Impulse buy

[Pjphoto59]

[Phill D]

Re: Impulse buy

Sounds like good logic to me, well done on getting that E-P3 off ebay for that price.

[greyhound]

Re: Impulse buy

It's nice when ebay purchases work out well. This sounds like a pretty good deal, particularly with the extras which would add a fair bit to the price if you had to buy them new. I once bought a job lot of old lenses which the seller said came in a bag. When they arrived it turned out the bag was a Billingham, worth more than the lenses!

[benvendetta]

Re: Impulse buy

Is the 14-42 Mark 2 version better than the Mark 1 in IQ?

[Ian]

Re: Impulse buy

Is the 14-42 Mark 2 version better than the Mark 1 in IQ?

They are pretty close - maybe the old version has a very slight edge. But I think this is more than out-weighed by the internal focusing and much faster (and quieter) focusing of the later lens.

Ian

[CJJE]

Re: Impulse buy

Snap!!

I spotted a Mint condition second-hand black E-P3 with 14-42mm lens at Mifsuds for £249.95, confirmed its condition and bought it last Monday... But when it arrived on Tuesday I found it was an E-PL3!! It certainly was in Mint condition, in its original box along with an extra battery and lens hood, but not what I wanted so I phoned them back to explain I'd been sent the wrong camera. I was hoping they'd just sent the wrong one since the website had certainly quoted it as an E-P3, but no joy. The guy I'd spoken to hadn't realised he was looking at an E-PL3 while I was asking about an E-P3!!

They told me to post it back and promised to refund my payment and postage costs. But I still wanted to replace my Lumix GF2 with a black E-P3, so I hit the websites again and found Jessops selling new black E-P3s with the 14-42mm lens for £399.99. (Why can't they just say £400??) It arrived this morning and looks great. Now all I've got to do is get it set up as I want and it'll be a great supplement to my E-M5!

The LCD screen looks sharp, but I'll be thinking about the new VF-4 viewfinder for times when the sun washes out the LCD screen. (And wondering why Olympus never supply lens pouches, lens hoods or viewfinder cases like Panasonic do!) The 14-42mm lens even comes with a rather shoddy push-on rear cap rather than the usual bayonet fitting rear caps on my other Olympus lenses!

Just in time for my hols!!

Chris

[Pjphoto59]

Re: Impulse buy

I took the new E-P3 out for a trial run today.

It seems slightly chunkier and heavier than the E-P2. Focus is very fast.

The IQ is very good indeed.

One rather disconcerting thing is that after making an exposure, the screen "black out" is a lot longer than it is on the E-P1/2.

It seems as if there is a delay in the shutter re-opening after the exposure. No adverse effect on image.

I tried changing from a 20 MB/sec SD card (class 6) to 45MB/sec (class 10) but no obvious difference. Is this normal E-P3 behaviour?

[CJJE]

Re: Impulse buy

The screen blackout on mine is also noticeable - and perhaps slightly longer than on my E-M5 - so it is probably normal behaviour for the E-P3. It does not seem to be related to the writing of images to the memory card so a faster card is not likely to affect it. (I think one of the reviews at the time commented on it too.) Interestingly, if you set it to sequential shooting, the screen does not black out after very briefly blinking for the first image. But if you pan, then you realise that the screen is just frozen for probably the same time interval!

I'm finding the rear screen surprisingly good in today's sunshine, so can afford to delay my purchase of the new VF-4 (in the hope prices will drop...)

But the screen does seem to protrude a bit, making it rather vulnerable. Luckily a spare screen protector that I bought for my E-M5 is a perfect fit. As is my LowePro Apex 100 AW case when I'm only carrying the E-P3 and 14-42.

One thing I'm struggling with is where to place the righthand strap and still get my finger on the shutter button! The best I can come up with is to have the strap hanging down under my palm when I'm holding the camera.

[Pjphoto59]

Re: Impulse buy

Chris,

I have tried firing the shutters with no lens on, and the E-P3 seems to pause before re-opening the shutter while the E-P1/2 does not. This seems rather strange as in every other way the E-P3 has souped up performance compared with its predecessors. It seems to lose this delay when in continuous shooting

It is reassuring to know that you find it slower too. I will get used to it, and in any case the IQ is excellent, so nothing wrong with the shutter function.

The biggest and best difference I have found with the E-P3 is the Truepic VI image processing. I always found my E5 to be much better than the early PENs and the E-P3 seems just as good.

The LCD is much better than the earlier models, but nowhere near as good as the one on the Sony RX100. There is no provision for any kind of VF on the Sony so it had to be good or I would never have bought one. I have the VF2 on the E-P3, very contrasty, but a large clear view of what you are going to get.

I never noticed any problem with the strap, I do hope I don't get paranoid about it now...

[Pjphoto59]

Re: Impulse buy

One thing I'm struggling with is where to place the righthand strap and still get my finger on the shutter button! The best I can come up with is to have the strap hanging down under my palm when I'm holding the camera.

Chris

Did you mean a neck strap?

If so, I checked how I do it:

(1) Camera hanging on neck strap. Thumb on the speaker, first finger on shutter, strap coming up between thumb and forefinger. Other 3 fingers hold the grip.

(2) Raise the camera to viewing position. Strap slackens and drapes over back of hand. Not in the way of anything.

Works for me...

With a wrist strap I am less organised as it is usually hanging loose producing many works of photographic art with a mysterious black snake on the right hand side

[CJJE]

Re: Impulse buy

Hi Peter,

With a neck strap I find the strap is hanging where I want to put my first finger on the shutter, but I tend to use a wrist strap instead and have that trapped between my palm and the camera side instead.

I avoid the problem with my E-M5 as it has the add-on hand grip fitted so the second shutter button is a lot further forward!

Chris

[Ulfric M Douglas]

Re: Impulse buy

Those of you with both e-P1 & 2 and a new e-P3 : can you explain what's better about the new screen?
I really like the screens on my old Pens for reviewing, absolutely hate the letterbox on the tiny e-pM1 ...

[Pjphoto59]

Re: Impulse buy

Ulfric,

I can't explain what is better, but I can say what is different.

The E-P3 has a screen which gives a 4:3 picture size 5.5cm x 4cm.

The E-P1/2 has a screen which gives a 4:3 picture size 6cm x 4.5cm.

The reason for this seems to be to give improved viewing for 16:9 video, as the E-P1/2 gives a view 6m wide, but on the E-P3 it is 6.5cm.

The E-P3 has about 3 times as many pixels, which I find makes little practical difference

The E-P3 screen is finger print resistant (to some extent).

The problem with all the screens comes when you try to use them against the light when all you see is a reflection of yourself especially if, like me, you tend to wear gaudy check shirts. A matt black shirt would be better.

The E-P3 deals with this against the light situation a bit better but not much...

[CJJE]

Re: Impulse buy

I've never used the Pen E-P1 or 2, but found the E-PL3 I was sent by mistake had a very poor screen as it was a 3 inch 16:9 screen so my 4:3 or 3:2 pics had black bands either side and were much smaller than on the E-P3, E-M5 (or my previous GF2) which all have 3 inch 3:2 screens I believe,

I have attached an anti-reflective screen protector to both my E-M5 and new E-P3 which goes a long way to stopping my reflection taking over the screen!

Chris

[Ulfric M Douglas]

Re: Impulse buy

Peter thanks, so you're saying the picture on the e-P3's screen is actually smaller than the older Pens (in 4:3 naturally).
So I might ... like it less if I got one? I use the screen for playback mostly, using the VF-2 for taking photos.