E-PL1 Questions from a Nikon DSLR user

Started Sep 7, 2010 | Discussions thread
Veteran MemberPosts: 3,168
Re: I'm not just talking about AF...
In reply to Sam Bennett, Sep 9, 2010

Sam Bennett wrote:

First off, I was not using AF-C when testing, and not in the video I posted. I love Face Detect and not using it just so that the camera will perform without lag isn't really an option - why would I do that when I already have a camera that performs the way I would expect? Look, if the lagginess thing isn't an issue for you - great! I'm not saying that the E-PL1 is a horrible camera and that anyone who owns one is a fool. It didn't work for my style of shooting - but that's just how I shoot, YMMV.

Exactly. If you wrote that face detect is unusable, I would not have an issue. I don't use face detect, so I can not tell. Maybe others would confirm/deny your experience. I use single frame autofocus and I don't see any lag at all in liveview . So it's not a matter of lag being unimportant, it is simply not there.

There's a difference between FPS performance and shot-to-shot performance. I'm not a "spray and pray" kind of guy - my problem with the E-PL1 is that it's hard to see what's going on through the LCD (even just for framing a non-"action" shot) due to the instable Live View feed and lengthy viewfinder blackout .

This I don't understand (the bold part) at all. The viewfinder blackout after shot is a fraction of a second. How can it prevent you from getting non-action shot ? What unstable liveview feed? You mean Live view is not stabilized as in IS not working in liveview? Otherwise live view on my E-PL1 is exactly what my lens sees at any given moment, not something it saw 2 seconds ago. There must be some major difference between out settings because I just don't understand what you are writing about. I really don't.

Spraying-and-praying doesn't help with that because the image displayed during that mode isn't what the camera is currently seeing. The GF1 has this same problem with Continuous drive mode - which is why I don't use it. You're absolutely right that the GF1 isn't a great tool for shooting "action" - but that's missing the point.

The point is that none of these cameras are very good at action and your best chance at getting an action shot is to set it to continuous drive, prefocus and jam the shutter. Maybe not your cup of tea, but that's how it is with these cameras.

While the E-PL1 has had improvements in terms of AF Speed, I haven't seen any evidence that it's improved in the other areas.

It's improved to the point of not getting in the way. I am not sure how it compares to GF-1 now. Essentially if you expect to capture fast changing action, you'd have to work around it's limitations. For anything else, it's just fine. Again, caveat is that I always use S-AF+MF.

Well, while we're on the subject - yes, the 1/2000th limit, in combination with the ISO 200 is a major PITA if you want to be able to use the 20mm f/1.7 outdoors, wide-open to get shallow DoF with carrying around a bunch of ND filters. But that's probably best for another thread.

Yeah, that's the silliness I was talking about. Actually any filter (not just ND) will take you to the same exposure as you'd get on GF-1. You need only one filter too as there is only one native fast lens. If all other problems that you are talking about are of the same magnitude...

I think it really depends on the situation, but shooting people in low light was problematic for me and the E-PL1/20mm combo. If you're shooting something in low light that has a lot of contrast, distinct highlights, etc. you may be fine.

It probably does, but I never had encountered the situation when this combo didn't work. Again, single frame AF is your friend.

Bringing this back to the OP... the above is my perspective as a Nikon dSLR shooter who bought in to MFT. Whether my criteria applies to the way the OP shoots is for him to decide. But facts are facts, and we should be afraid of acknowledging the facts of a situation.

The issue is that your facts do not match my facts. As if we were using 2 completely different cameras. So it's either settings issue or expectations issue or both.

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