Thanks to Olympus I could test the nice PEN E-P3. I'm an interior photographer on a daily basis and always searching for new solutions to make life easier. This test is not a scientific approach but based on use in practice. AND.... for use in real estate photography and not for HQ interior photography!
A camera like a PEN is much smaller than the Canon DSLR-gear I use. That would be great to travel light with small lenses! But the big question is; "Can an Olympus PEN E-P3 be used for real estate photography?". After testing I can say;"YES!". Will I trade my gear for the PEN? hard to say, still thinking about it. Why?................ read on:
SETUP
The tests are done with the PEN E-P3, 9-18mm Zuiko lens and 12mm Zuiko lens (cropfactor is x 2). My DSLR setup is a Canon 5D with 17-40mm lens (fullframe camera). With both systems I used multiple external flashes triggered by Cactus V5 remote control.
USABILITY
Wow, this camera body feels great, very solid. Most of the buttons and wheels are freely programmable. This makes it easier to access controls to your needs. I always use my camera in manual mode so I programmed the PEN in the most convenient way. What is interesting is that you can program a button to make a testshot. The camera takes a picture and will show that but doesn't write it on the card. Very useful for setting up the flashes without having to delete the testshots.
Most of the time I set the focus to manual. With your finger you can drag a point through the liveview picture and with a button you can zoom in at that point. Very fast an accurate way to focus on the subject. There are also many ways to show settings in the display. I like the digital level gauge. In interiors I always use a spirit leveler on top of my body but now this is in camera and you can see all the movements on the display, great!
Viewing pictures is like a smartphone or tablet pc. You can slide with your fingers. With a double click you can zoom in and drag the zoomed picture. An intuitive way to work.
LENS TESTBoth lenses are small but feeling very solid. The 12mm is a beauty, and creates very sharp pictures throughout the corners.
On the right a comparison of the two lenses in sharpness and corner sharpness.
The 9-18mm is slightly less sharp in the corners and has little chromatic abberation (CA). The 12mm is a really excellent lens.
The Canon 17-40mm produces more CA and less corner sharpness than the 9-18mm! But all easy to correct in today's software.
NOISEThe PEN has much more noticeable digital noise than my old 5D. I always shoot RAW so I could perfectly compare the pictures. But on ISO 200 it's a close finish but above ISO 500 the PEN loses detail. Of course you can denoise with the best plugins available but you won't get more detail, and that's what you need in interior or exterior. But ISO 200 to 320 no problemo. I hope the future M4/3 sensors will be better, not better denoise processing but even better sensor quality.
For street shooting and creative photography I don't mind the noise at all! Most of the time I do not denoise any pictures, I like noise (but not in interior).
On the left you see a comparison chart. These are 100% crops of this exterior view on the right. For best viewing, download the chart and zoom to 200%. Above ISO 500 the noise of the PEN increases more than the 5D. But for normal real-estate pictures which are viewed up to about 1600 pixels it's no problem to shoot up to ISO 800 or 1200 (exterior). For interior my personal limit is ISO 500 with both cameras. I always shoot with tripod so longer shutter speeds are okay.BARREL DISTORTION
What about barrel distortion? In tight places such as small bathrooms vertical lines of tiles or shower can be near the lens. This is not pleasing for the eye and certainly not a nice presentation of the reality. But how does the distortion compares to Canon's 17-40mm L lens? How can I test this in real life? A simple test is to stand close to vertical lines and I took a garden door. The images are imported into Lightroom as RAW and exported with no lens corrections at all. You can see the 17-40mm is performing almost the same as the 9-18mm. This can easily be corrected in software. Doesn't have to be an issue. Here are the comparisons:
One thing I did notice with the 9-18mm lens was that it has a little lensflare or lightspill where there is bright light at window frames and some interior lights. Not much but sometimes slightly noticable. Not so much of a problem or disturbing. The picture can look a little dreamy. And the lens has the tendency to emphasize color casts.
HDR
This is fun with the PEN! You can take up to 7 shots with separation of exposure, white balance, ISO, shutter speed and so on. In the early days I always shot interiors with HDR. For those who are doing that this little camera is perfect. Here is a blend of a 7-shot exposure separated HDR.
OTHER THINGS
Sadly Olympus did not had the remote camera trigger to test. So no user report on that. I triggered the camera with a light touch on the back of the screen, nice.
The PEN has a feature inside the camera to remote trigger multiple Olympus flashes. You can control them within 3 groups ETTL. So no more external Cactus, PocketWizard etc.. BUT............... the flashes have to be in reach of the infrared beam. And that's a bit tricky in interiors. The infrared scheme says you can only place flashes in front of the camera. So no placement behind the camera, around a corner or outside a window. This would be a test on its own with at least 4 flashes. But when it works you can have a complete system with only Olympus gear. This makes travelling a lot smaller, it will fit in one small bag. Anyone experience with Olympus cameras and remote flashes within its system? The downside if it works is that the flashes are very expensive.
One annoying thing is with my ground plate of the ballhead. This will block the hood of the battery and card compartment. Every time when I'm home I have to unscrew the plate to get the memory card.
You can create great real estate pictures. More than enough for most real estate assignments. What I have noticed is that it is harder to make an image pop out. Stronger curves, more contrast, more color correction is needed than with the Canon. And the PEN is not so forgiving as the Canon. With the Canon files you have more room to play with exposure and fill light in post production. There is more headroom. The Canon has a higher dynamic range. So with the PEN you have to work harder on the scene.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I can only tell the pros and cons with my experience. So this next list is purely based on my way of working:
PROS
- liveview with touchscreen
- very solid system
- small system
- nice lenses, some very very good
- good image quality
- normal hotshoe which fit in my system
- chromatic abberation and barrel distortion easy to correct
- liveview level gauge
- great HDR features
- buttons can be programmed to your needs
CONS
- high price for complete Olympus body and lenses
- 9-18mm lens gives sometimes a dreamy effect (with bright sunlight shining in interior)
- 9-18mm emphasize local color casts
- a bit flat image, you have to tweak much
- smaller dynamic range than the Canon
- more digital noise than the Canon
My wishlist:
- more dynamic range
- a on-board viewfinder (EVF) so you still can use the hotshoe
- angle adjustable LCD
- memory card accessible from side
- better signal to noise ratio in sensor
- wireless remote camera trigger
My next step is to test a APS-C sensor type camera like the Sony NEX-7 or NEX-5n. The only problem is that there are still not small lenses for this camera. I will use Leica M-mount lenses, these are small but not many choice in zoom lens. So maybe the next generation PEN for real estate and a NEX7 for all other stuff?
I'll end up with some difficult interior images all done with the PEN E-P3 at ISO 200 and 320
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