Photography News Issue 30

Camera test 83

Photography News Issue 30 absolutephoto.com

Performance: profilemodes

The PEN-F is the first Olympus to sport Color and Mono profile modes. In fact, it is the first time picture modes that are customisable to this degree have appeared. In both settings up to three different profiles can be stored so no problem if you set up one each for scenics, portraits and street, for example. For this test, to give an idea of the actual effect, I shot a datacolor SpyderCheckr test chart with a LEDdaylight-balanced lighting panel. In the pictures titled Go wild and Filter it, a close-up of the camera’s monitor shows the profile settings used. The shots are straight-out-of-the-camera JPEGs. For Go wild, I went for extreme settings in the Color Profile mode to ensure the differencescouldbeseeninprint.Essentially I boosted the red sector and parts of the light blue spectrum to +5 while taking all the other colours including the darker blue zone down to -5. As you can see, there’s plenty of potential to create an individual look and the effects are not too extreme. With the Mono Profile, you can see that the use of a strong red filter did exactly what a red filter used with monochrome film should do, ie. transmit red light so the red patch is very pale while green and blue light is blocked out so the relevant colour patches are almost black. With Raw files, the profile data is embedded into the file and in Olympus Viewer 3, the image can be processed with the same settings used on the JPEG – or you can tinker to your heart’s desire. Left The Color Profile mode is clever and useful but if you are expecting massive colour swings you are likely to be disappointed. But there is a change (whether is noticeable in print here is another matter) and viewing the JPEGs on screen, the shot with its blues turned up did look different from the straight i-Enhance picture.

Control Shot in iEnhance mode, no colour profile setting applied

All change You can also universally change the vividness of all 12 colours at one time

Contrast tweak Profiles can be tweaked further with the Highlight/Shadow control

Gowild Light blues and reds set to a high vivid setting and taken down

Straightmono This was with the mono mode with no internal filter applied

Filter it Color Filter Red at +3 to lighten reds and darken blues and greens

The three blues were set to their most vivid

Taken in normal i-Enhance mode

Performance: image stabilisation

Verdict

Olympus uses a five-axis IS system and very effective it is too. For my test I took handheld pictures of Worthing Pier five times with the focal plane shutter at each speed from 1/10sec to 1/30sec using the Olympus 14-150mm f/4- 5.6 at 150mm – so equivalent to 300mm in the 35mm format. It was a calm day and I was standing on sandy beach. I didn’t expect too much at 1/10sec but three out of five were very sharp when viewed on-screen at 100%. It was a similar scene at 1/15sec and by 1/20sec and 1/30sec success rate was even higher. Of course, all sorts of variables kick in with IS but I was impressed with the PEN- F’s system and when needed it allows sharpshooting at remarkably slow shutter speeds. There’s also the option of the vibration- free electronic shutter that can help even more when shooting at slow shutter speeds. In sum, the PEN-F’s IS system showed itself to be very capable. Right Excellent sharpness with the help of the PEN-F’s IS system. Shot with the Olympus 14-150mm f/4-5.6 at 150mm, 1/10sec at f/13 and ISO 200.

Features A potent mix designed to appeal to keen as well as more casual, wannabe shooters Performance Impressive in every department so nomoans here Handling Lovely, positive controls, lengthy menu structure a minus though Value formoney Its £999 body price does make it the most expensive Olympus Micro Four Thirds in the shops Overall Highly priced but highly specified and its looks will appeal tomany potential buyers Pros Color and Mono profile modes, retro looks, performance, image quality, tiltable monitor Cons Price I got consistently accurate exposures in a wide range of lighting conditions, the AF was swift and accurate and auto white-balance was almost always on the money. The five-axis IS system gave a good account of itself and the camera continued to deliver fine pictures in heavy rain too. In terms of ultimate image quality, the camera’s 20-megapixels resulted in excellent image quality even at ISO 3200 and there’s no problem getting large exhibition-quality prints. The Olympus PEN-F is a very fine camera and I loved using it. It is the most expensive Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera but I think it is worth the money. We all want different things from a camera but I reckon the Olympus PEN-F has most bases covered. If you want a great looking, very capable camera with enough fun features to explore, the PEN-F fits the bill nicely. If handsome good looks are secondary but the ability to deliver first-rate pictures time after time in all sorts of lighting comes first, the PEN-F delivers here too. 24/25 24/25 24/25 22/25 94/100