I never really thought that Olympus' Micro Four Thirds line of cameras/lenses quite lived up to their promise. Well, they do now, and then some. Overall, this seems like a quantum leap in quality and speed.
The cameras now have some of the fastest autofocus you can find anywhere. There's touch-screen focusing and shutter release like on the new Panasonic models. And the new 12mm lens (24mm-equivalent) has some of the most exotic features I've ever heard of in one lens, remarkable in such a compact one. The new portrait lens (45mm 1.8) is surprisingly economical, it'll be interesting to see if the quality holds up to the rest of the system. (The sensors themselves apparently display clearly better quality than earlier generations, that's not often seen in a good system.)
Expansive previews here for the E-P3 and smaller E-PL3. They both seem very attractive. I'm not sure yet for the raison d'etres of one over the other. Though the latter is smaller and has a tiltable screen, so...
If one dislikes zooms, this system makes a good candidate for a two-body system for street- or travel-shooting, one body with a wide-angle lens, and one with a portrait/tele lens. And the new one of the latter kind seems nicely compact:
... Should be good for throwing in a bit of compressed perspective and blurred backgrounds into your travel shots, something usually missing from compact cameras.
As far as differences go, the larger camera has a flash, the smaller one does not. Several manufacturers make these not-quite-DSLR cameras without a built-in flash.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they sell very many flashless ones, or if they are made for bragging about the small size and weight compared to other manufacturer's cameras.