Olympus E-P2 Overview

Previewed by Shawn Barnett and Mike Tomkins
Preview date 11/05/2009

In the summer of 2009, Olympus announced the beginning of a new era of small, interchangeable-lens digital cameras, as the company debuted its first Micro Four Thirds-system camera, the Olympus E-P1. Less than five months later, the P1 has a new sibling -- the Olympus E-P2 -- which retains many of its predecessor's features, but with a variety of important differences. The company is continuing to align its Olympus E-P series cameras with the old PEN system of film cameras, dating back to 1959, and like the previous model , the E-P2's style reflects that heritage.

The Olympus E-P2 uses the same 12.3-megapixel sensor from the E-P1, capable of both still and HD video capture. Body styling is also largely unchanged, with the biggest difference being a change in body color and finish. Where the P1 was offered in either silver with black trim, or a white with tan trim limited edition, the P2 gets a new color scheme. The body itself is still stainless steel, but now has a thin layer of black paint under a clear coat, giving a translucent black finish, accompanied by black trim panels. Looking a little closer, the other main difference is the addition of a new accessory port reminiscent of that in Panasonic's Lumix DMC-GF1. As with the Panasonic GF1, the Olympus E-P2 has a new accessory port that allows use of a hot shoe-mounted external electronic viewfinder, the VF-2. Olympus's external EVF has a rather higher specification than that from Panasonic, though, and the company is also using the port to allow for external microphone use via an optional adapter.

The Olympus E-P2 also has tweaks in a number of other areas. The camera's autofocus system now has subject tracking capability in both still and movie modes, and the focus assist function has been tweaked to automatically center its 7x / 10x zoom around the selected AF point, useful for fine-tuning focus of an off-center subject manually.

There's also a new i-Enhance shooting mode that tweaks image color to emphasize the main subject, and two new Art filters on top of the six from the E-P1. Video enthusiasts will be pleased to find manual control of both shutter speed and aperture during movie capture. There's also support for industry-standard remote control over the HDMI connection, when using compatible equipment in the E-P2's playback mode.

As well as the existing 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 and 17mm f/2.8 lenses which shipped alongside the E-P1, Olympus has also announced two new lenses with the E-P2. Due sometime in 2010, these are the 9-18mm f/4-5.6 and 14-150mm f/4-5.6. A small flash is also currently available for the Olympus E-P series cameras.

Shipping as of December 2009, the Olympus E-P2 will be available in two configurations. With the ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens and VF-2 viewfinder, the price will be US$1,099.99; and with the 17mm f/2.8 and the VF-2 electronic viewfinder, the price will be US$1,099.99.

 

Olympus E-P2 Hands-on Preview

by Shawn Barnett

Just a few short months after introducing the E-P1 "Digital Pen," Olympus launched another version of the small, interchangeable lens SLD digital camera. Most of the guts are the same, as are the body features. Much of what was added came from very early feedback from reviewers, including the black body, requested mostly by males, according to an Olympus representative. Others insisted on an electronic viewfinder.

The Olympus E-P2 user experience is the same as the E-P1, except for the addition of the VF-2 electronic viewfinder, which really does change the experience quite a bit.

Look and feel. The new black body still has some chrome accents, and for now the 17mm lens is still silver. Both silver and black 14-42mm lenses are available for the E-P1, with silver shipping on the white camera and black shipping with the silver camera, so I imagine they'll ship the black lens with the Olympus E-P2. Both kits include the large electronic viewfinder. Naturally this adds to the camera's bulk. The good news is that you forget about the extra bulk when you put the viewfinder up to your eye and take in the big, bright 800 x 600 image it gives you. Note also that the hot shoe is elevated by 0.18 inches (4.6mm) compared to the E-P1, whose top deck is almost flat.

One major feature I prefer over the Panasonic GF1 is the larger grip area the Olympus E-P2 and E-P1 offer. The large rubber pad also helps get a better purchase on the camera, and the thumbgrip on the back also makes a more secure hold. Functionally the Olympus E-P2 is identical to the E-P1, so existing users will feel right at home.

