Olympus PEN E-P3 12 MP Live MOS Interchangeable Lens Camera with 14-42mm Zoom Lens (Silver)

by Olympus

• 12-megapixel Live MOS sensor
• 3-inch OLED touchscreen
• New TruePic VI image processor with Fine Detail Processing; fast AF tracking system
• Capture full 1080 60i HD video
• Low-light performance; AF Illuminator; built-in flash; ISO to 12,800

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 3.9 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0058PL9RK
• Item model number: V204031SU000
• Batteries 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,463 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
  • #52 in Electronics > Camera & Photo > Digital Cameras > Compact System Cameras
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 29, 2011

Product Description

Color: Silver

From the Manufacturer

CLASSIC STYLE. INCREDIBLE POWER. ARE YOU PEN READY?

Designed for photographers who want total control over their creative vision, the powerful PEN E-P3 delivers professional image quality, blazing FAST AF speed and an array of built-in creative features in a classic, ultra-portable design. Its large, 12.3-megapixal Live MOS sensor delivers superb images. A new TruePic VI Image Processing Engine improves color and speed. Three modes of image stabilization ensure that every image is crisp and clear. And the press of a button is all it takes to shoot full 1080 60i HD video in either ACVHD or AVI formats. Plus, the E-P3 is complemented by a system of lenses, strobes and accessories usually found only with traditional DSLRs.

12.3 MP Live MOS Sensor

Utilizing new Fine Detail Processing Technology for greater detail in the photograph, the sensor is optimized to maximize the performance of all M. Zuiko digital lenses in all shooting conditions.

World’s Fastest AF System*

To meet the demand for focusing speed, Olympus has introduced the new FAST (Frequency Acceleration Sensor Technology) AF system. The FAST AF system features 35 focus points as well as new Tracking AF to ensure fast & accurate focus each and every time!

3-Inch Touch Screen OLED 614K Dots

Featuring a newly-designed touch interface that gives you the ability to choose AF points, release the shutter, and navigate menus. The VGA equivalent display lets you see richer detail and smoother images with higher contrast and richer blacks.

New TruePic VI with Fine Detail Processing

The TruePic VI Image processor delivers excellent dynamic range, newly expanded color accuracy and fidelity plus reduced noise, all the way up to 12800 ISO. “Fine Detail Processing” technology captures more details in every nuance.

Full 1080 60i HD Movie

A simple, one-touch button allows you to record movies with ease and simplicity. Choose between AVCHD or AVI for amazing clarity right from your camera.

Ten In-Camera Art Filters and New Art Filter Effects and Variations

Ten in-camera Art Filters (Pop Art, Soft Focus, Grainy Film, Pin Hole, Diorama, Pale & Light Color, Light Tone, Gentle Sepia, Cross Process and Dramatic Tone) are enhanced by new filter variations and art effects such as color variations and image effects. You can explore your artistic side while taking both still shots and HD video right from your camera.

Fully Expandable System

A range of interchangeable lenses, accessories and strobes that are compatible with the E-P3 and are available to support all different types of photography needs.

Product Description

Designed for photographers who want total control over their creative vision, the powerful PEN E-P3 delivers professional image quality, blazing FAST AF speed and an array of built-in creative features in a classic, ultra-portable design. Its large, 12.3-megapixal Live MOS sensor delivers superb images. A new TruePic VI Image Processing Engine improves color and speed. Three modes of image stabilization ensure that every image is crisp and clear. And the press of a button is all it takes to shoot full 1080 60i HD video in either ACVHD or AVI formats. Plus, the E-P3 is complemented by a system of lenses, strobes and accessories usually found only with traditional DSLRs.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

197 of 198 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An expensive, great-handling camera with an outdated sensor September 4, 2011

By S MacLeod

Color Name:Black

I bought this camera after backpacking around the world with an "expendable" Nikon D40 digital SLR which I bought for just $420 - less than half the price of my new Olympus E-P3. Prior to that I shot film on SLRs. The Nikon took photos that were probably just as good as those from the E-P3. Why, then, did I buy the E-P3? Because of the weight. Anybody who has spent all day, every day, lugging an SLR around with them will know what I mean.

Size and weight are the two advantages that mirrorless cameras offer over SLRs. But once you make the decision to go mirrorless, it is critically important to choose the right format - otherwise you will box yourself into a corner with lenses. I opted for the micro four-thirds (M43) format (supported by Olympus and Panasonic) for the sole reason that there is a much greater selection of lenses for M43 cameras than for the competing Sony and Samsung mirrorless formats.

