Travel Photography - Olympus unveils new Micro Four Thirds cameras

Olympus announced today three new Micro 4/3 cameras, the E-PM1, E-PL3 and E-P3. More details, including pricing and specs, can be found e.g. here (http://bit.ly/iyPQHn).

Cheers,
T.

The AF speed is supposed to be amazing. If THIS had been the camera they came out with a couple years ago, my decision would have been a lot easier, and I would have bought a PEN instead of the GF1, as my major concerns with the PEN lineup were poky AF (well, performance in general) and no built in flash (or poor build quality on the EPL1 that DID have it).

Unfortunate that they use an old sensor, tweaks or no, as it doesn't quite address my main concern with m43 right now - not so great high ISO performance and not many fast aperture lenses to keep the ISO down (although, with the announcement of the 12/f2 and 45/f1.8, it appears they are now focusing on addressing that area. Panasonic has "encouraged" rumors of a f2/8ish 12-50 zoom)

The AF speed is supposed to be amazing. If THIS had been the camera they came out with a couple years ago, my decision would have been a lot easier, and I would have bought a PEN instead of the GF1, as my major concerns with the PEN lineup were poky AF (well, performance in general) and no built in flash (or poor build quality on the EPL1 that DID have it).

Unfortunate that they use an old sensor, tweaks or no, as it doesn't quite address my main concern with m43 right now - not so great high ISO performance and not many fast aperture lenses to keep the ISO down (although, with the announcement of the 12/f2 and 45/f1.8, it appears they are now focusing on addressing that area. Panasonic has "encouraged" rumors of a f2/8ish 12-50 zoom)

It's the same resolution, but by all accounts should be considered a new sensor, especially given the apparent improvement in dynamic range. In an absolute sense it is true that the micro43 sensors are not as good as larger format sensors in low light, but maybe the question one should ask is "Is it good enough for what I want to do?" Take a look at ISO 3200 samples for the Panasonic G3 and these new Olympus models. It will be interesting to see more comprehensive reviews as they come out.

I follow m43 pretty closely. There are a couple full reviews out now that show the noise performance is far behind the G3, and that the core of the sensor is the old one, maybe with a different Bayer filter array on the front. The processor attached to the sensor is a huge improvement.

That said, the image quality is certainly "good enough" - just not sufficiently different to encourage me dropping my GF1 and picking up one of these. If it had the noise performance of the G3, or better, I probably would have.

IMHO, m43 does represent the best travel camera option out there right now. Combining size/weight, image quality, and flexibility, it hits on all accounts creating the "jack of all trades" solution we often need traveling

Hi, I didn't mean to suggest that the "tweaked" Olympus sensor is the equal of the 16 MP Panasonic in the G3. I would still maintain that any combination of changes in the up-front elements (Bayer and anti-aliasing filters, microlenses) and light sensitive elements that result in better S/N and/or dynamic range is significant enough to warrant the term "new." But I agree that Olympus should be more aggressive in improving the sensors they use. Clearly they have been able to maintain their advantages in image processing; think of what they could do with a processor the equal of the G3's. I also agree with Thom Hogan that all other things being equal, more pixels are not direct determinants of image quality but can provide more information to improve image processing, resulting in better image quality.

FWIW I am still using E-510 and E-620, so I am aware of the limitations of the Olympus sensors.

I follow m43 pretty closely. There are a couple full reviews out now that show the noise performance is far behind the G3, and that the core of the sensor is the old one, maybe with a different Bayer filter array on the front. The processor attached to the sensor is a huge improvement.

That said, the image quality is certainly "good enough" - just not sufficiently different to encourage me dropping my GF1 and picking up one of these. If it had the noise performance of the G3, or better, I probably would have.

IMHO, m43 does represent the best travel camera option out there right now. Combining size/weight, image quality, and flexibility, it hits on all accounts creating the "jack of all trades" solution we often need traveling