So, I mentioned that I really love the square. The Olympus EP2 gives me back the square with elegance and ease. I am satisfied with the camera. I'll have to leave off my tests with portraits; it seems all the usual suspects actually had other things to do today. Bereft of human models I took off on a walk around downtown. I know it won't sound heroic to my friends in the frozen wastelands to the north but it was a chilly 31 degrees (f) when I left my car and started across the pedestrian bridge into downtown.
I set the new camera to mostly neutral settings. Large SF Jpeg. Color natural. Aspect ratio: 6x6. Single AF, etc. No more or less sharpening, contrast or saturation than the defaults. I look through the viewfinder and see an wonderfully framed image with a bit of black on either side. I can toggle through the "info" button until I get to screen with no numbers, letters or symbols on it and I'm free to compose unencumbered.
The camera is so small and discreet that everyone takes me for a tourist. At times I feel like a tourist in my own life but I'm sure my mental health professional friends would label that as disassociative and worry. Instead I'll say that I love cruising around the same downtown I've walked through almost weekly for 32 years. I love to see what's new and who's hanging out at the coffee shops. Lately we've seen some upscale stuff on the main drag from the state capital. A Patagonia shop opened its doors. There are three new restaurants. A state office building is being rehabbed for commercial use. Downtown has two more steak houses.
I don't really know what to say about the camera. I never had a missed focus. If I needed exposure compensation it was usually on the order of +1/3 stop. I tried out the ienhance setting in the colors menu and the tree above is from that group of frames. I find the lens pretty sharp wide open. The shutter, once locked in, is pretty fast. In all you'd have to be a bit clumsy to mess up with this camera.
But for me, the ability to compose in the square with such a nice viewfinder is a treat over all else. More to come after I get the studio thing figured out. As you probably know, the finder sits in the hot shoe and the hot shoe is the only way to trigger any sort of flash. Hello tungsten lights and HMI's. More to report as I live with the camera. Raw info: 272 shots with one battery, full time EVF, and 31-38 degrees over the course of three hours. Kit zoom lens.