Olympus PEN E-PL3 digital camera resource

Last update: Sep. 13th, 2012 Sep. 13th: Lenses section updated Feb. 2nd: resource set up

Will you help me ?

Technical data and reference manuals

• Olympus E-PL3 complete specifications
• Software for the E-PL3 can be downloaded here.
• The complete reference manual can be downloaded here.
• See here the FAQs of Olympus America.
• Here are the Q&A of Olympus Japan.
  

Reviews and previews

• Techradar.com have a multipage review of the E-PL3 with test results and charts.
• John Foster wrote a very interesting review of the Olympus E-PL3. Not so many tests, mostly a detailed report from a user's point of view.
• See dpreview's in-depth review of the E-PL3.
• Cameralabs have a short review of the E-PL3
• DCResource have an interesting and detailed review of the Olympus E-PL3 with many images and tests.
• ephotozine have a interesting review of the E-PL3 with many tests.
• PhotographyBlog have a detailed multipage review of the E-PL3.
• digitalcamerareview have a multipage review of the E-PL3 with many tests.
• Photoxels have a multi-page review of the E-PL3 with some tests.
• Trustedreviews have a multi-page review of the E-PL3.
• More (simple) reviews of the E-PL3:
  • Digitaltrends (two page review)
  • Digital Photography School
  • Pocket-lint
  • Engadget
  • Imaging resource (preview only)

Sample images

• Photographyblog have a page with 34 high resolution JPEG samples and 32 RAW samples of the E-PL3.
• ephotozine has a page with 43 high res samples of the E-PL3 taken at different settings and even a sample video.
• photoxels have a gallery with 54 high res samples of the Oympus E-PL3 taken at different settings.
• dpreview have a gallery with 32 high res samples of the E-PL3 taken at different ISO settings and with different lenses.
• See here 14 high res samples on the dcresource site (14-42 lens used, different ISO settings).
• See the high resolution samples of digitalcamerareview.com taken at different ISO settings (21 samples, outdoor and studio images)
• cameralabs have 10 high res samples of the Olympus E-PL3 taken with the 14-42 lens at different ISO settings and focal lengths.

RAW file format

• Adobe Photoshop (from CS5 on) with the latest camera camera RAW plugin supports now E-PL3 RAW files.
• If you have an earlier version of Photoshop you can always convert the ORF files to DNG and process the DNG files.
• Lightroom and Photoshop Elements can also be used - check if your version supports E-PL3 RAW files.
• Dave Coffin is listing on his dcraw page every RAW image processing software which either is using his decoder or use the decoder as documentation (scroll down to "Other Raw Photo Decoders").
  
• Some of these packages are free, some are not.
  
• Even Irfanview can decode E-PL3 RAW files, thanks to the dcraw code.
  

Memory cards

• The E-PL3 takes SD, SDHC and SCXC memory cards.
• Class 6 is recommended for movie shooting.
• xD and Compact Flash cards cannot be used.

Batteries

• The EPL-1 uses the BLS-1/BLS-5 lithium ion battery, which holds a good charge, one will last for an entire day of underwater shooting even if the flash is always on.

Firmware

• Firmware update v1.1:
  • Reliability while using the Eye-Fi card has been improved.
• Firmware updates released so far (can be downloaded here).
  

Questions? Comments? Put them in the OlympusE-PL3 user group

Chromatic aberrations / Purple fringing

• To remove chromatic aberrations you can process the RAW image with the Adobe Photohop RAW plugin or with the PTlens filter.
  
• To remove chromatic aberrations with an image editor (desaturation of the magentas):
  • It is very simple to remove chromatic aberrations from an image. Simply use a photo editor and set the saturation level of magenta (also green where this makes sense) to the minimum. In some images you might have to set the saturation level of red to the minimum. It might also make sense to limit the processing to the affected area (i.e. select the affected image area and only process that).

Accessories

• See here all accessories for the Olympus E-PL3.
  
• The VF-2 electronic viewfinder can be attached to the E-PL3, which otherwise has no viewfinder.
  
• See here a liist of external flashes and flash accessories compatible with the E-PL3.

Infrared photography with the Olympus E-PL3

• Echeng.com: Digital infrared photography - site devoted to digital infrared photography with image galleries, information about filters and equipment and links.
• Wrotniak's Infrared Photography page - excellent information resource devoted to infrared photography with Olympus cameras. Information about infrared filters, exposure settings, focus, post-processing, sample images and links.
• Also see the Infrared photography page of the Apogee magazine: this is an interesting general introduction to infrared photography with digital cameras.

