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The Best Camera for $600
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The GoodWith its flexible display, great set of controls and generally streamlined design, the Olympus PEN E-PL7 hits quite a few high notes.
The Bad It might be a little too complicated for newbies, and the grip could be bigger.
The Bottom LineA likeable interchangeable-lens model, the Olympus PEN E-PL7's overall package makes an attractive alternative to an advanced compact and has quite a bit to offer as a first ILC.
Design and features
The camera feels quite well built and nicely designed, both aesthetically and functionally. While it has a similar feel as the E-PL5, the E-PL7 has a more retro-type two-tone look than its predecessor and redesigned controls that have a more enthusiast-oriented feel. The grip's now permanently attached, but it's still relatively shallow; that's not a big problem with small, lightweight lenses, but if you're planning to use some of the faster, heavier pro lenses they tend to overbalance the camera.
Olympus has moved the back dial to the top, where most advanced photographers prefer it.copyright=Sarah Tew/CNET
On the top left sits the power button, hot shoe, mode dial and adjustment dial. The mode dial includes the usual manual, semimanual and automatic modes, plus a manual movie mode and Art, Olympus' great set of special-effects Art filters. There's also Olympus' Photo Story mode, which essentially places photos into a selected layout as you shoot and saves the composite as a single image when you're done (in addition to the individual images).
Moving the adjustment dial from the back to the top vs. the E-PL5 was an interesting decision. In cameras with a viewfinder, that's a much better location, and it's more convenient there when you're shooting high or low via the LCD. But when you're holding the camera straight out in front of you, the back is a better placement. Optimally, the camera should have dials in both locations. Nevertheless, it's not horribly awkward, and you get used to it.
On the back is the tilting LCD that flips down for selfies and groupies. It's a great design -- most cameras that offer flip-up displays sacrifice a lot of the tilting. There's just two caveats. First, if you use a sling strap (or anything that attaches to the tripod socket) it hangs down, blocking the display.
And while the display may be optimally placed for eye contact, with touchscreen controls for snapping photos, if you use the 14-42mm kit lens, the 28mm-equivalent angle of view is too narrow for handheld selfies. Unless you have freakishly long arms or small heads. You need a lens at least 12mm wide for that, and with the exception of thecheapo 9mm body cap lens Olympus' lenses that wide will run you upwards of $500, £350 or AU$500. It's notable that in the manual the example screen for this use case is not a selfie.
On the right side is a small thumb rest with the movie record button inset to it. Above that you'll find a programmable function button and a zoom button; below is the standard menu/info/delete/playback quartet with four-way navigation buttons that control exposure compensation, focus area, drive mode and flash. Note that there's no flash built in. Olympus bundles a small hot-shoe flash with the camera.
The OK button in the center brings up the on-screen access for frequently used settings, such as metering, white balance, ISO sensitivity and so on. In auto mode it brings up Olympus' Live Guide, a slider-based, friendlier touchscreen interface for newbies. There are four slots of custom settings, though you have to go into the menus to switch among them, which is suboptimal.
The E-PL7 has plenty of options as well as a lot of automation. I'd say a few too many options. For instance, there are four different choices for face-detection autofocus: on; face and eye, which selects the pupil of the eye closest to the camera to focus on; face and right eye, which selects the pupil of the eye on the right; and face and left eye. I'm guessing most people will just turn it on or off.
Olympus' Wi-Fi doesn't use NFC to initiate connections with mobile devices, but still uses the clever QR code. When you bring up the connection on the camera it presents a QR code that you capture with the OI.Share app on your device, and the app automatically configures the connection. It's a clever, inexpensive solution to setup on devices without NFC, it's more reliable than it used to be and does a good job of keeping cell service connected during Wi-Fi operation.
Plus, in addition to downloading, geotagging and some basic editing, the app now offers a reasonable set of remote control options, including shooting mode, aperture, shutter speed and white balance plus updates like longer movie recording, large file transfer from camera to phone and sequential shooting options. It does make you agree to all sorts of invasive permissions in exchange, however.
Conclusion
At its price, for what it offers, the E-PL7 compares quite well with advanced compact alternatives at the same price. It performs better, has comparable or better photo quality, offers a broader feature set and supports swappable lenses. However, the kit lens that ships with it isn't nearly as fast as the lenses that come attached to the compact cameras.
As an alternative to an APS-C ILC, it's not quite as compelling, though the Micro Four Thirds system offers some smaller lenses for a more compact overall package -- and many of the lenses slip more easily into a jacket pocket, or sometimes a jeans pocket, than those of the bigger-sensored systems, so you're more likely to take them with you.
Comparative specifications
Olympus PEN E-PL5
Olympus PEN E-PL7
Samsung NX300
Sony Alpha A5100
Sensor effective resolution
16.1MP Live MOS
16.1MP Live MOS
20.3MP Hybrid CMOS
24.3MP Exmor HD CMOS 14-bit
Sensor size
17.3mm x 13mm
17.3mm x 13mm
23.5mm x 15.7mm
23.5 x 15.6mm
Focal-length multiplier
2.0x
2.0x
1.5x
1.5x
Sensitivity range
ISO 200 - ISO 25600
ISO 100 (exp)/ISO 200 - ISO 25600
ISO 100 - ISO 25600
ISO 100 - ISO 25600
Burst shooting
3fps 19 JPEG/15 raw (8fps with fixed focus and exposure on first shot and IS off)
3.5fps unlimited JPEG/20 raw (8fps with fixed focus and exposure)
8.6fps n/a
6fps 56 JPEG/23 raw
Viewfinder (mag/ effective mag)
None
None
None
None
Hot shoe
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Autofocus
35-area contrast AF
81-area Contrast AF
105-point phase-detection, 247-point contrast AF
179-pt phase- detection; 25-area contrast AF
AF sensitivity
n/a
n/a
n/a
-1 - 20 EV
Shutter speed
60-1/4,000 sec; bulb to 30 minutes; 1/250 sec x-sync
60-1/4,000 sec; bulb to 30 minutes; 1/250 sec x-sync
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