E-P1 : How High?

I received quite a handful of questions about what I think of the Olympus E-P1 and some requests for sample photos taken at high ISOs with it. Some even asked if I can send them a couple of photos ‘straight out from the camera’. Hmmm. You mean I can’t even brighten the photos or adjust the curves before sending you the samples? Hahaha. Okay. So a couple of you got what you asked for and so far I know one has finally given in to temptation.

I won’t be posting the full sized photos here to save some bandwidth (hey Olympus doesn’t pay me to do this!) but here are some web sized photos that are straight out from the cam. Photoshop was used only to resize and apply ‘smart sharpen’ at 15%.

This was taken at ISO1600 one night in Sentosa after some beer. My hands are pretty steady after beer eh? 😀

The rest were taken at ISO800 in the hotel room, also directly freshly out from the camera …

Note that all these photos were taken with the 17mm f2.8 pancake lens

Personally I find the ISO performance pretty good, especially when it comes to photographing my active Fitzand … where pumping ISO to achieve faster shutter speed is a must. I’d love to lug my Canon 40D for this purpose but for those who has children might understand that lugging a DSLR around while chasing after kids is no easy feat.

For those who were asking me if it is a good buy … I really can’t answer you because most of you were comparing it with some DSLRs out there in the market. It is not that I don’t want to give an answer, but it’s because the E-P1 and those DSLRs are two different categories of cameras. From those in-depth online reviews, I am sure you can derive at a decision more easily. Haha. I can only give you guys my thoughts on how I find the camera. I confess that I bought the camera because of its look but now … I convinced by its performance too.

Update :

Minutes ago came another request … a 100% crop of the pics. Sorry but I only have the original image of the ISO1600 one because I didn’t save the original straight-out-the-cam version for Fitzand’s photos. I ain’t a pixel peeper and never really gave a damn about 100% crop stuffs … so I hope this is the correct way to do it. Hahaha. Here you go …

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10 Comments

  1. this phrase is good enuf to poison a lot a lot a lot of people .. bwhahahha :
    I confess that I bought the camera because of its look but now … I convinced by its performance too.

  2. The grain looks like film grain…but it is really fine for ISO1600. Hmmm…can you say something like what is the disadvantages of the camera so that I can ease my temptation for a while….

  3. @norya : Hahahaha. I’m sure many E-P1 users out there agree with that too.

    @Jer : Yup. So far the high ISO results seem pretty good to me. Disadvantages? Nah. There isn’t any. You must buy this camera! Muwahahaha! Nah. Just joking. So far my only complain is the dial at the back is a little too sensitive and a slight touch (accidental) will throw you into some mode like ISO settings etc. Pretty annoying sometimes. With the leather half case attached, this is somehow minimised because the sides of the case makes the dial a little ‘deeper’ inside when the camera is hung (neck or shoulder). Other stuffs that some people bitch about like the viewfinder and flash … honestly I don’t miss the viewfinder at all but an internal flash might (just might) come in handy sometimes.

  4. @ymmij : I think cin is deeply poisoned. I saw her display picture in her MSN messenger showing a white E-P1. Hehehe!!!!

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