Help Me Select: E-PM2 vs E-PL5 vs E-P3

sigala1 wrote:

The E-P3 has an ancient sensor that's no better than a modern small sensor camera like a Panasonic LX7.

E-PM2 and E-PL5 are identical cameras except the latter has a tilting LCD, a mode dial (not really needed at all unless you switch modes all the time) is slightly bigger and heavier to account for the tilting LCD.

While I agree the E-PL5 has the latest sensor and thus makes sense, I'm not sure the E-P3 would be out of bounds because of IQ - or because of low light capability and DR.

I have an E5 with the same sensor as the EP3 (but an older processor) and the OMD with the same sensor as the Epl-5.  While the OMD is better, it is probably only glaringly better if you look really closely.

The community opera I shoot has very low light and high DR - and because I choose to shoot a wide FOV to record the whole scene, it is very challenging for any camera or photographer.

Here is a jpeg straight out of the camera - shot from probably the first E5 sold in Australia a couple of years ago.

Carmen - the Gang jpeg OOC

Here is the same shot using Archgeolab's preset for LR4 to process the raw file with very minimal other PP.  So, with raw you can do quite well with the old processor.

Carmen - Gang Archgeolab preset from raw

So while, I think the Epl5 sensor is better, the old EP3 is not so bad you can't take a reasonable shot and get respectable results.

Cheers

Ray