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One of the complaints of the original E-P1, especially compared to the Panasonic GF1, was its fairly leisurely AF speed. This was slightly improved with the v1.1 firmware update for the E-P1, and the E-P2 (as tested) inherits this most recent capability. As such you’re looking at roughly one second to autofocus with the 17mm f2.8 lens under ideal conditions, which still makes it slower than the GF1. In general-use with static subjects you won’t care, but as soon as you’re trying to capture fleeting smiles from fast-moving kids, you’ll find the GF1 enjoys a higher success rate. In our tests, the GF1’s face detection also proved more reliable than the E-P2, with the Olympus often focusing just in front of the identified face when the subject was turned slightly. We experienced the same issue with the E-P1.
The E-PL2 has built-in sensor-shift image stabilisation. The one obvious advantage of incorporating stabilization in the camera body is that you can take advantage of it regardless of the lens you’re using. If you’re thinking of buying an EVIL camera as a compact alternative to your dSLR, the ability to use your current lenses with an adaptor and still be able to take advantage of image stabilisation is a significant advantage that the E-PL2 has over the Sony NEX and Panasonic Lumix models. I did no formal testing per se, but found image quality to be on a par with the Panasonic Four Thirds cameras that I have been working with for the past 18 months. High ISO shots, up to about ISO 1600, were fine for non-critical prints, and up to ISO 400 produced exhibition quality images even in gallery sized prints. The camera can take about nine raw frames in three seconds before the buffer fills; pretty good performance for this class of camera. After the buffer fills the E-P2 can take about one additional frame every two seconds. These timing tests were done with a 16GB Class 6 SDHC Transcendcard. Behind a door on the right side of the E-P2 you’ll find what appear to be the same combined USB / TV output and mini HDMI port as the E-P1, but like many newer cameras the HDMI port has been upgraded here to support Consumer Electronics Control, or CEC for short. CEC allows the E-P2 to be controlled over HDMI by a compatible TV set, so you could use the TV’s remote to browse images and start slideshows.
Specifications
The control layout has been revised too, most notably by the addition of direct movie record and display magnification buttons - indeed overall it's now much more closely related to the E-PL line than the older E-P models. As is the Olympus way the camera's controls are remarkably customisable - no fewer than five buttons can now have their functions defined by the user. All of the goodies that Olympus introduced in the E-PLs have also found their way across - ranging the beginner-friendly 'Live Guide' control and iEnhance colour mode, through to the ability to display user-configurable shadow and highlight clipping warnings in live view.
You can see an example of shooting in Manual mode in the lower of our two video clips to the left – it shows the E-P2 manually focusing from one subject to another with a shallow depth-of-field using the 17mm pancake lens at f2.8. There is no lens shade provided with this lens, and with the front element always exposed I would suggest a UV filter for protection. As for stray light protection, you’re on your own. 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. White Balance is another area where performance is exemplary. The Auto setting covers very nicely for over 95% of the time, but for those situations where perhaps one colour is dominant the offered pre-sets deliver the goods. This of course assumes that we are discussing JPEG capture, as RAW shooters will be able to adjust the white balance to taste after the event. It is quite interesting that Auto White Balance seems to have a much wider range and can now seem to cope to some degree with even tungsten (incandescent) light.
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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.
My two weeks working with the E-P2 were spent in the cold of a Toronto winter and the warmth (relatively speaking) of the California desert. After some 500 frames in both situations I found the E-P2 to be a solid shooting companion and an enjoyable camera to use.All of the autofocus modes use an 11-area system which is located in the centre of the frame arranged in three rows, with five areas in the middle row and three above and below. Press the right side of the control dial and you can select an individual AF area which is useful if, as is occasionally the case, the 11-area system selects part of the frame that doesn’t contain your main subject. The E-PL2’s stabilisation has three modes – 1, 2 and 3. Mode 1 applies stabilisation in both horizontal and vertical planes, while modes 2 and 3 only stabilise in the vertical and horizontal planes respectively, allowing you to pan with the camera in either landscape or portrait orientation.
Switching to RAW mode we measured 10 frames in a fraction over four seconds for a marginally slower speed of 2.5fps. This remains better than most compacts, but slower than a typical DSLR at this price point. In terms of a self-timer, there’s two and 12 second countdowns, and you can now also use a remote shutter release in the USB port. This is just a small subset of the information that’s available, the manual shows that there are no fewer than 34 info icons available, though obviously not all are displayed at one. Some are mode dependent and others, like the sequential shooting mode, only display when activated. In addition, the E-P3 has a 614,000 dot OLED screen that is touch-sensitive. This particular panel uses Samsung's Pentile dot layout to give VGA-equivalent resolution, coupled with capacitance-type touch technology similar to the Apple iPhone. The touch screen can be used to set the focus point and optionally fire the shutter, and can operate some of the camera's other functions too. Crucially though this is always in addition to the rest of the camera's controls, rather than attempting to replace them. If you decide such features don't have a place on such a traditional-looking camera, they can be disabled with no overall loss of functionality.The Olympus E-PL2 is equipped with six Art Filters, Pop Art, Soft Focus, Grainy Film, Pin Hole, Diorama, and the new Dramatic Tone. Art Filters apply digital special effects to images, and while you can achieve the same results in software afterwards, the opportunity to do it in-camera is obviously more convenient. If you don’t want to permanently disfigure your JPEGs, it’s also possible to apply any of the Art Filters to the E-PL2’s RAW files using the supplied Olympus Master software. The Diorama Art Filter applies a tilt-and-shift effect which blurs much of the image, leaving a sharp strip in the middle. This in turn delivers the miniaturisation effect much-loved by owners of exotic tilt / shift lenses. I found exposure with the E-P2 to be spot-on most of the time. When it isn’t (and there’s a live-view histogram available), the exposure compensation button and the right-rear thumb wheel fall nicely to hand.
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