Olympus PEN E-P5 Review

The Olympus E-P5 is compact in size with a largely rectangular body. Its rounded corners and stylized contour resemble closely the E-P3, except with a fixed grip. The grip itself is quite flat with a slight rubberized texture. A pair of eyelets allow the camera to be used with standard shoulder-strap. These eyelets are placed forward and protrude from the sides of a body, so one of them unfortunately digs into the index finger while reaching for the shutter-release.

The E-P5 feels extremely solid and has an impressive weight for its size. Both control-dial are metal and appear very durable. Only the combined battery and memory card compartment door feels a little weak. Buttons have a nice positive action when pressed.

The top of this camera shows some refinements over its predecessor. Power is controlled by a switch instead of a button now. Most importantly, the two main control-dials are level just below the top plate. A small Fn button that can be customized with one of 20 functions is right next to the shutter-release.

The shutter-release is soft with short travel to the halfway point. The full-press is just a hair below, making this camera feel very responsive. Almost level with the top plate is a traditional mode-dial with 9 positions. The dial has good detents and is unlikely to move accidentally.

The mode-dial has the standard PASM modes, a fully automatic mode called iAuto, an Art Filter mode, a Scene mode, a Collage mode and a dedicated Movie mode. The latter 4 offer tons of sub-modes. Movie mode offers a choice of PASM exposure but, most importantly, we are thankful there is a movie mode. This lets the PEN E-P5 preview the correct framing and be ready to immediately record.

The top plate becomes slightly elevated above the lens and gently slopes down all the way to the side of the camera. This places the built-in flash and hot-shoe slightly higher, along with a stereo microphone. The hot-shoe is paired with a proprietary accessory-port which is available on Olympus mirrorless cameras.

This accessory-port allows the Olympus E-P5 to support an optional EVF. The Olympus VF-4, sometimes sold along the E-P5, offers a class-leading 2.4 megapixels with extra-large 0.7X magnification and 100% coverage. An Eye-Start sensor makes the VF-4 a joy to use. This EVF also tilts up to 90° upwards.

Everything else happens on the back of the camera which is dominated by a large 3" LCD with an impressive one megapixel of resolution. The LCD is mounted on a sturdy hinge which lets it tilt down 45° and up 90°. The display is also a touchscreen which can be disabled to avoid accidental shots.

Visibility of the LCD is excellent. It displays a bright image regardless of exposure, except in M mode, which is sometimes misleading. During manual-exposure, it is Exposure-Priority and shows a reasonable preview of exposure and white-balance.

A large number of controls are packed to the right of the LCD. At the top, just below the main rear control-dial, is the customizable Video-Record button which is surrounded by a 2-position switch. This Olympus novelty is part of what they call the 2x2 Control-Dials.

2x2 Control-Dials means the E-P5 has two control-dials and that two different pairs of settings can be controlled with the upper dials. The pair of settings is decided by the position of the 2-position switch. The actual behavior is highly configurable with a large chart in the manual showing which dials can control what.

For most use, the dials will control one or two of Aperture, Shutter-Speed, Exposure-Compensation and Flash-Compensation. The desired behavior is a personal choice. Those of you not worried about accidentally affecting exposure will likely choose to have two parameter controlled which is most efficient. Otherwise, only one setting will be controllable via the two dials with the switch at the 1 position, except in M mode, of course. This makes a control-dial redundant.

With the switch at the 2 position, the upper control-dials can control ISO and WB or vice-versa. This behavior can be changed entirely, allowing the Video-Record button to swap its function for a customizable one or between 2 independently selected focus modes. The latter two choices fix the dial behavior which saves users from having to remember the switch's current position.

Just below the 2-way switch is the Magnify button which can be set to one of 25 functions, including AE-L/AF-L, DOF-Preview and One-Touch WB which do not have dedicated controls. The same options are available for the Video-Record button, the right and the down direction of the 4-way controller. This level of customization is highly impressive yet requires a lot of thought. Those who prefer a modeless interface for changing EC and ISO must assign these functions to independent buttons.

Four buttons surround the 4-way controller: Menu, Info, Delete and Playback. They have a set behavior and work exactly as usual. Delete does nothing in Capture mode. As for the 4-way controller itself:

• Up enters a modal interface to set EC and exposure-parameters. It is preferable to avoid using it because, once pressed, the dials and direction change behavior. Unfortunately, one cannot disable it and this makes for the most common mistakes while using this camera.
• Right defaults to Flash mode but can be set to one of 25 functions.
• Down defaults to Drive mode but can also be set to one of the same functions as the right button.
• Left sets the focus-point and focus-mode, including Face-Detection and even which eye has focus priority.
• OK brings up a quick menu or interactive status display, called Super Control-Panel.

The last button on the E-P5 is the flash-release which is above the LCD and under the popup flash. This switch is mechanical and works even with the camera off. At the bottom of the camera, there is a metal tripod mount. It is neither inline with the optical nor the physical center of the body.

The Olympus PEN E-P5 takes some time to get used to. It also takes time to customize which requires another period of learning afterwards. The default behavior is highly modal which is not ideal since you must remember the state of the camera at all times. This can be improved but leaves several under-used controls, including the third control-dial around the 4-way controller which rarely does anything.

Unless you press Up by accident, the E-P5 rarely gets in the way after it is setup and accustomed to. It proves to be predictable and quite efficient for a compact-size digital camera.