Photography News 03

Camera review Olympus Stylus 1 Olympus classifies the Stylus 1 as a hybrid rather than a compact, and when you pick it up, you can see why. It feels more like a CSC, and it certainly wouldn’t fit in your pocket with the viewfinder on the top and large lens. But the design makes for excellent handling. The viewfinder is the same electronic unit found in the OM-D E-M5; it’s big, clear and gives an exact preview of the shot. As with Olympus’s CSCs, the controls are well thought out. There’s a ring on the lens, which can be used to control exposure settings, but also to zoom or focus manually. It even clicks when used as an aperture ring but moves smoothly as a focusing ring, and it makes the whole experience feel more natural if you’re used to DSLRs. There are three options for controlling the zoom in all, and the speed of zooming can be adjusted – this is indicative of the general flexibility in the controls. Not only are there two programmable Fn buttons, but three other preset buttons can be reprogrammed for a personalised set-up. The principles of Olympus’s Fast AF system in its CSCs has clearly been put to good use again in the Stylus 1, because it’s exceptionally quick to lock onto a subject – easily the fastest of the compacts in our group. The LCD is also a touch panel, so you can place the focus area, and even release the

Panasonic L-F1

As compact cameras go, you won’t find many smaller than the L-F1. It’s about the size of your typical sub-£100 compact, but offers much greater control. As you might expect on such a small body, there’s a general shortage of buttons and dials, but everything you need as a matter of course is within reasonably easy reach. A ring at the base of the lens substitutes for a main command dial and can be used to change aperture and shutter speed settings, while there’s exposure compensation on the control pad on the back. There’s a customisable Fn button on the back too, but the options for this are limited – for example, you can’t assign ISO to this button, leaving this in the quick menu with no possibility of direct access. Zooming is controlled with a lever around the shutter button, and it’s not easy to adjust this precisely. There is a clever Step Zoom option in the quick menu though, which allows you to select a specific focal length from a set of options to set the lens to. Impressively for a camera of this size, there is an electronic viewfinder, although it’s of limited use – so small you can’t see any detail, and it’s simpler to compose using the screen. Focusing in the L-F1 is quick and in fact, it nearly matched the exceptionally speedy

Olympus Stylus 1. The screen isn’t a touch panel, so you can’t place the focus area with your fingertips, but you can still move it to anywhere in the frame and you can adjust the size of the area too. If you switch to manual focus, then the lens ring becomes the focusing ring, although this feels a bit strange because it still clicks, and it’s not easy to judge focusing on-screen by eye, even with the help of magnification. The amount of detail in images is limited, but exposures, colours and dynamic range are all good – plenty of detail was retained in the shadows, even in JPEGs. Raw files contain a little more detail than JPEGs, but the difference is slight and only obvious on very close examination. ISO performance is reasonable too, with noise well controlled up to ISO 800. Above this, noise becomes more of an issue and really starts to eat away at the fine detail at ISO 3200 and above. The L-F1 doesn’t wow in any single aspect, but it puts in a steady all-round performance – plus its tiny size is convenient, and as one of the cheapest premium compacts around, it’s a bargain.

shutter if you wish, by touching the screen. Unfortunately, focus peaking hasn’t made its way across from the CSCs, so if focusing manually, magnification is your only aid. Such a big focal range without a huge lens is possible because the sensor is relatively small, and with this comes a compromise in image quality. Images are still good for this class of camera – they’re clean and punchy, but just lack a little clarity in the details. Slightly more detail can be drawn out of Raw files than the out-of-camera JPEGs, but the difference is minimal. Considering the sensor size, ISO performance is good. Above ISO 400, images start to get grainy, but it’s bearable up to ISO 1600. Go beyond ISO 3200 though, and there’s almost no detail left, and the images take on a global colour cast. The handling, zoom range and technology are excellent, but it’s worth bearing in mind that Olympus’s smallest CSCs, such as the E-PM2, offer better image quality and interchangeable lenses for a smaller price.

SPECS

SHOOTING SPEEDS Single, continuous 10fps LCD SCREEN 3in with 920k dots STORAGE SD, SDHC, SDXC DIMENSIONS 102.5x62.1x27.9mm WEIGHT 192g including battery and memory card

AUTOFOCUSMODES Normal, AF macro, macro zoom, manual EXPOSURE COMPENSATION +/-2EV in 1/3EV steps, AEB 3 frames, in 1/3, 2/3 or 1EV steps SHUTTER 250secs-1/4000sec METERING PATTERNS Intelligent multiple, centre- weighted, spot

PRICE £280 CONTACT www.panasonic.co.uk SENSOR 1/1.7in 12.1-megapixel MOS with Venus Engine IMAGE DIMENSIONS 4000x3000 pixels ISORANGE 100-6400 (100-12,800 extended)

SHOOTING SPEEDS Single, continuous 7fps LCD SCREEN 3in with 1040k dots STORAGE SD, SDHC, SDXC, UHS-I compatible DIMENSIONS 116.2x87.0x56.5mm WEIGHT 402g including battery and memory card

AUTOFOCUSMODES Single, continuous, tracking, face detection, macro, manual EXPOSURE COMPENSATION +/-3EV in 1/3EV steps, AEB 2-3 frames in 1/3, 2/3 or 1EV steps SHUTTER 60secs-1/2000sec METERING PATTERNS Digital ESP, centre-weighted average, spot

PRICE £549 CONTACT www.olympus.co.uk SENSOR 1/1.7in 12-megapixel BSI CMOS

with TruePic VI engine IMAGE DIMENSIONS 3968x2976 pixels ISORANGE 100-3200 (100-12,800 extended)

PROS Very small and light, fast focusing CONS Smallness restricts handling a little

PROS Flexibility in handling, huge zoom range, fast focusing, viewfinder CONS Sensor size limits image quality, no focus peaking

Image quality and ISO performance

ISO 100

ISO 800

ISO 100

ISO 800

RAWDETAIL

ISO 3200

ISO 12,800

ISO 3200

ISO 12,800

JPEGDETAIL

RAWDETAIL

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Issue 3 | Photography News