The Olympus E-P1 represents a significant step in the evolution of the digital camera. Before it showed its beautifully crafted body, there were roughly two classes of digital cameras: The point and shoots, some of them so tiny we carry them along wherever we go, and the much bulkier and heavier digital reflex cameras with interchangeable lenses and bigger sensors.
The image quality of point and shoots has become very good over the last few years, but in low light situations their little sensors still struggle with too much noise.

I practically always carry a Canon Elph along, but packing my Canon 5D DSLR requires a mission statement, especially when it involves a back country hike. When most brands figured out how to provide a “live view” on the camera’s LCD screen last year, the bulky penta prism and noisily clapping mirror box felt even more like a puzzling anachronism. Why not get rid of all that bulk and do the framing and focusing on the LCD screen? Olympus, with its decades old tradition of delivering exceptional quality in the smallest possible camera body now presents the first camera that follows through on this idea. Although the camera is not easily “pocketable”, it is small and light enough to toss in a daypack and with the wide-angle “pancake” lens, will even fit in the front pocket of a pair of roomy trousers.

The micro four/thirds sensor format, which is currently supported by Panasonic, Olympus and Leica, is smaller than the more popular APS sensor format, but in its most recent incarnation, noise level is not noticeably worse than on the current batch of APS sensors. Olympus, Leica/Panasonic and Sigma also have a very complete list of excellent lenses and most of these are significantly smaller and lighter than their equivalent for the larger sensor reflex cameras.

Handling the camera.
Even with my very large hands, the body felt easy to handle. I usually kept my left hand on the lens, tweaking the zoom or manual focus and providing some stability for the right hand, while it was dealing with the abundance of settings to choose from. The grouping of the functions is not as intuitive as for instance on the Canon G10 and I had to keep leafing through the manual to figure things out. Practically every function can be set using three different interfaces and the second (vertical) knob also helps to eventually work out a personalized routine to master the myriad of settings. Manual focus worked well on the LCD, provided there was no light shining on the screen. Shooting outdoors with only the LCD screen as “viewfinder” was a challenge. Maybe a wide rimmed straw hat would help to keep the screen sufficiently shaded, but a built-in optical viewfinder would really help. There is a separate viewfinder that fits on the hot shoe, but this takes away from the streamlined compactness of the camera body is not of much help when using the zoom lens.

The E-P1 and its soon to appear Panasonic cousins are defining a new and exciting niche and I am looking forward to carrying one of these in my daypack.

Included are some sample shots, straight out of the camera. My bison shots came out a bit blurrier than I had expected. They were shot in a hurry through a car window, so either I or the bison must have moved a bit too much. This was my first experience with a HD video capable still camera and I would like to delve some more into this subject in the near future.