On delivery, there was the first surprise if the size of the package. Such was also the carton in which the compact flash for my Canon was delivered. But it was all there. Everything is a few orders of magnitude smaller than we are accustomed. Especially cute is cute flash, which can be mounted in a tiny pouch on shoulder strap and is plugged into the standard hot shoe of the camera if necessary. This is an annoying fumbling when you sometimes just want to quickly fill-in backlight. Or you can flash the same mounted. But then the folding screen can no longer move in the self-portrait position as it abuts on the flash unit. This could have been solved even more elegant.
The display is easy to read and forms, despite the low pixel density sharply. And since it is foldable, you can always find even in bright sunlight a position to be able to read it well may. The folding screen, incidentally, was for me the key point, I do not buy the PM2, which is otherwise identical and so much cheaper. To succeed wonderful snapshots of my kids at eye level while the camera discreetly waving in front of my stomach.
The picture quality is extremely good. It is quite amazing what this little guy brings about. In i-Auto Mode Olympus is clearly on the Wow! Effect. The images are so colorful and crisp that you like delves into Manual and looking for better settings. With me now focus on minus 2 (!) And color is "natural". How it fits.
Speaking of settings: You can really lose for hours and days in the universe of Olympus menus, without a bored. There is nothing you can not adjust, modify or could reprogram.
My most recent achievement in this direction is the relocation of the "Key Line" filter on the function key. Now I have at your fingertips a kind Fokuspeaking with 2 x magnification. This I can now use my old analog Olympus lenses and make manually exactly sharp.
The two kit lenses (14-42 and 40-150) have a decent image quality. The housings are indeed made of plastic, which has initially greatly bothered me, but because they are also wonderfully easy, and they work smoothly and perfectly. Because of the small aperture and the small sensor these lenses are certainly no exemption experts, although you can already generate useful Bokeh. For portraits I take just my old OM Zuiko 50mm 1.8 lens, accrued at the PL5 top form.
The video function I have tried. There is an extra back button that I can switch to the shooting mode at any time and again. One can prove this key but with a different function. In the case one gets the video function on the Mode Dial. The movies are pretty good despite only 30 frames / sec but zooming is just not smooth motor just like a camcorder but somewhat choppy. But the results are satisfactory, and I will anyway only photograph.
What else struck me:
When Image Stabilizer I'm not sure if this is not here to a placebo effect. Alike I with and without sharp and blurred photos.
One can point and shoot, which is a brilliant thing in principle, and that makes a lot of fun using the touch screen. Only those who have thick fingers or trigger with your thumb, is often times are the focus next. In addition, the touch screen is so sensitive that you just often initially triggered unintentionally.
The autofocus is very fast, but reached regarding accuracy not quite reach the level of a cross-type sensor of a conventional DSLR. But that would now complain at a high level. In the continuous AF or the "tracking" the object should not move too fast, otherwise the AF does not come with or lose the object. I prefer the "single mode" and press the shutter button just several times.
The camera is very small, but sometimes but again too large. So it does not fit in the center console of my car or the glove compartment, to say nothing of shirt, suit, pants or coat pockets. But what has a woman with a large Gucci container; =)
I have the Oly since last November, have about 1500 pictures taken and do not want to miss the little one. It offers an enormous fun factor, is (almost) always there, while the great Canon machine but often stayed in the closet. Now I squint forward to the fixed focal length 45mm 1.8 or perhaps in the distant future on the OM-D M1.
Conclusion: Absolute buy recommendation for those looking for a small camera, without compromising on image quality and also like to satisfy their urge to play.