Most of the remaining controls can be seen from this angle, starting from the left. The mode dial peeks out from its port-hole on the top deck, and is set via the knurl on the back. The focal plane indicator is stamped between that and the flash hot shoe, which has the tilting VF-2 electronic viewfinder in place. As with the E-P1, there is no built-in flash on the Olympus E-P2. The blue Super Sonic Wave Filter lamp is next, followed by the power switch, whose outer ring glows green when the power is on. The shutter release button is now black instead of silver, ringed by a smooth bit of silver metal. The EV adjustment button is last; while it's easy to forget while you're shooting, when you remember, it's well-placed for easy adjustment with your thumb on the back.

On the small shelf behind the Olympus E-P2's top deck, Olympus has engraved the words, "OLYMPUS PEN Since 1959 E-P2." It's a shame that they didn't just revive the name PEN and call it the PEN F1 or something, because E-P2 is hardly catchy, and also a pain to type.

The 3-inch LCD is still limited to 230,000 pixels, though it is large, vibrant, and good outdoors thanks to its HyperCrystal technology. The lower resolution makes Manual focus a little more difficult than it was on the just-reviewed Panasonic GF1, even with the 7x or 10x zoom option.

On the back you can see the speaker and the unique horizontal scroll wheel, used for zooming and changing menu items. Four buttons run down the right side of the LCD, and a Function and Info button flank the navigation disk/wheel. The disk and wheel combination is small, but works surprisingly well. The wheel works better than most manufacturers' designs, a pleasant surprise. I'm not crazy about the layout of the rest of the buttons, though. It might be that the Olympus E-P2 is so short that the controls are just harder to reach than I'm used to. Reaching the button on the VF-2 is not easy either, and I typically use my left hand instead of trying to stretch my thumb. In the lower right corner you can see the card write lamp.

Note also the camera strap loops, which unfortunately require the annoying D-rings to work with most strap systems. These have become more of a burden thanks to the Olympus E-P2's movie mode, as every motion of the D-rings is recorded as the sound travels dutifully down the camera's lovely metal skin, quickly arriving at the microphone openings. Perhaps you can sense my irritation with this unnecessary metal-to-metal connection when cloth-to-metal is mostly standard on modern digital cameras and even camcorders. Since I don't like camera straps, I'll likely keep the camera strapless and ringless, and perhaps add a digicam wrist strap with a toggle lock for security.

LCD. As I mentioned, the 3-inch LCD is big, but low-resolution, and its viewing angle is 176 degrees. Thankfully it's not the only way to frame images with the E-P2, thanks to the VF-2 electronic viewfinder, which has SVGA resolution.

The Olympus E-P2 has many display screens, which you select by pressing the Info button, but I'm afraid none of them meets my needs all on one screen. Though I like the leveling feature, that screen doesn't tell you what aperture or shutter speed you have set, which is pretty important on a camera like the Olympus E-P2. If you want the histogram or exposure info, you have to lose the leveling feature. I found myself hitting the Info button way too often when using the Olympus E-P2.

And if you shoot in the Art Filters mode and have the center-AF point screen up, you can't zoom in to focus, because the Set button both zooms and changes the Art Filter; guess which wins?

Function. The Olympus E-P2 includes a Function menu that works a lot like the Function menu on Canon PowerShots, only the E-P2 has two unique dials at its disposal for easy navigation.

Press the OK button in the center, and it brings up a menu matrix that's identical to the translucent screens seen on recent Olympus digital SLRs. It's a good system either way, but I prefer the system shown above, because it shows more of the available options in each category without having to go to a different screen.

Optical viewfinder. The VF-1 optical viewfinder, available for $99, does not come with the E-P2's 17mm f/2.8 kit, something that does come with the E-P1's 17mm kit. The one I have has a faint silver frame inside, but neither this line nor the viewfinder itself represents the actual image captured by the 17mm lens, which is noticeably wider; and naturally there's also some significant parallax error between this viewfinder lens and the capture lens.

