Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12.3 megapixel Super Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 7Mb.

During the review, the Olympus E-PL1 produced photos of excellent quality. Noise is very well handled, being virtually absent from ISO 100-800 and not being too obvious at the relatively fast speed of ISO 1600. At the fastest setting of ISO 3200, noise is easily detectable when viewing images at 100% magnification on screen, but the images are still perfectly usable for small prints and resizing for web use.

Colours were vibrant without being over-saturated in the default Natural picture mode, and you can always choose Vivid if you want even more punch. The art filters quickly produce special effects that would otherwise require you to spend a lot of time in the digital darkroom, while the various Picture Modes provide a quick and easy way to tweak the camera's JPEG images.

Image stabilisation via the camera body is a very useful feature that works well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The 12.3 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting. The new built-in flash is a great addition that takes full advantage of the E-PL1's various flash modes, with good exposure and no red-eye.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Olympus E-PL1. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and the RAW equivalent on the right:

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Olympus E-PL1 has 2 different JPEG file quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option, and it can also shoot in RAW format. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

Fine (5.2Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (2.3Mb) (100% Crop)
RAW (11.9Mb) (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are just a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes by changing the Picture Modes.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Olympus E-PL1 are Auto, Red-eye Reduction, Slow Synchro, 2nd-curtain Slow Synchro, Fill-in and Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Fill-in - Wide Angle (28mm)
Off - Telephoto (84mm)	Fill-in - Telephoto (84mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the On or the Red-eye Reduction settings caused any red-eye.

On	On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Olympus E-PL1 lets you dial in shutter speeds of up to 60 seconds and has a Bulb mode as well for exposure times as long as 30 minutes, which is very good news if you are seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 20 seconds at ISO 100. We've included a 100% crop to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Image Stabilisation

The Olympus E-PL1 has an Image Stabilisation mechanism built into the camera body, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with Image Stabilisation turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with Image Stabilisation turned on, the images are much sharper than when it's turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Image Stabilisation Off (100% Crop)	Image Stabilisation On (100% Crop)
1/5th / 28mm
1/8th / 84mm

Art Filters

The Olympus E-PL1 offers six different Art Filters, which allow you to quickly apply an artistic effect to a photo before taking it (JPEG images only). The most useful of these is Soft Focus, because the FourThirds system lacks a dedicated soft focus lens, and the effect would require advanced knowledge of layers, blurring methods and blending modes if you were to reproduce it in post-processing. The six available Art Filters are shown below in the following series, which demonstrates the differences. Note that applying the Art Filters slows the camera down somewhat as the camera takes several seconds to process and save the image.

Pop Art	Soft Focus
Grainy Film	Pin Hole
Diorama	Gentle Sepia

Picture Modes

Olympus' Picture Modes, similarly to Nikon's Picture Styles and Canon's Picture Controls, are preset combinations of different sharpness, contrast, saturation and colour tone settings. The five available Picture Controls are shown below in the following series, which demonstrates the differences. There is also an additional Custom style so that you can create your own look.

i-Enhance	Vivid
Natural	Muted
Portrait	Monotone

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Olympus E-PL1 camera, which were all taken using the 12.3 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Olympus E-PL1 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Olympus RAW (ORF) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Pop-up Flash

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Rear of the Camera / Live Guide

Rear of the Camera / Live Guide

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Olympus EP-1 is a largely successful attempt to bring smaller, DSLR cameras to the mass-market, providing an ideal upgrade path for compact camera users who may be intimidated by the size and complexity of a DSLR. The drive towards simplicity and cost may put off more experienced photographers who would be better served by the premium E-P2 model, although the E-PL1 still offers most of that camera's core functionality.

Importantly for the target audience, the E-PL1 is the first PEN to feature a built-in flash, very neatly implemented with a folding design that raise the unit above the lens and helps reduce red-eye. The new Live Guide is another beginner-friendly addition that makes understanding and changing apertures and shutter speeds to achieve creative effects very straight-forward indeed - simply move the slider and observe the effects live on the LCD screen. Other key changes include using the navigation pad to change most of the camera's key settings and the removal of more advanced buttons like AEL and ISO, making the E-PL1 better suited to compact camera upgraders than to DSLR shooters looking for a more portable second camera. That said, the E-PL1 certainly offers most of key photographic features, with only the top shutter speed of 1/2000th second and ISO speed of 3200 proving limiting.

No corners have been cut when it comes to image quality, with the E-PL1 offering the best image quality that we've yet seen on a Four Thirds camera, just like the E-P1 and E-P2 before it. low-light performance up to ISO 1600 is very good, offering comparable quality to an entry-level APS-C DSLR, despite the smaller sensor size. The noise reduction is more aggressive by default on the E-PL1 than the other two PEN cameras, but you can change this if you don't like the out-of-the-box results. In terms of movie recording, the E-PL1 is actually one of the most capable Four Thirds cameras despite its budget price-tag, with 720p HD quality, full manual control, a handy one-touch record button and the much-prized ability to add an optional stereo microphone. Only the large file sizes and limit of 7 minutes in HD mode detract from what is otherwise a great performer.

The only notable fly in the ointment for the E-PL1 is the half-a-second wait when focusing, something that also hampers the other PEN models. It's a long enough delay to miss that decisive moment, leaving you cursing as the lens zooms in and out before finally emitting the confirmation beep. As you'd expect, performance is quicker with a prime lens, but the E-PL1 ultimately suffers in comparison to the Panasonic Micro Four Thirds cameras and any DSLR that you care to mention.

If you can live with this slight annoyance, the new Olympus E-PL1 is an attractive, well-built and very capable camera with a more aggressive price-tag than competing models. Beginners in particularly should seriously consider the E-PL1 if they've out-grown their compact, while it also represents something of a bargain for prosumers if you can live with the simpler interface. The E-PL1 is certainly another bold step towards establishing both PEN and Micro Four Thirds cameras in general - with Samsung's NX10 and even Sony joining in, 2010 could be the year when small cameras with big sensors go mainstream...

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	4.5

Specifications

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