Olympus PEN E-PL3 14-42mm 12.3 MP Mirrorless Digital Camera with CMOS Sensor and 3x Optical Zoom (Black)

Olympus PEN E-PL3 14-42mm 12.3 MP Mirrorless Digital Camera with CMOS Sensor and 3x Optical Zoom (Black)

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• View the World From a Different Angle: The E-PL3 inspires innovation and is perfect for those who require a versatile, portable camera filled with advanced yet easy-to-use creative technologies
• 12.3MP: The 12.3MP Live MOS sensor is optimized to maximize the performance of all m.Zuiko digital lenses in any shooting condition. Improvements to the sensitivity and read-out speed of the existing sensor makes ISO 12,800 shooting and Full HD movie recording possible
• Stabilization Technology in the Body, Not In the Lenses: Olympus' in-body image stabilization technology makes it possible to use any Micro Four Thirds lenses, from wide-angle to telephoto, for perfectly clear, crisp photos no matter what the shooting situation, even in low light
• Improved Color Reproduction: The TruePic VI Image Processor, designed specifically for the Olympus PEN, features Real Color Technology for improved color reproduction (especially colors such as emerald green, yellow and gold) and color gradation
• Face Detection with Eye Detect: Nail the focus for every portrait photo, every time. The face detection AF employs an \"Eye Detect AF\" that adjusts focus automatically on the subject's eyes during portrait shooting and can even be adjusted to focus on the right, left or near-side eye

Buy Now : Olympus PEN E-PL3 14-42mm 12.3 MP Mirrorless Digital Camera with CMOS Sensor and 3x Optical Zoom (Black)

Brand : OLYMPUS
Category : Electronics,Camera & Photo,Digital Cameras,Mirrorless Cameras
Rating : 3.9
Review Count : 62

Olympus PEN E-PL3 14-42mm 12.3 MP Mirrorless Digital Camera with CMOS Sensor and 3x Optical Zoom (Black)

