Olympus has unveiled the second edition of its PEN series, the E-P2, and we were lucky enough to get hands-on and have a little play with it. As you might hope, it retains the chunky body and reassuring weight of its predecessor, while still being small enough to stick in a jacket pocket.

We were only able to grab the briefest of looks in a dimly lit room, so we didn't get much chance to play with the new art modes, but the hot-shoed electronic viewfinder was impressive, as was the level of detail able to be captured in relatively low-light conditions from the camera.

Whether it's worth the extra ?150 over its predecessor, however, is more open to debate. It's certainly an improvement, but it's questionable whether price premium is a little too steep. Be sure to have a little play with both models before making a firm decision.

Tags: Cameras Prosumer cameras Micro Four Thirds Olympus 12 megapixels Olympus E-P2 Photos

PHOTOS: Olympus E-P2 digital camera originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:30:52 +0000

Olympus has unveiled a new version of its E-P1 camera called - you guessed it - the E-P2. The second edition matches its older brother in every way, but exceeds it in several, too.

For starters, there's now an electronic viewfinder available, that plugs into the hot shoe on the top and Olympus reckons it's twice as bright and packs three times the contrast of any other model on the market. It can also capture 7 minutes of HD video along with high-res still shots.

There's two new art filters - "Diorama", which captures tilt-shifted images, and "Cross Process", which alters colours to create a "surreal" look to a picture. Both can be applied to both stills and video. The other addition is that of AF tracking - keeping focus even if a subject moves around - and a colour adjustment mode called iEnhance.

The camera will be available in black only from January 2010 and costs ?850. The E-P1 will continue to be sold alongside it, for a little less cash, so the option is yours.

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Tags: Cameras Prosumer cameras Micro Four Thirds Olympus 12 megapixels Olympus E-P2

Olympus unveils E-P2 camera originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:17:31 +0000