The Olympus EP3 could be the Micro Four Thirds camera we have always been waiting for
A big day for photography news today, thanks to the folks at Olympus. First up is the Pen EP3, the fifth iteration of its PEN Micro Four Thirds line, which manages to mix up pretty much everything while keeping it in the original PEN's retro-style body.
First, the basics. The 12.3MP sensor is almost the same, with tweaks to make it play nicer with Olympus' own Zuiko lenses. It will shoot photos up to ISO 12,800, and capture video at 1080i (60fps), but the main difference is speed. Coupled with the new processing chip (TruePic VI), the camera can check focus 120 times per second. Speed of any kind was never the PEN's strong point, and according to early reviews, the EP3 really is a lot faster.
The shutter is also faster, with a lag of just 60 milliseconds. Compare that to Nikon's official lag for the D700 — 40 milliseconds — and you can see that it's pretty quick.
What you'll probably notice first, though, is the pop-up flash, which the original PENs lacked. These things are useful for triggering bigger, off-camera units, although they can of course be used to get that traditional "party-photo" look, complete with red eyes and washed out faces.
Then there's the removable finger grip. Unscrew it with a coin and you can replace with a bigger grip, or none at all. I imagine a whole third-party cottage industry springing up around this.
The LCD, too, is new, with higher resolution (614,000 dot OLED) and a capacitive touch screen. You can use this to touch-to-focus like the iPhone, and to control other functions. Don't worry, though: Olympus hasn't gone all Panasonic on us and removed the manual switches. Lots of proper knobs and dials remain, and many can be customized to do what you want.
Finally, lenses. Also new are the Zuiko Digital ED 12m ƒ2.0 (24mm equivalent) and the Zuiko Digital ED 45mm ƒ1.8 (90mm equivalent). The second will make a great portrait lens. The first has a "snap-focus" ring that acts like a real manual-focus ring, complete with distance markings on the barrel.
If you're a Panasonic GF-1 owner looking to upgrade, this is probably the first place you'll look, at least until Panasonic stops pumping out skinny, dumbed-down Micro Four Thirds GF cameras. I'm certainly going to be trying one out when I can.
The EP3 will be available in August for $900 with either the Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm II R ƒ3.5/5.6 zoom or the Zuiko Digital ED 17mm ƒ2.8 prime.
EP3 product page [Olympus]
EP3 press release [Olympus]
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