• To me, a camera\'s needs to succeed at producing a top quality Image first and foremost. If it fails to deliver in any way related to the final output of the camera, then it has a tough road ahead that is littered with other failed prospects. Ultimately, you can be the worst camera in the world functionally and deliver the best image out there and I\'ll rate the camera highly because, in the end, it\'s all about the image!LOOKS AND BUILD QUALITY The Olympus E-PL3 is a solid little body but, it is constructed from Polycarbonate (High Impact Plastic) so, it isn\'t as solid as some of the other bodies that it competes against but, it isn\'t bad either.The styling is very nice and clearly shows that it\'s roots are halfway between the point and shoot crowd and halfway between the SLR crowd.I have two issues here, how slick the body is, and with no grip on the camera, I\'m a little nervous about dropping it when I have it out and about. The other issue is the fact that the AF Assist light is right where your left index finger might be while holding the camera and this interferes with the focusing in lower light situations.MENUING SYSTEM One area that seems too complex is the menu system. Each menu is fine on its own but, it seems as though more than half of the buttons on the body launch a different menu! I\'m really baffled by this design as there\'s no rhyme or reason to some of them and some are turned off by default so they need to be activated for you to see many key features and fortunately, in the tip below I tell you how to do it.My tip here is that you press Menu, select the Wrench, select Display Menu and activate the one that looks like two gears as this is activates the Custom Menu on the Main Menu Screen and here the ability to adjust the camera to your settings really comes alive!METERING Well, this is a big flaw in this camera, checking spot metering seems to show a Meter that is well calibrated and yet, their algorithms for Matrix Metering seem to heavily favor under exposure and that increases noise. Center Weighted will also favor under exposure to a lesser degree and it is almost as though the metered circle isn\'t the proper size. The good news is that, Olympus provided a fix for this and you can enable it using the tip below.In the hidden custom menu (we turned this on earlier), you can tweak the exposure bias for each metering mode so, once you figure out where you want it to be, just set it and forget it.AF SYSTEM The AF System is very fast for this type of camera and I have to say that Olympus really stepped up here given the fact that the earlier bodies were known for having slow AF. Accuracy also seems to be fairly good so, no real issues with the focusing at all.IMAGE STABILIZATION I\'ve used just about every image stabilization system around and honestly, I am not impressed with the Olympus Sensor Shift. Some reviews suggest it only works between 1/30th and 1/8th of a second and going outside that range will either not reduce blur or will actually increase the chances that blur will exist (above 1/30th or on a tripod mount). To say the least, don\'t buy this camera for this feature because, there are much better options.I also found out the IS system uses the Auto-ISO as a crutch and if you attempt to stabilize the camera with a fixed ISO, it is going to create problems for you. I discovered this when I found the custom menu and set the camera\'s Auto ISO Max to 800 and turned the ISO back on. Next thing you know, 1/10 shutter speeds were producing sharp images, sure enough, looking at the ISO should it was toeing the max ISO I had set.One more tip to help you get the most out of your camera, set the Anti-Shock to 1/4 when shooting at slower shutter speeds (under 1/50) as this will allow any excess movement from the internals to pressing the shutter release, to reside before releasing the shutter (Obviously this isn\'t good for moving objects but, neither is IS unless it features a panning mode and both should function exactly the same for that purpose.AESTHETICS The best things about this camera are the color and white balance reproduction. There\'s a certain look to Olympus photos that are really hard for others to replicate. Canon images are too yellow, Nikon\'s are too Red, Sony\'s are just plain bland (high quality but nothing special for color) and yet, Olympus just seems to pull off the perfect balance of the bunch.If you\'re looking for a reason to buy this camera, this is the best reason going for it!IMAGE QUALITY This is somewhat of a Mixed Bag... If you are careful and babysit the metering, or learn the camera and adjust the bias, you\'ll get awesome results right up to ISO 1600 but, if you don\'t watch it, you just might find some of the worst High ISO images you\'ve seen in this class.With that said, I\'ve gotten some really nice images and I only have the kit lens so the camera is more than capable of delivering on the image quality and the better, and brighter, the lens, the less of an issue High ISO becomes.I recommend Shooting with Natural Mode, Sharpening to -1, and Noise Reduction to Low.CONCLUSION I started this review after spending just a few hours with the camera and I was sure, I hated the body. As I continued writing the review and shooting with it, I started to figure it out a bit more and have found that it is capable if you work within its limitations.Overall, I like the camera because I like the Image Quality but, I cannot fathom how throwing a metering system that has to be babysat, putting the workaround in a hidden menu, and a menu system that is a bit of a mystery, into a body aimed at beginners makes any sense at all. If you\'re new to this level of Photography, you\'re either going to leave the body in IAuto or you\'re going to return it out of frustration.Would I recommend this body? If you have some understanding about metering or, you like to tinker and want to make the camera your own then yes, I would. If you\'re the type of person that thinks cameras take nice pictures, then you should probably look elsewhere because, you\'re about to found out just how hard taking those nice pictures can be so, read through the review and adjust the camera based on the tips I\'ve provided.
