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Having fun with the E-P1

Terry

Terry

New member
Mike,
The custom settings on the dials would be huge. The current implementation doesn't seem useable.

The green square on all screens would need a tweak because if you hit OK it would go to the zoomed view. I was in green square mode yesterday and when I wanted to change settings I had to hit info to get to another screen first and then hit OK. If the green box were on every screen needs a different single button push.

Yes, a higher resolution screen would be nice but whatever they used to get that viewing angle I wouldn't want to lose. Funny my A900 has a high res screen and in bright sun I still have problems.

The wheel for reviewing images is where I keep natural going (and accidentally change the sound volume). I like that idea

My biggest change for BOTH the E-P1 and the G1 would be for low light early AM shooting. With CDAF when there isn't enough light camera can't focus. With all current m4/3 lenses there are no focus scales to allow you to manually focus/zone focus/hyperfocal focus when the screen is essentially black. Assuming they aren't going to change the lenses, an on LCD focus scale could/should be implemented. Otherwise, I need to use a legacy lens of some sort.
 
Mike Hatam

Mike Hatam

Senior Subscriber Member
TEBnewyork said:
Mike,
My biggest change for BOTH the E-P1 and the G1 would be for low light early AM shooting. With CDAF when there isn't enough light camera can't focus. With all current m4/3 lenses there are no focus scales to allow you to manually focus/zone focus/hyperfocal focus when the screen is essentially black. Assuming they aren't going to change the lenses, an on LCD focus scale could/should be implemented. Otherwise, I need to use a legacy lens of some sort.
Click to expand...

Terry - that is a great idea. A digital focus scale that can be displayed on the LCD.

You've got my vote :)
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
Mike Hatam said:
Terry - that is a great idea. A digital focus scale that can be displayed on the LCD.
Click to expand...

Others have mentioned it and I would like it too.

However, there's a question as to whether or not absolute distance is available anywhere with these lenses. Given the way CDAF works, the lenses jiggle back and forth through infinity (and every other point in their range) to obtain accurate focus ... whether an actual infinity point is calibrated in the camera is hard to say.

I've hunted through the EXIF data output from the G1 and not found anything stored as to focusing distance, or that changes when focusing distance changes. I know E-system SLRs do have distance embedded in the ORFs somewhere, but I'm not sure about the E-P1.
 
A

AngryCorgi

Guest
jonoslack said:
Hi there - I honestly can't remember, it was a quick snap and I probably zapped it up a bit. Water under the bridge I think, but, in this case DO shoot the messenger!
Click to expand...

LOL

Don't take it the wrong way...I was just curious. Now that the messenger is dead... :D
 
Godfrey

Godfrey

Well-known member
Godfrey said:
I've hunted through the EXIF data output from the G1 and not found anything stored as to focusing distance, or that changes when focusing distance changes. I know E-system SLRs do have distance embedded in the ORFs somewhere, but I'm not sure about the E-P1.
Click to expand...

Followup:
Just took a look at a couple of JPEGs and ORFs from Terry's camera (which had my Olympus ZD 25mm f/2.8 lens on it at the time) with EXIFtool and found that Olympus does embed a FocusDistance tag and value in the EXIF data, so at least with Olympus lenses there is distance information passed to the body and stored in EXIF data. That says a readout is possible at least. ;-)

Same lens on the G1 ... no FocusDistance information. :-( Whether it is indeed available but just isn't stored anywhere is a question mark.
 
Terry

Terry

New member
Both the LX3 and Sigma's DP1 and DP2 can show the focus scale on the screen and all are CDAF, so it should be doable in some way.
 
bradhusick

bradhusick

Active member
I know this has been covered somewhat, but I'd like to ask the EP1 users here, what's it like to use the EP1 with ONLY Leica lenses, say the 21 or 28 or 35 or even a 50? Is focusing easy or just possible? How does your shooting speed compare to using an M8? Is it usable for candid portraits? How do you like the files comparatively? Thanks!
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Olympus even made two "protection" filters for the two lenses they released but no hoods! :confused:
 
K

Kevin_b1

Guest
If possible can some of you who have had the E-P1 for a while or are used to Olympus share some of your settings, such as picture setting (Vivid etc) Noise, Satuation, Sharpness and Graduation. This is my first Olympus camera I normally use Nikon, I have now had the E-P1 for 2 days but it has not stopped raining yet so only got to play indoors with it so far.

