The PEN series camera started on the wrong foot one can say. First the E-P1 was launched with its unique kit lens and it did not take long for the photo community to realize the PEN was not the fastest focusing camera. The GF1 from Panasonic was launched at the same time and it had a great focussing “engine” build in giving it great speed and accuracy. That was good because the slow PEN focussing speed could easily have created the wrong impression of the then young mirror-less camera family.

Shortly after the E-P1, Olympus launched the E-P2 and it had a number of improvements, they were additions to the E-P1 function list plus the E-P2 had improved focussing speed. I owned both the E-P1 and the E-P2 and to me their was not much of a difference in focussing speeds. I realize that this has been an in-depth discussing ever since these cameras were first launched. That said I was always of the opinion that the actual focussing speed was not that slow. I confirmed that to myself when I later bought a GF1 from Olympus. What did happen was that the E-P1 or E-P2 would lock onto the subject and when one press the shutter all the way to take the image then it would not immediately react. There was thus a definite lag from the moment one give the command to take the image to the moment the shutter is released. This lag made it impossible to use these cameras with portrait photography.

When the E-PL2 was launched I bought one, thinking I will write about it on this site and then later sell it again. I quickly realized that the E-PL2 is different and that its image quality was what I were looking for. It had a few more aspects making it unique, its performance was closer to that of the real SLR, its added ART filters plus a few more aspects. In a next article I will talk more about the E-PL2 being closer to the real SLR performance.

How can one reduce the Shutter Lag on the E-PL2?

Recently I did a few pictures at a wedding with the E-PL2 and I was really irritated with the above described shutter lag. Getting home I had a large percentage through aways and only a few keepers. One would log onto a subject, wait that split second for the right moment and when the shutter is pressed the camera will not respond immediately. By the time the shutter is released one missed the moment. I then started experimenting at home with different lenses plus with the three different cameras I have in my bag, the E-PL2, the GF1 and the E620.

No matter what I did the lag was their. It varied in length which made it worse. Then one day I decided to take a bunch of images only in RAW. To my surprise the lag was nearly inexistent. I investigated more and today I only shoot in RAW and in addition to that, I cancel almost every possible function that will place a load on the camera CPU. These are typically things like noise reduction, Image Stabilization, ART filters, adjustments to sharpening, image color or any other function that will require the camera CPU to work harder.

The E-PL2 gives the user the opportunity to save several user configurations in the camera. It has then various ways if activating these user configurations, one of these options are the Fn button. For example I like to use the iEnhance function on the E-PL2 because I think it creates lovely colors plus it has a great way of working with dark shadows in the image. The problem is this function takes a lot of processing power. I therefor have my preferred configuration using iEnhance always activated and when I am doing people shots I quickly switch over to a unique “basic” camera configuration. In this basic configuration I use no noise reduction, I use only camera RAW plus I use only basic parameters like natural colors and image styles with no additional sharpening or any other functions. I link this configuration to the Fn button.

How does the improve focus speed compare?

Generally on the large forums people agree that the 14 - 45 mm Lumix is a excellent performer. It is really fast focussing plus its silent when focussing. Unfortunately I sold the E-P2 and can therefor not test it. What I did do was to try the E-PL2 using different lenses plus the GF1 using the same lenses. I then also tried the E620 to give me a type of reference to measure by. Using something like the original kit lens does appear to be slow, but using the 14 - 42 Lumix is a different story. To complete the test, I then keep on focusing and taking the pictures one after each other without stopping. One picture close and the next further away, then close again and then far away. The E-PL2 with a minimum RAW configuration reacted similar to the fast focussing GF1 to me. In many cases it appeared to be even quicker, especially with the 14 - 42 Lumix lens fitted to the E-PL2. The E620 is quicker and really gives a instantaneous experience. Much slower that the E620 was the E-PL2 also not!!

I hope this short article is of value to you. If you have any more questions please do not hesitate to contact me in the forum.

Best

Siegfried