• Updated February 19, 2013:2 things to mention.1 - I recently got the Olympus FL-600R flash, which while bulky with this camera will allow you much better control over light. Also the FL-600R flash recharges very quick so you can quickly take multiple pictures using the flash as opposed to the kit flash which is slow. Definitely a recommended add on that will allow you much more flexibility in using the camera. I definitely find myself getting better pictures much quicker (especially indoors) with the FL-600R as compared to the kit flash (or just due to the kit flash being too slow using no flash).2 - I still wish this camera would perform better at high ISO settings, like at 1600 (even 800+). I have a lot of night or low light pictures where flash is not desired but due to the camera sensor not dealing well with ISO 1600 these pictures tend to suffer (i.e. could not use adequate shutter speeds at ISO 1600 without underexposing too much). For the most part I am happy with the pictures I get but I still would very much like better ISO performance. I knew this when I bought this camera, but at least now there is the E-PL5 and OM-D which should both have more than adequate ability to deal with high ISO settings. Meanwhile I am holding off on upgrading, especially now that the new flash has helped improve things, but if buying now and deciding between the E-PL3 and the E-PL5 I would choose the 5 as the extra ISO capability will make the camera a more versatile performer with the kit lens and in low light. One more thing about this, if I took a picture at night and want the effect of darkness to be noticeable, then by using a flash it kind of lights up the area too much making it look like daytime, whereas using high ISO can help capture the nighttime feeling but at the same time giving a sharp image with good color reproduction.Original Review August 1, 2012:I bought this camera about 1 month ago before going on vacation. In addition I bought the 20mm Panasonic Prime Lens, the 45mm Olympus Prime Lens, the 40-150mm Olympus Zoom Lens, and the VF-2 viewfinder. I had wanted to step up from my previous point and shoots (Panasonic Lumix Camera) as I was very disappointed with how they performed indoors and in low light situations. For well lit places any camera will get a decent picture so for me, who was not interested in pixel peeping, that was not the major concern.After using the camera for a month my dislikes are as follows:1 - Unless you switch to a prime lens in low light situations you are risking the ISO going to high for good pictures. The ISO on this camera should probably be limited to 400. I think you can get away with 800 ISO as well, but if you want to zoom or crop the noise will be noticeable already. If you want the micro 4/3 and are willing to spend a bit more the OM-D E-M5 is supposed to be much better at this. Alternatively the Sony NEX cameras have much better ISO performance, but my feeling was that the lenses on them are too large and make the camera too bulky for what I was looking for. For the most part the camera will perform fine even with the stock lens in low light situations, it just won\'t be perfect. It still is better than any point and shoot (maybe the new Sony RX-100 would perform better if you are only getting this with a stock lens). If you use the prime lenses then the low light performance is excellent, as the ISO will stay way down. The problem is that you have to busy switching lenses, but isn\'t that the point of ILC\'s?2 - No grip on camera. You can buy aftermarket grips but holding this camera would have been greatly improved had the added a bump for gripping in the front.3 - If you want to use A/S/M modes you have to be careful that you are changing the correct settings. I sometimes adjusted the exposure control when I was trying to adjust the Aperture. There is probably not much that could have been done to improve this as there is limited space for controls due to the small size.What I like about this camera:1 - Size! It is a fraction of the size of a DSLR. With the 20mm lens attached it is actually pocketable. With the stock lens you will not get it in a pocket, but that is what point and shoots are good for, but they lack the versatility and performance of this camera.2 - Prime Lenses - With the prime lenses this camera really performs well. The one down-side to the sensor on this camera is it does not perform well at high ISO settings. With the prime lenses the ISO is kept down and the pictures are very clear, sharp, well colored, bright, etc. With the Oly 45mm Prime lens this camera is a super performer. I compared pictures taken on a safari ride where I took pictures of animals with this and with my old point and shoot. The pictures were taken during daylight. The pictures with the Oly 45mm Prime, came out so much sharper then the pics from the point and shoot. Even if the point and shoot could have zoomed much closer than the prime 45mm lens, since the pictures from the prime 45mm lens came out so much sharper, I could still crop and zoom them several times, which means I would get a much better result than a super zoom point and shoot. This is obviously talking about a picture where things are moving, a scenery shot where everything is still, this would be less apparent. However the telephoto lens for m4/3 will outperform a point and shoot.3 - RAW shooting and full camera setting control - Although most shooting with this camera will be in auto mode, there are times when I want to customize the settings and I appreciate having the ability to do so. Also RAW shooting allows you to customize the results on the computer, better than any camera processor could do.Final thoughts - If I had to make the decision today, I would still go for the m4/3 camera. To me it is the smallest format that allows for the versatility and performance that I wanted. Even a camera like the Sony RX-100 which is the best point and shoot out there, still is limited once you start zooming. The m4/3 allows you to have the zoom with high performance as well. All in all you can cover every photo situation in a good way. My only dilemma is whether I should have gone with the OM-D but overall I think I prefer this camera due to the small size.
• This is my third time buying Olympus Pen. They are sturdy, dependable and the picture quality is terrific. Easy to use too. This seller was prompt and efficient! I can’t believe I received my camera in just 4 days as it came from Istanbul to the US. I’m very pleased!!

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