For some reason I accidentally touch the front or rear optic too often, and I lament that the back of the viewfinder has no rubber guard to protect my glasses. Of course, with this big, square, nostalgic novelty mounted, we begin to approach the size and shape limitations found in the smaller SLRs, and the one place to mount a flash is occupied. The advantage, though, is that you get a third point of contact with your body (your face), offering inherently greater stability than you get while holding the Olympus E-P2 out in front of you to see the LCD.

Electronic viewfinder. The new VF-2 electronic viewfinder is noticeably larger than the one available for the Panasonic GF1, and it's also higher resolution. It attaches the same way, though, via the new Accessory port on the back beneath the hot shoe, which means that it won't work on the E-P1. It's a friction fit, unfortunately, which means that you can accidentally nudge it off if you're not careful. There's a springloaded pin that slips into the hot shoe's locking hole for some security, but it still manages to loosen a bit in a bag if I'm not careful. I'd prefer a more positive locking mechanism.

Functionally, though, it's really nice. The rubber ring around the viewfinder optic protects your glasses, unlike the back of the VF-1 with its hard plastic. Better yet, it's the diopter adjustment mechanism, which you can turn to focus the viewfinder. It manages to accommodate my -3 vision just fine.

The view is really large, offering a 100% view of the scene, with 1.15x magnification. It's a nice view to be sure. I can't tell you how many times I brought the E-P1 up to my eye before remembering there is no optical viewfinder built in. It just feels like an SLR. Now if you need to, you can shoot the E-P2 like it is one. Now I still find myself shooting happily with the VF-2, especially out in sunlight, but I still pull the camera from my eye to see the playback -- which doesn't work, because the playback image appears in the electronic viewfinder until I turn it off.

The only drawback is how much bigger it makes the E-P2, which is the same reason I generally leave the VF-1 off the E-P1. At least the VF-2 is more versatile, able to show the true image even with a zoom lens. It's also a little better for manual focusing, given the higher resolution.

The EVF's brightness and hue can also be adjusted independently via a menu item that shows the last image captured as a sample.

Accessory port. The new port can also be used for an External Microphone Jack, into which you can plug a microphone like the Olympus ME51S, ME31, or many other third party microphones, a feature missing from the E-P1.

Lenses. The primary kit lens designed for the Olympus E-P2 is the 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6. It's a shortened version of the standard kit lens shipped with so many digital cameras, equivalent to a 28-84mm zoom in this case. It does a neat trick, though, when you twist it from its resting position: it pops out to its full operating length.

There's an unlock switch on the left of the barrel, but this actually unlocks the mechanism that keeps the lens from retracting back to its stowed position, so opening the lens is just a simple twist to the right. See the video at left for a visual demonstration using the E-P1.

Though I appreciated the effort Olympus made to keep this lens from being a gigantic nuisance, making this small camera a lot larger, it took me some time to like this lens; and in the end, I don't like it at all. Our sample on the E-P1 was unbearably slow to focus, and still a little too big for me even when tucked away. According to our tests, the 14-42mm took 1.23 seconds to focus and fire at wide angle, and 1.07 seconds at telephoto. That's very slow, and version 1.1 firmware resulted in only a slight improvement (1.19 and 0.98 seconds respectively). Add the motion blur introduced at certain shutter speeds (see below), and the picture is complete. The E-P2 we received for testing is not fully ready for prime time, so we can't say much about its AF speed.

My favorite of the two lenses is the 17mm f/2.8, the only other Olympus lens made specifically for Micro Four Thirds as of this writing. Its low barrel distortion made shooting with this pancake design a sincere pleasure, and its faster autofocus made me return to it again and again. Chromatic aberration is a little high, unfortunately, but that can be dealt with. While out shooting galleries with the Olympus E-P2, I had to remind myself a few times to get the 14-42mm lens mounted for a few shots; and after I got too frustrated with the autofocus from the prototype camera, I returned to the 17.

