New Olympus reviews
Techcrunch (Click here) tested the Olympus E-PL3: “Coming at this from an amateur’s standpoint, I find the E-PL3 slightly lacking, especially when compared to its slightly larger cousins. However, it was a dream to carry around on vacation and it’s surprisingly easy for almost anyone to use, making it a good second camera for the home. While I believe something like the E-P3 gives entry-level DSLRs a run for their money, the E-PL3 is a more subtle camera, requiring real buy-in and understanding before it becomes clear why you would spend $700 on this versus a Canon Rebel.“. E-PL3 price and availabiltiy check at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
Photoreview Australia (Click here) tested the Olympus E-P3: “Overall performance for the review camera was similar to the E-P2 unit we tested, which isn’t surprising since the sensors of both cameras are very similar. The new camera appears to have a wider dynamic range than its predecessor, although the Digital ESP metering remained slightly biased to recording shadow detail.“.
Also CNET Asia (Click here) reviewed the E-P3: “Overall, compared with its predecessor, the Pen E-P3′s improvements definitely impressed us, especially its fast autofocus speeds as well as saturated yet pleasing color reproduction. Our only gripes with the camera would be its high ISO noise performance and the wobbling effect in videos, which we hope Olympus will be able to fix in the form of a future firmware upgrade.“. E-P3 price and availabiltiy check at Amazon, Adorama, B&H, J&R, eBay.
P.S.: Imaging Resource tested the GF3 rolling shutter effects.
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Recent comments
Comment from taran: Sorry, I found it under camera settings....- Comment from taran: Could you tell me how, I have the camera...
Comment from Mr. Reeee: Pretty much. They're essentially the sam...
Comment from : Yes, you can assign Rec button as "magni...
Boot
9 months ago |.
Rainer
9 months ago |Dear, Dear,… at techcrunch, I assume the should know what about they are talking? I am not sure:
1. Olympus had to remove the built-in flash (a hot-shoe accessory is available)
That sounds like you would have to buy the flash extra, which is not!
2. The do not even show the right Picture – and this is not a easy mistake, because 2 pictures are showing not the E-Pl3 but The E-PM (Min)!
Rainer
9 months ago |“There are no dials for various manual functions and, due to a lack of a touchscreen, it may be a bit hard to tweak things just right if you’re not familiar with the interface.” What does Techgrunch means by that?
Or are they again mistaken and looking at the Olympus PM-1 (mini) instead of the PL-3?
fta
9 months ago |Techcrunch not much better than CNET reviews…
greg
9 months ago |E-PM1 has the same dial on the back as the E-PL3 but no PASM dial on the top.
Setting the aperture, shutter speed ect. is the same on both cams.
I have the E-PM1 because I don’t use a tilt display and didn’t want to spend 200$ for a PASM dial and 3 buttons. But I have to say that I do miss 1 more custom button for AEL.
The buttons you can customize on the dial are quite stupid … you can only apply a few preset functions on them (No AEL or Display zoom)
On the other hand, the new control screen if good and let you change all important settings pretty fast.
Neonart
9 months ago |Greg,
Can any other button be assigned to magnify? Like the movie button.
taran
9 months ago |No.
Anonymous
9 months ago |Yes, you can assign Rec button as “magnify”
taran
9 months ago |Could you tell me how, I have the camera in front of me and I cannot get the REC button to magnify. Also, it is not in the manual. Could you refer me to a page where this option is?
taran
9 months ago |Sorry, I found it under camera settings. The reason I didn’t see it is that this feature is removed from E-PL3, because it already has the dedicated magnify button, but to be honest, the REC would be easier for my hands.
MK
9 months ago |is image quality the same from EPM1-EPL3-EP3?
Mr. Reeee
9 months ago |Pretty much. They’re essentially the same camera with minor feature variations.
The EPL3 looks really good. Why on earth didn’t Olympus give it a touch screen? It would be a perfect match for the tilty-screen.
New Slogan: EPL3, with Tilty-Touch™
Bob B.
9 months ago |Wow…just got up…um…I guess it is Olympus Day……….?
Old and New!
Jerodequin
9 months ago |They won’t fix the wobbling in videos via firmware, unless they make it impossible to turn on the dodgy software stabilisation of video that the Pens use…. always the first thing I make sure is turned off if using a Pen for video.
greg
9 months ago |@Neonart: yes, you can set the magnify on the video record button. But I use this already for AEL.
There are 3 customiable buttons: video record, flash (dial right) and sequential shooting (dial down).
But olympus ingeneers limited each one to some specific functions.
I love the E-PM1 for it’s size, image quality and AF speed and hope that Olympus will release a firmware update so you can set customizable buttons to whatever you like.
The buttons layout of the E-PL3 is much better, but I don’t need the flip display and can live without PASM dial. It’s only the buttons on the back of the camera that is really important i denied to pay $200 for them.
Their marketing strategy is really evil ;(
The dial is very loose and not very comfortable to rotate. But it’s a much better solution than the joystick on the LX3 which the E-PM1 replaces.
Compared to my DSLR it’s like a toy. But I knew that and that’s totally fine with me … it’s even a good thing that the cam looks very touristy if you’re in the street.