The digital camera market continues to evolve, and the technology enables things that were not possible when film was king. (Usable photos hand-held in near darkness!?) One development that caught my eye is the Micro Four Thirds system -- cameras with the controls and features of DSLRs, as well as a range of interchangeable lenses -- but without the same bulk. The all-important sensor is 30 percent smaller than Canon's APS-C sensor (as used on consumer DSLRs), although this is not as bad as it seems because the aspect ratio is 3:4 rather than the wider 2:3 of the DSLR. So when I became aware of what seemed like a good deal on an Olympus PEN E-PL1 camera package at Jessops in the autumn of 2012, I was curious and unable to resist.
The kit came with the camera and two lenses. The camera has few external manual controls and is clearly aimed at the compact camera user looking to upgrade. However, once you get into the menus, there are a bewildering number of options and things that can be adjusted -- on par with consumer DSLRs. The supplied lenses included the standard wide angle to short telephoto (14-42 mm) zoom for everyday use, and a longer telephoto (40-150 mm) zoom for additional distance. Both lenses produce very acceptable results.
Some five years later, I find that I have taken fewer than 500 photos with my E-PL1 (and around 50 of those were test shots), while my S95 has notched up nearly eight times as many in a similar period of time. Despite the bigger sensor on the Olympus, why would this be? I suspect that it is a combination of the basic point-and-shoot nature of the E-PL1, and the default colour of the E-PL1 -- which I initially found a little overpowering!
Nevertheless, I think I may have finally tamed the colour on the Olympus camera. The image above is the result of a number of incremental adjustments over a couple of years to picture mode, saturation, contrast, and auto white balance correction. Having mounted the long telephoto zoom lens, I set the shutter speed to 1/500 second, aimed the camera and pressed the shutter release button. This is the result -- the first time I have used this lens on a moving subject. (An HST at speed heading west on the former GWR mainline near Denchworth Bridge, on a glorious winter day on 28th December 2017. I understand that the OHLE is not yet live: it looks as though the contact wires need to be tensioned, but this may be an optical illusion?)
I think I need to take the Olympus PEN E-PL1 out with me more often!...
