Sophie and Izzy were kind enough to pose for photos taken with my new Olympus E-PL1. I should say up front that when it comes to photography, I only dabble. I'm just a hobbyist with little or no talent. I take 4000 photos when I go on vacation, occasional photos around town, etc. With that said, here's a brief mini review of this new camera. It's one of a class of new "Micro Four Thirds" cameras - a dSLR-like camera without an internal mirror. Here's a web page that discusses the Micro Four Thirds concept. This basically allows a much smaller, lighter camera body without sacrificing image quality. I think the name refers to the aspect ratio of the photos - 4:3 - unlike 35mm film cameras whose aspect ratios were 3:2. The 4:3 ratio is smaller than dSLR ratios but much larger than compact digital cameras. Not as large or heavy as a dSLR but with all the customization options, including ability to swap different lenses and full manual control that pricier cameras have.

 

There were complaints about the Olympus E-PL1's focus time being extraordinarily slow - in terms of digital cameras - around .5 seconds or more to get a focus lock and snap the picture, but a firmware update to ver 1.1 that came out in the last several weeks has all but removed that short-coming. So far I love the camera. The fact it also has the capability to film HD video in 720p is a nice added touch. Will write more later when I've had a chance to photograph something other than the dogs.