Long-Term w/ Olympus PEN E-PL8 — Adam Leahy Photography

I really love this camera on an enthusiast level. I have spent a lot of hours with this photo-walking, street photography, family situations, and a little testing in the studio. This is one of my favorite cameras for having fun with photography, however when I try pushing it into my professional realm, it leaves me lacking. For example, I can't seem to get a natural looking white balance in studio. It has a manual kelvin adjustment, but nothing really looks right. I like all the lens options with this, I use the M. Zuiko 17mm f/2.8 quite a bit, however it is not very sharp at f/2.8, and not really tack-sharp at any aperture. It is good enough for most casual photography, and posting to the internet rarely shows it's softness... too much. Auto focus is really good, snappy, sometimes it startles me with it's quickness with back screen focus. If I had a budget for an enthusiasts camera, this or one of the higher end Olympus cameras would be my choice. However, FujiFilm would be a close second. I like Fuji's image quality better than Olympus, but I hate auto focus on FujiFilm camera with a passion. I have not yet tested the newest Fuji's, hoping for improvements. I don't even like manual focus on Fuji's, it's slow, sluggish and lacks a precise feel. Auto focus on Olympus, kicks a$$, and manual focus works as well as any digital MF that I have used. I really like the M.Zuiko lenses and they hit some really nice price points. Fuji lenses are pretty expensive, but none the less, super great optically.

My image review for Olympus PEN E-PL8 from a year ago.

I highly recommend the Olympus mirror-less cameras and lenses.