Olympus E-P1

	Controls Summary
• Auto mode uses scene recognition to choose an appropriate shooting mode • Dual control dials make manual exposure settings simple • User-defined modes are a nice touch, but difficult to understand and access • Generous selection of Live View displays, including live histogram, on-screen scale overlay • Level gauge showing side-to-side and front-to-back tilt innovative and worthwhile • Wide-ranging scene mode options • Art Filters produce dramatic effects with no effort • Autofocus speed no match for Panasonic G cameras, limits ability to shoot action scenes • Low 3 frame per second burst speed • Depth of Field preview effective, but requires programmable function button • Metering options include settings for very bright or dark scenes
	Hardware	Page 10 of 21	Design & Handling

Shooting Modes (12.00)

The E-P1 sticks with the basics, including the scene recognition-enabled auto mode that's becoming increasingly popular in consumer SLRs. Having two control dials is useful here. In program mode, either dial can be used for program shift. In aperture-priority or shutter-priority mode, either dial changes the selected parameter and, in full manual mode, the main dial controls shutter speed, the sub dial adjusts aperture value.

Shooting Modes
	Auto The camera chooses a shooting mode (Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Sport or Macro) based on scene recognition software. Only a handful of user settings are available: flash on or off, image format and focus mode.
	Program The camera sets the shutter speed and aperture, the user controls all other settings. Program shift is available by turning either the main dial or sub dial: the aperture and shutter speed shift in tandem, maintaining the same overall exposure value.
	Aperture-Priority You set the aperture, the camera sets the shutter speed. Most useful when controlling depth of field is a high priority.
	Shutter-Priority You set the shutter speed, the camera sets the aperture. Most useful when controlling the level of sharpness or blur in a shot of moving subjects is a high priority.
	Manual You set both the aperture and shutter speed. Turning the main dial changes the shutter speed, while turning the sub dial changes aperture. A numerical exposure level indicator appears on the LCD.

The camera can be reset to factory defaults via the first shooting menu, but it can also be set to one of two stored configurations (called Reset 1 and Reset 2). It's a useful way to quickly tailor the camera to your preferences for a particular type of shooting, though the way it's handled is confusing: why not call these Custom Settings or Custom Modes and give them an appropriate menu slot, instead of burying them in the Reset section.

Equally bizarre is the My Mode function, which allows you to store two groups of settings as My Mode 1 and My Mode 2. To access these, you must first store the current camera settings as either My Mode 1 or My Mode 2, then choose whether you want to have My Mode 1 or My Mode 2 available, then have the Fn programmed to My Mode, and finally hold down the Fn button while pressing the shutter to invoke the settings. A good concept, but a baffling, overly complex implementation.

A more straightforward shooting option is anti-shock, which adds a delay of between 1/8 and 30 seconds between the moment you press the shutter and the time a photo is taken. This is valuable in shooting situations which demand an absolutely steady camera, such as microphotography or astronomical imaging.

Live View (3.50)

With no optical or electronic viewfinder at your disposal, Live View is the only view when shooting with the E-P1. Fortunately the screen handles well in outdoor light, though the view does get grainy (particularly if you bump up the adjustable brightness level). While the display gets unattractive when shooting in low light, at least it doesn't have the aggravating image stutter problem when moving the camera quickly which we found on the Panasonic GH1.

The EP-1 offers a variety of Live View shooting displays, which toggle in order when you press the Info button:

Live View Displays
Information Display The on-screen information display is generally very skimply, with only shooting mode, ISO, drive mode, image size, shutter speed, exposure compensation and image number shown.	Expanded Information Display Change shooting mode, program shift setting or other control and you'll be rewarded with this more complete display, adding flash setting, metering mode, focus mode, face detect status, white balance, and image stabilization status. This readout returns to the previous barebones screen after a few seconds, though.	Live Control Pressing the OK button while in the information display, image only, scale display or level gauge view brings up the Live Control menu for quickly changing settings. More details on this procedure are found in the Menu section.
Histogram Display Overlays a live histogram on the screen display; the histogram can't be moved.	Zoom Display Lists shooting mode, shutter speed, aperture priority and remaining image capacity, and overlays a zoom rectangle over the image. The rectangle can be moved around the screen using the 4-way controller. Pressing OK enters zoom mode, with magnification choices of 7x or 10x available by turning the control dials.	Multi view Display Presents four preview images to interactively show the effects of changes to exposure compensation and white balance settings
Image Only Shows only the subject on a clean screen, though full shooting information appears if the control dial is turned.	Scale Display Overlays one of three grid displays over the image. By default this is a centered X-Y axis (shown), but it can be set to a 4- or 8-line grid overlay. All three overlays can be viewed sequentially if desired	Level Gauge Off by default, this useful display shows tilt both side to side and front to back; it turns green when you've got the camera straight.