Lenses and adapters. With only moments before they were due to ship back, we took the liberty of trying the Olympus E-P2 with the rather elite lenses that came with our Panasonic GH1, the second Micro Four Thirds digital camera. They both fit and worked well. Most impressive was Panasonic's 7-14mm on such a small body.

The Lumix Four Thirds lens adapter also allowed us to attach some of the more interesting Four Thirds lenses in house, including the 150mm f/2.0 monster lens. Olympus's equivalent is the MMF-1, a silver Four Thirds adapter. Focusing is a lot slower with this adapter for most of the lenses we tried, so though it's possible, it's not entirely desirable to use Four Thirds lenses with the Olympus E-P2.

Sweetening the deal for OM-system lens owners like me is the MF-2 OM Adapter, which allows attachment of some really fine lenses. We tested my 50mm f/1.8 lens and posted the results on SLRgear.com. It's not good enough that I recommend everyone go out and snap up OM lenses to use with the E-P2, but it's still usable if you have the time to focus manually, and don't mind limiting yourself to f/4 or higher. Focusing is a little more difficult to do on the E-P2 than on the OM-1, because you have to press the Info button to navigate to the MF screen, then the OK button to zoom in on the scene, and if you're hand-holding the Olympus E-P2, the zoomed view can be shaky.

The Micro Four Thirds lens system is getting larger thanks to Panasonic's recent introduction of two prime lenses, the 20mm f/1.7 and the 45mm Macro f/2.8; and the available adapters also broaden the possibilities. Below are photos of the lenses, with links to their respective pages on SLRgear.com, where we have already reviewed many of these lenses.

Micro Four Thirds lenses
Panasonic 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6	Olympus M.Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6
Panasonic 20mm f/1.7	Olympus M. Zuiko 17mm f/2.8
Panasonic 45-200mm f/4.0-5.6	Panasonic 14-140mm f/4.0-5.8
Panasonic 7-14mm f/4.0	Panasonic 45mm f/2.8 Macro
Micro Four Thirds Adapters
Panasonic Four Thirds DMW-MA1	Panasonic M-Mount DMW-MA2M
Panasonic R-Mount DMW-MA3R	Olympus Four Thirds MMF-1
	Olympus OM Adapter MF-2

With the 17mm f/2.8 attached, the Olympus E-P2 does indeed fit into the front pocket of my slacks, and with some effort I managed to get it into my back jeans pocket when I didn't want to leave it in the car on a hot day. It's an easy fit into a sportcoat pocket, if you can handle a pound of camera gently tugging at your shoulder. Olympus materials also show someone putting the E-P1 into a cargo pocket on some shorts. That actually works well if the pocket is mounted higher on the hip, but the lower pockets allow the camera to swing a little too much, causing bruising at best, camera damage at worst.

Where's the Flash? The Olympus E-P2 is the second non-pro camera to ship without some kind of built-in flash (the first was the E-P1). It's either a courageous or a crazy move, but given the poor performance of most built-in flashes on small cameras, I don't think an available-light photographer like me will miss it. Those who do can opt for the Olympus FL-14 flash, available for $199.99. The FL-14 lacks a bounce feature, though, and mounts quite low and close to the lens, so its usefulness is limited. FL-36R and FL-50R flashes are also compatible with the Olympus E-P2, but the flashes are not capable of remote controlling other strobes via the camera's TTL flash exposure system. Of course you also can't use the VF-2 with the flash mounted, so there's that limitation as well.

The Olympus FL-14 slips into a soft bag for storage and mounts in a snap. It's also pretty simple to use, defaulting to TTL-Auto mode, which allows the E-P2 to have full through-the-lens exposure control. It has a tendency to overexpose, though, and doesn't back off of exposures when specular highlights are detected, something I'm used to from other flash systems. Hence faces can be a little too bright and shiny in photos, and near objects are too often overexposed. I prefer using the Olympus E-P2 without flash. The Olympus E-P2 does quite well at high ISO, so the lack of a built-in flash is a message from Olympus that you won't need it.

