Olympus announces E-P2, quite a bit sooner than I was expecting. Very exciting addition, I wonder if they have fixed the UI issues and slow AF.

Unfortunately it comes in bland black.

Official page

Heard via TOP.

What's different from the EP-1? Can't tell ...

The major difference is that auxiliary EVF (and the port for it) Compared to previous m4/3 EVF options, this one offers SVGA resolution (800x600, confusingly described as 1.44MP), the same as in the G-1 and GH-1, far higher res. than the GF-1 auxiliary EVF. And it probably uses the recently announced Epson EVF panel, in which case it promises better handling of motion than the G-1/GH-1 EVF, with no "tearing".

But the price of this is about an extra $300 over the E-P1! Early adopters will continue to defray the major development costs of Micro Four Thirds, it seems.

P. S. The range of Olympus entry level lenses is being rounded out too with a wide 9-18 and an all-in-one 14-150 joining the 14-42, 17/2.8 and the various Panasonic options. Maybe next some more specialized and faster, higher grade lenses will come, but for now "small" is the word at Olympus for Micro Four Thirds. Makes sense I suppose, even if not what some DLSR-owning photography enthusiasts are wishing for.

Olympus should put that EVF port on their DSLRs.

The above would give way to the removal of the LCD swivel.

I have been thinking the same recently! An accessory tilt-able EVF and video mode could go together nicely in a new 4/3 SLR body. The EVF could also be nice for manual focusing with magnification. And maybe add an extension cable, to allow placing the EVF somewhere other than on the hot shoe.

By the way, video mode is also enhanced a bit in the E-P2, adding full manual mode and a microphone jack. Still only 720p, but from what I have read, a lot of 1080p in DSLR's is more specsmanship than a useful upgrade, being achieved with substantial upsampling.

I thought just the opposite ... finally a nice clean black instead of that retro 60's look.

Yes, because there are so few black cameras around...

hmmm ...

Maybe they should make a purple one.

That would be the Nokia, oops sorry, Pentax

Mike

Not an Oly, but purple.

I just picked up one of those (In black, however). I was planning on getting an E-P1, but the K-x is small enough and the image samples I saw just blew me away. The actual images bear it out as well; having used Pentax's K20D (not well known for high ISO but actually cleaner than the D300 in RAW) and the Canon 40D (which has an undeserved reputation for being an excellent high ISO machine) I can say that this is easily the best crop-sensor camera for high ISO that I've ever used. By at least a couple stops. I felt uncomfortable bumping my 40D over ISO 400, but I can see myself using the K-x happily at ISO 1600 (which I would only touch in sRAW on the 40D). Haven't played with the RAW files yet, but I'm pretty thrilled.

Probably not a good idea. Light reflecting off the camera might give an unpleasant colour cast to photos taken at close range.

It's good to see more progress in the micro four-thirds realm. Hopefully it won't be too much longer until someone makes an F2.8 standard zoom, or some longer prime lenses to complement the excellent 20mm F1.7.

So that's why photographers wear black



The prime lens selection is indeed lacking, and the Oly roadmap doesn't promise fix for that any time soon, unfortunately. Also, some anecdotes claim that non-Oly lenses don't perform nearly as well as they "should," suggesting some lens correction even on RAWs - but I've no idea how credible this is, and if that's even feasible.

Nevertheless, I'm so impressed with the m4/3 format (or however it's truncated) that I'm seriously considering moving from crop sensor Canons to m4/3 when the next generation comes around. Olympus already promised a "pro grade" camera when E-P1 was released. According to DXOMark the E-P1 is pretty much the same with my 450D in everything except for high-ISO performance, something which I couldn't care less about. The samples I've seen from the camera are impressive as well.

Is this about lens corrections or just AF performance?

it is intriguing the lens firmware can be upgraded ... makes me wonder what it would contain that would benefit enough from improvements to actually design a system which actually allow lens firmware updates.

This is not about differences between E-P1 and 2 - the 2 is not out so I haven't seen comparisons.

What I've read is that E-P1 might do RAW-level adjustments based on whatever lens is attached to it. Since the camera doesn't know which lens is attached to it when it's with an adaptor, it will not benefit from such adjustments. Hence m4/3 Olympus lenses perform better with E-P1 than optically superior lenses from other manufacturers.

This is pure speculation and hearsay, so take it with a huge grain of salt.