Red Dot Photo Review - The PEN E-PL2: Continuing the PEN Legacy (Part II)

[MJ]

Continuing from Part 1 of our review of the PEN E-PL2, an in depth comparison was made between Olympus's new zoom lens, the M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II MSC (E-PL2) and the M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 (E-PL1).

According to Olympus, the M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II MSC is an improvement from its predecessor, with careful mechanisms and features added to make it an overall better performer.

Notable features of the M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II MSC include:

• Incorporates Movie and Still Compatible (MSC) mechanism that increases auto-focusing speed and reduces operation noise
• Significantly smaller and lighter than its predecessor at only 112grams, with dimensions of 56.5 x 50mm
• ED glass: Reduces chromatic aberration during image capture
• f/3.5 (14mm) - f/5.6 (42mm)
• Lens lockable when not in use

How does the lens perform when put to test sharpness and distortion? Red Dot Photo finds out.

1. Distortion

To test for barrel and pincushion distortion, photographs of a window were taken with both lenses at their shortest (14mm) and longest (42mm) focal lengths.

(Click here to view in high resolution)
(Top: Barrel distortion, bottom: pincushion distortion)
(Left: Taken with M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, right: taken with M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II MSC)

Both lenses exhibited minimal distortion at both ends of their zoom range. Pincushion distortion is well controlled in both lenses. It is particularly impressive that even though the M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 II MSC (E-PL2) is smaller than the E-PL1's kit lens, the resulting distortion between both sets of captured images were not significantly different.

2. Sharpness

To test centre to edge sharpness, a simple set up of Olympus's camera boxes were positioned and photographs at apertures 3.5, 4, 8 and 16 were taken.

The 100% centre crops show that images taken with the 14-42mm I at f/8 and f/16 were marginally softer, when compared to images taken with the 14-42mm II MSC at the same apertures.

(#1: Centre of image: 100% crop)
(Click here to view in high resolution)

Both lenses appear to be sharpest at wide apertures of f/3.5 and f/4.0, leading to the conclusion that both lenses would be excellent for low light photography.

The 100% bottom left edge crops show that images taken with the 14-42mm II MSC at large apertures (f/3.5 and f/4.0) were comparatively softer than images captured with the 14-42mm I at the same apertures.

However, the 14-42mm II MSC is sharper than the E-PL1's lens at f/16.

(#2: Bottom left edge of image: 100% crop)
(Click here to view in high resolution)

3. Conclusion

The 14-42mm II MSC is definitely a worthy investment for novice photographers desiring to learn more about photography.

Its consistency in sharpness both at the centre and corners surpasses the 14-42mm I and has managed to control the barrel distortion to a better degree than the 14-42mm I. Coupled with the fact that the 14-42mm II MSC comes in a more compact package, it overall offers a marked improvement over the 14-42mm I.

Olympus has done a good job in upgrading its kit lens and achieved a more compact size whilst maintaining (if not surpassing) its signature quality.

Written by MJ
Edited by Poseidon

[Air on D]

The Olympus 14-42 II MSC looks pretty good!! Distortion looks much better now.

[bigtourist]

Thorough test done! But the window picture seems to be a bit too big...:O

[happysushi]

nice article.. yeah agree lens II distortion is much lesser.. between epl1 and 2, i would get epl2 definitely..

[pacifact]

how;s the battery consumption of this mirrorless cam?

[Zeus]

A comparison between the specifications, ergonomics, video modes, scene modes between the best selling mirrorless cameras Olympus pen e-pl1 and Olympus pen e-pl2.

[Brown Bear]

https://us.buyolympus.com/e-pl2-came..._store=default

The PEN E-PL2 continues the PEN family’s legacy of a small, light and simple design, intuitive interface and DSLR image quality and expands your creative potential with new lens technology, Live Guide, new in-camera creative features, new auxiliary lenses, a new Close-Up Spotlight accessory (MAL-1) for macro photography and the new Olympus PENPAL Bluetooth® accessory. And the newly designed E-PL2’s ergonomic body makes capturing amazing still images and HD video more fun than ever before.

Smaller and lighter than standard SLR lenses thanks to the Micro Four Thirds format, the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 II (35mm equivalent focal length: 28-84mm) lens provides full 3x zoom performance in a very small package. The evolution of this PEN kit lens now focuses faster than ever before, so you won’t miss out on rapid shooting situations. Designed for shooting movies as well as stills, this updated lens now features MSC technology for practically silent auto focusing and great movie sound even when zooming. This lightweight and compact lens delivers high image quality and has an excellent close-up shooting capability.

Price is equivalent to ~SGD$715 which sounds pretty cheap!! Has anyone bought from Olympus Store before?