Introduction
I've seen that quite a lot of people in the blogging community have been using the Olympus Pen E-PL7 and was intrigued as to why. Laura bought this camera around 6 months ago and I've had the chance to test it out. It will be more of a first impressions post about how I've found using it and the type of photos it can produce, but I will still cover the features and modes it has.
Features/Modes
The Olympus Pen E-PL7 has 16.1 megapixels with a Micro Four Thirds Sensor. The Pen has a good range of modes to give you varying degrees of control. There is an iAuto mode which will try and calculate the best settings for you. For basic photography, this might suffice, but if you want to make full use of your camera, you really need to be using the other settings. You get the normal modes you would expect including aperture priority, shutter priority, program and manual. These allow you to have plenty of control over your photos and will come in very useful for different situations.
Other modes include scene, which has 25 different options, bulb mode and art mode which gives you the choice between 14 different filters. These can come in really useful and make some generally normal photos look really impressive, such as the partial colour option. This lets you choose the colour prior to taking the photo so it removes the post editing needed.
It does have a movie mode which is capable of recording in Full HD at the push of a button. It comes out fairly well for the size of the camera, although saying how high the quality of photos it can produce, I was expecting slightly better quality video. This will vary with the lens attached however so it's only a small point.
A very useful part of this camera is that it has Wi-Fi. You can download the app and it lets your transfer the photos straight to your phone, or take control of the camera remotely which is great if you have it set up on a tripod, for example. You can also have a live view of what the camera sees and alter settings from the phone, so its more than just a wireless shutter release.
Design
The first thing you will notice about this camera is the retro design, which seems to be quite popular these days. It's a fairly small size and surprisingly lightweight, which makes it easy to carry around with you. The only downside with this is that if you have larger hands it may be a bit fiddly to use the buttons etc. A great feature of this camera is the tiltable touchscreen which can be moved into various positions, including 180 degrees swing to bring it completely underneath the camera. This comes in particularly useful for taking selfies as you get a full view of your shot.
It's very easy to change lenses on the camera with a simple button release which lets you twist the lens out. Even the larger lens on the camera is still light and easy to hold. The barrel zoom on the lenses I've used are very smooth, and the pancake lens comes with a neat lock feature to stop it moving when it's not in use. The Pen doesn't have an inbuilt flash as such, as it comes with a small detachable flash. I guess this is quite a good idea, especially if you don't tend to use flash that often.
Sample Photos
As I mentioned earlier, this is Laura's camera, so I will include some sample photos of things she has taken, such as her makeup etc, as part of her beauty posts over on her blog. This camera can produce some amazing photos, from close up product photos to arty, landscape and nature shots.
Conclusion
I have been really impressed with this camera and the photos it can produce. It excels at product type photos and would be a great addition to any blogger to improve their photos. Don't think its just for this type of photography however, as it can take some excellent shots as you can see from the sample photos above.
The camera is packed with neat little features that come in very useful, for quickly transferring your photos and using the touchscreen to tap the focus point of the subject in your frame. It has enough modes to give you the freedom to get the photos you want, and seems fairly intuitive to navigate the settings. Overall, this is a brilliant camera that would be a good investment for any newbie or keen photographer. I can definitely see why it's a popular choice with bloggers, but even if you aren't, the features that make it liked will be useful for anyone.
If you liked this post, you might also like my Fuji S100FS Review, How I Take My Blog Photos or Laura's Olympus Pen Review.
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