Olympus PEN E-P3 Review | 108 Data compared

The Digitalkamera.de review highlights the Olympus Pen E-P3 as a refined mirrorless camera focusing on performance, featuring a robust metal body, interchangeable grips, a built-in flash, and an exceptionally fast "FAST AF" autofocus system. Key advantages noted include the bright OLED touchscreen, high-quality build, and significantly improved operational speed. Conversely, the review identifies limitations with the 12-megapixel sensor, which exhibits noise and reduced detail at ISO 1,600 and above. Other criticisms include a poorly designed rubber port cover, a tripod socket that obstructs battery/card access, and a cluttered menu system.

The Olympus PEN E-P3 is a Micro Four Thirds system camera that pairs a distinct retro-look design with strong overall performance, earning a "good" (1.6) test rating. A major highlight of the camera is its high-quality, 3-inch OLED touchscreen, which integrates perfectly into the operating system to allow intuitive fingertip focusing and instant shutter triggering. It delivers excellent, crisp image quality with high contrast and minimal noise even at higher sensitivities like ISO 1200, backed by a fast autofocus system ("FAST AF") powered by the True Pic VI processor. Additional notable features include built-in body image stabilization, ten creative Art Filters that can save multiple versions of a single shot, and the capability to record Full-HD videos with stereo sound. The review explicitly outlines several key strengths and weaknesses for potential buyers. On the positive side, the integration of a built-in pop-up flash—which was missing from earlier PEN models—serves as a major advantage for fill-flash in backlit situations. The camera's highly responsive touchscreen control interface is also highlighted as a core advantage. On the downside, the camera lacks an integrated...

The Olympus PEN E-P3 is a mirrorless system camera featuring a retro, classic design with a black body, leather-look handgrip, and an integrated pop-up flash. It features an in-body mechanical image stabilizer, an ultra-fast contrast autofocus system, and a responsive, high-contrast OLED touchscreen display. In terms of performance, the camera excels with its noise control, delivering negligible image defects even at a high ISO of 6400, while also boasting a high input dynamic range capable of handling high-contrast scenes. Despite its stylish look and great noise handling, the E-P3 has notable technical drawbacks. The output dynamic range (available brightness steps) is only sufficient, its efficiency is mediocre due to inconsistent focal length measurements, and the kit lens suffers from heavy vignetting at the edges. Additionally, the camera lacks an integrated viewfinder, does not include a power supply unit, and remains heavy at 493 grams (including the kit lens, battery, and memory card) despite being slimmer than its predecessors. Ultimately, it receives a mediocre test rating of 2.66, proving to be a visually appealing, fast-operating camera with flawed image output. If...

Olympus Pen E-P3 Review Summary The Olympus Pen E-P3 is a 12-megapixel microFourThirds system camera introduced in 2011 that features a robust, high-quality metal body inspired by 1960s analog PEN cameras. It provides highly appealing, signature Olympus color rendering, functional in-camera image stabilization, and an upgraded, fast contrast-detection autofocus system. The camera offers excellent daytime image quality at base ISO 200, Full-HD video recording, creative Art Filters, and a responsive touchscreen display for touch-to-focus shooting. Additionally, it features a built-in flash that can act as a wireless commander, along with a versatile accessory port for optional electronic viewfinders, macro lights, or microphone adapters. However, the camera has notable limitations, particularly its aging 12MP sensor which produces visible noise at higher ISO settings, making maximum values like ISO 12,800 usable only as a last resort. While the built-in OLED display responds well to touch, it cannot be used to navigate the extensively deep and sometimes poorly organized system menus, nor does it support multi-touch gestures like pinching to zoom. Furthermore, the screen technology is prone to burn-in and dimming over time....

Overview of the Olympus PEN E-P3 Performance, Strengths, and Weaknesses The camera excels in operational speed, boasting a rapid "Fast-Autofokus" that clocks in at 0.2 seconds under daylight conditions and 0.39 seconds in low light using 35 focus fields]. Key advantages include this high-speed autofocus system, significantly improved overall image quality, and the robust OLED screen]. However, the review highlights notable downsides. The camera suffers from a loss of fine details at settings of ISO 800 and above]. Its built-in flash also underperforms, registering a guide number of only 5 in lab testing despite being rated at 10 by the manufacturer]. Finally, due to its smaller Micro Four Thirds sensor size, its image performance ultimately falls short of similarly priced competitor cameras equipped with larger APS-C sensors].

The Olympus PEN E-P3 is a compact, metal-bodied Micro Four Thirds system camera that prioritises speed and immediate, visually appealing results over complex post-processing. Its standout feature is the "FAST AF" contrast-detection autofocus system, which is incredibly quick and accurate—measuring at just 0.222 seconds from infinity to portrait distance. In practice, the autofocus easily tracks fast-moving subjects like bees, and its shutter lag is a superb 78 milliseconds when pre-focused. The camera also introduces a responsive 3-inch OLED touchscreen (624,000 dots) for quick point-and-shoot focus selection and image capture. In terms of image performance, internal JPEG processing delivers high contrast, sharp details, accurate exposures, and natural colours. Furthermore, the bundled M.Zuiko Digital 14-42mm II R kit lens delivers surprisingly high resolution even at open apertures, showcasing the optical advantages of a smaller sensor ecosystem. However, the E-P3 does come with notable drawbacks. The aggressive in-camera JPEG sharpening strategy creates a double-edged sword: while images look instantly "crisp" for printing, it causes heavy digital artifacts, aliasing, and color moiré on fine diagonal structures. This makes the internal JPEGs poorly suited for...

The test report on the Systemkamera Forum highlights the Olympus E-P3 as a capable mirrorless camera, praising its high-quality design, significantly faster autofocus, bright OLED touchscreen, and useful dual control dials. Despite these advancements, the review identifies the aging 12-megapixel sensor as a critical limitation, noting that image noise management and resolution lag behind modern competitor standards.