The three newest M43 cameras are the Olympus E-P3, Olympus E-PL3 and Panasonic G3, all of which have strengths and weaknesses.

After handling the E-P3 and its smaller and cheaper cousin, the E-PL3, in-store, I found that I much prefered the handling of the more expensive model. It is more solid in the hand, and it has an extra scroll-wheel that enhances the speed of choosing aperture settings (I usually shoot in aperture-priority mode). I also liked the touch screen. The negatives were the price and the lack of an articulating screen (which the E-PL3 and G3 have).

Choosing between the E-P3 and the $200 cheaper Panasonic G3 was more difficult. The G3 has an inbuilt electronic viewfinder, an articulating screen and a much better sensor (better photos in low light, without grainy "noise"). Ultimately I chose the E-P3 because, again, I prefered the handling and more solid feel (however, I would advise anybody thinking of buying the E-P3 to check out reviews of the Panasonic G3 and Olympus E-PL3).

The Olympus PEN E-P3 is significantly better than earlier PEN cameras in that it has addressed most of the criticisms leveled at those models. The most important criticisms related to slow auto-focus speeds (all models), sluggish handling (all models) and the lack of inbuilt flash (on the E-P2).

One area in which the E-P3 has made only limited progress, however, is in regards to image quality. The sensor is the same old 12mp clunker used on earlier PENs, which is disappointing given the US $900 price tag. For $300 less, entry-level Canon or Nikon dSLRs take better photographs.

I bought this sleek little beast with my heart, rather than my head, and I do not regret my decision. If you have a photographer's heart like mine, then you should buy this camera immediately. If you have a rationalist's brain, superior to my own, then you might want to consider the following pros and cons:

Pros:

Image Quality - Olympus cameras are famed for producing great colours, and I have been very, very pleased with colours from this camera. Greens and yellows really come to life. Also, despite criticisms leveled at this camera for its low-light performance, I think it's usable at ISO 1600 as long as there are not too many shadows in the frame.

Handling - There are lots of buttons and dials on this camera. Advanced users will appreciate this. The solid metal body feels sturdy in the hand. The camera has been miniaturised while retaining just enough heft for stable shooting.

Speed - This camera is very, very fast. You can focus and shoot in an instant. Olympus claims that this camera is the fastest in the world. I cannot say whether that is true or not, but I can say that the E-P3 is very, very fast. Or have I said that already?

Build - Metal.

Screen - It's great. Very colourful and detailed. Best of all, it is a touch-screen. Coming from SLRs, I thought this was a gimmick, but I have been surprised to find that I absolutely love the touch screen. It's great for street-shooting, because you can set the camera to focus and shoot anywhere in the frame just by touching the screen. It focuses and fires accurately, and almost instantly. The Panasonic G3 also has this touch-shooting feature, but it did not seem so well implemented when I tried it in-store. Too many shots were out of focus on the G3, whereas they were sharp on the Olympus.

Lenses - All micro four-thirds lenses made by Olympus and Panasonic will work on this camera, meaning the user has lots of lenses to choose from.

IBIS - In-body image stabilisation. You can stick any lens on this camera and it will stablise it - even if the lens itself does not have built-in stabilisation. Lots of prime lenses fall into this category (eg. the superb Panasonic-Leica 25mm f1.4, the very good Panasonic 20mm f1.7 and the new Olympus 12mm f2).

Size - It's smaller and lighter than an SLR. This factor is critical. If you are not worried about size or weight then you should buy an SLR, because Nikon and Canon dSLRs at this price point do take slightly better pictures than the E-P3.

Okay, that was rather a long list of pros. Now for the cons:

Sensor - This camera has a 3-year-old 12 megapixel sensor that struggles in low light, producing ugly splotches of "noise" from ISO 1600 upwards. The cheaper Panasonic G3 has a better 16mp sensor that can shoot clean images at ISO 3200. Having said that, I have done some street-shooting at night with the E-P3 set at 1600 ISO and have found that I can live with the results, just. The main problem is blotchy shadow areas. Shooting at 1600 in brighter conditions (eg, to reduce camera shake or to freeze motion) produces perfectly good images. I do wish this camera had Panasonic's 16mp sensor, however. No doubt that will happen with the EP-4, but we might have to wait until mid-2012 for that.

Price - Yeah, it's expensive. A Nikon D3100 for $600 is better value, no doubt about it. But you will have to sacrifice portability if you buy a dSLR.

