Micro 4/3 Just bought an EPL1.

Hi Just bought an EPL1 (new but old stock) for £279 (sterling). This is was bought to add to my Canon G11. Initial thoughts are.........the autofocus is shocking. I have firmware 1.1 installed on my camera body and 1.0 on the 14-42 lens. I am also surprised that you cannot make the green focus box stay small on a permanent basis. Does anybody have some tips on getting the best from this camera. Only had it for a couple of hours so not complaining just need a few pointers.

Thanks
 
Congrats on your new camera ! I'm sure there are members who will help you to get most out of this camera. I can't, I'm photographing with the good old G1 from Pan. (which belongs to my wife...)
 
You really need the panasonic 20mm to get the best out of that camera. It focuses MUCH better and faster than the original kit lens, which I found hard to use unless you're in bright light. The more recent version of the 14-42 supposedly is better but you probably have the original.
You can keep the green box in the center, if that would help, but I don't remember precisely how at this point. Look up center focus point in the manual. Also, there should be plenty of EPL-1 threads here with info on settings both at this site and the sister m43 site.
 
Toonman, congrats!!!!
Green Box Stay Small?
Are you having trouble getting AF lock?
I have only ever had that issue taking pics of my Black Cat, contrast AF finds her too stealthy to lock on!
What lens are you using?
 
Congratulations, Toonman! I'm sorry I can't remember how the green box works but I am sure someone here should be able to help you out. Isn't the green box for manual focus? I thought the E-PL1 was an excellent camera - loved it with the 16mm lens.
 
About the focus box: the trick for reducing its size in order to spped up autofocus was posted a long time ago on another forum, and I did it on my E-PL1 and forgot. But it's still that way on my camera, so this is a method that works. I found the original post, and here it is:
Changing focus box size on E-PL1

Let me quote from the original poster:
1. from the normal shooting screen, press the "zoom" button once.
2. press the "info" button once. 7x will be displayed in the bottom left corner.
3. press the "up"(exp. comp.) button once you get to 10x & the autofocus box gets smaller, press again you get 14x the auto focus box gets even smaller.
4. press "ok" Just Once now you can move the smaller box around using the keypad.
5. to go back to full size box just press the "ok" button once more.
6. The neat thing is that once you intially set your desired autofocus box size, it can be easily recalled just by hitting the zoom button once.

unless you press ok a second time the smaller autofocus point remains from shot to shot, when the camera is powered down the box resets to full size, just simply hit the zoom button once when you power it up & your back to the smaller autofocus point.

Hope this helps.

PS: be sure to play with your 14-42. You can be surprised of the results. (But it does not focus without some serious light). And the 20/1.7 is really the first companion it should have.
 
Thanks for the replies Guys and Gals

Playing around with it a bit more now and getting used to its foibles. Every camera has its good and bad points. I bought it for it compact quality picture taking. My only 2 gripes at the moment are autofocus (my Canon G11 compact beats it hands down) and not having a dedicated ISO button and (worse still) not being able to assign a 'func' button to ISO. Apart from this I am enjoying the learning curve.
 
I never tried the oly 17. I decided to buy the 20 after a lot of picture viewing on mu-43.com where there are sets for both. My rationale for the (more expensive) 20 was the greater latitude for available light shooting. I am very happy with it.
From what I read the 17 oly is (a little) softer, but it has the more appreciated 35mm equiv view and has faster AF; never tried it so I can't confirm this.
 
Toonman, I have not used any of the Canon G Series so I cannot compare to them but my E-PL1 focuses quite fast, no matter what lens. My standards of comparison are my Fuji F200, F70, and S6000fd. my Olympus e410 and 510, and my Pentax K100D Super. To reiterate, I have only ever had issue focussing on Sable-Kitty and the Moon using the 14-150mm M-Zuiko The 14-42mm kit lens is surprisingly good, BTW/ Even the first version...
5678181623_c45c13cc6e_b.jpg

In point of fact the slowest AF lens for me has been the the 14-150, likely due to the slower aperture, f4-5.6.
The Little 17mm pancake is my favorite lens BTW; it makes the E-PL1 a coat-pocketable kit and is quite sharp.
5467305297_c09e571079_b.jpg
 
Toonman, you do have very nice camera in the G11. It is virtually impossible to go wrong with the Powershots!
As to your E-PL1, I will try to do a short video of my E-PL1 in use with the several lenses I have to give an Idea if mine is faster or my standards are (s)lower than yours ;)
Hope that will help!
And thanks for the compliments :)
 
Well, after 3 days of frustration I'm afraid I have taken it back! The dealer thinks it could just be a faulty one. I have exchanged it for a Panasonic GF1.
Thanks everyone for your help and humour during the thread...............................can I keep Fred the cat? :)
 
Well, after 3 days of frustration I'm afraid I have taken it back! The dealer thinks it could just be a faulty one. I have exchanged it for a Panasonic GF1.
Thanks everyone for your help and humour during the thread...............................can I keep Fred the cat? :)

I agree it sounds faulty, sorry about that. However the GF-1 is quite good, which lens did you get with it?
Fred is is Kitty-Drugged sleep right now, he went to the Vet yesterday OW
 
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