epl1 as a street cam - yay or nay?

E

emerica

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hi there rff folks:

anyone have the epl1 and use it successfully for street photography?

briefly handled an epl1 in an sf camera shop today and while i had high street cam hopes for it initially (ie. to deck out with the panny 20mm lens, the oly evf, and finally get some good rf glass) sadly i didn't like it. one, it felt a tad cheap, which i wouldn't have minded ultimately, but wow the menu system/handling didn't seem intuitive without a control wheel. supposedly buttons can be reprogrammed/customizable if you dig deep in the menu system...

maybe i just didn't try it out long enough? i may just wait for the samsung nx10 instead but moving to a 'closed' system seems like a bad gamble...

thoughts?
 
I think you will be hard pressed to use most any live-view-lcd cam to capture close moving objects with consistency.
 
flip said:
I think you will be hard pressed to use most any live-view-lcd cam to capture close moving objects with consistency.
Click to expand...

Couldn't disagree more. An m4/3 camera with the Pana 20/1.7 is quite good for street...IF you don't mind the loud shutter, and IF you don't need to scale focus. This could be a deal-breaker for some people, but to be honest...face detection is an amazing tool for surreptitious street photography. And I say this as a guy who spends a lot of time walkng around with a Leica, Tri-X, and a 28mm lens set semipermanently at f/8 and 6 feet, so I do know how it's "supposed" to be done.

I'm thinking the CV 15mm could be great for this, too--roughly equivalent to Winogrand's 28 and acres of DOF. I haven't gotten around to trying it, though.

Don't be intimidated by the insane menus...once you have it sorted, you don't have to think about it anymore.
 
if you dont mind focusing, pointing your camera at arms-length while composing your shot its a great camera. I had one before i bought my RD1 and am thinking of getting the EP2 with the view finder soon. I'm just used to peeping thru a viewfinder when composing my shots. The Oly's form factor and picture quality made me went for it compared to the GF1... and the samsung looks like an SLR which i dont like. And my leica R lenses and OM lenses are great on this small camera :)
 
I had the GF1 too and liked it, but just traded it in for an EP2, and I can confirm that the finder is excellent. You should definitely try one out.

Also, even for a purist like me, the "art filters" are really fun. And my old Pen lenses look cool on it.
 
The LCD will become pretty much useless in daylight but the E-P1 can take good street photos once you learn how to live with it's quirks. If using the standard kit zoom lens, I just shoot from the hip and trust the camera to do the rest. So far I've been happy with the results. When using "legacy" lenses on the E-P1 (Leica LTM and M), I pre-focus on a particular location and let the people come to me. Again, so far, I've been satisfied with the results.

Still, I'd much rather use my Leica MP.

Jim B.
 
i have been working on a micro 4/3s camera for about a month now and i find they make excellent and very capable cameras. the caveat being they take a little user input to get to a comfortable interface.

the epl1 with a 20mm lens and 40mm vc hotshoe finder would be a potent street set up. set the lens at a distance and use an appropriate aperture to let the DOF work for you. when the light starts to fail then as mentioned above let the subject come to you.

the gf1 (my weapon of late) is so far from any of the point and shoots i have tried i can't even begin to explain. the image quality is leaps and bound ahead.

the complaint i would have echoes you own in that they are a little menu and button dependent. if the interface could be streamlined and made more fluid they could be top of the heap contenders.
 
mabelsound said:
I had the GF1 too and liked it, but just traded it in for an EP2, and I can confirm that the finder is excellent. You should definitely try one out.

Also, even for a purist like me, the "art filters" are really fun. And my old Pen lenses look cool on it.
Click to expand...

the one thing i miss in the gf1 is those filters. would love to have them available.
 
flip said:
I think you will be hard pressed to use most any live-view-lcd cam to capture close moving objects with consistency.
Click to expand...

Add me to the list of people who disagree with this statement. I have an EP-1 and have had no problems using it for candid street shots. Of course, if you expect to use camera like you would a Leica M in the street you will be disappointed. It's different, but by no means impossible or difficult.

