The fact that it has shown up before can't hide the fact that it appears to be much worse on the E-PL2.
It being worse depends on what you mean by worse, as I hope to demonstrate below.
I find it interesting that all of the naysayers who ridiculed the early posts about this problem by users in Taiwan and Hong Kong, now have nothing to say about this issue (unfortunately, there are some xenophobes on this forum).
I'm not a naysayer. I do not ridicule. I'm an E-PL2 owner who decided to test his own camera.
You are saying this effect would not appear in other cameras.
You may be correct. It may be that the effect is more prevalent with the E-PL2. What you have not noted is that
it doesn't matter because the effect occurs in an exposure that on another camera the same shot would be just as bad only without the red dots . Both shots would be considered unusable (though I see the possibility of artistic interpretation for either).
I've gotten pretty good at creating the effect 100% of the time, now that I know that all I need is:
- f/11 or higher to guarantee the effect (it can show at wider apertures but the effect is more distinct when stopped down)
- a ridiculously bright light source pointed directly at the camera (it can be off-center, but the light is still bearing down on the sensor just the same)
- the "correct" exposure
Here is the E-PL2 at f/11 in A priority:
Here is an FZ5, also on A priority (set to smallest aperture of f/8). You'll have to excuse me, I don't own another MFT or DSLR but this shot addresses the point:
Both are unusable. Frankly, I'm seeing the beginnings of purple dot flare in the FZ5 shot. If I tried hard enough I can probably reproduce the effect... maybe even in red instead of purple if I resolve it enough.
The FZ5 doesn't have red dots, but it's still crap. What's interesting is that what would be a bad shot with another camera shows some interesting avenues for expression on the E-PL2. Some have mentioned.. this red dot effect can prove interesting.
Any conventional composition where the bright light source is taken into account can be had very easily, provided you control the camera instead of leaving the camera on automatic for what is arguably a difficult composition with a dynamic range exceeding that of the film/sensor.
I can either overexpose the light source to get a big white blob but get decent exposure of the background and reduce the red dots to just a hint, similar to the light purple blobs of the FZ5 exposure:
Or I can underexpose to isolate the actual light source:
I could probably do more if I implemented ND filters, too.
The flare characteristics are dependent on the glass and the 14-42 II doesn't give the same spikiness of the FZ5, but you find the right glass or filter and you can get the flare you want. But still, the flare is not red dot flare. It's flare on a picture that's on a whole more interesting than what the camera gave on aperture priority, be it red dot or big white spiky dominating blob.
The problem is people keep pointing the E-PL2 at the sun, and there is no doubt about it, you do this, you get red dots. There is also no doubt that if you do this with another camera, you're gonna get an equally bad shot, maybe without red dots, but bad just the same.
Here is my point : this is what happens with an E-PL2 when you point it at a bright light source, particularly with a stopped down lens. On another camera, you may not get red dots but you will still get an exposure that is crap.
Crap is still crap, red dots or no . You can take the same shot but control it directly instead of keeping the camera on Program or Priority. The whole point of system cameras is providing the photographer with control... so take control. Just because the camera can resolve an image a bit better but leave you with red dots doesn't mean the image was actually okay despite the red dots. To me, the red dots equal what would look like a big white blob of crap on another camera.
In the end, all I can say is this: I own an E-PL2 and I know how to reproduce red dots, and it happens when I take a bad shot that would still be bad on any other camera even if it wasn't red dots but just a big white mess.
I am satisfied that the camera operates within acceptable photographic parameters and that certain shots, when left to the camera's automatic program, will fail like any other camera but will do so in a distinct pattern of red dots rather than a big white overexposed blob, but I as the operator can compensate and decide what I actually want of the composition.
If you're a person who likes to use P, A or S when composing a shot with a ridiculously bright, dominating flare for your pictures, then the E-PL2 is not for you as it will give you an almost decent exposure with a grid of red dots instead of a big white dominating blob when in any mode that uses the software's metering calculation.
