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The amazing thing about this inexpensive
camera is its impressive features. Foremost,
is its fast 35mm 2.8 lens, comprised of 4
elements. One element is aspherical which
greatly helps the camera provide sharp and
contrasty images. Secondly, the camera is
tiny, light and very easy to carry with you
at all times. Other wonderful features
include weather resistance, multiple flash
modes, fast auto focusing and even a spot
meter feature ! However, because this camera
is basically, auto-everything, one never
really knows the aperture or shutter speed
selected - but more on this later...
For under a $ 80 bucks, there is a lot of
joy to be had from this little beast. I
have 8x10 prints from Epic negs that I am
really impressed with - and believe me,
I'm generally not impressed with most
results from 35mm cameras. The last 10
years or so, I have mostly shot 645 and 67
formats because the quality from larger
negatives makes such a huge difference in
print sharpness and tonality. I usually
avoid shooting 35mm format at all costs,
but with the birth of my son a year and a
half ago, my needs changed. I wanted a
tiny camera I could carry anywhere, not be
worried about losing or breaking it and it
needed to have a fairly fast response to
capture my active son's lifestyle. So far,
the Epic has fit the bill.....usually....
I say usually, because there are some
quirks to this camera that can make it
frustrating to use. But, before I get to
those frustrations, let me show you some
results I have gotten from this tiny
camera.
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Image # 1 Data: Kodak
400UC film. Fill flash used. Focus on face.
Sunny, fall day with sun directly hitting
the background. I am impressed on many
levels. First, the image is very sharp. I
can see right into my son's eyes and every
detail is present and crisp. The camera also
did an excellent ( not perfect ) job at
balancing the huge difference in light
values and the results are an excellent
print. His face is a little bit overexposed
- but that is quite easy to balance out in a
final print. Colors are very accurate and
saturated.
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Image # 2 Data: Kodak
400UC film. Fill flash used. Focus on body.
Late afternoon sun, directly hitting the
entire image. Based on the late day, direct
sun - I am estimating the EV value of the
scene at EV 14.5 ( based on 100 speed film
). At this level with 400 speed film, I am
estimating the camera chose to shoot ( more
on this below ) at 1/1000 at F8. Again, the
image is very sharp. Again, colors are
very accurate and saturated.
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Image # 3 Data: Kodak
400UC film. Fill flash used. Focus on body.
Filtered, mostly sunny day. Sharp, sharp,
sharp....check out the pine needles around
his feet. Colors are again very accurate,
although overall a bit blue from the shade
in the scene. Based on the filtered sun and
time of day - I am estimating the EV value
of the scene at EV 12.5. At this level with
the visible depth of field, and with 400
speed film, I am estimating the camera chose
the following shutter and aperture ( more on
this below ) = 1/500 at F5.6. Click on the
print for a larger version which was only
scanned at 92 dpi.
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Image # 4 Data: Kodak
400UC film. Focus on body. Heavily overcast,
dark day. I am estimating the EV value of
the scene at EV 10. At this level with 400
speed film, I am guessing the camera chose
the following shutter and aperture ( more on
this below ) = 1/250 at F4. The image is not
very sharp, but considering its only stopped
down one stop from wide open and with my
less than stellar handholding abilities -
its more than acceptable. Check the larger
version scanned at 72 dpi.
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Image # 5 Data: Kodak
400UC film. Fill flash used. Focus on mom's
face. Very overcast day. The fill flash
worked perfectly in this image. Skin and all
other colors are again very accurate. The
close focusing performance is impressive. I
havent found a lot of data on the Epic's
flash, but I am estimating the camera chose
an aperture of F8 based on the visible DOF
and flash to subject distance. I was lucky
not to have incurred red eye
which is common with this camera. I
have an 8x10 print from this negative which
is just as good as those from the Canon EOS
50mm 1.8 II lens I have used in the past.
Click on the print for a larger version
which was only scanned at 72 dpi.
