Olympus PEN E-P3 review

I recently purchased an Olympus PEN E-P3 mirrorless micro four-thirds (m43) camera to carry around with me.  I know most of my photographer friends use DSLRs now, as do I, but there are times when I have needed a decent camera with me and did not have the ability to lug all that DSLR equipment.  See the photo for my reasoning...

As you can see, the D300 with grip and 17-55 f/2.8 is a monster compared to the PEN with it's pancake 17 mm f/2.8.  The PEN is not a shirt-pocket camera, but I can pretty much carry it wherever I go and get good photos with it.

There are a number of m43 cameras out there.  Prior to purchasing the PEN, I tried a Fuji x100, for example.  I absolutely loved the retro styling (it resembles the Leica M9) and many of the features, but the cost ($1200) combined with the inability to change lenses (the X100 has a 35 mm) just made it a no-go.

I also compared a number of other cameras in the m43 world, and finally decided the PEN was approximately equivalent to all of them for the price, and with a suitable adapter, I can attach most of my old Nikon film camera lenses (see photo).

This shows my old Nikon 50mm f/1.8 attached to the PEN.  It's a great combination and the quality is fantastic.  The 17 mm lens (35 mm equivalent) is ok - perfectly serviceable, but the quality of the Nikon is clearly superior.  The 50mm converts to 100mm so it's a perfect portrait lens.

So how is the quality of the images out of the PEN?  Very good.  The sensor is 12.3 mp but of a previous generation build, so it's a little noisy in high ISO operation.  There are a lot of comparison reviews floating around on the web, so check those out for extreme pixel peeping.  Your mileage may vary.

I will give one comparison to demonstrate a practical head-to-head in an actual photo situation.  I was writing an article about a local business with some neat new technology and I had to get a quick shot to go with the copy.  I loaded up my D300 with SB800 flash and I also brought along my PEN so I could determine if it was good enough to use professionally if I didn't have the larger rig with me.  Below is a comparison shot of the two images I took.

D300 image SOOC, jpg, 1/160, f/5.0, ISO 400, 20mm (30mm eq)

PEN image SOOC, jpg, 1/60, f/2.8, ISO 500, 17mm (35mm eq)

The D300 shot was taken with flash while the PEN was not.  Both shots are directly from the camera converted from raw to jpg using Adobe Camera Raw without any processing.  The Nikon image is wider because the PEN at full sensor is in the 4:3 proportion.  I used 160 shutter on the D300 so I could set the white balance to flash and eliminate contributions from the overhead fluorescent lights.

So, in my opinion, either of these images is useable with only minor sharpening and contrast adjustment that I do in post.  In fact, I sent both of them to the editor and let him decide which one to use.  The PEN is no replacement for a quality DSLR, but quality and practicality make it a very nice tool to have in the bag, and definitely is a lower-cost option for those who would like to move up from a point and shoot to something with more flexibility.

I won't go into all the cool features of the PEN camera controls.  But most importantly, I can shoot raw and I can shoot fully manual.  There is no optical viewfinder (you have to use the nice live view screen), but I can tell you the touch to focus aspects of the control are a dream.  There is no need to focus lock and recompose a shot - just touch the area of the screen where you want the focus to be, and the camera takes a photo.  Done.

For about the same price, you can now apparently buy a Panasonic Lumix GX1 which is a very similar camera, but which has slightly better high ISO performance and a 16 mp sensor.  I think either of these cameras is worthy to be in the bag with your gear, and unless you need the high IQ of a D3 or 5D Mark II, you can make great photos with these mirrorless cameras.  In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that the next generation of pro cameras will dispense with the bulky and expensive pentaprism optical finders and look more like the Leica M9.