Olympus PEN E-P3 review

Could the PEN really be mightier?

Olympus PEN E-P3
The PEN P3 is the first Olympus PEN to feature a touchscreen

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Sunflower

Dramatic Tone Art filter with frame applied

Pink flower

At f/5.6 the background is nicely blurred here

Olympus pen e-p3 image

Colours are bright and punchy straight from the camera

Olympus pen e-p3 image

Shot at f/4 to limit depth of field. Taken with the new M. Zuiko 12mm f/2.0 lens and manually focussed on the eyelashes

Olympus pen e-p3 image

The ESP system puts in a good performance and colours look natural, yet vibrant

Olympus pen e-p3 image

The transition from light to dark along the cobbles has been well handled here

Olympus pen e-p3

The automatic white balance system hasn't been fooled by the warm tones of this bloom, or the mixed lighting

Olympus pen e-p3

Compare with the image below

Olympus pen e-p3

The shadow and highlight adjustment feature has been pushed to maximum to darken the highlights and brighten the shadows to produce this HDR-like image

Olympus pen e-p3

Taken with the same tonal adjustment options as the image above, to produce another low-contrast HDR image

Olympus pen e-p3

The Grainy Film Art Filter in action

Olympus pen e-p3

Pin hole and Crossed Processed Art Filters combined

Olympus pen e-p3

In reasonable light using ISO 3200 produces a pleasant level of farily uniform noise

Olympus pen e-p3

When light levels fall, JPEG images taken at ISO 6400 have slightly oversharpened edges and lack fine detail. There's also some mottling of red, green and blue

Olympus pen e-p3

ISO 6400

Olympus pen e-p3 sample image

Taken with the Pinhole art filter

Olympus pen e-p3 sample image

The art filters can now be applied in Aperture Priority and Shutter priority modes - allowing for more creativity.

Olympus pen e-p3 sample image

Cross process mode

Olympus pen e-p3 sample image

Black and white grain mode with frame applied

Olympus pen e-p3 sample image

Pinhole with grain applied

Olympus pen e-p3 sample image

Pop art with frame applied

Olympus pen e-p3 sample image

The super-quick autofocus allows for ultra quick focusing speeds