Saturday 19 January 2013

Got a New Camera- Olympus E-PL5


The Fujifilm X-100 is a beautiful looking camera. I Leica it a lot;


picture courtesy of http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/FujifilmX100

...and I would have gone for it, but I wanted a little more versatility where lenses were concerned. Still, it would make a wonderful back-up or spare camera. Maybe one day.

The Fujifilm X-10;


picture courtesy of http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilm-x10

...was another contender, but the reported "white orb" issues scared me off. Although, there are rumours of a new version which should address this problem. Still, a nice camera.


This Nikon P7700 was another possibility, but I found the design looking a little more like modern cameras. Nice camera, though.


picture courtesy of http://www.dpreview.com/previews/nikon-coolpix-p7700

In the end, after much reading up, I settled on the Olympus E-PL5 (compact system camera).



I opted for the predominantly silver bodied version because my current stable of cameras is a little top-heavy with black. This model doesn't have a built-in flash, but instead comes bundled with a flash that can be slid onto the hot-shoe mount on top. This mount will also accept an electronic viewfinder. If I have one small regret about this camera, it is the lack of a viewfinder. Holding a camera up to your eye is the true way to take a photo, as far as I'm concerned.
And the design of this camera reminded me of the Trip 35 film camera from Olympus' past;






The Olympus OM-D EM-5 was another one I looked at, but the price was higher than I was looking to spend. But this camera absolutely screams '1970s OM Series'. This too was a Micro 4/3rds system camera.

picture courtesy of http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/02/olympus-om-d-e-m5-the-first-micro-four-thirds-camera-aimed-at-replacing-a-dslr/

But I suppose enough talk for now. Here are some pictures. Actually, here are a LOT of pictures.
The E-PL5 takes a nice standard photo of some punk tearing down my street on his trail-bike;


And here's a shot out of the window of the most poorly lit room in the house;


But it's when you start playing around with the Art Filters that you start getting interesting results. Here is the 'Dramatic' filter, picture taken on a sunny afternoon;


This setting can even make a pair of glasses look sinister;


The 'Diorama' setting is pretty nifty;


Makes my local train station look like a model. Wish there was a train arriving;


The usual 'black & white' and 'sepia' settings are there.
Grainy black and white;


And good old sepia;


'Soft focus' for pictures of the cat, doing what she does best;


'Key Line' produces a cartoonish effect;


However, I've found myself using the 'Dramatic' effect often;


It tends to bring out the detail in wristwatches;




This setting definitely shows a difference from a standard photo;


To one taken in 'Dramatic' setting;



A last shot of this Olympia SM2 typewriter. I haven't used it in so long that I forgot what a joy it is to write with.



I had it clamped to the bottom half of its case, sitting on my lap. It's no light-weight, I can tell you.



Thanks for reading, all!

###  Special thanks to http://www.dpreview.com/ for their fantastic and in-depth product write-ups. Really minimised the stress of searching for a camera. Their reviews were detailed and clearly written and were of immense help during my hunt. Sterling work!  ###

7 comments:

  1. That's a great looking piece of kit. Seems to be performing well too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great looking camera. Congratulations!
    It looks like most digitals though and does not handle B & W all that good. Then I used (and use) medium to large format film for so long for all my B & W. Still the B & W is acceptable. It does a better job on Sepia. Very little saturation from the direct bright sun too. That is good. Color and all look great. Looks like you got a wonderful camera.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That looks like a great little camera and the system is affordable. I like the retro/modern vibe. My Sony NEX3 and 6 are very modern and utilitarian. One of the upsides of the 4/3 sensor is stabilization built into the body. The Sony system depends on lens stabilization which gets expensive.

    Your creative filters are nice. I have little time for post-processing and try to get the look I want straight out of the camera.

    Have fun!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't see these nice ones in the stores, and I never know what's out there. Since I'm starting with price and often a sense of urgency I don't make the time for proper research as you have done. So thanks for that. This is a good-looking unit and the output looks great.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Enjoyed oodles of your various blog writing. I am a Bond book fan - and wish movies maintained their historical integrity... The cameras - love the Olympus Pen series - because you can so easily add old lenses from your analogue past. It is like taking photographs again... These cameras also appear borne out of analogue rangefinders - they feel right...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alan, thanks for stopping by, and for the kind comments. I'm currently using the EPL-5 whilst on holiday in Europe. It's been. A great camera, but it's one main limitation is the lack of built-in viewfinder. I have an external clip-on one attached, but this means that I can't put the camera back into its case without removing the viewfinder first. It's gotten a tad annoying. Going to seriously consider upgrading to another model in the Olympus range at some point. The new Pen-F looks interesting, but the pricing is scary.mmight look at one of the OM-D models too.

      Delete