Combine the large sensor and interchangeable lenses of a digital SLR with the compact portability of a point-and-shoot, and you get something that looks a lot like the Olympus E-P1.
Cute, isn’t it?
The E-P1 is a design homage to the Olympus Pen F, so unofficially Olympus is calling it the “Digital Pen,” which seems like a good nickname to us. Its steel-and-aluminum body has a retro chic look to it, right down to the faux-leather grip. It is sure to irritate almost everyone: photo snobs, film camera geeks, ordinary folks who don’t understand why it’s so expensive and rich guys who feel that serious cameras need to be big and heavy in proportion to their price tags. As for me, I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
The Pen F, first introduced in 1963, shot on 35mm film but used just half the usual frame, so you could fit 48 shots on a 24-frame roll. Its portability and good looks made it a bit of a cult favorite, eventually selling more than 17 million units across 17 different models, according to Olympus.
Similar to the Pen F, the widely-rumored and often-leaked Digital Pen shoots on a sensor that’s half the size of a 35mm film frame: in this case, an 18 x 13.5mm, 12 megapixel Four Thirds sensor (the same one used in the Olympus E620, a digital SLR). That sensor has 30-40% less imaging area than the APS-C sensors used in many digital SLRs, but it’s 9 times larger than the 5.76 x 4.29mm (aka 1/2.5″) sensors used in many compact cameras.
Sensor size matters: Generally speaking, the larger the image sensor, the less noise you get in the images it produces, particularly in low-light situations. But until recently, if you wanted a large sensor, you had to get a large camera.
With the E-P1, Olympus is making good on the promise of its Micro Four Thirds standard, which combines a Four Thirds sensor with a more compact body. They get the smaller body by eliminating the pentaprism-and-mirror mechanism common to single-lens-reflex cameras, effectively making this into a point-and-shoot style camera, where the light goes directly from the lens onto the sensor.
This cutaway illustration shows the internals of the Olympus E-P1, with the sensor directly behind the lens mount.
There are tradeoffs. With this camera, you lose the through-the-lens viewfinder of an SLR. In fact, the E-P1 doesn’t have a built-in optical viewfinder at all; you have to use the 3-inch LCD on the back. Hope the sun isn’t shining too brightly on that screen!
The camera doesn’t have a built-in flash. You have to use an optional additional flash, which connects to a hot shoe on the top.
Also, you have to hope this camera has a really fast shutter response. One of the attractions of a digital SLR is the speed at which its mechanical shutter responds when you press the shutter button — it’s nearly instantaneous, the way cameras are meant to be. By contrast, point-and-shoot cameras often have shutter lag, partly because of the time they spend focusing and partly because they don’t have actual, physical shutters.
The Olympus E-P1 will be available as a kit with two lens options: One is a 14-42mm, f3.5-5.6 zoom lens, and the other is a very compact 17mm, f2.8 prime lens that’s bundled with an optical “viewfinder” that slides into the hot shoe on the top of the camera (shown in the top photo here). That lens is equivalent to a 34mm lens on a regular film camera, and we’re guessing it will be a really fun one to use for candid street photography.
Olympus offers two lens mount adapters: the MMF-1 adapter will let you mount any Four Thirds system lens (currently, only Olympus, Panasonic and Sigma make these), and the MF-2 OM adapter will let you mount any legacy Olympus lens, going as far back as the 1972 OM-1 camera system.
One intriguing possibility: Panasonic makes adapters so you can mount Leica lenses on Micro Four Thirds cameras. Could you use one to put a Leica on your Olympus Digital Pen?
Abomination or lust-inducing temptation? We’ll leave that debate to the commenters.
For more photos of the EP-1, and details from the press release, see below.
Olympus offers an optional flash accessory that mounts on top of the camera and is "just cute as a button," according to an Olympus spokeswoman.
Size: 4.75″(W) x 2.75″ (H) x 1.43″ (D)
Weight: 11.8 ounces
Available in either silver or white
Accompanying new small and lightweight Olympus M. ZUIKO Micro Four Thirds lenses: 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 (28-84mm equivalent) and 17mm f2.8 (34mm equivalent).
Features:
➢ In-body Image Stabilization
➢ 3-inch LCD
➢ Dust Reduction System
➢ 12 megapixels with next-generation TruePic™ V
➢ HD video (1280 x 720 pixels, 30fps AVI) with high-quality stereo audio (44.1KHz, 16 bits per channel)
➢ In-camera creative features (for still images and video)
➢ Multiple exposures
➢ Multi-aspect shooting
➢ Multimedia slideshows
➢ Digital leveler
➢ Magnified focus assist
➢ 18×18 metering modes
➢ Small accessories
Availability
The Olympus E-P1 will be available in July 2009. It includes E-P1 Body, USB Cable, Video Cable, Li-Ion Battery Pack (BLS-1), Li-Ion Battery Charger (BCS-1), Shoulder Strap, OLYMPUS Master 2 Software CD-ROM, Manuals and Registration card.
U.S. Pricing / Product Configurations
Body only: $750
Body with ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens: $800
Body with ED 17mm f2.8 with optical viewfinder: $900
Two optional lens adapters let you mount legacy Olympus lenses or Four Thirds lenses onto the E-P1's Micro Four Thirds body.
The back of the Olympus "Digital Pen" is dominated by a 3-inch LCD. There's no optical viewfinder.
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