The Pen is mightier than ....

[gstark]

Dunno yet. It just arrived: courier delivery at 18:30 on a Friday evening. A review unit of the new Olympus Pen F.

Complete with both kit lenses, according to the box. I'll be opening that up later this evening (after a gourmet dinner of fish fingers and a glass of chateau cardboard), charging the flatteries, and then having a play with it over the weekend.

Provided I can keep Leigh's mitts off it.

Also lined up for review in upcoming weeks are the D300s and the P1000pj, and the new Dell Ultrasharp U2410.

While they're officially for the Gadget Grill, the first details and impressions will be published here.

And for those who want to look at all of the images from last Sunday's street shooting exercise in Newtown, they're here.

[chrisk]

cool bannanas. look forward to your views on AF especially.

[Reschsmooth]

cool bannanas. look forward to your views on AF especially.

Precisely. And also the lens review.

[surenj]

Waiting for the Dell to be reviewed....

[Matt. K]

Gary
You will have to give the Pen back when you're finished. Don't get too attached to it.

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[DaveB]

A review unit of the new Olympus Pen F.

WTF?
The Pen F was last manufactured in 1966 (superceded by the Pen FT and Pen FV I believe).

You mean the Digital Pen E-P1, no?

I meant to ask about that before: the Bargains page lists the "Olympus Pen F", at what seems to obviously be a "collector's price" for a 45+ year old camera.
(It was the older Pen [no F] camera with fixed lens that was introduced in 1959, thus Olympus' claim of 50 years)

[gstark]

A review unit of the new Olympus Pen F.

WTF?
The Pen F was last manufactured in 1966

I was wondering how long it would take people to notice these.

First impressions are quite good. It certainly feels like a very solid little camera. Construction is such that it feels like a small brick; too big and heavy for a pocket, even with just the 17mm fitted. With the rangefinder, the shape becomes somewhat awkward for pocketing anyway; I was kind of hoping that this wouldn't be the case, but for me, this is not a downside.

It's not yet ventured outside to see the light of day, but AF speed seems reasonable. This seems to me to be a good implementation of live view. I think Nikon have taken the CLS approach and way over-complicated how LV works, whereas on cameras like the CP5000, it was very simple. Slow, but simple. As such, I've yet to be able to master this on the Nikons in a manner that's truly practical from a usability sense (I've yet to understand a need for the manner in which it's been implemented) and this seems to me to be better.

No doubt this is "you'll get used to it" thing, but the on/off switch is a push button, on the camera's top plate, right next to the shutter release button. Smaller, with a slightly raised illuminated (when the camera is turned on) ring surrounding it, but otherwise flush with the top plate (shutter is raised), but I don't like it. I suspect that it might be confusing for users, who might inadvertently switch the camera off when trying to make an image, or when trying to adjust EV compensation, for which there's a similar button on the other side of the shutter button. I would prefer some sort of a proper two position switch.

Otherwise, control layout seems quite good. The command dial reminds me of some old cigarette lighters, and falls directly under a path that your thumb passes by when needing to change stuff. Follow that path to the right for this thumbwheel; towards the left for pretty well most of the rest of the controls that live to the right of the nice 3" LCD.

The only controls that are outside of this region are the shooting mode dial, which is under your left thumb, and the aforementioned EV compensation button, located on the extreme top right of the top plate.

I'm not yet sure about the command dial on the back, to the right of the LCD screen, either. I've not yet familiarised myself with the scope of the various controls offered on this dial, but initial thoughts are that it's very comprehensive, but overly sensitive. I'm seeing - and remember that I've not even opened the manual yet - that I can change ISO, WB and aperture values using this control, depending upon how and where I press and then turn it. And there's the issue I think I may be experiencing: in order to turn it, you need to press it just a little, which changes its mode. Very early days of course, and I want to see if this is just me and a heavier-than-needed-thumb, or something beyond me.

Oh yes, the review unit came with a 4GB SD card ... by Panasonic.

[Killakoala]

I thought it was a pen. Now you're telling me it's a camera? All we need now is for Sony to bring out the new Sony Sword F, and you know where I'm going with this so I will stop.

[surenj]

Gary,

When I was using this camera at PMA, I couldn't figure out how to change the shutter speed. The sales guy couldn't either!

[gstark]

I thought it was a pen. Now you're telling me it's a camera? All we need now is for Sony to bring out the new Sony Sword F, and you know where I'm going with this so I will stop.

We're expecting to have a Sony Sword F BluRay player for review as soon as the new models become available. Along with a Bravia TV of some sort.

Suren,

There are several settings that make this rather interesting, including a very unusual reaction from the camera's facial recognition system. I think that by using the secondary control on the back ... but it's also mode dependant. Leigh keeps on switching this back to PHD mode.

But the manual focus mode is very interesting: it automagically switches into a digital zoom mode to help you fine focus on your subject. The implementation of this is very elegant.

In-camera black and white is quite nice, with good levels of contrasts available. And you have a variety of shooting formats available to you as well. You can even shoot square format, in the camera. Interestingly, IIRC, they call this 6x6, but of course, it is not.

I will say that we both do like this camera, although we've not yet moved any images across to a PC to pixel peep at what it's producing.

[Greg B]

The Pen is mightier

Wait...

Do you have a penis mightier?






A very old gag from the Jeopardy spoofs on SNL.
You can hear it here if you like, ignore the video
but enjoy the audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwgvU_YaG4Q

[gstark]

The Pen is mightier

Wait...

Do you have a penis mightier?

The camera does have image stabilisation, but I'm stuffed if I can understand why they don't mention this in the camera's name ...

Olympus PenIS E-P1 seems to have a certain ....

Especially given the way the zoom lens extends when the camera gets turned on.

[aim54x]

PenIS EP-1!!!!

but Olympus never mentions IS in the name...that is a Canon thing

[surenj]

Especially given the way the zoom lens extends when the camera gets turned on.

[who]

We're expecting to have a Sony Sword F BluRay player for review as soon as the new models become available. Along with a Bravia TV of some sort.

I'll expect to see it in a bit over 6 months time I reckon

[gstark]

Waiting for the Dell to be reviewed....

It arrived on Monday.

First impressions are, as y'all know, quite important. In this instance, those first impressions may best be described in just one word: wow!

Leigh's in love!

[gstark]

We're expecting to have a Sony Sword F BluRay player for review as soon as the new models become available. Along with a Bravia TV of some sort.

I'll expect to see it in a bit over 6 months time I reckon

Ian, that may well be the case. Sony PR advised me earlier in the week that they currently don't have review units available.

[surenj]

First impressions are, as y'all know, quite important. In this instance, those first impressions may best be described in just one word: wow!

Leigh's in love!

How could the 27" ultrasharp (unknown panel) be cheaper than 24" IPS panel????
http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/monitor_24_30_deals?c=au&l=en&s=dhs&cs=audhs1


Slightly off topic but I must state that I am beginning to get annoyed by Dell not stating which panel is which on their side by side comparison page [which I couldn't find anyway]