Olympus E-PM2: Small Camera, Big Surprise

Klarno wrote:

I love my E-PM2. I bought it as a secondary body (it wears my 40-150 while the 11-22 is on the E-M1). But it also works for me as a compact paired with the 14-42, 19mm f/2.8 or 30mm f/2.8. I sometimes have problems with shutter shock on this camera, but that's pretty easily managed. A few corrections though:

There are three kinds of HDMI connections and none of them are proprietary (if Olympus did have a proprietary connection needing an adapter like Samsung smartphones or the Apple iPhone, I doubt the HDMI consortium would allow the use of their logo on the camera). The E-PM2 has a micro-HDMI port, the same kind of HDMI port that smartphones with built-in HDMI have. Most cameras with HDMI have mini-HDMI instead of micro-HDMI, but there's still nothing proprietary about it. Micro-HDMI makes more sense on a camera, IMO, because of its smaller size for a cramped piece of electronics, and its comparative prevalence on smartphones making it more likely that someone actually has that kind of cable.

I think readers know what I mean. The more standard HDMI connection, Olympus's is very different than the two small and medium sized flat style HDMI connections that are MUCH more commonly used.

As for ISO, you're gonna have to talk to the Interational Organization for Standardization about that. The truth about ISO is, it's almost meaningless for digital image capture, a muddled standard trying to adapt the chemistry of film to the physics of sensors, and it's more concerned about JPEG brightness level and it doesn't actually have anything to do with the sensitivity of digital sensors or the way images are captured. Many CMOS-sensored cameras do have "true ISOs" where they have reduced read noise at higher ISOs, however the way a digital image is displayed has nothing to do with how the signal was captured in the first place. The display luminance value is assigned after the fact

I wont get into a debate on this one.

If the only option for ISO 100 is an "ISO Low", I'd rather do without. It boost signal-to-noise ratio solely by overexposing the image a stop, and you loose highlight headroom to get less noise. If you're a JPEG shooter it's better than nothing, but if you're a RAW shooter nothing is exactly what it is.

When sensors/processors are paired up, they have a base ISO. My suggestion to to OLY is to purchase sensors that have match up with processors that produce a base ISO of 100, not 200. This way a push isn't necessary.

My suggestions still stand, regardless :).

Carl

http://www.photographic-central.blogspot.com (Gear reviews)
http://www.carlgarrard.blogspot.com/ (Best work compilation)
Also formerly AlphaMountWorld.com (Now off the web)