My thoughts on my Olympus PEN E-P2 as a 2017 camera!!

So as you know i bought an Olympus PEN E-P2 as a camera that i think i would be able to bring everywhere everyday... Just looking for something to at least take better photos than my iphone7+ can do...but of course everybody knows the iphone is the better camera because its with me everywhere everyday in my pocket. No camera no picture! After that trip to Washington and New York with the A7S, i just find that i dont like bringing the A7S with me all the time because it is kinda bulky, but to be honest it is small compare to DSLRs. im just being a nitpick. and i was also impress looking at how small the olympus lenses were compare to my 24-70 Full Frame Sony lens....urrghh yucK!

So anyway, i end up with the PEN E-P2 because i got it at a great deal, its about $135USD plus shipping all the way from Japan. And it took about a week to reach my hands!! yum!

Check out that sexy beast. Its already been fitted with a black color leather skin which makes it more retro-ish looking. I didn't really like the brown grip but it was alright! 

 I bought it together with the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 lens which gets rave reviews although i just found out its also the slowest, sluggish AF performance as well. I can live with the AF speed but moving from a newer camera to older camera does make you notice how slow the performance-wise back in those 2010 days.

 I was actually surprised that the PEN E-P2 looks bigger than the OMD E-M10...not bigger but thicker... but my friend kept saying because of the OMD's black color it makes it look smaller. Probably. 

 The PEN E-P2 is definitely thicker from this top view shot.

 The OMD handles much better. Due to the grip design. 

Such a handsome camera. So good looking.

Aesthetically this PEN ticks all the right boxes...

So the next important question? How is the image quality??

All i can say is the PEN E-P2 takes good photos but not great! Its certainly better than the iphones/androids of the world....

When i say great, that means i am comparing it to the newer OMD (to be fair). As being said a lot in the internet, the newer 16mp m43 sensor (omd em1, em10, em5 etc) is better than the old 12mp.

Where it fails, is low light photos, its quality is something left to be desired...same for its AF performance with the 20mm 1.7. Again....Something left to be desired.

But i knew straight ahead, the world already knows it, this camera is not great at low light but i still think its better than my old Canon rebel 350d. But even at base ISO which is ISO200, there are noise if you pixel peep, zoom in 100%. It baffles me when people say Olympus takes clean images at base ISO. What r they smoking? Their definition of clean maybe differs than mine but i can say there are noise.

Here is base ISO 200. Definitely there's grain/noise. This is zoom in 100%. Shadow noise definitely visible.

The image quality reminded me of my Leica M8. But i believe the M8 is better due to sensor size, but for low light they both are pretty much the same. Theres banding in shadow areas, if you push the exposure...limit to ISO1600 for acceptable IQ. ISO3200 is ok for the PEN and if you convert to B&W it should be fine.

The LCD of the PEN E-P2 also reminded me of my Leica M8/M9. Its very low quality i mean low resolution for 2017 standards. But the problem with the PEN compared to the Leica is you are composing using the LCD, if you are not using the external VF. In bad light the LCD screen will show noise, like snow coming down. The problem with low resolution LCD is you cant really know if you got your focus right. YOu have to zoom in and check. But what i like about the low res LCD is the muted color your picture look like..

So due to the resolution of the LCD, i wont be confident shooting this for a paid job especially weddings. Imagine the horror coming back with blur non-focus photos! 😱

Actually i kinda lost for words, i probably save my thoughts for next post...

Anyway here's a sample photo taken with 20mm 1.7.

The 20mm 1.7 has decent bokeh. i like it. theres a good separation between the subject and the background. This is ISO1000.

So what better way to test the PEN E-P2? Travel of course!! i have a Bangkok trip coming when i just got the E-P2...definitely the camera to bring along!! Why thats the main purpose of getting the E-P2 of course!!

I think i'll save it for the next post! Stay tune!