Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
The image quality is maintained when we look at colour reproduction as well. Images look natural and the full gamut of colours is delivered with effortless competence. Images just look very good indeed. Flesh tones are smooth and natural, delicate hues are reproduced as convincingly as the more intense colours. Both the colour charts and greyscale are rendered well. However, rather than charts it is real-life subjects that we photograph and there is no area in which the E-PL2 fails us – it indeed shows a very high level of performance. I would describe its colour as warm neutral, which is certainly especially an advantage for pictures of people.
Launched in January 2011, the Olympus E-PL2 is the latest addition to the ‘PEN’ stable of mirrorless interchangable lens, or ‘EVIL’ (Electronic Viewfinder, Interchangeable Lens) cameras. Rather than replacing the E-PL1, the new model sits above it in the Olympus Micro Four Thirds PEN line up, beneath the E-P2. Despite sharing the same sensor and image processing pipeline as the E-P1, we’ve fully retested the E-P2 for real-life detail and noise. Reflecting its audience of enthusiasts, we’ve also now included extensive results in RAW. To further complement our existing E-P1 review, we additionally tested the E-P2 with its other kit lens, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f2.8 pancake prime and have included results for it at various apertures. Some of the Art filters can now be modified – one or two variations on the original filter slightly adapt the effect. Grainy Film provides a second, less contrasty and grainy option, Pin Hole offers a choice of vignette styles and several of the filters now also provide a framing option. Manual focus isn’t a problem with such a wide-angle lens and I normally set focus to infinity. The other lens I often use is the Olympus ED 14 – 150mm F4 – 5.6 11. I use this on both the EP2 and the EM5 Mark 11 as my “shoot everything” lens. Another lens that I enjoy using is the Samyang fully manual 12mm which is excellent in low light and has a reasonable distortion free wide-angle. i-Enhance is the first entry in the E-P2’s list of Picture Modes, although Natural, the third option, remains the default for the camera when set to PASM. Switch the camera to iAuto though, and i-Enhance is automatically applied whether you like it or not as no other Picture modes are availableThe dynamic range of the camera is also very satisfactory. Highlight detail is well held while even the darkest shadows reveal texture and detail. This far surpasses what is possible with film. In very bright sunlight it will be useful to use the built in flash as a fill light for portraiture. This will reduce the intensity of any shadows on the face and will result in more flattering daylight portraits. Fill in flash can of course also be used for a range of other subjects, including perhaps flower and plant photography. In addition, the E-P3 has a 614,000 dot OLED screen that is touch-sensitive. This particular panel uses Samsung's Pentile dot layout to give VGA-equivalent resolution, coupled with capacitance-type touch technology similar to the Apple iPhone. The touch screen can be used to set the focus point and optionally fire the shutter, and can operate some of the camera's other functions too. Crucially though this is always in addition to the rest of the camera's controls, rather than attempting to replace them. If you decide such features don't have a place on such a traditional-looking camera, they can be disabled with no overall loss of functionality. All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12.3 megapixel Super Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 7Mb. No wonder it was NEVER discussed or even shown in a photo here in this review or any other endorsed review... it is an EPIC FAIL.
The Olympus E-P2 is equipped with the same six Art Filters of the E-P1 along with two new ones, Diorama and Cross Process. Art Filters apply digital special effects to images, and while you can achieve the same results in software afterwards, the opportunity to do it in-camera is obviously more convenient.There is no lens shade provided with this lens, and with the front element always exposed I would suggest a UV filter for protection. As for stray light protection, you’re on your own. The E-PL2 body measures 115 x 73 x 42mm and without a lens attached or battery fitted weighs 317 grams. Pop the battery in and add the 17mm f2.8 pancake prime and the weight comes up to 432g. To put that into context, Canon’s high end PowerShot G12 compact weighs 401g, albeit featuring a built-in 5x zoom. Another comparison worth making is with the Panasonic Lumix GF2 which is not only a little smaller, but lighter, weighing only 265g without the battery or a lens attached. The camera’s Mode dial right on the top left of the chassis is a model of proper design. It is clearly visible, yet because the adjusting ring is buried underneath the top panel, with only an edge to be turned by thumb, it will never be accidentally mis-positioned. Kudos to Olympus for an elegant solution to a problem that all too many cameras have. There are 16 images in the samples gallery (in addition to the 116 preview and review sample images taken with the E-P1). Please do Switching to RAW mode we measured 10 frames in a fraction over four seconds for a marginally slower speed of 2.5fps. This remains better than most compacts, but slower than a typical DSLR at this price point. In terms of a self-timer, there’s two and 12 second countdowns, and you can now also use a remote shutter release in the USB port.
The Olympus E-P2 lets you dial in shutter speeds of up to 60 seconds and has a Bulb mode as well for exposure times as long as 30 minutes, which is very good news if you are seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 1/6th seconds at ISO 1600. We've included a 100% crop to show what the quality is like.Because of the way viewfinders are measured (using a fixed lens, rather than a lens of equivalent magnification), you also need to take the sensor size into account, so the numbers in the diagram below are the manufacturer's specified magnifications divided by the respective 'crop factors'. As you can see, the VF-2's 1.15x magnification (0.58x once crop factor is taken into account), makes it bigger than most APS-C cameras and equal to largest optical viewfinder that Olympus makes - that of the high-end E-3 DSLR.
The Olympus VF-2 and Panasonic LVF1 may both be electronic viewfinders which can vertically tilt and replicate what you see on the screen with 100% coverage, but both are worlds apart in quality. After the superb ‘Live View Finders’ of the larger Lumix G1 and GH1, Panasonic decided to keep costs down on the LVF-1 by equipping it with an average 202k pixel resolution. The Field Sequential Colour technology may have eliminated any gaps between the dots, but the view itself was much coarser than the 1440k dots of the G1 and GH1 viewfinders and ultimately disappointing. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, text, archive, code, other.That the E-PL2 has a built-in flash is taken by many a sign that this is a ‘step up’ camera – aimed at high-end compact owners looking to move up a notch in terms of control and versatility. Neither of the two cameras that sit above the E-PL2 in the PEN range has a built in flash and nor does Sony’s NEX-5/3, but the Lumix GF2 does. When capturing images in infrared with my EP2 I nearly always use aperture priority. I also always create a new custom white balance from any uniform green area, e.g. grass. I do this as the light changes when I am in the field. This enables the camera to capture the best range of tones in the infrared image. The E-P2’s accessory port also allows you to mount the (S)EMA-1 adapter which lets you connect an external microphone for far superior audio quality during movies. The Manual exposure mode and option to connect an external microphone – albeit with an additional accessory – are both decent upgrades to the movie capabilities of the E-P2, and could swing the decision from the E-P1 for serious film makers.
Great Deal 
New Comment