The menu system is extensive and getting a head start on some of the settings would really sppeed the learning process up.

Thanks for your help

Regards

Kevin
 
M

mod2001

New member
nei1 said:
Thats an interesting question,how do you use a lens hood on a zoom lens?:wtf:
Click to expand...

like i do with other zooms, where's the prob, sure, you only will have the full correct lens hood for 14mm in this case, but it helps for 42mm too, especially lensflares etc.

Yogi
 
C

chingwa

Guest
I've been wondering about this camera as an M8 replacement. The m8 is great, but I didn't buy it because I wanted a rangefinder, I bought it because I wanted to use Leica glass. I actually find the rangefinder hard to use at times and I miss focus not a little bit of the time unless I really concentrate (I wear eye glasses). I can't even bring up this subject over at the LUF... they'll think I'm a heretic.

But what do the open minded people here think about this camera? Is the quality of the final picture up to snuff when compared with the m8 (I'll be using the same Leica lenses of course!)

and I don't suppose anyone has any direct comparison pics, same subject, same lens... ?
 
Mike Hatam

Mike Hatam

Senior Subscriber Member
bradhusick said:
I know this has been covered somewhat, but I'd like to ask the EP1 users here, what's it like to use the EP1 with ONLY Leica lenses, say the 21 or 28 or 35 or even a 50? Is focusing easy or just possible? How does your shooting speed compare to using an M8? Is it usable for candid portraits? How do you like the files comparatively? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Brad,

I've been using my E-P1 for 5 days now, and almost exclusively with M lenses. The main lenses I've used are the ZM 21, 28 Cron, 50 Lux (pre-asph), and 75 Summarit.

I'm having issues with corner softness when using the ZM 21 and 28 cron. The center is sharp, but the corners are soft. I'm not sure what is causing this - these same lenses are sharp to the corners on my M8, which has a larger sensor. I have two possible theories - it may be the adapter (but usually a faulty adapter would show one side of the frame as soft while the other side is sharp), or it may be the lens correction algorithms in processing engine within the camera, trying to correct for aberations which are not there (Olympus has lens correction algorithms built in for mFT lenses). Unfortunately, the softness shows up in both jpgs and raw files. I have another adapter on the way, and will retest with the new adapter to see if I can eliminate that as a possible cause.

So with the wide angles (ZM 21 and 28 cron), I'm using them more for portrait shots or shots where only the center needs to be in focus.

The 50 lux and 75 summarit are working wonderfully. They produce very sharp images across the frame, just as you would expect on an M8. I've compared these images to the Panny 45-200 zoom, and the Leica lenses produce noticably superior images at f5.6.

My favorite way to shoot now is with the 50 lux wide open. I've gotten to the point where I can focus faster at f1.4 on the LCD than I ever could with the range finder (M8). There are a couple of advantages to LCD focusing. The main one is that your entire LCD acts like a ground-glass focusing screen. With the range finder, you can only focus on what is in the middle of the screen. With the LCD, you can focus on any subject on any part of the screen. This is especially handy when you have a moving subject that is off-center in your compositin.

The images produced by the 50 lux shot wide open are quite nice. I have not done a detailed side-by-side comparison to M8 files, but I'm a stickler for image quality, and have been pleasantly surprised by how nice these files are. At f1.4, I get the traditional "Leica rendering" - a soft glow and buttery smooth transitions. Stopped down to about f2.8, and everything is razor sharp.

The 50 lux is a great match for the E-P1. It balances and handles very well on the camera. It's become my default lens, staying attached to my camera almost constantly now.

I need to figure out the soft-corner issues I'm getting with the wide angles, and then I'll be all set with this camera as a replacement for my M8. In the meantime, I've ordered a Voigtlander 40/1.4, to see how that works as well, and will report next week when I've tried it.

Hope that helps,
Mike
 
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