My latest Leica?

[aauckland]

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My E-P1 is so much like my screwmounts to handle and use:

.....I predominantly use the optical finder, with screen off, and focus set to spot.

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[h00ligan]

It would be great if they had better iso performance.

[jsrockit]

and AF speed... still a great camera though.

[aauckland]

True Edward, it does have disappointing higher ISO performance.

But the sensor noise is relative:

Certainly at least a stop inferior to my Canon 30D, but compared to film, and the grain one gets from using a 400asa film, the Olympus would be superior.

....and at 100asa, you would even improve on Delta 100.

 

The poor focus speed, with the earlier E-P1's has been corrected with firmware, up to v.1.4 now, giving really excellent focusing performance.

 

If I stop pixel peeping, which I am prone to do, and simply us the camera, as I would an LTM Leica, you wouldn't be disappointed with the E-P1's results:.

i.e. IQ, grain/noise, or speed of focus.

[h00ligan]

True. I still have my gf1 for now.

[Guest Holy Moly]

It's the second camera after my NikonF which makes me really smile during shooting. Ok, it's a P2 but beside the finder it's the same.

 

Colors of Sicily - a set on Flickr

 

The night shots are between 1/5 - 1/8 sec. The white point above the mountains is the Venus... thanks stabilizer and the f1,7 from Pana.

[aauckland]

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Beautifully taken pictures deandare06, quite superb.

...great advert for the Pen E-P1/2m (and the photographer.)

 

PS

Here is the similarity to my Leica Standard, they have similar feel and heft.

Weights:

Leica Standard = 525grams

Olympus Pen = 527grams

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[Guest Holy Moly]

Thks Alan!

 

It's very interesting to see that you are using a lensshade from the famous 45?mm pancake Nikkor. Does it work fine?

 

Cheers

Bernd

[aauckland]

Yes Bernd, the 45P Nikkor hood works well, (I believe,) plus feels and looks appropriate in its metal chrome finish.

I did experiment with another step ring, (37-43,) for a nice metal hood I use with a CV 35 pancake lens, and this looks fine, but protrudes further.

Just a further comment Re:High ISO performance:

One can achieve a noticeable improvement in higher ISO performance by keeping the Histogram profile close to the right. To attain this one needs to use highish shutter speeds, (above /60th,) which might well push you into an even higher ISO setting, but this is fine because you still gain better control over noise.

If you study your Histograms you can see what I am eluding to, and that poor higher ISO performance tends to be exacerbated by a Histogram to far into the shadow zone.

[Cirrus1]

Aauckland,

You have really sparked my interest in this great looking camera! I have spent the last week researching it and think I might take the leap after I sell my Digilux 3, which hurts my old injured elbow after a stroll with it. Zoom vs prime aside (I would get the 17mm), would you be able to comment on how it compares to the D-lux4 for IQ? I am itching for something new but alas, M anything is not in my budget at the moment.

Thanks,

John

[h00ligan]

Have a look at the panasonic 20mm/1.7, you may find you'd like the 144-2 collapsable as a walk around, and the 20 for lower light stuff. Just a thought. The 20 is fantastic.

[aauckland]

Yes John, the IQ of the 17mm and zoom are good and very similar to each other, (centre performance of the 17mm is excellent, but less good at the edges.)

 

But I have just purchased the Panasonic 20/1,7 that Edward referred to, and it is quite a step up optically on the Olympus lens, I thought the 17mm was good, (and it is,) but the Panasonic is simply breathtaking sharpness wise.

 

I feel I have the best of both worlds, (now,) since the Olympus's in-body stabilization is giving a minimum of 2 stops improvement, so this together with the f1.7 lens, (which is at it's best at f2,) means that most shooting can be at 200asa, (or 400asa.)

 

The other, (slight,) bonus is that the 34mm optical finder, for the 17mm, enlarges too much, but with the 20mm lens the bright-line finder is perfect.

 

I have attached an image, hand held, taken at 1/10th sec., (yes, one tenth,) at f4,(160asa.)

..and also a crop at 100% enlargement.

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[Guest stnami]

taken at 1/10th sec., (yes, one tenth,)...... lucky they weren't escalators

[h00ligan]

Alan, that is my experience as well. I really liked the epl1/20mm combo and the oly ibis really is effective. The only caveat with the epl1 was he limited shutter speed. I am probably going to give it a go again, sell the gf1 body and the x1.. but I'm waiting to see what the firmware update for the x1 brings this month. I am interested in getting some mf lenses and the oly evf is light years ahead of the gf1(which I returned in less than a day as it was like peering through fly screen on a thumbnail size window) as well as the stabilization bonus. The collapsable zoom really is quite good considering size..and makes a good walk around with crop.

 

I'll probably pick up a nd filter to counter the shutter speed limitation.

 

Bear in mind default iso and maximum dynamic range on that camera occurs at iso 200

[Cirrus1]

Thanks for all the reply's! I went to the local camera store yesterday, all they had was a Ep2 demo. Seems nice enough but the zoom kit lens seemed to hunt for focus a lot, almost seemed broken. Asked the guy and he said that was normal??? Seemed like BS. Since I am mostly a jpeg shooter these days I am thinking an Epl1 (not as pretty but, rates well for Jpeg files) with EVF and some older Leica glass plus the panny 20mm. Any thoughts on ease of manual focus?

Thanks,

John

[aauckland]

Manual focus is do'able John (with the E-P1), but I find it a difficult task hand holding, (Tripod is fine.)

....but I do find that my best manual lenses performance to be inferior to the supplied 4/3rd's lenses.

Here is reviewer of the same opinion;

The Online Photographer: Olympus E-P1 PEN Review

..and an extract:

...."Using unarguably better lenses with the E-P1 does not always, or even generally, produce proportionately better results than the kit lenses! I expected my Leica, Zeiss, and Voigtländer lenses to paint some remarkable results that put the Oly kit lenses to shame. But that's just not been the reality. While the M lenses have produced very good images, I have to honestly admit that the best average results I’ve had thus far have been from the Oly 14–42mm zoom lens and the 17mm pancake (even though the latter suffers from some nasty chromatic aberrations in the edges at large apertures)."

[Cirrus1]

Wow, that's interesting, so besides the 20mm panny and the 17mm oly, there are no other primes? I messed around with the EPL1 today at Best Buy. Wish it was a little more retro like the Ep1. Guess I'll just put a half case on it and the VF. Thanks for the reply Alan!

John

[aauckland]

The Panasonic 14mm pancake is about to be launched John.

Panasonic DMC-GH2 Preview: 5. 14mm F2.5 Pancake Lens: Digital Photography Review

...if it is 20/1.7 image quality, it will be a must buy.

[Cirrus1]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their response's again. I think I have decided to go with the EP1 (the EP1's looks are winning out over the EPL1's improved jpegs). As soon as my Digilux 3 sells I will be picking it up.

Regards,

John

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[Cirrus1]

Well..... I ordered the EP1 with 17mm and VF-1. I will end up with the Panny 20mm, but it was cheaper to buy the kit and sell the 17 if I want to. I want to point people to a film I saw mentioned on RF forum about Brian Duffy, a photographer who was very popular in the 60's. First of all, he used Leica's, but also, about half way through they show his EP-1 with VF-1 and leather half case. You could not see the lens.

Enjoy! The Man Who Shot The Sixties

Regards,

John