Olympus Pen E-PM2 review

IMAGE QUALITY – CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Image quality was generally excellent, as we’d expect from a camera that shares the same sensor and image processing engine as the £1,000 E-M5. Colours were rich and flattering and details were crisp, with noise remaining unobtrusive up to ISO 3200. The top ISO 25600 is overly optimistic but we’d use ISO 12800 for casual snaps.

There’s plenty of definition in the dark, dense texture of the ivy

There’s barely any evidence of noise in this low-light shot

Image quality wasn’t faultless, though. Whereas most CSCs use digital correction to eliminate chromatic aberrations, this isn’t available in Pen cameras. Sure enough, tell-tale halos of discolouration was visible towards the edges of the frame in high-contrast scenes. We found the autofocus to be a little unwieldy when shooting macro subjects. Otherwise, autofocus was up to scratch but it wasn’t always as reliably sharp as the Panasonic GF6’s.

Details could be a little more precise here, but it’s hardly a bad result

There’s some purple fringing here, whereas rival cameras didn’t suffer the same problem in the same shot

CSC Shootout – IMAGE QUALITY TEST – Sony NEX-3N, Olympus Pen E-PM2, Nikon S1 and Panasonic GF6

Here we compare image quality, in numerous scenarios, between the four current budget CSCs. Click through to YouTube and view at 1080p for 1:1 pixel comparisons

The video mode is well specified, with automatic, priority and manual exposure plus tracking focus with the help of the touchscreen. It took us a while to find and enable the latter option, though. Video capture is fixed at 30fps, which is fine for most people but 24 and 25fps options would have been welcome. Picture quality was decent enough but details looked a little coarse compared to rival CSCs from Panasonic, Sony and Nikon.

CSC Shootout – VIDEO QUALITY TEST – Sony NEX-3N, Olympus Pen E-PM2, Nikon S1 and Panasonic GF6

Here we video quality, outdoors and indoors, between the four current budget CSCs. Click through to YouTube and view at 1080p for 1:1 pixel comparisons

CONCLUSION

The E-PM2 has plenty going for it, but comparisons with the Panasonic GF6 generally don’t lie in its favour. It scores a clear victory for continuous shooting speed but its controls aren’t as elegant and its detachable flash unit is cumbersome. The GF6 doesn’t have an accessory shoe but it hits back with a higher-resolution articulated screen, a mode dial, automatic panorama stitching, HDR capture and time-lapse recording. The GF6 also has built-in Wi-Fi, while the Olympus requires the use of a £35 FlashAir 8GB card. The Olympus E-PL5 is a better match for the GF6 with its articulated screen and mode dial, but it costs £450 including VAT.

At £400 then, the E-PM2 seems overpriced. At present, though, it is available with a free 17mm F2.8 pancake lens; it’s both fast and compact and will cost you around £200 if bought separately. This alone makes the E-PM2 a great alternative to the GF6 right now, keep the lens or sell it on and get a huge potential discount, but we’ll have to re-evaluate the camera when the offer ends.