Olympus PEN E-P3 Review

The newest member of the Micro Four Thirds Olympus PEN family is without a doubt the company’s best model to date. I was fortunate enough to receive an Olympus PEN E-P3 well before the camera’s August release date in order to crank out this full review. At the end of my quest with the Olympus PEN E-P3, I was left in a mound of shrapnel from all of the exploding awesomeness that the camera succeeded in exuding throughout the course of my testing. Typically, a manufacturer will retain last year’s imaging sensor and throw in a few additional scene modes or manual controls. Not Olympus. The E-P3 is a radical divergence from the first and second-generation Olympus E-P1 and E-P2 cameras.

First off, the E-P3 utilizes a capacitive touchscreen LCD for particular menu operations, focusing, and touch capture. I was skeptical at first, but wait until you read of my findings. Olympus also tacked on a pop-up flash that was missing in action on the E-P2, and significantly fortified the camera’s Art Filter shooting mode. The addition of 1080i AVCHD video recording also graced the likes of the E-P3 in order to contend with Panasonic Micro Four Thirds machines like the Lumix DMC-GH2 and newly announced DMC-GF3. But the nacreous core of the Olympus E-P3 has been entirely revamped with a brand new 12MP Live MOS sensor and dual-core True Pic VI image processing. And how about the expanded 35-point AF, quicker focus times, manual controls in video mode, and, well, let’s just start the engine and Zamboni our way through the full review.

There has been a little further rejigging of the buttons on the back of the E-P3 since the E-P2. The auto exposure and auto focus lock (AEL/AFL) button has gone and the Menu, Info and Function buttons have been switched around. It shouldn't take users too long to get used to it, but it will make a slight difference.

It will be interesting to see how much difference the alternative grips make to the feel of the E-P3.

Touchscreen

The new PEN E-P3 is the first PEN from Olympus to feature a touchscreen. The E-P3 features touch AF, which instructs the camera to focus on the point in the scene chosen by a touch of a finger, and, like the Panasonic G3 and GF3, it also has a touch shutter.

Hopefully, the Anti-Fingerprint Coating will help keep the LCD smudge free so that provides a clear view in all lighting conditions.

Autofocus

Olympus shares technology with Panasonic, including the sensor in the new PEN E-P3, PEN Lite and PEN Mini. The Live MOS device has a fast read-out speed of 120fps, which helps to speed-up the contrast detection autofocus (AF) system.

Olympus claims that the TruePic VI processing engine inside its new PEN cameras is faster than Panasonic's Venus Engine VI FHD and it can therefore push the AF system further. As a result, Olympus claims that its new PEN cameras have the world's fastest AF when used with it's MSC (Movie Stills Compatible) optics. We will be putting this and the improved AF tracking ability to the test.

Olympus's TruePic VI processing engine is also claimed to decrease the length of time that the screen blacks-out between exposures, which should make shooting sport much easier.