OLYMPUS E-PL5
Price: Rs 44,990 (with M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 II R lens)
Specs: 16MP CMOS sensor, 1/4000, ISO 100-25600, FullHD 1080p 30fps, SD card, 3-inch tiltable LCD
Rating: 5/5
How would a DSLR that fits in your palms feel? Well, you wouldn't be able to tell for at least a few more years. But then you can hold a Olympus E-PL5, the closest you can get to a DSLR in a palm-size form factor.
The Pen design makes it very handy, but this camera is not about size but about stellar picture quality. The camera has a whole lot of dials and buttons, but they don't confuse you as there are no programmable function keys or buttons that have not been flagged. There is a mode dial on top and another dial towards the left of the screen and these two will take care of most of your settings. The 3-inch LCD has a touchscreen and can be flipped up to compose selfportraits or shoot over a crowd. The touch can be disabled too.
There is no built-in flash, but there is a compact flash unit in the box which you can slide into the hotshoe. But you won't need to carry the flash along, for this 16MP camera comes with a maximum ISO of 25600. The latter end of the scale will be good enough for you to shoot in pitch darkness is needed. But at high film speeds there is a bit more noise here than the EM-5.
Another great feature of this camera is its sprightly auto-focus which does not let you miss any of the action. With mirrorless cameras we have had issues with auto-focus not latching on to the subject in time. No such issues here. Touch the screen and the shot is recorded. The AF is as fast with the 1080p video recording too.
In fact, this is among the few cameras that give you full controls on video, even art filters. The camera also lets you tweak the frame before you shoot. So you can decide how much blur you want in the background, the saturation and the richness of the images.
The images are anyway richer than most rival cameras, be it macro or landscape. We would have loved to have a viewfinder and the the ability to change the settings onscreen though.
BAG IT OR JUNK IT?
A true all-rounder. Buy it.
