Introduction

Ease of Use

The E-PL5 comes bundled with the distinctly plastic-y feeling, retractable M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II R lens (one of over 20 available dedicated Micro Four Thirds lenses), with an interchangeable 'decoration ring', and the same sleek, chic retro styling we'd expect from the Pen range. It feels reassuringly solid when held in the palm. Dimensions are 110.5 x 63.7 x 38.2mm without protrusions and the camera weighs 279g body only. This latest Olympus is available in silver and white along with our more traditional black and chrome detailing review sample.

The E-PL5 has a new angle adjustable, wide-screen ratio tilting LCD screen at the rear. It's 3-inches in size, offers a widescreen aspect ratio and comes with a respectable 460k dot resolution, so visibility is certainly clear enough if not quite a match for the OLED screen on the E-P3 model. In respect of its adjustable LCD it recalls Sony's NEX series, and also mirrors its rival in the fact that said screen can be pulled out from the body and tilted up or down, and now upward by 170 degrees to face forward for self-portraits. It can't, however, be swung out through 180° so that it is parallel to the chassis, like on a camcorder. Nor can it be turned so that the screen is facing the body for added protection against scratches when being transported (without lens) in a jacket pocket.

While its angles of adjustment are slightly restricted then, it's now a touch screen like the one on the E-P3. You can for the most part get away without using it much at all, as there are a plethora of physical buttons ranged alongside it, which are either dedicated to specific functions or can be customized to suit. Indeed, the screen's implementation here hasn't led to a cleaner or more pared-down minimalist look for the Pen, as say the touch screen on Panasonic's latest GF5 has.

Front	Rear

Once again there's no viewfinder supplied here as an alternative to the LCD screen, though there is an accessory port Version 2 to be found above the screen at the E-PL5's rear. Sadly our review sample didn't come with a Flash Air memory card, so we can't comment on the E-PL5's wi-fi capabilities. Another welcome attribute this model shares with the flagship OM-D E-M5 is a claim for the world's fastest auto focus system, thanks to 35 AF points spread over the entire LMOS sensor, plus a TruePic VI processor to keep performance zipping along. Full time AF and AF tracking also feature.

Low light sensitivity has been boosted on this latest Pen, incrementally extendable from ISO12800 to a semi pro-like ISO25600, as on the E-M5. This is partly down, says Olympus, to the implementation of the noise reducing TruePic VI processor.

The handholding Live Guide mode helps novices achieve more professional results is included on the E-PL5 too, with, as on the E-P3, its features selectable by tabbing up and down a visually-led menu that appears running down the right hand side of the screen. In this way the likes of depth of field/background blur can be adjusted in real time by dragging a simple slider bar.

There are now 12 creative Art Filters on the E-PL5, one more than on the E-M5, all applied at the point of capture. Included here are our preferred choices of pinhole and dramatic tone, joined by the tilt and shift lens ape-ing 'diorama' for rendering cityscapes as if on a toy town scale. Though the latter is a fun tool, we feel this miniature option works less well on the Olympus Pen than its competitors; for us the Pen seems to blur too wide a portion of the frame, so that occasionally the result can resemble a mistake rather than an effect. Once again, these filters can be applied to Full HD video as well as stills, recordable in AVCHD or reduced resolution Motion JPEG format. Just press the dedicated video record button when in Art Filter mode.

Side	Tilting LCD Screen

Alongside body integral image stabilisation, something that gives the Pen the edge over the Panasonic Lumix G range, Full HD video with stereo sound is included as standard, with left and right microphones positioned either side of a vacant hotshoe - the latter a feature that might also position it one step ahead of arguably Panasonic's closest rival in the Lumix DMC-GF5. If it weren't, that is, for the fact that what is more unforgivably omitted here is the luxury of a built-in flash of the pop-up variety - a feature that the E-PL5's intended consumer audience is surely going to miss. Just… why Olympus? After all, the original E-PL1 and E-PL2 had integral flash, and the flagship E-P3 now has it, an implementation long overdue.

Instead, with the E-PL5 a separate plastic-y clip-on flash is included in the box that we can see getting lost down the back of the sofa, or simply forgotten when you head out for the day with your shiny new camera. Admittedly the flash does look quite cool when slotted into place and works effectively, but it does inevitably add to the camera's bulk.

The E-PL5 now has the newly added ability to fit the optional supplied handgrip, as with the E-P3. Without the handgrip, unscrewed in the field with the aid of a coin, the solidity is sufficient to be able to still hold the camera nice and steady when shooting handheld, and without the workmanlike black plastic grip the camera actually looks a lot more stylish, its brushed metal faceplate fully on show.

From the front then, and with or without attachable flash, the E-PL5 very much looks the part and worth the outlay, exuding a cool sophistication, at least in respect of our traditional black review sample. It has that 'classic' Pen clean look, with an AF illuminator/self timer lamp top right of the lens, springy lens release button just below, Micro Four Thirds logo bottom right and Olympus logo top left.

