Olympus E-P2 Compact System Camera (14-42mm lens & VF-2 electronic viewfinder) Black

Product Information

Manual focus isn’t a problem with such a wide-angle lens and I normally set focus to infinity. The other lens I often use is the Olympus ED 14 – 150mm F4 – 5.6 11. I use this on both the EP2 and the EM5 Mark 11 as my “shoot everything” lens. Another lens that I enjoy using is the Samyang fully manual 12mm which is excellent in low light and has a reasonable distortion free wide-angle. To test the Olympus E-PL2’s image stabilisation with the 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II kit zoom we took a series of hand-held shots using a range of shutter speeds with the camera set to shutter priority mode. The sensitivity was manually set to 200 ISO and the lens was set to its maximum focal length of 42mm (84mm equivalent). At this focal length the photographer’s rule of thumb would suggest a minimum shutter speed of 1/84 to avoid camera shake. Portrait, Landscape, Landscape with Portrait, Macro, Sports, Night Scene, Night Scene with portrait, Children, High key, Low key, Digital Image Stabilisation, Nature Macro, Candle, Documents, Panorama, Beach and Snow, Fireworks, Sunset, e-portrait The crops above are taken from images shot at 1/15 with image stabilisation turned off (left) and set to mode 1 which enables it in both vertical and horizontal planes. The crop on the right is a tiny bit soft, but just about acceptable, which means that in our tests the E-PL2 manages between two and three stops of image stabilization. The included electronic viewfinder is very good. It is high resolution, has a high eyepoint, and is bright. It’s also a bit bulky (more so than the one for the Panasonic GF1). The VF-2 has a well designed diopter adjustment, rubber surround for comfort and eyeglass protection, and it tilts 90 degrees for downward viewing.

In the PASM exposure modes available shutter speeds range from 60 to 1/4000 plus Bulb, which can be used conventionally or set between one and thirty minutes using a timer. Exposure control in PASM modes is via the control dial, using the top position to switch to aperture settings once the shutter speed has been set in Manual mode. The E-PL2 forgoes the scalar readouts favoured by Panasonic on the GF2 and Sony on the NEX-3/5 in favour of an unadorned numeric display with the currently active setting highlighted in yellow. The camera’s metal tripod bush is located slightly to the right of centre on the bottom panel which means the lens mount is mostly to the left of it. It nonetheless provides a pretty stable base for a tripod. Alongside it on the right is the battery and memory card compartment, the latter supporting SD (HC and XC) formats, with Class 6 recommended to support HD movies and burst shooting. When capturing images in infrared with my EP2 I nearly always use aperture priority. I also always create a new custom white balance from any uniform green area, e.g. grass. I do this as the light changes when I am in the field. This enables the camera to capture the best range of tones in the infrared image.The image quality is maintained when we look at colour reproduction as well. Images look natural and the full gamut of colours is delivered with effortless competence. Images just look very good indeed. Flesh tones are smooth and natural, delicate hues are reproduced as convincingly as the more intense colours. Both the colour charts and greyscale are rendered well. However, rather than charts it is real-life subjects that we photograph and there is no area in which the E-PL2 fails us – it indeed shows a very high level of performance. I would describe its colour as warm neutral, which is certainly especially an advantage for pictures of people. Like the original E-P1, the E-P2 is a little larger in the flesh than it looks in the photos. It’s certainly compact compared to a DSLR, but measuring 121x70x35mm for the body alone (without any lens mounted) and weighing 385g with battery and card, it’s definitely on the chunky side of the compact market. To be fair though, Panasonic’s Lumix GF1 is virtually the same size at 119x71x36mm, albeit a bit lighter at 341g including battery. Remember the E-P2 has built-in stabilisation though whereas the Panasonic relies on stabilised lenses to counteract wobbles. As before though, shooting movies with the more intensive Art Filters (such as the new Diorama or older Grainy B&W and Pinhole options) will greatly reduce the frame rate with jerky results.

This is our standard studio scene comparison shot taken from exactly the same tripod position. Lighting: daylight simulation, >98% CRI. Crops are 100%. Ambient temperature was approximately 22°C (~72°F). Olympus E-P2 vs. Olympus E-P1 The flash has a quoted guide number of 10 at 200 ISO. Dividing that by the E-PL2 14-42mm kit lens’ maximum aperture of f3.5 gives a maximum flash distance of 2.82 metres. That may not seem like a hugely powerful flash, and it isn’t, but it is comparable with many recent compacts (manufacturers of which are fond of quoting maximum flash distances at higher ISO settings). It’s fine for reasonably close subjects and, of course, the E-PL2 has a hot shoe which means you can mount an external flash, or use the built-in one to remote trigger models such as the Olympus FL36R That said, for the number of other people we showed it to who enthused about its quality, there were an equal number who couldn’t see the point. There’s also the undeniable fact it adds considerably to the price of the E-P2, so you have to ask yourself if you really want it. There are of course a number of other benefits to the E-P2 over the E-P1, but if you’re not bothered about the VF-2, you could save yourself a great deal by going for the older model without missing out on too much. Alternatively if you can’t afford the VF-2 today, but don’t want to rule out the possibility of using it in the future, you could always go for the more recent Olympus EPL-1 instead, which features the same accessory port as the E-P2, not to mention a new popup flash, albeit with a smaller screen and more basic controls.Regular readers might recall that I have not been a big fan of the Four Thirds format. The reason was simply that it seemed when the format was introduced, and subsequently, that the smaller format did not allow for significantly smaller cameras. But with the introduction of Micro Four Thirds the format has found its niche. MFT does away with prisms and reflex mirrors but retains the same size sensor as its larger predecessor. Instead we have cameras with Live View LCDs, and also built-in or accessory electronic viewfinders (EVF). This allows for considerably smaller cameras than the 1.5X to 1.7X "reduced frame" formats from Nikon, Canon and others. As to be expected, using our 14-42mm test lens at maximum ISO 6400 setting on the E-P2 reveals a uniform dusting of noise plus softened detail. Up to and including ISO 400 it's a clean bill of health, with noise creeping into shadow areas at ISO 800 and extending across the entirety of the image at ISO 1600. Olympus could have cut things there but at this price users will expect the higher ISOs provided, hence we have the options of ISO 3200 and ISO 6400, the appearance getting incrementally more 'gritty' the higher up we go. The Olympus E-P2 is a compact camera with a DSLR-sized sensor and removeable lens mount. Announced in November 2009, it’s an enhanced version of the E-P1 launched just five months earlier. Like that model, the E-P2 is based on the Micro Four Thirds standard jointly developed by Olympus and Panasonic to deliver DSLR quality and flexibility without the size, weight and perception of difficult operation.