Menus - Olympus is famous for having convoluted menus. I must say that I have found the menus to be frustrating, especially for "setup" options such as choosing the directions in which to turn dials to make setting changes. There are two rear dials and two custom buttons that can be pre-set for variables such as shutter, aperture and white balance, but incredibly not for ISO (which, given the dodgy low-light performance of this camera, is a function I access a lot). It is possible to dedicate the down-button on the second scroll wheel for ISO, but only at the expense of eliminating the dedicated button for 2-second delay and single-frame/multi-frame shooting. Grr! On the other hand, I have found the touchscreen to be pretty useful for changing settings, including ISO.

Missing in Action - An articulating screen and an electronic viewfinder (the clip-on VF-2 and VF-3 viewfinders cost an extra $180 and $250 respectively).

Other image-quality points / conclusion:

The weak low-light image quality of the E-P3 is offset partly by its in-body image stabiliser. This means that the E-P3's body will stabilise lenses such as the Panasonic Leica 25mm, which does not have an inbuilt image stabiliser and is therefore not stabilised on the Panasonic G3, which has a better sensor.

The high cost of the E-P3 is also partly offset by the in-body image stabiliser, because you can use cheaper lenses (without built-in stablisers) on the E-P3. For example, the EP-3 will stablise a US $650 Olympus 9-18mm wide angle zoom, whereas Panasonic users wanting stabilisation at wide-angle must buy the Panasonic 7-14mm with inbuilt stabiliser, for around US $900.

Logically, I believe that the Panasonic G3 is a more sensible choice for beginners, people on tight budgets, and people who are unlikely to buy more lenses. However, photography is not solely about value for money and pixel-peeping image quality - it's also about enjoyment. Personally, I enjoy shooting with the E-P3 more than I do with its competitors.

I believe that most enthusiast photographers would feel the same way.

I would give this camera five stars, but I'm removing one for the noisy old sensor and the relatively poor value for money compared with the E-PL3 and G3.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for travellers looking for excellent image qualities and a lighter package November 18, 2011

By Admiral2525

Color Name:Silver

I used film cameras starting from the 1990s, switched to prosumer DC in 2003, and used DSLR for several years. In Jan 2011, I sold the DSLR and its two lenses, and decided to go mirrorless, finally settling on m43 and the Olympus PEN E-PL2. I was so satisfied with it that before my 19-day Switzerland family trip in August 2011, I purchased the E-P3 and relegated the E-PL2 to a backup camera. After my trip, I sold the E-PL2 since the E-P3 was much better in some critical areas and I did not need a backup when I would not be on any long trip in the near future.

Although images from the DSLR were very good, a major problem was that the DSLR gear was way too heavy. I took a lot of photos while travelling, much more than when staying in my home city. As a small man, it was a pain to carry the DSLR around, especially hiking with a backpack full of other essentials. A smaller and lighter camera with good image quality, suitable for long trips, was thus my prime concern. Before deciding on m43, I considered several mirrorless systems and different camera bodies.

(A) Sony NEX
The main problem with NEX is the lenses, not the camera bodies. Auto focusing is a must for me and there are too few native NEX lens choices at present, which is important when committing to a system. The existing NEX lenses are either optically slow and big, or smaller but having mediocre optical quality. There is not any good fast prime. The NEX may become more attractive in future, but not now. The small and thin NEX cameras with the big lens mounted are a bit unbalanced in my hand and look extremely ugly. The major advantage of NEX is its best-of-class image sensor. However, such advantage is somewhat negated by the lack of good fast lenses. The overall body plus lens package is larger and heavier than the m43 equivalent, and does not provide better image quality due to the less than satisfactory lenses.

(B) Samsung NX
I am a bit worried about the future of NX, as it seems not so popular. The existing lenses are better than those of NEX but the sensor seems even worse than that of the smaller m43. The overall package, like that of NEX, is somewhat bigger and heavier than m43, and does not provide better image quality.

(C) m43 - Olympus and Panasonic
m43 seems to offer the best balance between image quality and size/weight (body and lens). On one hand, the sensors are not as good as NEX. On the other hand, there are many lenses - good zoom lens and excellent fast primes such as the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 or the newer Olympus 12mm f/2.0 and Olympus 45mm f/1.8 (the latter two not yet announced at the time of my decision on m43). The comparable zoom lenses are so much smaller and lighter than the NEX ones and are much more balanced on the m43 camera bodies. There are also many, if not too many, m43 camera bodies to choose from. Among the m43 bodies, the Olympus ones have built-in body image stabilization (IBIS), usually giving two to three stops of advantage at low shutter speed. Olympus is also famous for the superb out of camera JPEG images. As Panasonic bodies do not have IBIS and not all m43 lens has lens-based image stabilization, finally I settled on the Olympus (kit lens for general use), and added the Panasonic 20mm (for low light and indoor) and the tiny Olympus 9-18mm f/4.0-5.6 (for landscape and confined areas). These were the lenses that I took to Switzerland, much of the time hiking in the Alps. The E-P3 and the 3 lenses weighed less than the previous DSLR with just the kit zoom, and covered more optical range. With an Olympus body and the Panasonic 20mm f1.7, the combination of IBIS and f1.7 is more than enough to offset any sensor disadvantage against a NEX in low light situations (such as in a museum, restaurant, or church), since much lower ISO values can be used.

