Olympus E-P2 Compact System Camera (14-42mm lens & VF-2 electronic viewfinder) Black

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When capturing images in infrared with my EP2 I nearly always use aperture priority. I also always create a new custom white balance from any uniform green area, e.g. grass. I do this as the light changes when I am in the field. This enables the camera to capture the best range of tones in the infrared image. There is a degree of chromatic aberration present, especially at the edges of the frame, but for normal subjects it is not obvious and not a major concern.

The E-P2 is sold as a kit; body, electronic viewfinder, and a Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom. Optical quality seems quite fine, but I am not a big fan of this lens for several reasons. The Olympus E-PL2 offers one continuous shooting option, rated at approximately 3fps; Olympus quotes around 12 Large Fine JPEGs or 10 RAW files. To put this to the test we fitted a formatted Lexar Professional 133x 8GB SDHC card, and fired-off 14 Large Fine JPEGs in five seconds before the camera began to slow; this corresponds to a rate of 2.8fps, and while the camera could keep shooting beyond 15 frames, it greatly slowed down.

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For anyone comparing the E-P2 to its prime competitor, the Panasonic GF1, the choice may well come down to in-body stabilization vs lens-based stabilization. Olympus’ solution is preferably for me, but I find the Panasonic’s controls, menus, and rear LCD quality preferable. In more recent history there are the remains of cleared and abandoned villages which stand as testament to turbulent times. The sadness and the atmosphere in these places is tangible and thought-provoking. The weather plays an important part in my inspiration as we can easily have four seasons in one day. Because of this, the light is constantly changing, which presents both challenges and opportunities. As to be expected, using our 14-42mm test lens at maximum ISO 6400 setting on the E-P2 reveals a uniform dusting of noise plus softened detail. Up to and including ISO 400 it's a clean bill of health, with noise creeping into shadow areas at ISO 800 and extending across the entirety of the image at ISO 1600. Olympus could have cut things there but at this price users will expect the higher ISOs provided, hence we have the options of ISO 3200 and ISO 6400, the appearance getting incrementally more 'gritty' the higher up we go. In summary this is a lens that takes advantage of the possibilities of the mirrorless design to offer a compact and high quality zoom. Although the accessory port can be used for a variety of add-ons - an adapter for an external stereo microphone being the other option currently available - its main use is likely to be to allow the use of the VF-2 viewfinder. This is partly because an external viewfinder has the most broad appeal but also because the VF-2 unit is superb.

Of the Sony NEX-3/5, the Lumix GF2 and the E-PL2, the latter’s screen is the least contrasty and most difficult to see in bright conditions, so the VF-2 could be a must-have accessory. As well as allowing eye-level composition, the VF-2 rotates upwards to 90 degrees so you can look down into the viewfinder – useful for composing low-level shots, but you still need to have your eye to the viewfinder unlike the flip-out screen of the Sony NEX3/5 with which you can comfortably shoot from the waist.Good exposure and white balance on this interior hand-held panning shot, but the overall quality of E-PL2 video fails to match the high standard of its stills.

Olympus launches E-P2 Micro Four Thirds camera". Digital Photography Review . Retrieved 22 November 2009. Essentially if we take a DSLR, remove the optical viewfinder and mirror system and leave the Live View facility, we have the opportunity to reduce the size of the camera to the modest 317g body we have here, measuring only 115.4 x 72.7 x 42mm.Contrast Detection AF system (when non high-speed contrast AF compatible lens is used, it works as MF assist) There are quite a number of "Art" modes. I didn’t try any of them as this just isn’t of interest to me. What I did note and appreciate is that raw files can be converted to JPGs with various " artistic" adjustments applied. For those that like this sort of thing being able to do it after the fact is likely going to be found preferable to shooting a single JPG image with a certain effect baked in and no ability to alter it afterward.