOU!





Have u actually tried the camera or are these really your observations AFTER trying the camera? Or.....are you just misunderstood?

I haven't tried the EP-1 (missed the chance at SAM) so I haven't tried it but I agree with you. After using the G1 for more than half a year, I went back to my PNS (had to bring a small camera to event) and I just couldn't get used to how much longer it would take between startup and shooting the picture. Not to mention how much more noise (and I used to think my Fujifilm had so little noise) the pictures contained.

Are APC-S sensors that much better than 4/3"?

 

[powergoo]

i use a eos 1000d. with various canon,CZ,Nikkor MF lenses.
Tried the white EP-1 briefly @ Courts Toa Payoh.
I found the indoor AF much slower, compared to my canon, so to me, it's out at the moment.

I m interested in the m4/3 coz i had some canon FD lenses which I loved very much.

Have anyone compare the G-1 to EP-1 AF performance?

 

[YSLee]

I have the GH1 and I don't think it's good enough for me as a main camera.

The main difference is really the UI. The three m4/3s cameras released so far have a problem of not enough buttons. As a result telling the camera to do what you want can be a bit frustrating. Panasonic I feel really dropped the ball here as their joystick (as used in the LX3 and countless video cameras) should have been used here as well.

Not having a viewfinder hurts too. Stability-wise it helps. For composing it's a good aid to see the scene without any interference.

Top it off, I don't like the E-P1. Looks like a brick, feels like a brick, handles like one.

 

[eow]

i use a eos 1000d. with various canon,CZ,Nikkor MF lenses.
Tried the white EP-1 briefly @ Courts Toa Payoh.
I found the indoor AF much slower, compared to my canon, so to me, it's out at the moment.

I m interested in the m4/3 coz i had some canon FD lenses which I loved very much.

Have anyone compare the G-1 to EP-1 AF performance?

The panny is faster

 

[aryanto]

What's up with you????

he was heavily poisoned :think:

 

[The Dry Box]

A P&S will always be a P&S. Start-up time will be slow, there will be shutter lag and the AF speed will also be slow, not to mention diminished low light capabilities. Having said all that, the PEN seems to be a very versatile P&S and that alone is very tempting.

Aarghh .... this is not good! I am really tempted to buy the PEN! Need to sell my 6-mth old G10 first.

I have my quirks with the e-p1, but I think it's rather unfair to assume certain points when they are not true.

Back to topic, having handled dslrs, rangefinders, and several high quality p&s like the grd2 and the dps... I found the e-p1 to be a very different ballgame, especially with the sensor size being somewhere in the middle as well.

We can't expect this to be as good as the dslr for sports for obvious reasons. It is a candid camera, but not as candid and as informal as you can get using a p&s. It can be versetile but at the expenses of bulks. Yet compared to a regular p&s it is capable of professional looking results, with limitations compared to a dslr. It goes around.

I found what we have here is a jack of trades. It does everything and it does nothing; It depends on the user's need.

For me, it covers all my areas and I sold my dslr last year with anticipation of this system while flinging a grd2 and film rangefinder about; because I don't need a dslr in the first place. So for me, yes but for the others, I wouln't know.

 

[microcosm]

About sensor sizes, there are various arguments, and the recent one that made me laugh was this :

Two of my mates were talking over coffee and one with a smaller sensor said : "Ok, you keep going on about sensor sizes, then go buy a Red or a H3 lah! Goodness, when is it going to stop? A good sensor can make you a good photographer? Then buying a Ferrari will make you a better driver? Oh come on, that's lame? How about comparing the performance of a Lotus Elise (1.6 litre) against a Camry (2.4l). The latter has a larger engine but compared to the Lotus, the former is definitely a better performer."

We all started laughing.

Like it has been said forever : "The camera is just a tool."

If it doesn't work for you, then keep your peace, and buy the other that suits you. Ultimately, have fun taking pictures. Or see a shrink for anger management.

Some wisdom among those old lads.

 

[microcosm]

Good to see the insight from different people with different needs about the E-P1.

I think this really helps those who are shopping for a new camera.

The Pen is successful from what I gathered from reading everyone's point of view...

because the Pen was meant to be a multimedia, "neither here nor there" camera system.