HD video samples from the Olympus Pen E-P1

[Four Thirds User editorial team]

The Olympus Pen E-P1 has some useful and effective HD movie recording features. Here are four sample clips recorded using an E-P1.

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[AdrianF]

Now I've had the chance to watch these and the other video samples online, I'm thinking that this is a very powerful little performer.

Ian, do you know if the camera is switchable to full manual control whilst shooting video. The way I'm reading the publicity, it appears to say that in movie mode you only have control over the aperture/ AP mode and isn't very clear whether shutter and ISO can also be controlled. I just wondered whether you had the chance to play with this aspect of it?

[Ian]

Originally Posted by AdrianF

Now I've had the chance to watch these and the other video samples online, I'm thinking that this is a very powerful little performer.

Ian, do you know if the camera is switchable to full manual control whilst shooting video. The way I'm reading the publicity, it appears to say that in movie mode you only have control over the aperture/ AP mode and isn't very clear whether shutter and ISO can also be controlled. I just wondered whether you had the chance to play with this aspect of it?

I'm pretty sure that you can't control 'shutter' speed - in movie mode the focal plane shutter isn't used, anyway. I know some video cameras let you control the electronic shutter speed, but I'm not aware you can do this with the E-P1. I did not try auto ISO with the E-P1, so I can't answer that. It seems more possible. The trouble is that Olympus would have had to engineer a stepless ISO change for it not to be annoying in use

But you raise an interesting point and I'll try to get a definitive answer.

Ian

[joachim]

Ian,

even the Mirror likes your video samples:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technol...5875-21449247/

Joachim

[AdrianF]

But you raise an interesting point and I'll try to get a definitive answer.

Thanks Ian. What you are saying ties in with the information that i've read, although I did see somewhere that manual control was possible in all shooting modes. Probably asking a bit too much and this is going to be where the GH1 excels and stands out.

When I get the GH1, I will probably be using it mostly as a video camera and I think the EP-1 could be a good partner for this in my camera bag ( I was hoping to replace my e300 soon anyway ). The fact that it shoots video with anything like this quality is icing on an already tasty cake!

[Ian]

Originally Posted by AdrianF

Thanks Ian. What you are saying ties in with the information that i've read, although I did see somewhere that manual control was possible in all shooting modes. Probably asking a bit too much and this is going to be where the GH1 excels and stands out.

When I get the GH1, I will probably be using it mostly as a video camera and I think the EP-1 could be a good partner for this in my camera bag ( I was hoping to replace my e300 soon anyway ). The fact that it shoots video with anything like this quality is icing on an already tasty cake!

The detail resolution of the E-P1 video is pretty good. The clip with Penny when she smiles at the camera (sample 1) - even in standard resolution in YouTube you can see individual strands of her hair.

But the clip with the canal boat has a big problem with the white fence on the far bank - as if it's over sharpened.

This might be because I turned the noise filter off; I don't know if the noise filter settings affect the video.

The 30fps E-P1 footage is much smoother on YouTube than the GH1's 25fps, suggesting that YouTube converts to 30fps.

Ian

[Ian]

Originally Posted by joachim

Ian,

even the Mirror likes your video samples:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technol...5875-21449247/

Joachim

Thanks for that - I did see that page but didn't realise it was the newspaper site until you mentioned it

Ian

[jensl]

So with all this video on the Pen, any update on for regular old non-micro Four Thirds video? I had hoped this was going to be in the e-620 and such, but nothing yet, right?

Jens