Pen’s Looking at You, Kid

The 20 mm f/1.7 Panasonic Pancake Lens on the Olympus E-PL1

As promised in the previous post, here are some more impressions from getting used to the Olympus E-PL1.
One of my favourite photo hunting grounds is the “Thüringer Wald”, a hilly wooded area that is right adjacent to the town I live in. Hiking has a long tradition here, and it’s one of my pastimes.
The weather today is not ideal, it’s the hottest day of the year yet with afternoon temperatures well over 100°F.
So I started early in the morning with only the E-PL1 in a belt bag and a water bottle. Not having to carry so much was a boon today.
How was the camera doing? As the lead photo emphasizes, it sure looks strange with the flat, wide barrel of the Panasonic pancake lens. Kind of goggle-eyed. There is no hood, and a lens cap is essential if you stuff it into a pocket.

From Above

Seen this way, my fear to smudge the lens with a careless grab vanished, the bulge at right provides a sure grip. One-handed operation is not only possible, but also suggests itself. There’s not much to hold onto with the pancake lens, unless you want to fine-tune focus.

Screen etc.

The back side of the camera provides standard digicam fare, I didn’t run into snags with the exposure modes or the menus.
And how were the pictures?

Grass and Fallen Fenceposts

When I read through the manual this morning, I did eventually find the proper black & white mode and put that on the function button. The camera produces top-notch JPEG files.

100% Detail of the Shot Above

The .orf RAW files look fine, too, but for web and e-mail use, I’ve yet to find an occasion where I had to start with them. In the nature shots I did today, the RAW files’ lack of automatic lens correction didn’t bother me.
For the intended use, I’m quite content with the Olympus E-PL1 and the Panasonic 20 mm f/1.7 pancake lens.

Tags: Olympus, Pen