Olympus PEN E-P3

The Olympus E-P3 is the newest flagship Micro Four Thirds camera from the co-creators of the format, and it is definitely a mix of old and new. We don’t just mean that it’s pushing forward with the retro styling that made the E-P2 and E-PL2 so popular, but it’s got a new interface, new dual processor, new fast AF system, but is saddled with what is, essentially, a two-year-old image sensor. It’s definitely the best Micro Four Thirds camera from Olympus yet, but those looking for the best low light, noise, and dynamic range performance are going to be a bit disappointed.

With competing systems from Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, Olympus, and now Pentax, the compact system camera market is fiercely competitive. This year we have already seen the Panasonic G3 and will soon see the Sony NEX-C3, not to mention updates from the rest of the market. While the E-P3 did have very accurate colors, we found it lacking in overall performance compared to the Panasonic G3 and last year’s Sony NEX-5. It’s certainly an attractive camera, and its blend of style and customizable options are an enthusiast’s dream, but while its video quality was excellent for a compact camera, its dynamic range and noise performance left something to be desired.

We look forward to seeing what Olympus can do with this new AF system and their subtle design changes are thoughtful and innovative, but this sensor is outdone by some of its competition whenever light is less than ideal.

Performance

The major issue with the E-P3 came at moderate to high ISO performance. At nearly every ISO setting along its default 200-12800 range, dynamic range lacked behind its competition in the market. Image noise also quickly became a problem at ISO speeds greater than 800. While noise reduction greatly limited that, it does so at the expense of most of the image’s fine detail. The E-P3 did have phenomenal color accuracy in bright light conditions, and produces some very attractive images, but it will require a combination of custom tinkering and higher quality lenses to get the most out of this camera in anything less than ideal lighting conditions. That aside, the E-P3 delivered blazing fast autofocus performance, especially for a contrast-detection system. Again, in low light that advantage is greatly reduced, but it may be the snappiest contrast-only AF system we’ve tested to date.

Video

We were impressed by the E-P3’s plethora of manual controls in video mode, and the camera’s performance in our video tests was certainly up to par. There were a few downsides, though, including the camera’s not-so-great low light sensitivity results, and the fact that none of the manual controls can be changed while video recording is actually taking place. The addition of 1080p video recording on the E-P3 is great, but it didn’t product the dramatic increase in our sharpness test that we hoped (it did help make a clearer, cleaner video image, though). In the end, this is a great model for either playing around with video recording, or for doing some semi-professional videography where manual controls are a necessity.

Hardware

The Micro Four Thirds lens family is chugging along, and Olympus provided us with both the cosmetically updated 14-42mm lens and the 12mm f/2.0 lens, with a sliding focus ring that allows quickly switching to manual focus. These lenses are very pleasant to shoot with, and the MSC Olympus lenses work in concert with the E-P3 to deliver incredibly fast autofocus. The camera itself feels very sturdy, with a sleek, attractive brushed metal body. The 3-inch OLED capacitive touchscreen is responsive and durable, but designed to be totally secondary if it doesn’t appeal to the user. With an interchangeable grip to cap it all off, this is a camera that feels worth every penny when it’s in your hand.

Controls

The E-P3 features a stunning five buttons that can be reassigned to assume various functions, along with a 610k-dot OLED touchscreen. The camera can be fine-tuned to each individual user, allowing quick access to a variety of functions. Nearly everything about the camera’s immediate controls can be customized. The menu itself is far more attractive than previous Olympus efforts, though it’s still laid out in the same confusing fashion. The physical buttons themselves have a good presence and solid stroke, with two rear dials for easy manipulation of shooting settings. The touchscreen itself is capacitive and quite responsive. While Olympus specifically designed the camera so that touchscreen control is never required (it can be completely disabled in the menu), it’s such a pleasure to use that it reminds us of manipulating pictures on a smartphone. For fine control we’ll stick to dials, but for playback and picture review, this is a touchscreen we actually found useful.

Sample Photos

In the following sample images, clicking on the larger image will download the full resolution original. Each photo is accompanied by four actual-size crops.

				Mode: Program Focal: 145mm Aperture: f/10 Shutter: 1/640 ISO: 400 This was shot in normal program mode, with the Olympus 40-150mm f/3.5-5.6 lens. There’s great gradation here, and the colors definitely are nice and saturated. Though this is just as ISO 400, it’s still fairly noisy for a camera of this type.

				Mode: Program Focal: 150mm Aperture: f/6.3 Shutter: 1/250 ISO: 400 This shot was not too difficult to get given the E-P3’s quick autofocus system, as the bird was only there for a moment but the camera was able to achieve focus easily. There’s decent bokeh in this shot, especially near the edges, despite this being a fairly inexpensive lens.

				Mode: Program Focal: 150mm Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter: 1/200 ISO: 400 The color gradation is good in this shot, though the white balance resulted in an image that was a little too cool. The major issue here is the shadow clipping, despite the lack of highlights to throw off the metering system.

				Mode: Program Focal: 36mm Aperture: f/5.3 Shutter: 1/50 ISO: 800 This is a shot in our lab of various products under mixed lighting. The white balance handles the lighting issues here, and the noise reduction is not too heavily applied. This is shot at ISO 800, and there is still some good, fine detail visible.

				Mode: Program Focal: 42mm Aperture: f/5.6 Shutter: 1/15 ISO: 12800 While ISO expansion can be turned on in the menu for the E-P3 to allow the camera to shoot up to 25600, we’re not sure why one would. At ISO 12800, the highlights and shadows are both severely limited, and noise has obliterated fine detail across the board.

Olympus PEN E-P3 Specs
Type	Compact SLR / System
Focal Length Minimum	14.0 mm
Focal Length Maximum	42.0 mm
35mm Focal Length Minimum	28.0 mm
35mm Focal Length Maximum	84.0 mm
Optical Zoom	3 x
Digital Zoom	2 x
Still Pixel Count (gross)	13.1 megapixels
Still Pixel Count (effective)	12.3 megapixels
Sensor Size	Micro Four Thirds
Sensor Type - New	CMOS
Aspect Ratios	4:3, 16:9, 3:2, 1:1
Frame Rate(s)	60i, 60p, 30p
Original Price	899.99 $
Height	69.0 mm
Width	122.0 mm
Depth	34.0 mm
Weight	369.0 g
Model Colors	black, silver, white
Display Type	touchscreen OLED
Display Size	3.0 in.
Display Resolution	614000 pixels
Viewfinder Type	none
Media New	SD, SDHC, SDXC
Connectivity Options	USB, A/V, miniHDMI, hot accessory shoe, accessory port
Battery Type	removable lithium-ion
Battery Model Number	BLS-1
Mirror Technology (Interchangeable Lens)	Mirrorless
Waterproof	No
Manual Controls	manual focus, aperture priority mode, shutter priority mode, full manual exposure, custom white balance, ISO control
ISO Options	200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800
Minimum ISO	200
Maximum ISO	12800