Unboxing and First Preview of Olympus PEN EPL1 Micro 4/3rds Camera

Finally after waiting an year I got my EPL1 Micro 4/3rds from Olympus, and here is the first set of Unboxing Pictures and Videos, and a Couple of shots. I am now going to play with this over the next few days while on Holiday in Himachal, and will comment what my thoughts are in a few days. I bought the 2 Lens Kit, which ships with a Micro 4/3rds 14-42 mm f: 3.5 to 5.6 ED Lens (The Lens has A Diameter of 40.5 mm and it was very difficult to find a UV Lens for it, but I managed to get an Indian Companies lens from Sonia). The Other Lens is a Standard DSLR Lens Which is a 40-150 mm f 4 to 5.6 ED Lens again, but uses a Four Thirds Adapter MMF-2 to fit onto the camera.

The Color Options available in the EPL 1 are a Black Body, a White and Beige Body and a Light Gold Body. The 14-42 mm lens is either a Silver or a Black Lens, while the 40-150 lens is a Black colored Lens.

Olympus has also given away the XD Card slot for an SD and SDHC Card Slot in the Camera. The camera features a 4/3 type MOS sensor that has a total of 13.1 million pixels, but you get a 12.3 million effective pixels in use. making this a 12MP camera for people who want to know the ratings. It also has a Video Mode using Motion JPEG and can support upto 30 frames per second in either 1280x720 or 640x380 pixel mode. Though I will not be using the PEN to shoot videos as I have the Zi8 for that, but in case you want to look at a one stop solution this camera does offer it.

The Other Alternative for me was the Canon G11 which I was seriouslly interested in, especially since it had an optical view finder, a Tilting LCD Screen, and Dedicated Dials for EV and ISO Settings, but when I compared the Photo Quality and also the option of getting it with a 14 mm to 150 mm lens range (albeit on two lenses), compared to a 24-140 in a single lens and then waiting for Canon to get you lenses, I opted for the PEN.

The PEN though is very similar to the original PEN that olympus has had for years, and a few people thought I was buying / shooting with a Film camera when testing this out in the office.

Anyway, for the EVF you can buy an option Electronic View Finder, and also you can buy an additional Flash. The Flash in the EPL1 can be used for distances upto 10 feet (compared to 7 feet in the G11), and I love the feature that for you to be able to use the flash, you have to manually release it (Thank God, I hate auto flash features). A Major missing feature which can be annoying at times is the Orientation Detector, this camera works very similar to a Film camera, where there is no orientation detector, so purists may love it, but that's a feature every one seems to be using these days.

I was also interested in checking out the Sony NEX Cameras, but as per the PR for Sony these would launch only towards the End of November. The Alpha Series has not had serious buyers in India for Sony, so was unsure if they will really ever get the NEX Series here. The Next Alternative was the GF1 from Panasonic, but there was no place possible to try it out or to actually feel what they felt in hand.

Though compared to the Price that you pay for an Olympus (Rs. 30,000 for Single Lens Kit, and Rs. 39,990 for Dual Lens Kit), and a G11 (Rs. 30,000), you pay a much lower Price for some of the feature rich DSLR's, but the portability and the format on the 4/3rds is appealing to people in case you want to move up from a point and shoot and don't want to carry bulk around with you or if you already have a DSLR and want a similar quality on a smaller camera.

In case you want to know more on what a Micro 4/3rds System is all about, check out this wikipedia article.

Anyway, enough said on the specs, in case you want to check out more of this camera look at the Olympus Website. Now the Few Shots that I have taken for trying it out and some videos of un-boxing it. Remember the photos of the Un-boxing were taken using my Zi8.

The screen on the Camera is unable to handle very bright sunlight environments, and you tend to get blinded out. Though I am still playing around with options, but this means soon I will need to pick up an Electronic View Finder for this Camera.

Click on the pictures to get high resolution files.


The Collection of Solar Plants I have in my Office Window

A close up of one of the Solar Plants

A very old Thermometer and Hygrometer from Russia that I have lying in my Window

At Q'BA nu.delhi, a place I have always loved

The Bar at Q'BA nu.delhi

The Chandelier at Q'BA nu.delhi

Three clicks - Digital Cameras Under 6990

Planning to buy a digital camera this diwali? here are three affordable options you can explore

The war of the megapixels is not going to end soon and there is every chance that you don’t want to be left behind. But at the end of the day, we all buy digital cameras to capture our moments of joy and share them with our friends. With more people gradually increasing their digital footprint and fewer opting to actually print their pictures, the 10 megapixel barrier is proving to be more than sufficient for home users—you can print a 30x40 inch picture with a file from a 10 mp camera. And, trust, me, just because your camera has a whole lot of pixels does not mean your pictures will be good. That will still depend on the person behind the viewfinder.
I have selected three cameras under Rs 7,000 for review this time. All three cameras have some features in common—all support AA pencil cell batteries, so that you don't have to carry a charger everywhere, and are approximately 10 megapixels, with 3X optical zoom. While the Samung has a 2.5” LCD screen, the Olympus and the Kodak both sport a 2.4” screen. All cameras also support face detection and have some kind of blur reduction.

Samsung ES15 (10.1 MP) @ Rs 6,530


Though Samsung is one of the least known brands when it comes to digital cameras, they have a great line-up supported by a large network of service centres. A 10.1 mp camera with a 2.5” LCD, the ES15 is ideal for beginners. The camera can also be used to record just voice (up to 10 hours), a useless feature if you ask me. However, you can add 10 second voice memos to still images, which will be handy if you are taking random pictures. It comes with 11 MB of Internal memory and can support up to 8 GB SDHC cards. The good part is that the camera can accept both SD as well as MMC Plus cards.

WHY I LIKE IT: Great service, good picture quality, very nice finishing.

Kodak C180 (10.2 mp) @ Rs 6,299



The best thing about this one is that it is YouTube compatible-- you just have to connect it to the Kodak Software to upload video directly to YouTube. The 2.4" screen is bright and nice, and the dedicated share button lets you automatically fire up the software on your PC the moment you have connected to trigger automatic upload of images. The camera has simple face detection and can record video of up to 80 minutes, if you have the memory capacity. There are no complex menus and hence the camera is very easy to use. The camera supports high-speed SDHC memory cards.

WHY I LIKE IT: Great brand, YouTube compatibility, simple menus

Olympus FE 25 (10 mp) @ Rs 5,995


This, like the Kodak, can take up to 115 frames on a pair of AA pencil cells. It also features a 19 MB internal memory, which acts like a reserve in case you run out of space on the memory card. The camera has 16 shooting modes and also allows users to create panoramas by stitching frames using the Olympus Master Software. On the flipside, the camera uses an x-D picture card which is not so easily available and is expensive. It, however, comes with a micro-SD Adapter. The camera goes a step further from standard face recognition by detecting up to 16 faces. Exposure Compensation Preview is a great option for those learning how to use the exposure to take better shots.

WHY I LIKE IT: EV preview, 16 face detection and 19MB internal memory.

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The Above review was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday 13th September 09