Olympus E-P1 Camera Review

Well, I am glad I bought the Panasonic GF1; I’d feel like a 35lb old school backpacker after having read that review. Although I imagine the GF1 wouldn’t pass the test either. Still, it does fit in my hiking pants and records better photographs than the Sigma DP2, as well as being far more versitle. This using a 35 year old Zuiko 50mm lens, manual focus and just a simple jpeg.

"even when these images were not upsampled in Photoshop"

Since this isn't a photography magazine, I don't think you should assume everyone reading the article is up to speed on the jargon. What does upsampled in photo shop mean?

Basically, upsampling an image means increasing its resolution, that is, increasing the number of pixels. The values of the new pixels are calculated (interpolated) from the original pixels.

In the digital photography review it comes highly recommended (with a caveat) – prima facie at least an interesting contrast to the verdict here… but we do have different criteria being UL people…

(http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/OlympusEP1/page37.asp)

Yes, Johannes, interesting contrast.

I really wanted to give the camera a higher rating, from the perspective of a general photographer especially in the context of what Olympus did to pave the way here.

Unfortunately from the perspective of a backpacker wanting a carry camera consistent with the ethos of lightweight backpacking, squeezing the advantages of out of the E-P1 and the micro four thirds system in general is hard, and considering how well the DP2 stacks up in terms of image quality (in 16×20 prints even) at much less weight, then, well, you can't help but feel an ache in your stomach about the E-P1.

I like the E-P1 in my hand a lot. It's ergo makes shooting enjoyable. But its software, lenses, and image quality leave me pretty cool.