Movie modes. The Olympus E-P2 records AVI movies at 1280 x 720 and 640 x 480 both at 30 frames per second. Maximum file size is 2GB, and the maximum recording time is 7 minutes in HD mode, or 14 minutes in Standard Def (VGA). You can also use the ART filters to limited effect. Some of the filters slow the frame rate so much that I doubt most would want to use them. These include the Pinhole and Grainy Film modes. See our Video tab for more.

New to the E-P2 is complete Manual control over exposure while recording, while the E-P1 only offered Program or Aperture priority control modes. Shutter speed ranges from 1/30 to 1/4,000 second.

A new autofocus mode also applies to Movie mode, called C-AF+TR, which means continuous AF and tracking. Lock the autofocus system on the main subject and the autofocus target will follow the subject as it moves around the frame.

HDMI plus CEC. The HDMI port is not new to the Olympus E-P2, CEC control is. That's where you can remote control the camera through your television remote control, provided it offers CEC control. Usually there are four colored buttons on the bottom of the remote.

Audio technology. Olympus is also touting the audio technology they've built into the Olympus E-P2's Movie mode, which they say is as good as their best audio recorders. It's described as Wave Format Base Stereo PCM/ 16-bit at 44.1kHz. Unfortunately, that's only for movie recording or for attaching audio to a photograph; there is no audio-only recording mode, as we've seen on some other cameras. That's a shame, because I'd love to take advantage of that kind of high-end audio capability. As with the E-P1, the only way to record audio with the E-P2 is with the stereo mic on the front of the camera, just left and right of the Olympus logo. That is, unless you purchase the new external microphone jack mentioned above, and a microphone.

Music built in. Also built into the Olympus E-P2 are five ambient tunes to use with slideshows and videos, created by Daishi Dance, a famous Japanese musician.

Leveling indicators. The Olympus E-P2 has leveling indicators that show whether you're tilting the camera left or right (roll), and they also help tilt the camera up or down (pitch) to split the horizon evenly, helpful when the horizon is not visible. See Olympus's diagram at right.

Metering. Olympus's older ESP metering system has been updated with a new 18 x 18 matrix metering system, sampling 324 separate areas. You can also choose center-weighted and spot metering modes.

Many other features have become so common it's a little much to go on about. Face detection for example: The Olympus E-P2 can recognize up to eight faces in a scene, even when people are moving; it then sets exposure to ensure sharp, well-exposed pictures. There's also sensor-shift image stabilization, a good feature for a camera without an onboard flash; and Olympus's SuperSonic Wave Filter for dust reduction.

Sensor and processor. Olympus didn't tell us much about the 12.3-megapixel LIVE-MOS sensor, except that it's similar to the ones in the E-30 and E-620, and identical to the sensor in the E-P1.

Multiple exposures. You can also overlay images right in the Olympus E-P2 with the Multiple Exposure tools, first seen on the Olympus E-30 digital SLR.

Aspect ratios. You can choose multiple aspect ratios to shoot with the E-P2, including the sensor's 4:3, but also 3:2 (more common among SLRs), 16:9 (better for HD television display), and 6:6.

Exposure modes. The Olympus E-P2 includes the four standard modes, Program, Aperture, Shutter, and Manual exposure modes, but also includes an Intelligent Auto mode that analyses the scene and chooses among Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Sport and Macro modes. Movie mode is of course for movies, and Scene mode avails you of 19 Scene modes, including Portrait, e-Portrait, Landscape, Landscape + Portrait, Sport, Night Scene, Night + Portrait, Children, High Key, Low Key, DIS Mode, Macro, Nature Macro, Candle, Sunset, Documents, Panorama, Fireworks, and Beach & Snow.

iEnhance. A new picture mode called iEnhance picks out a dominant color in a scene, and enhances that one color so it stands out more. It should enhance scenes like sunsets, fall foliage, etc.

In-camera editing. Also carried over to the Olympus E-P2 is the ability to develop RAW images in-camera, including the ability to apply Art Filters to RAW images. JPEGs can have Red-eye fixes, trimming, shadow adjustment, resizing operations, and even sepia and saturation adjustments applied.

