Olympus Pen series cameras are hipster to the core. If you have not met them before, this is a special kind of modern urban youth â not always talented and educated, but always uniquely creative and trendy. It turned out rather well. The device is good-looking, its design simultaneously combines retro-style echoes and modern touches â it will be to the liking of hipster craving for âantiqueâ and will not disappoint progressive amateur photographers.
Resolution â 12,3 megapixel, Zoom 14-42 mm, Display â 3âł, F3,5-5,6
It turned out relatively well. The camera is good-looking and its design simultaneously combines retro-style echoes and modern touches â it will be to the taste of hipster craving for âantiqueâ and will not disappoint progressive amateur photographers.
Itâs got the right little twists and turns. For example, the removable textured grip on the front panel twists. Not really sure why this is done, but the camera can be worn without it.
The E-P series got a built-in flash, the lack of which was a complaint from buyers of previous generations: the small size of the sensor doesnât make it possible to raise the sensitivity and you canât do without additional light, even built-in, in the room.
A noticeable improvement over previous generations in camera interface. For operation, there are now multiple buttons, two rotary elements, and a touch-sensitive, high-resolution 3-inch OLED display 614 thousand pixels . The camera has a good anti-reflective coating on the dots.
It turned out pretty good in principle. The cameraâs stylish exterior combines echoes of âretroâ and modern touches, as well as special twists like a removable textured grip on the front panel. It has a built-in flash, the interface has been improved and a 3-inch OLED touchscreen complements the rotary dials and buttons.
The camera menu was redesigned and re-drawn to make it both more convenient and prettier. A touchscreen works more as a supplement: the âanalogâ controls are for quick adjustments, while the screen offers options like focusing and tapping the screen.
Improved technical features: the E-P3 is not the leader, but is quite up to date and even offers something on top for advanced amateur photographers.
The camera functionality is rich and diverse. Video recording in 1080@60i format is available, there are interesting filters with slight variations in strength or type of effects added.
There is almost everything an experienced photographer needs, including several kinds of grids for composing and an electronic level for leveling the horizon. The only thing missing is a modern sensor: the old 12-megapixel sensor looks very unconvincing next to the competition from Samsung and Sony.
Itâs a pity, all of the above and itâs impossible to even list a lot of them in the format of a short review! sounds very appealing only until you get to know the camera for the first time.
A nice-looking body doesnât please with its compactness, which is quite strange for a camera with a relatively small sensor. Potentially good control suffers from haphazard menus and interface solutions, and the touchscreen doesnât really help with that.
And the system limitation of the âfour thirdsâ standard the same small sensor traditionally leads to the fact that nice and nice-looking shots are inferior in quality to competitors based on the format APS-C.
And all of this wouldnât matter so much if the camera had a competitive price. But the Olympus E-P3 is in strong contention for the title of the most expensive âsystemâ compact on the market.
In general, for those who âknowâ, the third Pen has a lot of advantages. The stylish, fashionable camera is well recognizable and goes well with the image of a modern person who knows a lot about classics.
In addition, it shoots pretty well, knows how to apply popular effects to photos and does not weigh down the bag much itâs not a DSLR after all . For the less fashionable among us, there are other options â theyâre just as good-looking and functional, but less expensive.
The problems, however, remain the same. On the background of new competitors the camera is massive, the small sensor loses out to the large APS-C in terms of picture quality, and there are a lot of deficiencies in control.
The overpriced camera looks very annoying in such a context. All in all, the stylish and recognizable E-P3 has a lot of pluses for the fashionable person. For casual photographers, it makes sense to look at the competing models.
Is the high price of the Olympus E-P3 mirrorless camera justified by its features and performance or are there other more affordable options that offer similar or even better capabilities?