The Olympus E-PL2 is the very latest arrival in the CSC market and is the fourth member of the ‘PEN’ series. Designed just like the E-PL1 was, to be an affordable solution to plug the gap between a compact and a D-SLR, the Olympus E-PL2 isn’t produced to replace the E-PL1 but sits between it and the E-P2 in the current ‘PEN’ line up.
The refreshed design is very easy on the eye and it adopts handy features that were unveiled on the E-PL1, such as a pop-up flash and dedicated movie record button. The Olympus E-PL2 features the same 12.3Mp Micro FourThirds sensor as in the E-PL1, so is a bit smaller than the APS-C chip found in rival CSCs however the 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens has been revamped and uses a quicker internal focusing mechanism to speed up AF and is designed to operate quietly.
There are seven Olympus lenses currently available for the E-PL2, but as Micro FourThirds is a universal mount it opens the door to using the body with the Panasonic range of lenses, too. The type of mount means it shoots natively in the 4:3 aspect, although it can shoot at 3:2, 16:9 and square format, and the 14-42mm kit lens we tested it with became a film-equivalent 28-84mm with the 2x crop factor taken into consideration.
The ISO range of 200-6400 is 1-stop better than the E-PL1’s at the high end, and at the rear it’s good to see the screen has been improved by making it fit flush to the body. It now features a 460K dot resolution.
HandlingIn the hand, the Olympus E-PL2 feels solid with its greatly improved rubberised handgrip. The disadvantage here is that the buttons seem slightly small and we found it rather awkward to use, due to its small size.
For AF, the E-PL2 uses a contrast-detect system and there’s the option of single AF, continuous AF, AF tracking and Face Detection with iDetect – a new function that makes your subject’s eyes the point of focus. The AF performance is much improved over the E-PL1 and clearly shows less signs of hunting, but is not so speedy when it comes to locking on.
If you like to get creative, there’s an Art option on the Mode dial for adding effects such as grain and soft focus, as well as 22 Scene modes for everything from night shots to high-key pictures.
The M,A,S,P modes give you the chance to get adventurous with settings and the central OK button inside the D-Pad is great for accessing commonly used settings like ISO and metering options.
If you’d like an electronic viewfinder to go with it, the EV-2 viewfinder is compatible, but costs a steep £225!
SPECIFICATIONStreet price (with kit lens): £529
Resolution: 12.3Mp (4032x3042)
Lens mount: Micro FourThirds
Focal length magnification: 2x
Additional viewfinder: VF-2 (£175)
Focusing: Contrast-detect AF system
Anti-shake: Two-dimensional Sensor-shift
Burst rate: 3fps
Write times: 2secs (RAW) 1.5secs (JPEG)
ISO range: 200-6400
Shutter range: 60secs-1/4000
Monitor: 3.0in, 460k dots
Video: 1280x720
Storage: SD/SDHC/SDXC
Weight: 317g (body only)
Dimensions: 115.4x72.7x42mm
www.olympus.co.uk