If you don't use all of the available displays, you can turn all but the original Information Display off via the custom menu, making it faster to switch between the remaining displays.

Scene Modes (8.00)

The E-P1 offers nineteen scene modes, a generous selection for those interested in tailoring the camera to the shooting situation without mucking around with manual controls.

Scene Modes
	Portrait Optimal for portrait photography.
	e-Portrait Processed for smooth skin appearance.
	Landscape Increased depth of field, focus at infinity, enhanced blues and greens.
	Landscape+Portrait Depth of field covers foreground and background, enhanced blues and greens.
	Sport To capture sports and other fast-moving subjects.
	Night Scene Slow shutter speed for illuminated night scenes.
	Night + Portrait Uses flash with slow shutter speed to capture foreground subject and background.
	Children For shooting active children.
	High Key Enhances bright areas.
	Low Key Enhances dark areas.
	DIS Mode Digitally reduces blur.
	Macro For close-ups.
	Nature Macro For close-ups in the great outdoors.
	Candle For shooting under candlelight illumination.
	Sunset Enhances reds and yellows for dramatic sunset and sunrise images.
	Documents Increased contrast for more legible results.
	Panorama For taking photos in Live View mode to be stitched together using Olympus Master software.
	Fireworks Slow shutter speed for capturing aerial explosions.
	Beach & Snow For capturing high-contrast scenes.

The Panorama shooting mode has promise. You can pan either horizontally or vertically, and the sequence can include up to 10 images, which basically gives you a 360-degree view. There are some odd twists to this feature, though. As shown below, the camera displays on-screen rectangular guides for framing each shot in sequence. However, it doesn't actually show a shadow image of the previous frame when shooting the next frame, a common feature when shooting panoramas with point-and-shoots. You can't stitch together the images you shoot in the camera either, another familiar, if not universal, point-and-shoot feature. Finally, you have to tell the camera which direction you'll be panning before taking the shots. I forgot to change this setting while carefully panning around Times Square one afternoon and, no matter how I tried to finagle it in Olympus Master 2 software, never could get the obnoxious French tourists in the first shot to appear to the left of the creep in the obscene T-shirt, where they belonged.

You'll need to remember where your last shot
left off if you want to shoot a panorama.

The E-P1 also features the six Art Filters that have become standard equipment on Olympus SLRs. These virtual filters have a dramatic effect on the scene you're shooting, and there's no way to control the intensity of the effect. And if you're shooting JPEGs, you have the shot with filter effect, but no unaltered version available if you change your mind. There are workarounds to this problem. Shooting RAW + JPEG provides an unaltered RAW file and a filter-enhanced JPEG. You can also shoot RAW alone and add the Art Filter effect by using  in-camera RAW processing.

The Art Filters take a few seconds to apply, so there will be a delay between shots. They're also available while shooting video, but that processing cuts down on your frame rate, often substantially.

The first time I saw the Art Filter effects I was not a believer, but after shooting with the feature on a few cameras, I have to admit that there are times when they can transform an ordinary shot into something more interesting, particularly the Pop Art and Grainy Film effects.

