The Olympus E-PL3 is smaller and lighter than its predecessor but is it a better camera?
While Olympus' E-P3 looks nearly identical to its predecessor, the new E-PL3 has had a radical reduction in size and design over the E-PL2.
Part of a trio of new cameras announced recently - the third being the entry-level Micro Four Thirds E-PM1 - the E-PL3 features many of the innovations of the E-P3, but with fewer buttons and generally targeted towards the point-and-shoot crowd. In fact, while the redesign looks really good, there's a bit of give and take if you compare the E-PL3 with its predecessor or even with the E-P3.
Build it and they will come
WASTED SPACE: The E-PL3 has a flip out LCD screen with the 16:9 aspect ratio, which means that displaying Four Thirds images will leave black bars on the side. While the E-PL2 seems like a more blocky E-P2/E-P3, the E-PL3 has been designed to look more like a high-quality compact camera, with a brushed metal finish on the front and a body that's been slimmed down in almost all dimensions.
We daresay it looks really good - we put the camera in the hands of a few people and they all liked it and some were even surprised that it was an interchangeable lens camera.
NOT BUILT IN: In an effort to slim down the Pen Lite series, the E-PL3 is shipped with a clip-on flash. One of the main drawbacks of this redesign is that the flash is no longer built into the camera - instead, the E-PL3 is bundled with a tiny add-on flash that fits into the flash hotshoe and uses the accessory port for power and sync.
Since the flash is bundled together, it's not that bad, but it also means you can't use the accessory port for any other accessory (such as the add-on Electronic Viewfinder) while the flash is in use.
However, it's a bit of give and take - the E-PL3's most interesting feature is that it comes with a positionable 3in LCD on the back which you can tilt upwards or downwards (although you can't rotate it forwards).
The LCD is very useful for low angle work, or if you want to be unobtrusive when shooting pictures. Strangely enough, though the display is 3in like on the E-P3, the aspect ratio is 16:9 widescreen instead of the 3:2 aspect ratio of the E-P3.
It also goes for a more common non-touchscreen LCD instead of the brilliant OLED touchscreen display of the E-P3.
We did say it's a bit of give and take, didn't we?
We don't really have many complaints about the LCD on the E-PL3 (in fact, we love that it's tiltable) but there is one - the 16:9 aspect ratio is great when you're shooing movies on the E-PL3, but when you are in 4:3 still image mode, only a tiny centre portion of the display is used for reviewing images and in Live View mode.
So in effect, the 16:9 aspect ratio of the LCD means that when viewing in 4:3 aspect ratio, you get a vastly reduced size display compared with the previous E-PL2 and the new E-P3.
Internally, the E-PL3 is mostly good because it shares the same excellent 12.3-megapixel image sensor as the E-P3 with very good high ISO performance.
It also comes with a similar autofocus system to the E-P3, which means it's pretty darned fast. In practice, though, while we found the autofocus fast, it wasn't always as accurate as the E-P3.
Perhaps this can be fixed in future firmware, but we did get a few out-of-focus shots even though the camera was set to focus priority (i.e. the shutter is supposed to trip only when the camera achieved focus.)
The upside is that the E-PL3 has a slightly different continuous shooting speed - it can achieve 4.1fps (frames per second) in continuous burst or an even speedier 5.5fps with image stabilisation turned off.
The E-P3 can only do 3fps, but it seems to focus a bit faster and produces more in-focus shots than the E-PL3, in our opinion.
There is a mode dial on top and the standard navigation wheel and buttons on the back.
Although the screen is not touch-sensitive, Olympus' menu system makes it quite easy to change most of the important settings with a minimum of fuss using the navigation wheel, unlike the Panasonic GF3's completely touch-driven interface which can drive you crazy if you are not used to it.
AT YOUR FINGERTIPS: Unlike the GF3, the E-PL3 has a more traditional mode dial and push button controls. Quality
In terms of image quality, the E-PL3 is pretty much identical to the E-P3, which is to say that it produces some excellent quality at low ISO settings.
Images were excellent at ISO 200 and as you push the ISO settings up, it was still pretty usable all the way to ISO 1,600.
ISO 3,200 is where it starts getting too noisy for very critical use. Sharpness and detail was very good between ISO 200 to ISO 1600.
Like the E-P3, you get a proper video mode with stereo microphones and the option of shooting in AVCHD or MotionJPEG in full HD (1,920 x 1,080-pixels, interlaced, at 60fps).
Unfortunately, there is no option to add an external microphone on the camera, although you can buy an optional microphone input (the SEMA-1) that will fit the accessory port. Overall, video quality is vastly improved over the last generation, although there is still quite a bit of the "jelly" effect when you pan the camera.
Conclusion
Overall, the Olympus Pen E-PL3 scores points for build quality and usability - the front is mostly made of metal, and the menus and push buttons make it easy to change important settings quickly.
How does it fare against its more expensive older sibling, the E-P3? The E-PL3 is smaller, produces practically identical image quality, but gives up a bit in terms of usability and not having a built-in flash.
So, if you like to have all important controls right at your fingertips and fast autofocus, we'd say go for the E-P3, but if you are more of a point-and-shoot photographer, then the E-PL3 should serve you fine and yet still give you most of the control if you want it.
Pros: Fast autofocus; speedy shooting speeds; very good image quality; excellent build quality.
Cons: Autofocus is not always as accurate as E-P3.
Pen E-PL3
(Olympus Corp)
Digital camera with interchangeable lens
SENSOR: 12.3-megapixels (4,032 x 3,024-pixels)
LENS: Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens mount
SHUTTER: 60sec - 1/4,000sec
ISO RANGE: 200 - 12,800
EXPOSURE MODES: iAuto, P, S, A, M
VIEWFINDER: 3.0in 16:9 aspect ratio, tilt function
BATTERY: 1,150mAh lithium-ion
STORAGE: SDXC
INTERFACE: USB 2.0
OTHER FEATURES: Built-in image stabilisation, accessory port for external EVF, accessory flash included
DIMENSIONS (W X H X D): 10.9 x 6.4 x 3.7cm
WEIGHT: 313g (with battery)
PRICE: RM2,499 (with M. Zuiko Digital 14-42mm II R lens)
RATING: 4.0
Review unit courtesy of Olympus (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, (03) 6203-3882
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