Being flown out to Vienna for the launch of a new camera is a pretty sweet deal. Not to say it wasn’t intimidating, I mean, 300 tech journalists discussing the finer points of the new technology in the new Olympus PEN E-P3 camera, and then there was me, a mere blogger – a blogger whose most recent post discussed the hype over Pippa Middleton’s ass – I was feeling slightly inadequate and like a bit of a fraud.
Day one in Vienna involved a big lunch and a brief bit of free time to wander around the city. Thirty-two degree heat and black skinny jeans do not a pleasant experience make. To keep myself from dying, I took some quick snapshots with my own camera; a simple point and shoot. To give you an idea of the calibre we’re talking about here, my camera has a screen on the front so I can see myself when I take pictures of…myself. I do nothing to dispel the idea that bloggers are self-obsessed.
In the evening, we saw a big Eurovision-style launch event for the camera.
Loud music, lights, speakers from Olympus talking us through the amazing new features of the Olympus PEN E-P3 as 300 journalists (and one blogger) from all over Europe sat in a non-air conditioned room, sweating like we were in a sauna, stuffing our faces with Austrian cuisine – it was part camera launch, part endurance test.
Then came day two – we finally got our grubby little mitts on one of these new fangled image takers. My crappy little point and shoot got well and truly relegated as I marvelled at the new technology at my fingertips. The plan was to go on a tour of Vienna, stopping at key locations along the way and taking pictures till our fingers snapped off. First stop: the rooftop of a very fancy restaurant in the city.
Going up in a private lift and stepping out onto the terrace to see stunning views of the whole city on this crystal clear day had everyone clicking away instantly. What I immediately noticed about the camera was its speed. My little point and shoot often takes its sweet time to actually take a picture, by which time, the moment I was trying to capture has often passed. The PEN E-P3 has the fastest auto-focus of any camera with interchangeable lenses out right now and though admittedly, I don’t know much about cameras, that particular feature is instantly noticeable and makes a huge difference.
Next stop was a Spanish Riding School. An absolutely stunning building and an opportunity to see some traditional gymkhana-type horse riding by men in posh uniforms and fancy hats, but more importantly, a perfect time to test out how the camera works with movement. Once again, the super fast auto focus and shutter speed make light work of action shots. Here I started to play around with some of the art filters too – the PEN has ten different filters to add special effects without needing to faff around with computer software. Of the ten filters, I would say Pop Art, Soft Focus, Grainy Film and Diorama quickly became my favourites.
The last two stops of the day were a flower shop and a graffiti zone down by the river. Both excellent chances to see how well the camera fares with colour. To say colour comes out pristinely crisp with the Olympus PEN would be an understatement. By this point in the day, I was feeling like a professional photographer. Every shot I was taking was blowing my mind and I had to resist the urge to throw my point and shoot down a drain.
Bottom line, I want one. I’m not a tech journalist so I didn’t get engrossed in the myriad of settings. I thought it’d be best for me to just use the camera as I would use it, as a blogger and someone who appreciates a good image. Olympus say this is a camera for the ambitious amateur and I’d have to agree. If you’re looking for a step up from a point and shoot and are making your first foray into SLR territory, this is a non-scary, easy to use camera. Just using even the most basic of functions, I was taking shots that blow anything I’ve ever taken with a point and shoot right out of the water. I expect to see them in National Geographic any day now (I may be grand standing slightly here).
The Olympus PEN E-P3 is available from mid-July and comes highly recommended by yours truly