Composing away from eye level is ALWAYS more discreet. Hold a camera to your eye and it is universally and instantly understood that you are taking a photo. Any camera not up to eye level is by and large ignored. That includes point and shoots with a back scree LCD.
 
There is no such thing as a "street" camera. You can use any camera, but you are going to have to meet how the camera works--most folks would not consider a Horseman SW612 or a Speed Graphic (for some strange reason) a "steet" camera, but I have used both.

I also have an E-P1 Scale focusing with optical viewfinders is really not that hard. Even using the monitor to check focus can be easy. But with everything, you are going to have to master your equipment. The E-P1 is nothing but what it is.
 
thank you everyone!

thank you everyone!

varied opinions here about mft/evil cams being used for street, but i really appreciate everyone's knowledge base and constructive dialogue from rff. will take all replies into consideration when setting up my new kit/system as i move away from dslr territory.

would love to be able to afford an m9 but i'm looking for a poor man's equivalent - while yes, no real substitute, i'll make do with some compromises and benefits as mentioned here :)

cheers!
 
emerica said:
...
would love to be able to afford an m9 but i'm looking for a poor man's equivalent - while yes, no real substitute, i'll make do with some compromises and benefits as mentioned here :)

cheers!
Click to expand...

an M9 is a different camera and the poor man's equivalent is the RD1... are you a Rangefinder user? If you are not, i tell you there is a big learning curve coming from an SLR. I've been there... i'm still learning on how to use my RD1:bang:
 
Even without a finder, I have found my E-P1 to work rather well for street photography:

3950976840_92726ed3ee_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21122418@N07/3950976840/

4046417426_f2f63da1a8_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21122418@N07/4046417426/

3916499757_9690171ff5_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21122418@N07/3916499757/

And with certain art filters, such as the grainy film, the results can fit the circumstances with no further post-processing...

4390757784_35dbb0264a_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21122418@N07/4390757784/in/photostream/

4390758220_a5716c77d3_m.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21122418@N07/4390758220/
 
I will admit that my opinion is not based on the EP-1 in particular, but P&S cameras in general. I have yet to use one that didn't give me the feeling that I was capturing the moment after the moment I wanted to capture and making a minor spectacle of myself with the silly pseudo-shutter sound effect. However, in fairness, "on the street" that may not be audible, and you may be better at "leading" than I am.
 
The trick is to separate AFL from AEL. That way the slower AF does not become a hindrance.

This can be done in any µ4/3 camera. But then again, these are not P&S but EVIL...

The issue becomes irrelevant with MF lenses, such as the Leica 50mm Summicron-R f/2 used in my picture of the firefighters above.
 
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flip said:
I will admit that my opinion is not based on the EP-1 in particular, but P&S cameras in general. I have yet to use one that didn't give me the feeling that I was capturing the moment after the moment I wanted to capture and making a minor spectacle of myself with the silly pseudo-shutter sound effect. However, in fairness, "on the street" that may not be audible, and you may be better at "leading" than I am.
Click to expand...

m4/3rds cameras don't have a fake shutter sound. They have a real shutter.
 
And the first thing most street photogs do with a digi P&S is to turn off the fake shutter sound.

It is true that there's a quarter-second lag with the m4/3 shutter, and I hope this will be improved in future models. It's largely a limitation of the live-view design--it stays open, then has to close, open, and close again to take a photo. And as I said, the shutter is quite loud for such compact cameras.

I suspect in a few years the manufacturers will have perfected sensor-recharge designs, and there won't be a shutter anymore...
 
The EP1 is a great camera. On the street ideally one wants to be unobtrusive.
Raising a camera to make a photo is what everyone else out there is doing.
No one pays any attention to this stance.
So you fit into what you are working with easilly.
The camera sets up really nice and responds quicky.
I love it and have had no issues at all.
I don't see the camera as having limitations, just my lack of reaching a compromise we can both work with.
I don't know about the new model but I'm sure it could be set up right.
Shooter
 
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