Storage and battery. Miraculously, the Olympus E-P2 uses SD cards exclusively for storage, with nary an xD-Picture Card in sight. That really was important for this camera to gain widespread acceptance, so it was a good move. As with most digital cameras capable of recording in HD, the Olympus E-P2 requires a Class 6 or better SDHC card to capture 1280 x 720p video.

For a battery, Olympus chose the BLS-1 lithium-ion battery, also used in the Olympus E-620. It's rated at 300 shots per charge in the E-P2. That's not a lot for an SLR, and I was only able to shoot for about a day while on vacation at that rate, so consider a spare.

Shooting with the Olympus E-P2

Shooting with the E-P2 was nearly identical to shooting with the E-P1. I'm already used to it, and the only new aspect that I've used is the new electronic viewfinder, and it's pretty impressive. Most of what I have to say about it appears above. It works well enough that I can only praise it. I'm sure I'd only use it occasionally, though, since my main purpose to having a small digital SLD like this is for easy portability, and even though it comes with a nice little pouch, I doubt I'd have the VF-2 with me when I want it. I certainly don't carry the VF-1 on the E-P1 very often. If you're into wearing camera neck straps, though, the VF-2's included pouch can be velcroed in place for easy accessibility.

Because we can't show images, I can't really comment on the E-P2's image quality more than to say that it looks as good as the E-P1. That's high praise, with excellent results even at higher ISOs (see the E-P1 review for more).

I also had occasion with the onset of Fall to finally appreciate some of the Art filters that come with the E-P1, mostly the Pop Art filter. I could quickly see onscreen what a given Autumn scene would look like with exaggerated colors, and decide whether I wanted to shoot it or not. The results were quite good from both the E-P1 and E-P2.

I also found the anomalous image blurring issue with the 14-42mm lens again, but I absolutely did not go into a deep study on the matter. It's pretty much the same as what we saw with the E-P1, which leads me to lean you in favor of the 17mm kit over the 14-42mm. That is unless you never plan to print larger than 8x10-inch prints. See the Blur Anomaly tab of the E-P1 review for more information.

Autofocus. Only one other problem came to light with the Olympus E-P1 in my shooting, and that was a tendency for the AF system to miss focusing on smaller foreground objects in favor of the background. That still happens with the Olympus E-P2, something I wish they'd addressed with a finer AF point, as is included on the Panasonic GF1.

Analysis. Olympus has once again produced a nice little SLD (Single Lens Direct-view) digital camera, one with personality and pretty darn good image quality. It's impressive that Olympus was able to respond so quickly to the desires of the press and its early users, adding a few key features that make a difference to the user experience and the Olympus E-P2's utility. To me the most important of those features is the new Accessory port, which allows attachment of the EVF and the external mic jack. The addition of full Manual exposure control to the Movie mode is also great for aspiring movie makers who don't want a stray flashlight beam to upset their exposure while making an X-Files fan film.

As of this writing, it looks like the Olympus E-P2 will only be available in bundles with a lens and the VF-2 electronic viewfinder, making its $1,100 price a little high for those who've already purchased an E-P1 and want the extra functionality. Hopefully they'll release at least one more body-only package soon. Despite the EVF's excellent quality, I'm not sure it's a must-have accessory; and anything Olympus can do to help existing owners upgrade their system with an additional body is probably a good idea going into the holiday shopping season.

Stay tuned for our full review once we get a shootable sample, or else the final firmware. If the image quality stays as good as we see now, the Olympus E-P2 will be another great choice for stills and video in a small, stylish package.

Looks like B&H and Amazon are taking pre-orders for the E-P2, so check out the links below if you're interested.

In the Box

The Olympus E-P2 ships with the following items in the box:

• E-P2 body
• VF-2 shoe-mount electronic view finder
• 14-42mm or 17mm lens (if purchased as a kit)
• Body cap
• Lens caps
• Lithium-ion battery BLS-1
• Battery charger BCS-1
• Multi-cable
• Shoulder strap
• Olympus Master CD-ROM
• Instruction manual
• Warranty card