Olympus E-PM2, Incredible camera! Some questions, & now looking for a wide prime!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/OLYMPUS-E-PM2-White-Micro-Four-Thirds-Interchangeable-Lens-System-Camera-with-Si-/301164437154?pt=Digital_Cameras&hash=item461ecc9ea2

Unfortunately, it appears that the deal is dead and the price went up a $100

Congratulations on your new camera. I think as you explore it you will continue to be happy with how much camera the E-PM2 really is. I can't answer all your questions, but can give you my views on some of them.

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A few questions though:

1. I do occasionally shoot in auto mode, but I don't see a way to change the ISO limit. It appears stuck at 1600. Is there any way to change this?

Change the ISO limit in the menu. Go to the entry with the gears (4th one down), then into submenu E (Exposure/ISO), and you can change it there.

1. Is there a panorama feature?

Yes, it is one of the Scene modes.

1. Is there a DRO feature? Sony cameras have this, a different process from HDR that offers more dynamic range?
2. Any upcoming PEN cameras being released? I hope to eventually move to the E-PL5 successor when they add wifi and nfc.

Don't know about either of these. But when I felt I needed more options/external controls I got the E-M10, which may also be an option for you.

You may want to download the full E-PM2 manual, which you can get from the Olympus website.

Another question is, is there a way to have the camera automatically create daily or monthly folders?

I haven't been able to find the option and they're all thrown into the same folder for now. Would be helpful is possible.

You found a great deal on an excellent camera. Enjoy!

For a wide angle prime the 17mm 1.8 would be a good choice. It's fast, well built, very fast to focus and the IQ is pretty good from what I've seen. It's not the sharpest lens but it looks sharp enough to me. I would choose it over the 14 just because of the almost a stop difference in light gathering. That could make allot of difference in low light. The 14mm is good value for money though and pretty good optically except maybe wide open in the corners.

Hi , agree the epm2 is a great little camera, regarding wifi I use a toshiba flashair sd card and work great with my samsung tab.

The only thing I dislike about the emp2 is the 16 by 9 lcd , also the fonts are abit small in size

otherwise IQ very close to dslr cameras

Cheers

Thanks! I saw the option for PASM, but not for Auto Mode, I will check again tonight.

Will also go through the manual soon!

007peter wrote:

is the deal still available? can you give me a link to it. thanks

Peter,

I just sent you a PM.

Joel

Tonkotsu Ramen wrote:

Hey everyone,

I've been all over the place with cameras. Started with sony and canon point and shoots, went DSLR, but they were too big (and poor live view performance), then sony DSLR, great but lacked support, went NEX/EOS-M, but too many compromises/issues...... then I tested the E-PM2/E-PL5 in Japan.

And wow. Live view performance similar to my old Sony A57? IBIS? Lots of lenses? Touchscreen? 8FPS? small size? etc etc.

I remember seeing deals before I left for Japan, and happened to stumble on the newegg sale on ebay. E-PM2+kit lens for $199! So now I have a White E-PM2! Ideally, I would have wanted a black E-PL5, but it's over double the price. So it wasn't reasonable for me at the moment.

Menu's were a bit confusing at first, but after the helpful advice on this forum, I have everything adjusted for my shooting purposes, and SCP enabled.

The camera is on and ready to shoot around 1 second, if I have the lens unlocked, question on that later. Shot to shot time is extremely fast. I have the auto ISO set to 5000, because I find 6400 a little mushy. The 5k limit allows me to use even the kit lens confidently in low light situations.

The JPEG processing is surprisingly better than my A57 and a number of my previous cameras.

The only grip I have is that it doesn't have wifi or NFC, which means I need to carry my USB-OTG cable to transfer stuff to my Galaxy Note 2. It's no biggie, especially for what I paid, but it's something I hope to see in future versions of the PEN series.

I don't think I could have found a better camera in or above it's price range overall, and I hope to stay in the MFT family for awhile!

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A few questions though:

1. I do occasionally shoot in auto mode, but I don't see a way to change the ISO limit. It appears stuck at 1600. Is there any way to change this?
2. Is there a panorama feature?
3. Is there a DRO feature? Sony cameras have this, a different process from HDR that offers more dynamic range.
4. Any upcoming PEN cameras being released? I hope to eventually move to the E-PL5 successor when they add wifi and nfc.