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Image # 6 Data: Kodak 400UC film.
Very overcast day. Flash turned off. Focus
on the bottom of the tree trunk. Color is
saturated - but a polarizer would have
helped the leaves on the ground. Examine the
close focus bokeh in the upper left
corner..not bad for a simple, triangular
aperture ! 72 dpi scan.
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Ok, now the agony.
The Camera's Exposure
Program:
It becomes evident, very quickly, that
this camera is programmed to choose high
shutter speeds in every picture taking
situation at the complete expense of
aperture. Doug Whitman of
http://home.adelphia.net/~dougwhitman/theory.html
has derived the chart below from the Epic's
repair manual. Although I cannot vouch for
its precise accuracy, is does seem to be
accurate based on my experiences with this
camera.
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To decipher what this graph says....
Outdoors with the sun directly hitting your
"middle-grey" toned subject ( EV15 ) and
using 100 speed film, the Epic will choose
to shoot the camera at approx. 1/500 at F8*
Change to 400 speed film and it will select
1/1000 with F11.
Did you even notice the Epic doesnt
stop down any further than F11 ? I think
thats odd, even for a point and shoot.
Here's another tid bit...if this graph is
precise, what it tells you is that when you
are using 100 speed film on a subject FULLY
lit by direct sun, you will NEVER get this
camera to stop down beyond F8 ( and never
beyond 5.6 with 50 speed film )! In
addition, if you use 100 speed film, in any
lighting situation that is EV10 or below, it
will be shot wide open ! So, low light
conditions like sunrise, sunset, dawn, shots
in the woods or a very, heavily overcast day
( or anything darker ) will cause the camera
to shoot wide open and thus, give less than
quality images. At night, without the flash
you'll ALWAYS shoot at F 2.8. This is NOT a
low light camera ! Using faster film will help...but even 400
speed film needs a fairly bright day for the
lens to stop down and get to experience the
very high quality the lens can provide from
F 5.6 to F 11. Use 50 speed film and you may
think this camera absolutely stinks ( cause
its going to shoot wide open in all but the
brightest outdoor light ) ! How about using
a tripod outdoors ? Why would you ? Its not
going to really help..sure it will eliminate
shake, but it wont cause the camera stop
down any and since the shutter speed is
already programmed to be high - the shake
the tripod MAY eliminate probably wont
impact the image quality much ( unless you
have really shaky hands ).
Bear in mind, I am referring to
outdoor use...indoor use is going to force
you to use flash. You can shut the flash off
if you desire, but you will be using F2.8
under EVERY circumstance. I dont have any
idea what the flash programming is - but
based on the flash power, I am going to
guess that in most common situations, it
uses F4 to F8, depending on film speed and
flash to object distance.
Another side effect of the cameras
exposure programming is the lack of depth of
field the camera will provide. Its
"virtually" impossible to get front to back
sharpness with this camera despite its wide
angle lens...Why? Again, even using 400
speed film, the camera cant stop down beyond
F 11 and since there is no easy way to use
hyperfocal focusing with this camera, it
rarely will provide great depth of field.
See image # 2 above. Even in very bright
light and using 400 speed film, that
building behind my son is not even close to
being in focus ( check out the larger image
). This is really not a good point &
shoot camera for landscape shooting !
Focus issues: The
camera does seem to misfocus
a bit more than the average
point-in-shoot camera. I say only "a bit"
because in using this camera and reading
many, many comments on the net - I believe
some of the misfocus problem has to do with
people not realizing how fast this camera
focuses. A very gentle, half-press of the
shutter button locks this baby on whatever
it catches in its focusing area. If you are
careful and deliberate, the camera focuses
properly. The manual states you should
center your point of focus within the cross
marked areas as seen in the viewfinder and
gently press the shutter half way to lock
the focus. A green light will glow when
focus is locked. Then, while holding the
shutter button depressed and the focus
locked, recompose as needed.