Lenses

• Micro four thirds lenses are currently available from Olympus, Leica and Panasonic:

• Also see the following lenses:
  • SLR Magic Nokton 12mm f/1.6
    
  • Tokina Reflex 300mm F6.3 Mirror Lens (Micro Four Thirds)
  • Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 Lenses:
    • A set of 12 "cine" lenses, with focal lengths ranging from 15 to 135mm.
  • MS-Optical Sonnetar 25mm f/1.1
  • ShenyangZhongyi 35mm f/0.95
  • Yasuhara Nanohax5 5x Macro Lens

• The following lens adapters are available:

• And the following conversion lenses:

• Also have a look at the page of Gary Ayton about micro 4/3 lenses.
• Photozone.de have detailed and accurate reviews of micro 4/3 lenses.

• Four thirds lenses are currently available from Olympus and Leica and can be used with the MMF-1, MMF-2 or DMW-MA1 adapters.
• See here which lenses are compatible with the MMF-1 adapter.

• Wide angle and Fisheye

• Standard zooms

• Superzooms

• Telephoto zooms

• Prime lenses (fixed focal length)

• Extension tubes, teleconverters and adapters

• Photozone.de have detailed and accurate reviews of four thirds lenses.

External flash

• The Olympus E-PL3 has a standard flash hotshoe and can take standard external flashes (among others the FL-20, FL-36 and FL-50).
• Here is a list of external flashes compatible with the E-PL3.
• Try out the Metz flash units - cheap and reliable. Alternatively try the FL-36 or other Olympus flash units.
  
• See here for how to measure the trigger voltage of your flash.

Controlling the Olympus E-PL3 with a computer

• to be added

Underwater Photography

• Olympus is offering the PT-EP05L underwater housing for the E-PL3. Waterproof up to 45m, can use the UFL-2 underwater flash. To be used, the UFL-2 needs the Olympus sync cord connected to the housing's bulkhead, or a fiber optic cable connecting the UFL-2 slave sensor with the camera's built-in flash. Both TTL and manual exposure is supported.
  The PT-EP05L has a fix lens port and supports the use of the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 II and M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 II R lenses. With the optional PTMC-01 Macro Converter, the E-PL3 can be turned into an underwater macro camera.
• Here is the complete list of Olympus accessories for PEN underwater cases.
  
• Interesting forum for underwater photography: DigitalDiver.net

Data recovery

• Jpegdump, by Kurt Stege, is a free tool to recover deleted images from a memory card. Recommended, alough it involves more work an e tool of Convar.
• These software tools are not free, so since Convar's software is available for free, there is no real need to use them:
  • Datarescue also has a software tool (Photorescue) for repairing damaged memory cards, although it's not free.
  • Photorecovery is another tool. Price is $39.95.

Noise reduction

• In addition to the E-PL3's inbuilt noise reduction, you can post-process the images with NeatImage. This software package produces surprisingly good results.
• Here is a comparison of different noise reduction software tools.

Exposure information data (EXIF)

• The picture files of the Olympus E-PL3 contain the complete exposure information (aperture, exposure time, focal leng, white balance etc.).
• To read this data you can use these software tools:
  • ExifReader, by Ryuuji Yoshimoto. Haven't tried the software myself, but it looks interesting. Freeware.
  • Exifer, by Friedemann Schmidt. I'm using this one too. It can rewrite EXIF data to images which lost it due to processing with a software package which doesn't support EXIF. Quoting from his site:
    • "Exifer is a nearly free software (you only should send me a postcard if you're using Exifer frequently) with which you can manage the metadata (EXIF/IPTC) of pictures taken by digital cameras. Because many image processing software destroys this metadata when saving such files, the idea was to create a backup of the metadata before editing it in any software, and then, after that to restore it back into the processed file. With Exifer you can do this very easily. "

Panorama shots

• Personally I can recommend PTGUI (which I have been using for years now): not free but an excellent piece of software.
• Some interesting links:
  • http://www.skipwilliams.com/panos/panorama_links.htm
  • http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/calibrate/
  • http://www.johnhpanos.com/pttute.htm

Astrophotography with the Olympus E-PL3

• Here is an astrophotography forum for users of the Olympus DSLRs
  
• Astrophotography users's group here
• This may be also a good source.

Links

• MyOlympus.org photo sharing site: here Olympus E-PL3 users can upload images and give/get feedback
• Yahoo Olympus E-PL3 discussion group: a discussion group dedicated to the Olympus E-PL3 digital camera