- Messages
- 3,097
- Edit My Images
- No
When I first saw this I thought... wow... what a Fuji rip off !!
But it kind of grew on me especially as I found myself once again needing to try and cut the weight of my camera body/lenses that I use for hand held shooting.
The lighter weight of the Pen F combined with the lighter Olympus lenses & 2x crop factor that meant smaller, lighter manual focus lenses I have move from standard to portrait lenses became more and more appealing.
So heres a few first thoughts...
The styling is gorgeous, but very Marmite, i.e. you either love it or hate it.
Mine is all black and I love it, but as well as being nice to look at the finish also helps in that the leatherette used to cover the camera has a lovely and grippy grain to it, its so easy to hold this camera, even easier than my X-Pro1.
Similarly to the X-Pro1 though light, theres a certain "heft" to the camera, its solid and sturdy, you feel like you have a "proper" camera in your hands, everything about it has a nice solid and precise feel to it.
The EVF is a good one and super EVF mode really does give a very similar view to using a traditional viewfinder, I also like the fact that there are plenty of adjustments to tune it to your particular taste.
One thing thats really stood out is the usefulness of the control dials, without any extra assigning or programming on the users part they can control just about every parameter or selection that the camera has and this becomes a real bonus when setting the AF point.
You can assign the front depth of field button to pop up the focusing screen and then just rotate the front and rear metal control dials to move the AF point, its helped as well by the fact that the dials have detents so you can not only see how they are changing or moving something but also feel it, therefore you can even use them blind by counting the clicks as we used to do years ago.
Of course the other advantage is now the D-pad becomes just four more Fn buttons to call up options screen from the menu that you can select and adjust on the fly with the control dials.
This was always something I found lacking on the Fuji's and Olympus have really shown how it can be done on this camera.
The menu system though is a different matter, its no where near as intuitive as the Fuji menus, the font used is smaller and the layout can be confusing at times.
I won't bother going into the various filter and film sim modes as most have read about them or watched reviews that heavily feature them but one real plus is the 4 custom settings modes on the mode dial.
Not only do they store the general camera settings but also they'll store all custom settings made to the filter & film sim modes meaning you can for instance call up your favourite B&W image settings and start shooting instantly without have to dive into the menus.
Another plus is the flash unit supplied with the camera, it having no built in flash.
Well the one with the Fuji XT-1 has spent all its life in the drawer, its just a very basic unit.
This one has full swivel & bounce !! as well as the ability to use it manually as well as full TTL etc.
Ok so theres not much power there, but its nice that someone has really thought about the free add on flash instead of just throwing in something that will just do the job.
I've not gotten into it to far yet and its dark so haven't bothered trying to take any shots yet but testing the AF in the very low light in my room has revealed its surprisingly fast, even with the bundled 14-42 Ez lens.
I'll post more once I've had the chance to use it properly.
But it kind of grew on me especially as I found myself once again needing to try and cut the weight of my camera body/lenses that I use for hand held shooting.
The lighter weight of the Pen F combined with the lighter Olympus lenses & 2x crop factor that meant smaller, lighter manual focus lenses I have move from standard to portrait lenses became more and more appealing.
So heres a few first thoughts...
The styling is gorgeous, but very Marmite, i.e. you either love it or hate it.
Mine is all black and I love it, but as well as being nice to look at the finish also helps in that the leatherette used to cover the camera has a lovely and grippy grain to it, its so easy to hold this camera, even easier than my X-Pro1.
Similarly to the X-Pro1 though light, theres a certain "heft" to the camera, its solid and sturdy, you feel like you have a "proper" camera in your hands, everything about it has a nice solid and precise feel to it.
The EVF is a good one and super EVF mode really does give a very similar view to using a traditional viewfinder, I also like the fact that there are plenty of adjustments to tune it to your particular taste.
One thing thats really stood out is the usefulness of the control dials, without any extra assigning or programming on the users part they can control just about every parameter or selection that the camera has and this becomes a real bonus when setting the AF point.
You can assign the front depth of field button to pop up the focusing screen and then just rotate the front and rear metal control dials to move the AF point, its helped as well by the fact that the dials have detents so you can not only see how they are changing or moving something but also feel it, therefore you can even use them blind by counting the clicks as we used to do years ago.
Of course the other advantage is now the D-pad becomes just four more Fn buttons to call up options screen from the menu that you can select and adjust on the fly with the control dials.
This was always something I found lacking on the Fuji's and Olympus have really shown how it can be done on this camera.
The menu system though is a different matter, its no where near as intuitive as the Fuji menus, the font used is smaller and the layout can be confusing at times.
I won't bother going into the various filter and film sim modes as most have read about them or watched reviews that heavily feature them but one real plus is the 4 custom settings modes on the mode dial.
Not only do they store the general camera settings but also they'll store all custom settings made to the filter & film sim modes meaning you can for instance call up your favourite B&W image settings and start shooting instantly without have to dive into the menus.
Another plus is the flash unit supplied with the camera, it having no built in flash.
Well the one with the Fuji XT-1 has spent all its life in the drawer, its just a very basic unit.
This one has full swivel & bounce !! as well as the ability to use it manually as well as full TTL etc.
Ok so theres not much power there, but its nice that someone has really thought about the free add on flash instead of just throwing in something that will just do the job.
I've not gotten into it to far yet and its dark so haven't bothered trying to take any shots yet but testing the AF in the very low light in my room has revealed its surprisingly fast, even with the bundled 14-42 Ez lens.
I'll post more once I've had the chance to use it properly.
