Olympus E-PL1 DLSR Review

Weighing only .75 lbs and containing TruePic V Image processor, the Olympus E-PL1 DLSR takes amazing pictures, records HD movies and features creative effects. Kevin Pereira and Alison Haislip review this versatile camera which comes in at a pricepoint of $530.

What You Need To know

• This camera is a lot smaller than your typical DSLR.
• It's about 5" across and 3" deep with the lens fully retracted.
• It weighs under a pound and is especially easy to carry for long periods of time.
• It's about as good as the last Olympus camera we reviewed.
• The buttons are a little cramped, since they're supposed to be where your hand is.
• There's a pop-up flash and the LCD screen is a little smaller.
• They've added features like one-touch movie record, an improved Live Guide (which helps you adjust photo settings) and brought back the art filters, all of which work pretty well.
• Recording movies could not be easier: just tap the big red button and it starts shooting.
• You can even take a picture while you're recording.
• The Live Guide is also helpful for people just starting out in photography.
• It allows you to change the saturation, brightness and other settings easily.
• Art filters like Pop Art, Soft Focus and Gentle Sepia are fun to use, and you can apply them to video.
• The camera may stutter a little with some of them but overall, the features are solid.
• The image quality is just as good as a normal DLSR.
• Normal light photos look really great: colors are extremely accurate and look amazing.
• There might be a tendency to overexpose a little, but otherwise, it's perfect.
• Lowlight photos are good but they blur easily.
• Pictures look great with the flash, which doesn't overexpose.
• One other catch is the auto-focus is still too slow, which is common in these Olympus cameras.
• They did up the continuous shooting rate to over 3 fps, though.

Price

• $530.00

Rating

• 5 Seals of Approval out of 5. (How do we rate gadgets?)

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