Olympus PEN E-PL3 Compact Camera

Olympus PEN E-PL3

Olympus E-PL3 In many ways, pretty much everything on the inside - the Olympus E-PL3 the same camera as its more expensive sibling, the E-P3. As a result, much of the trade-offs I do not like the E-P3, I'm more willing to forgive their little brother less expensive. In part this because I have the people in the face of the E-PL3, that they expect a little less picky about the noise reduction quality of the JPEG files. Plus, if you pay less, then you are likely to be less likely to need very upset about this, to tweak the settings.
As with many consumer cameras specifically produces the E-PL3 JPEGs that excessive smear in the details of overzealous luminance noise reduction, which occurs in the NR at ISO show 800th But if you have some grain and a bit of clipping in the shade, tolerates you can do much better, at least the photos to produce up to ISO 1600, might be higher if you spend a little more time than I do. Hot Pixel also pop up in the JPEG versions of the high-ISO photos. At low ISO speeds, there is ample scope for underexposed photos retouch, without excessively increasing the noise.

Olympus also seems to focus in its algorithms JPEGs only a hair slide too far, the tiny, bright details (such as dirt on a flower) Pop makes artificial. You will not see this unless you want to view photos at full size on a display, you will not see when the image is reduced and it is probably the appropriate amount of sharpening straight to print. And for a natural look, RAW.

Exposure and color are very good, regardless of format, though. The dynamic range is better in the shadows than the highlights - I had trouble recovering somewhat blown out detail - but it's still pretty good overall.
The video is a mixed bag. Exposure, sharpness, color and auto focus are excellent. But, like the E-P3, the E-PL3 a problem with rolling shutter you know, that wobbly effect.

Off the image stabilization while recording the video seemed to make a difference - but without the image stabilization is pretty nervous. The camera automatically crops the image while recording a video, effectively increasing the focal length, which makes you quickly switch between photos and videos bit annoying. The combination of interlaced video, and relatively low bit rate also leads to poor resolution of detail in animated scenes, such as dripping water. You can always try to shoot in 720p for those cases, however.

Except for a slightly longer lead time, the leading e-PL3 the same as its more expensive siblings. It takes about one second to power on and shoot - not an eternity, but a hair longer than comparable models. It's fast and focus on the recording of himself, with about 0.3 seconds in dim in a good light and 0.6 seconds. Two consecutive shots toddle along quickly and, at about 0.7 second for JPEG and 0.8 for RAW. This model actually has a much faster burst mode as the E-P3.

We clocked it with 4.7 frames per second versus 2.9fps for the e-P3. All that said, in practice I found the autofocus at least felt slower, despite its release of the updated AF system of the E-P3, it has less processing power. And remember that the continuous shooting slowed significantly after 11 shots, if you have a 30 MB per second or faster SD card have.

With a broad feature set is aimed at enthusiasts, tilting LCD, beautifully realized filter is good performance and excellent quality raw photo, plus a price that is less burdensome than the E-P3, there is a lot to appreciate.

The PEN E-PL3 disappointed the video and the camera can prove lack of a handle for some shooters annoying It may not be the best in a specific aspect, and you probably do not want to use it for video, offers the Olympus E-PL3 an ideal combination of size, features, performance and photo quality