My feeling and experience with the E-P3 (and m43).

Good:

(1) Image quality comparable to DSLR and much better than prosumer DC or point-and-shoot.

(2) Excellent straight out-of-camera JPEG images with pleasing colours, no need for post-processing, suitable for persons like me who do not want to spend time on post-processing (BTW, I took 2800+ images in Switzerland with the E-P3 and cannot imagine the time required to post-process even a fifth of them).

(3) Much lighter and smaller than a DSLR, even with the couple of additional lenses (I prefer light and small lenses with good optical quality).

(4) Best balance between image quality and size/weight, IMHO the perfect camera for travellers.

(5) Very responsive and quick reactions, extremely fast and accurate auto-focusing in good light (faster than my older DSLR), rarely miss a shot due to sluggishness; simply a pleasure to take photos with it (the E-P3 is much more responsive and much faster in focusing than the E-PL2).

(6) Using the touch screen to set a focus point or to take a snapshot with a single touch (no such features on E-PL2) is very useful and user-friendly, no need to use the pre-focus then recompose method or other cumbersome method to specify the exact focus point.

(7) Feeling right, very balanced and comfortable in my smaller than average hands; although some may find the 4-way circular control wheel too small for their bigger hands.

(8) Well-built, good finishing, metal body shell and sturdy feel.

(9) Lots of customization options making it very user friendly to the more advanced photographers.

(10) Very handsome camera indeed, especially the silver version and cannot find anything equally attractive.

Not so Good:

(1) A bit expensive, the E-PL3 or E-PM1 (both not yet in stock when I purchased the E-P3 in early August) should be better value for money but those do not have the touch screen features and have fewer direct control buttons; a real dilemma. When E-P3's price drops, it will become less of a disadvantage.

(2) The OLED LCD is not very colour-accurate, and the images look better when printed or shown on a computer's monitor. [Update: This one can be fixed by setting the LCD to 'Natural' instead of the default 'Vivid' mode; one of the default settings related issues mentioned below.]

(3) The OLED LCD is a bit difficult to see under bright sun light (E-P3 is not alone, actually problem exists with most camera's LCD) and cannot be tilted or turned; and the optional electronic viewfinder costs extra money (so I do not have one).

(4) The high ISO images for sure can be better with a better sensor; but not a problem for landscapes and can use the Panasonic 20mm for low light shots.

(5) Need to twist the camera settings to get the most out of it; the default settings are not tuned for the best image quality.

(6) Not really pocketable with the protruding lens, even with a small prime, but a non issue if you have been using DSLR.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Olympus Camera So Far November 6, 2011

By Jerry Jackson Jr.

Color Name:Black|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've owned several Olympus digital cameras over the years (E-1, E-330, E-3, E-PL1, and now the E-P3) and the E-P3 is by far be best Olympus digital camera to date. Not only is this camera extremely compact while still using the same DSLR-size image sensor found in Olympus DSLRs, but the new auto focus system inside this camera makes it one of the fastest focusing cameras on the market (depending on the lens you're using).

The 14-42mm R II kit zoom lens focuses extremely fast and is good enough for casual/vacation use but the real advantage of a camera like the E-P3 is the ability to use interchangeable lenses. My favorite lenses to use with this camera are the Olympus 17mm f/2.8 pancake lens, the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4, and the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lenses. I also have the 9-18mm zoom lens when I need to have a wide angle lens. I owned the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens for a while but it focuses slowly compared to the 17mm and 25mm lenses.

One feature that I didn't expect to use was the touchscreen display. I thought I'd just use the screen to compose my images like any other camera, but I discovered that it's really nice to be able to touch the screen EXACTLY where you want to focus and have the camera instantly take the picture.

In any case, the durable metal construction, built-in image stabilization, built-in wireless flash control, and decent 3fps burst shooting mode make the E-P3 a solid DSLR replacement if you're looking for DSLR quality without the bulk. I also have several Sony NEX cameras and lenses and I can tell you that as of November 2011 the Olympus system has a MUCH better selection of lenses ... and that has more impact on image quality than the differences between the Olympus image sensors and the Sony image sensors.