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On lenses:

I'm generally a prime shooter, and shoot between 28-35mm (35mm equiv), so I've been heavily considering the Panasonic 14mm F2.5. I was about to order one..... until I saw the almost nonstop praise for the Olympus 17mm f1.8

I generally use my cameras for food photography, night street photography, and general weekend & travel walkaround.

My questions are:

1. How fast is the AF speed of either lens? I got into MFT because of speed, so I'd like to pick the faster focusing lens if possible.
2. Focal Length aside, How drastic is the difference between the pany's f2.5 and oly's f1.8?
3. Will I notice a big difference between my kit @14mm f3.5 and the pany's f2.5?
4. How close can the olympus focus? What about the panasonic? I don't expect 1-2" away, but I often take pictures of a bowl/plate of food directly in front of me. So the closer the better
5. Does the olympus perform significantly better than the panasonic? I'd prefer to have a light pancake, bit if the olympus is that good, then I don't mind the extra size and weight.
6. Subjective question, is the olympus 17mm f1.8 worth double the price of the panasonic 14mm f2.5?

Thank You for listening everyone!

From what I've read, the Sigma 19mm 2.8 is a very good lens and reasonable also.

Joel

There is no reason not to go for the 14 as well as the 17.

Other than the two body cap lenses, the 14 is the smallest m4/3 lens making the EPM2/14mm a very small package. I have my 14mm f2.5 attached to my EPM1.

The 14 and 17 are very similar in IQ and AF speed  - very fast. The main difference being the 1 stop in aperture. They are both good lenses but, neither is as good as they could have been. The 17 is 1 stop faster which usually means a slight reduction in IQ compared to what it could have been if it were f2.5. This, therefore, is why I say they are much about the same. Neither are as good as the 20 f1.7.

Is the 14mm f2.5 better than the 14-42mm kit at 14? Well that depends on how good that particular kit lens is. There was little IQ difference between my 14mm and my kit 14-42 IIr. At 17, the 17 f1.8 is better than the kit.

Allan

Thanks Joel!

I was considering the Sigma because it appears to perform very well optically for the price. However, I've also heard, like tomtom, that AF is on the slow side. I'll need to do more research.

This is what I love about MFT, there are so many good options, all with their own strengths and weaknesses and all, ultimately, will work incredibly well.

May need to see how the 15mm pany does

In this case, it appears that the 17mm may be a more reasonable upgrade from the kit. Too bad the 14mm isn't 1.7. The upcoming 15mm sounds nice too, but it'll be in the $500-600 range for awhile.

Need to look around for a deal on the 17mm

Tonkotsu Ramen wrote:

Another question is, is there a way to have the camera automatically create daily or monthly folders?

I haven't been able to find the option and they're all thrown into the same folder for now. Would be helpful is possible.

Since you'll require Olympus Viewer 3 (OV3) to do Panorama stitching, you can also use it to organise your photos by putting them in subfolders based on the date (YYYY_MM_DD) upon import. There are also options to rename the files during import but there aren't as many options as something like Lightroom.

And if you're considering shooting RAW, OV3 uses the same JPEG engine on the camera. It's slower than LR5 (which I use to import my photos) but since I prefer the "Olympus Colours" from OOC JPEGs and OV3, I put up with it and it runs acceptably on my PC (quad-core with 6GB of RAM).

Check this blog to see samples of the E-PM2 sensor and OV3 for street shooting:

http://robinwong.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/olympus-pen-e-pl5-review-street.html

I also own a couple of ART series Sigma primes and haven't noticed any differences in focus speed compared to the 14-42 IIR and 40-150 lenses I used to own. I was actually slower on the 14-42 since I always forgot to unlock the lens first

The Sigma 30 is also more quiet than the 14-42 in AF-C video which was suprising. I'll be getting my hands on another 14-42, I might try it again.

Yes! hello!

I think it is because we both have a type of camera in mind that we want, and haven't exactly found it yet.

It's ok though, it takes trial and error to get to the right mix of cameras/systems, though the continual buying and selling is getting old for me.

The E-PM2 is much closer to what I had in mind when I first started this photographic journey. It is also one of the best mix of features for the price, though I wish it had come with the 14mm pancake instead of the kit. Nothing wrong with the kit, but most of my shooting is done in low light.