Olympus E-P1 First Look

This is a preview of the Olympus E-P1 interchangeable lens camera. The camera described here is not final, so some features described in this article are subject to change. Olympus has asked that photos and movies taken with the camera not be posted. When a production model becomes available, a final review will be posted.

Fifty years ago, Olympus came up with the Pen-series of half-frame film cameras. These cameras were well known for their design, compact size, and photo quality, and ended up selling over 17 million units. The most significant of these models was the PenF, released in 1963. The PenF was the world's first and only interchangeable lens half-frame camera, with twenty F. Zuiko lenses to choose from. In case you're wondering why they were called "Pen", Olympus says it was because "it was small enough to carry with you at all times, with the ability to easily record the events of daily life". Sounds good to me.

The Olympus Pen is back in 2009, this time in digital form. The new E-P1 (starting at $750) has a lot of common with the PenF: it's compact, stylish, and there's a growing selection of lenses to choose from. As you probably figured out by now, the E-P1 uses the Micro Four Thirds standard, which is also used by Panasonic on their Lumix DMC-G1 and E-P1. The Panasonic models aren't a whole lot smaller than a compact D-SLR, but that's not the case with the E-P1: it's not much bigger than say, the Canon PowerShot G10. The two main reasons for the difference in size are the EP-1's much smaller grip and lack of an electronic viewfinder.

Jeff Keller

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