Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
(note - a nearly word for word copy of a post over at m43.com)
Well, that was quick. I sold my GH2, Nex, the Nex lenses, and a legacy lens a couple of weeks ago and figured I'd be without an m43 camera for a couple of months. I was leaning hard toward the EPL3 but after seeing some demos of the EP3 touch screen, I knew I was gonna have to try both and see which one I liked better. And to my surprise, the EP3 became available and I ordered one yesterday, which, given my proximity to NYC, means I got it overnight. And after playing around with it for about an hour...
Everything I didn't like about earlier Oly cameras I LOVE about this one. Its just fast in pretty much everything it does. People are dithering on about how the AF is faster with some lenses than others. I suppose that's true, but they're ALL so frickin' fast I don't know how it could possibly matter if one is a slight fraction faster or slower than another. The Panasonic 20 is probably the slowest of the bunch that I've tried and it cooks - it felt slightly faster than the GH2 and the GH2 should be fast enough for anyone. Also, shot to shot time is basically as fast as you can push the shutter button (assuming you turn the auto-review feature off - otherwise you have to clear that). The blackout time and shutter lag that existed with the EP2 is just GONE.
The touchscreen is just brilliant - I never even REMOTELY bonded with the touchscreen on the GH2 but the touch is so much lighter on the EP3 - it really is like an Iphone touch - not a press. Its VERY easy to toggle between having the touchscreen disabled, used for focus only, or used to both focus and shoot. You don't have to worry about accidentally hitting if you don't want to use it because its SOOOO easy to turn on and off. And with the OLED screen quite visible from a pretty wide angle of views, you can hold this camera out in front of you and down reasonably low and just shoot using the touchscreen. I'd been anticipating wanting the EPL3 for the tilt-screen and I'm sure I'll check one out once they hit the stores, but I'm not at all sure I'm going to want one if I can hold this and shoot it so unobtrusively without going near the shutter button. And with the lenses I almost always use for any sort of street application (the 14 and 17), the touch to the shot is so incredibly fast (assuming there's just a bit of light available) that I don't see much benefit to a half press - its not like there's any lag in the process. I don't anticipate this being my main street camera - I really love the silent shutter on the GRD3 and X100 - but certainly a worthy option when I'm not concerned about shutter noise.
So far, I've tried it with the 14, 17, 20, 14-450, and 100-300 and AF is insanely fast on all of them. Oh, and the kit lens too, which I'll probably stash away until I eventually sell this, although its way too early to think about that. Haven't tried the 9-18 yet and I have a 45mm on the way, which I expect should be very very good.
Misgivings? Well, the ring around the four-way controller is REALLY little - I don't recall the one on the EP2 being this small and I used that a lot more than the thumbwheel with that camera. With this one, I'll be using the thumbwheel for on the fly. If the ring on the EPL3 is this small, that could be a deal-breaker for me since its the only rotary type controller on that camera. I've only had the OLED screen outside for a few minutes (in case you haven't heard, its stinkin' HOT here these days). It was OK in very bright light, but that does seem to reduce the useful angle of view somewhat - not as impressive as the Nex screen was in bright light. I haven't played with the settings yet, though, so maybe this can be brightened up...
I don't know anything about IQ - probably won't until Apple gets around to offering raw support for this camera. But I'm sure it'll be fine. I loved the IQ from my EP2 and I can't imagine this won't be at least as good. I'm not an IQ freak and am satisfied with the IQ of my GRD3 most of the time, so I'll be fine with this.
Anyway, I'm back in the m43 fold. In many ways, these new Olympus cams were what I've been waiting for in m43 gear - Oly features and feel with Panasonic speed (if not more). Gonna be very tough to beat for an all-around system camera.
-Ray
Well, that was quick. I sold my GH2, Nex, the Nex lenses, and a legacy lens a couple of weeks ago and figured I'd be without an m43 camera for a couple of months. I was leaning hard toward the EPL3 but after seeing some demos of the EP3 touch screen, I knew I was gonna have to try both and see which one I liked better. And to my surprise, the EP3 became available and I ordered one yesterday, which, given my proximity to NYC, means I got it overnight. And after playing around with it for about an hour...
Everything I didn't like about earlier Oly cameras I LOVE about this one. Its just fast in pretty much everything it does. People are dithering on about how the AF is faster with some lenses than others. I suppose that's true, but they're ALL so frickin' fast I don't know how it could possibly matter if one is a slight fraction faster or slower than another. The Panasonic 20 is probably the slowest of the bunch that I've tried and it cooks - it felt slightly faster than the GH2 and the GH2 should be fast enough for anyone. Also, shot to shot time is basically as fast as you can push the shutter button (assuming you turn the auto-review feature off - otherwise you have to clear that). The blackout time and shutter lag that existed with the EP2 is just GONE.
The touchscreen is just brilliant - I never even REMOTELY bonded with the touchscreen on the GH2 but the touch is so much lighter on the EP3 - it really is like an Iphone touch - not a press. Its VERY easy to toggle between having the touchscreen disabled, used for focus only, or used to both focus and shoot. You don't have to worry about accidentally hitting if you don't want to use it because its SOOOO easy to turn on and off. And with the OLED screen quite visible from a pretty wide angle of views, you can hold this camera out in front of you and down reasonably low and just shoot using the touchscreen. I'd been anticipating wanting the EPL3 for the tilt-screen and I'm sure I'll check one out once they hit the stores, but I'm not at all sure I'm going to want one if I can hold this and shoot it so unobtrusively without going near the shutter button. And with the lenses I almost always use for any sort of street application (the 14 and 17), the touch to the shot is so incredibly fast (assuming there's just a bit of light available) that I don't see much benefit to a half press - its not like there's any lag in the process. I don't anticipate this being my main street camera - I really love the silent shutter on the GRD3 and X100 - but certainly a worthy option when I'm not concerned about shutter noise.
So far, I've tried it with the 14, 17, 20, 14-450, and 100-300 and AF is insanely fast on all of them. Oh, and the kit lens too, which I'll probably stash away until I eventually sell this, although its way too early to think about that. Haven't tried the 9-18 yet and I have a 45mm on the way, which I expect should be very very good.
Misgivings? Well, the ring around the four-way controller is REALLY little - I don't recall the one on the EP2 being this small and I used that a lot more than the thumbwheel with that camera. With this one, I'll be using the thumbwheel for on the fly. If the ring on the EPL3 is this small, that could be a deal-breaker for me since its the only rotary type controller on that camera. I've only had the OLED screen outside for a few minutes (in case you haven't heard, its stinkin' HOT here these days). It was OK in very bright light, but that does seem to reduce the useful angle of view somewhat - not as impressive as the Nex screen was in bright light. I haven't played with the settings yet, though, so maybe this can be brightened up...
I don't know anything about IQ - probably won't until Apple gets around to offering raw support for this camera. But I'm sure it'll be fine. I loved the IQ from my EP2 and I can't imagine this won't be at least as good. I'm not an IQ freak and am satisfied with the IQ of my GRD3 most of the time, so I'll be fine with this.
Anyway, I'm back in the m43 fold. In many ways, these new Olympus cams were what I've been waiting for in m43 gear - Oly features and feel with Panasonic speed (if not more). Gonna be very tough to beat for an all-around system camera.
-Ray