Now that I’ve had the E-PL1 for nearly a fortnight and used it with a third party flash unit for indoor flash photography, I think I’ve got a better feel for the camera, its utility and limitations. Oh yeah – opportunity to show more previously unposted pictures of Hannah too.:)
Aside from that focusing hunts a little, even when it settles with focus confirmation, results can be occasionally completely off. It’s roughly occurring in about 10% of all the close-up images I take. I still haven’t quite figured out why that’s occurring: it’s unlikely camera shake… not when the exposure time for some of the out-of-focus images is at 1/80s at 80mm-equivalent focal length with optical stabilization. It can’t be an incorrect focusing point since the entire image is blurry. Gaah. I need to test this characteristic a lot more.
Still, the 90% of the time when the focusing gets it right, the level of detail the E-PL1 and lens can resolve is amazing. Dare I say it – even better than what I get off the D300 with Sigma 24-60mm f2.8. Just amazing.
Left: 27 March, Long John Silver’s @ Rivervale Mall. 1/60s, ISO250, f3.5. Right: 28 March, 1/60s, ISO200, f5.2.
I’ve also been trying out the built-in movie mode too. It takes minimally-HD video at 1280×720 @ 30 fps. On the one hand, video taken in low light is pretty clean and devoid of the kind of image noise I expect off the Panasonic HDC-SD20. However, the inability of the E-PL1 to do quick focusing in Continuous-AF is a real delimiter, and would be real sad if it wasn’t so funny watching the poor camera taking 1-2 seconds each time you reframe a scene in movie mode. So, the video this thing takes works – but only in static scenes or if I’m shooting at wide-angle where the focus hunting effect is less pronounced.
All said, what still counts are the images that I can get out of this without post-processing; and in this regard, I’m still terrifically happy. Granted, the images I can coax out of this look best in controlled situations, but thankfully it’s still (much) more good than bad. Add to the camera’s portability – it follows me everywhere when we go out, or when I’m at work – I find myself a lot more willing to just have fun taking pictures of everything.:)
Top: 31 March, 1/60s, ISO200, f4.3. Bottom: 4 April, 1/60s, ISO640, f3.5.
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