Front	Top

Moving up to the top plate, the E-PL5 locates a speaker, with stereo microphones flanking the adjacent vacant hotshoe. This comes with a protective plastic cover that also loops over at the back to at the same time protect the accessory port against dust and other nasties. Set into a strip to the right of the hotshoe - if viewing the camera from the back - are a dime-sized shooting mode dial, small but obvious shutter release button and, lastly, inset into the top plate, the power button.

Give the latter a press and if you haven't first manually extended the bundled retractable zoom lens, an on-screen text message prompts you to do so. So getting ready for the first shot is a two-tier process: either extend the lens first then press the power button or vice versa. Once the lens has been unfurled the camera is ready for its first shot (or video) in just under two seconds. A half press of the shutter release and there's a very brief wait while the focus visibly resets. Go on and take the shot and with no discernable shutter delay, a Fine quality JPEG and Raw file are committed to memory in two to three seconds, which is nothing to complain about.

On the back of the E-PL5 in the top-right corner we get small self-explanatory playback and image deletion buttons alongside each other. With the accessory port dead centre above the LCD screen, to its right is a further trio of buttons. We get a function/thumbnail display button and an image enlargement button next to it, plus, at the top hand corner of the backplate, a dedicated video record button, positioned where it ergonomically falls under the thumb as the camera is gripped in the right hand. Hit this and recording begins no matter what alternative stills shooting mode might be in play at the same time, the black bands cropping the left and right of the screen when shooting in default stills mode disappearing so that the entire screen is taken up with the image being recorded.

The function button is also the means by which as a default the E-PL5's Live Guide feature is brought into play, and the order in which the offerings are presented and what they actually are is identical to that found on the E-P3 . The Live Guide options are presented as a colourful toolbar on the right hand side of the screen. From the top we have the ability to change colour saturation, from 'clear & vivid' to 'flat & muted', next down is the ability to alter 'colour image', which translates as shifting the tone between warm and cool via slider bar, with the third option shifting brightness/exposure between a simple bright and dark. The fourth option down is probably the most interesting/effective in that it provides the ability to incrementally blur the background of your shot by again dragging an indicator on a slider - thus providing a similar shallow depth of field effect to that achievable with a DSLR and suitable aperture.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

For its fifth Live Guide option Olympus has retained the curiously named 'Express Motions', which to us has always sounded more like a bowel movement than the actual emphasizing of subject motion by introducing blur. Well, in fact, there's the option to both blur any movement or stop it in its tracks, again achievable by dragging a slider indicator. The last option on this tool bar is a on-board shooting hints and tips manual, with the usual 'suspects' of photographing children and pets given the most prominence ('take a picture at their height level' being a summation of the level of advice imparted). We even get tips, as a bit of closet advertising, for attaching Olympus accessories, such as lens converters.

With a plastic/rubberized thumb pad just beneath the video record button, the final controls on the E-PL5's backplate are identical to its predecessor. An info button and separate menu button sit above and below a standard multidirectional control pad, encircled by Olympus' love-it-or-hate-it scroll wheel set up.

At 12 o'clock on the control dial is an exposure compensation control (+/- 3EV), at three o'clock a compendium of flash settings (auto, red eye reduction, fill in flash, flash off, red eye slow sync, slow sync, 'full' flash and incremental adjustments running from ½ to 1/64th strength), at six o'clock we get self timer/drive modes, and at nine o'clock the ability to manually specify the AF point, by selecting a point on a 35-zone grid that is overlaid on the real-time image. Dragging a finger, and so the AF point, around the touchscreen will achieve the same end, though inadvertently subsequently taping it will cause the shutter to fire. Yes, this facility can be deactivated by prodding the relevant shutter button icon on the touch screen, but it's just as easy to accidentally turn it on again; even via an action as incongruous as the button of your shirt connecting with the screen as you're wearing the E-PL5 on a neck strap, or the thumb of your left hand straying as you handle the camera.

While chunky lugs for attaching said strap hang at either side of the camera, thankfully out of the way of fingers and controls, on the right hand flank, if viewing the camera from the back, as with the E-PL3 we find a pair of covered ports for joint USB/AV output and mini HDMI output respectively. This cover, being a weaker plastic element amidst the surrounding brushed metal, is one of the very few flimsy points on the outwardly covetable camera.

Also plastic-y, but more reassuringly chunky, is the flip open cover protecting the joint battery and card compartment at the E-PL5's base. The PS-BLS5 rechargeable lithium ion battery supplied with the E-PL5 is good for around 360 shots, 10% more than the E-PL3. There is the option here to use all varieties of SD media card too, up to and including SDXC cards. Dead centre, but slightly off-centre of the lens, is a screw thread for attaching a tripod.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 7Mb.

The Olympus OM-D E-M5 produced images of excellent quality. In the Natural picture mode, colours are vibrant without being garish or over-saturated, while dynamic range is very good. From ISO 200 through to ISO 1600, noise is virtually undetectable, not becoming an issue until ISO 3200, which is an excellent result for a Micro Four Thirds sensor camera. ISO 3200 and 6400 are still eminently usable, with only the two fastest settings of 12800 and 25600 really suffering.