In some cases where users are
complainging about misfocus, I think the
camera has already focused on something
before the user even knew it OR they locked
their focus correctly but didnt keep the
shutter button depressed (maintaing the
focus point ) and the camera re-focused
right before the camera took the photo.
Another warning -
it is possible to take a
photo with this camera without it focusing
on anything. The camera will fire without
lighting up that green focus confirmation
light. Here's an example where NOTHING is in
focus despite it being mid-day sun and using
400 speed film....!
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Another thing you should know....this
camera utilizes an active-type, multi beam
focus, which is less accurate than
passive-type focusing which more expensive
auto focus cameras use. Active focus cameras
perform very well when focusing on objects
within 20 feet of the camera - but become
less accurate beyond this distance. You will
sometimes find it is difficult to get this
camera to focus on infinity unless there are
vertical lines in the scene for the camera's
auto focus to lock onto.
Flash issues:
The camera, when started up by opening
its shell, defaults to auto flash and will
fire if the camera shutter speed falls
below a certain speed. I am not sure of
the exact speed that triggers flash use,
but I think its rather high because this
baby loves to fire that flash ! One must
select, via a tiny button, to shut the
flash off. Secondly, being such a small
camera, the flash is very close to the
lens which is a recipe for disaster in
terms of producing red eye in your
pictures. Compounding the problem, the red
eye reduction function on this camera is
laughable. It fires something like 15
quick, flash bursts before actually taking
the final image. By the time it does this,
so much time is passed you may have lost
your subjects interest, have dazed them
with all the light, lost your focus point
or didnt hold the camera steady because
you never knew when it actually took the
photo.
On a positive note, I tend to use fill
flash in almost all of my outdoor people
photos and this camera does very well at
balancing the flash exposure with ambient
light levels. However, I do have to pray
that red eye doesnt occur. Here's a great
image pretty much ruined by the camera's
red eye...
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PS - Bokeh.....Despite the triangular shape
of the Epic's aperture, the bokeh the camera
produces is actually neutral to good. I have
never found any offensive out of focus
highlights ( see image above ), and on many
occasions I find the camera has pretty
smooth out of focus details ( see images #
1, # 5 and #6 ).
PPS - Lens Flare....I have found the lens
is good ( not great ) at handling flare.
Since using a lens shade is out of the
question, I'd advise keeping direct sun
out of your images as much as possible. As
a torture test, I did take an image where
the sun was directly shining onto the lens
( albeit a bit filtered by a tree ) and
the results are below. I'll let you form
your own conclusions ( but remember this
is a fairly torturous test for any lens !
)
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Conclusions
This camera is great in bright light
with fast film. It also has an excellent
program to balance fill flash photos.
Its small, light and can be brought
anywhere. When the lens stops down 2 or
more stops, image quality is really
superb. Not just good, but superb. The
viewfinder is also excellent with very
little parallax error due to its
thoughtful design. However, the camera's
major issue is that it takes very bright
light and/or fast film to get it to stop
down and produce quality images. It also
produces red eye quite frequently, which
might be fine for B&W film users,
but for most of us using color - it
stinks. Bottom line...its a very fine
camera but only in select lighting
situations. On the other hand, its hard to
complain when it costs as little as $
79.95 new and sometimes under $ 40,
used.
In short, if you're looking for a good
point and shoot to be able to function
under all types of lighting situations,
choose a camera that allows some manual
intervention ! The Epic is not the
answer.
* I say approximately because I dont
think the Epic has intermediate shutter
speeds or aperture settings. The graph
above actually shows that EV15 would cause
a 1/700 at F6.7ish setting, but I doubt
the Epic has those settings available. My
assumption is that the shutter only has
1/500 OR 1/1000 to select from, nothing in
between...and only F5.6 or F8 with nothing
in between.
Epic links:
200 Olympus Stylus Epic Reviews
Review on Photo.net
Stylus Epic Blog
Stylus Epic Manual - Free
Pop Photo's Review
Another users Review
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