Through an odd series of events on Craigslist, I now find myself the owner of a slightly used EP-1. I bought the GH-1 thinking this was the one micro-four-thirds camera for me. 1080p video! Articulating LCD! Great electronic viewfinder! On paper, the GH-1 is my camera.
I need to do a better job remembering, though: Paper cameras don’t take pictures. Cameras you hold in your hand do. It’s a subjective thing. The EP-1 feels very, very good in my hand. It’s a different shooting experience than the GH-1. I plan on keeping both, and I look forward to getting more experience with the EP-1.
I’ve heard a lot about autofocus speed of the EP-1. Now that I’ve tried it first hand, I don’t think there’s anything I can add that Lawrence Ripsher hasn’t already said here: Olympus E-P1 Review Diary – Part 2 – Autofocus. If you’re thinking of getting an EP-1, expect compact camera autofocus. I also recommend Lawrence’s camera settings for autofocus (map the autofocus functionality to the AEL/AFL button and keep the camera in S+MF mode).
Olympus released a firmware upgrade yesterday that supposedly makes autofocus faster. I haven’t seen a real difference. It still focuses like a compact camera.
For those who are researching the camera, I made a video comparing the autofocus speeds of the GH-1, the EP-1 before firmware upgrade, and the EP-1 after firmware upgrade. Enjoy.
Thanks for the demonstration. A couple of things I would mention. I have read that the main improvement is in refocussing on an object, and this is consistent with my own observations pre and post firmware upgrade. The other thing I read (havent checked myself) is that focus speed using the shutter button is different than when using the AEL button (as you were). It may be worth checking the speed using the shutter button, although probably too late to compare to the old firmware now.
Thanks for the comment! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a whole lot of experience with the EP-1 prior to upgrading the firmware, so I can’t really compare the re-focus speed. But I’ve heard the same thing you have: It’s supposedly much improved with the new firmware.
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Thanks. This was the deciding factor.
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According to the release note for the firmware 1.1-update, Olympus has improved mainly the C-AF-operation. S-AF was not touched.
Hi! What is the difference betxeen GH1 and EP1?
Thx.