The supplied flash unit is more than powerful enough for fill-in use, while long exposures are easily achieved. The new image stabilisation system works very well indeed, even when hand-holding the camera at slow shutter speeds. The Art Filters produce special effects that would otherwise require you to spend a lot of time in the digital darkroom.

Noise

There are 8 ISO settings available on the Olympus E-PL5. 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 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)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)
ISO 12800 (100% Crop)	ISO 12800 (100% Crop)
ISO 25600 (100% Crop)	ISO 25600 (100% Crop)

File Quality

Olympus offers two JPEG quality settings - Fine and Normal. You may also opt to save your photographs in the camera's raw file format (ORF). Raw+JPEG shooting is available.

16M Fine (7.74Mb) (100% Crop)	16M Normal (3.07Mb) (100% Crop)
16M RAW (13.4Mb) (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 Olympus E-PL5 features a flash that has multiple modes including Auto, Red-eye reduction, Slow synchronisation, 2nd curtain and slow synchronisation, Fill-in for exclusive flash and Manual. In addition to the on-board unit, the Olympus E-PL5 also has a hot-shoe for system flashes. The pictures below were taken of a white wall from a distance of 1.5m, with and without the built-in flash.

Flash Off - Wide Angle	Flash On - Wide Angle
Flash Off - Telephoto	Flash On - Telephoto

And now for some portraits. The pop-up flash of the Olympus E-PL5 did not really cause a red-eye effect, so the only noticeable difference between the Forced On and Forced On with Red-Eye Reduction settings is that the second causes the subject's pupils to contract.

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

Night

The Olympus E-PL5 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 15 seconds at ISO 200. We've included a 100% crop to show what the quality is like.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Image Stabilisation

The Olympus E-PL5 comes with a double-axis sensor-shift image stabilisation (IS) system, which allows you to take sharp hand-held photos at slower shutter speeds than with cameras that lack this feature.

Focal Length / Shutter Speed	Off (100% Crop)	On (100% Crop)
28mm / 1/4th Second
84mm / 1/5th Second

Art Filters

The Olympus E-PL5 offers 12 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. 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
Pale&Light Color	Light Tone
Grainy Film	Pin Hole
Diorama	Cross Process
Gentle Sepia	Dramatic Tone
Key Line	Watercolor

Picture Modes

Olympus' Picture Modes are essentially pre-set combinations of saturation, contrast and sharpness, except for the i-Enhance mode that aims to optimise each photo individually. You can tailor each Picture Mode to your needs. The following examples demonstrate the differences across the available Picture Modes.

i-Enhance	Vivid
Natural	Muted
Portrait	Monotone

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Olympus E-PL5 camera, which were all taken using the 16 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-PL5 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 / Flash Attached

Front of the Camera / Handgrip Attached

Isometric View

Isometric View

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 / Quick Menu

Rear of the Camera / Fn Menu

Tilting LCD Screen

Tilting LCD Screen

Tilting LCD Screen

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 E-PL5 essentially offers the heart of the flagship OM-D model inside a much smaller, lighter and crucially cheaper body. If you can live without the OM-D's built-in electronic viewfinder, dust- and splash- proof body, 5-axis gyro image stabilisation system, and more hands-on interface, the E-PL5 delivers the best image quality from an Olympus mirrorless camera at a price that won't break the bank.

This new model also addresses some of the concerns that we had about its predecessor. Whereas the E-PL3 felt like a bit of a curio, falling uncomfortably between the even smaller E-PM1 and the upmarket E-P3, the new E-PL5 is a more well-rounded offering, with the supplied screw-in handgrip, Flash Air memory card, touchscreen interface, expanded ISO range, faster 8fps burst shooting and more Art Filters all contributing to a maturer feeling camera. It still doesn't have a built-in flash, though, something that the supplied clip-on flash can't quite make up for.

Image quality is where Micro Four Thirds cameras have traditionally lagged behind their APS-C sensor rivals, but the E-PL5 carries on where the OM-D E-M5 left off by equalling the results from other leading cameras. Noise doesn't rear its ugly head until ISO 3200 for JPEGs and even the faster settings prove eminently usable, although the E-PL5 does apply some pretty aggressive noise reduction to keep the files clean as shown by the noisier raw images. We never longed for a camera with a bigger sensor, and you'd have to step up to a full-frame DSLR to see an appreciable leap in image quality.

In summary the Olympus E-PL5 is a much more intriguing camera than its mid-level price and positioning in the Olympus compact system camera range would first suggest. Not many manufacturers offer the same image quality as their flagship camera throughout their entire line-up, but that's exactly what Olympus have done with the release of the E-PL5 and the even smaller E-PM2. The new Olympus E-PL5 therefore comes Highly Recommended as a more portable and affordable alternative to Olympus' best mirrorless camera...

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

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Olympus E-PL5 from around the web.

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