Art Filters
Pop Art Prooduces highly saturated colors	Soft Focus Digitally creates soft-focus effect	Pale & Light Color Shifts colors to pastel hues.
Light Tone Softens shade and highlight areas	Grainy Film Creates black-and-white grainy effect	Pin Hole Lowers peripheral illumination to create a tunnel effect

Picture Effects (6.00)

Sticking with the tried and true system employed in the E-30 and E-620 SLRs, the E-P1 provides five Picture Modes plus the option to tweak the settings and create a custom version. In addition to affecting color hues, the Picture Modes can be adjusted for contrast, sharpness and (except for Monotone) saturation, with five steps for each setting. The Monotone mode offers a toning effect (sepia, blue, purple and green) along with virtual filters that mimic the effect of shooting with colored filters with black and white film. A yellow filter, for example, makes clouds appear more prominently.

Picture Modes
Vivid Produces vivid colors	Natural Produces natural colors.	Muted Produces flat tones.
Portrait Produces enhanced skin tones	Monotone Produces black and white tone.	Custom User-defined mode: in this sample sharpness and contrast are boosted to +2 and saturation lowered to -2.

The multiple exposure capabilities of the E-P1, which are available both while shooting and as an in-camera editing effect, are fun to use and can produce handsome results. While shooting, two consecutive shots can be combined to create a single image. You can also use a RAW file stored on the memory card as one of the two images to be combined, allowing you to keep a library of component parts available for your multiple exposure experiments. By default, each image is set to half brightness, but this can be overridden so each image is reproduced with its full brightness value. For getting a precise alignment of multiple exposure frames, shooting in Live View displays a semi-transparent view of the first frame while you line up the second. If two frames aren't enough to suit your needs, you can shoot in RAW mode and use the newly taken multiple exposure as one part of a new multiple exposure combination. Overall, though, there is more flexibility to the multiple exposure function in playback mode.

Focus (15.50)

Autofocus is a key area that separates the Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras from the Olympus E-P1. The Panasonics focus remarkably quickly, providing the first practical system for shooting moving subjects in Live View mode. The E-P1, like the Live View SLRs we've tested, takes its own sweet time achieving autofocus, and that's a big problem. Attempting to shoot sports or active children with this camera is an exercise in futility.

Another area where we expected difficulties, though, turned out to be a non-issue. There is no autofocus assist lamp on the E-P1, so we assumed the worst. When we started shooting in our lab under minimal illumination levels, though, we found that the camera focused successfully down to just a few lux of illumination. Unless you're planning to take pictures in pitch darkness, you should be just fine.

The  E-P1 uses eleven targets for auto-focus, laid out in the following pattern:

The E-P1 autofocus areas.

When shooting in All Target mode, the camera automatically chooses one of these 11 areas. When in Single Target AF mode, the user can position the one autofocus target to be used by moving an on-screen indicator with the four-way control (very simple) or combining the two control dials (one for horizontal movement, one for vertical and way too complicated). Changing the autofocus target is a pain , though, no matter how you approach the task. You can re-select single-target mode from one of the menus, then reposition the focus point, which is a slow procedure. Or you can turn off the direct-access function of the control dial (ISO, autofocus mode, white balance and drive mode) and use it solely to move the autofocus target, requiring you to muck around with menus every time you want to change a basic setting. On the Olympus E-620 and E-30 there's a dedicated autofocus target button, simple and effective. Leaving it off the E-P1 was a mistake.

Oh, and there's one autofocus-related option for that poor over-used programmable Fn button too. You can register a default autofocus position with a few clumsy button presses, which will be reset whenever you press Fn, if you've chosen that as the Fn button function.

Focus Modes
	Single Autofocus The camera focuses once when you hold the shutter button down halfway, and maintains that focus as long as the shutter is depressed.
	Continuous Autofocus The camera attempts to maintain focus if the subject (or the photographer) moves, as long as the shutter button is held down
	Manual Focus Turn the focus ring manually till the subject is in focus. The focus confirmation indicator lights when focus is achieved.
	Simultaneous Single Autofocus and Manual Autofocus The camera uses single autofocus to acquire an initial focus point, which can then be adjusted manually

Face detect adjusts focus and metering based on the subject the camera locks onto. There are several ways to access face detect mode, including the standard menu system, the Live Control menu, the Super Control panel and setting the programmable Fn button to face detect. The Fn option automatically changes additional settings when it launches face detect, setting metering to evaluative, gradation to auto, autofocus mode to single AF and autofocus area to multipoint.

Shooting with the kit lens, we found manual focus works very smoothly, with the ring sensitive enough to move quickly but geared well enough to maintain accuracy. And with the Live View display, the option to have a zoomed display pop up automatically when you move the focus dial in manual mode allows true precision.

Exposure (4.25)

Exposure compensation is available in a ±3 EV range, in 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV increments. For no apparent reason, this is a narrower range than the Olympus E-620 and E-30, both of which offer ±5 EV flexibility.

Autoexposure bracketing is available in a three-shot sequence, at intervals of 0.3, 0.7 and 1.0 EV.

If you find that your shots consistently come out too light or dark for your taste, you can enter an exposure shift value of ±1 EV, in 1/6 EV increments, to be applied consistently in each metering mode.

Olympus offers a dynamic range compensation system mysteriously called "gradation," with four settings. There is the default Normal setting and Auto, which evaluates regions of the image separately and adjusts each of them individually. For extreme situations, there are also Low Key for maintaining shadow detail for dark subjects, and High Key to keep highlights from blowing out for brightly lit subjects. What's missing in this set of options is good old Off, our mode of choice when keeping image noise to a minimum is a high priority.

Speed and Timing

Shot to Shot (2.98)
Olympus promises a continuous shooting rate of approximately 3 frames per second, and our testing proved them right on the money at 2.98 fps. Unfortunately, we score on performance rather than honesty, and 3 frames per second is nothing to brag about in today's SLR market, as shown in the comparison chart below.

Shot to Shot Time Comparison

Drive/Burst Mode (6.00)
There is a single burst mode, at a promised 3 shots per second. While there is no hard limit to how many photos you can take in a row, the speed slows drastically after about a dozen shots, both for JPEGs and RAW images.

Depth of Field Preview (1.00)

There is an effective depth of field preview function, but it doesn't have its own dedicated button, which poses a problem. Depth of field preview can only be accessed if you've assigned this capability to the programmable Fn button -- the same one you need to use if you want to take a custom white balance reading. 

Metering (7.00)

Olympus incorporates two unusual metering modes in the E-P1, designed to deal wth extremely bright or dark scenes.

Metering Modes
	Digital ESP Metering Checks light levels in 324 areas of the image and calculates a balanced exposure setting.
	Center Weighted Metering Evaluates the entire scene, but places more weight on the center of the image.
	Spot Metering Bases the exposure on only a small area at the center of the screen.
	Spot Metering - Highlight Control Meters just the center spot but allows overexposure to reproduce white areas correctly when the overall background is bright.
	Spot Metering - Shadow Control Meters just the center spot but allows underexposure to allow blacks to appear black and not gray when the overall background is dark.

The patterns for center-weighted (left) and spot (right) metering

Shutter Speed (10.00)

Available shutter speeds range from 1/4000 second to 60 seconds (versus the typical 30 second maximum), plus bulb for extended exposures.

There is also a shutter release delay function called anti-shock, which adds a user-selectable delay of between 1/8 and 30 seconds after pressing the shutter. This is useful for extremely precise imaging tasks, such as astronomy and microscopic photography.

Self-Timer (2.50)

There are two self-timer modes. Strangely, both are silent, without the comforting "beep, beep, beep" that lets you know the shutter's been pressed and the camera's on the job. Also missing: the option to use a wireless remote control with the E-P1 (there is a compatible cabled USB remote, priced at $57).

Self-Timer Modes
	12-Second The self-timer indicator lights solid for ten seconds, then blinks for two seconds the shot is taken.
	2-Second The self-timer indicator blinks for two seconds and the shot is taken.

Hardware	Page 10 of 21		Design & Handling
Olympus E-P1 Digital Camera Review Navigation
Intro	Product Tour	Color	Noise
Resolution	White Balance	Sample Photos	Playback
Hardware	Controls	Design & Handling	Video Color & Noise
Video Motion & Sharpness	Video Low Light	Video Features	Canon Rebel T1i Comp
Nikon D5000 Comparison	Olympus E620 Comp	Panasonic GH1 Comp	Conclusion
Specs & Ratings