Most of the Olympus E-PL3's specifications rival or exceed those of other mirrorless cameras. It has the same sensor and processor as its more expensive sibling, the Olympus E-P3- plus a tiltable screen and 5.5 fps, both of which the E-P3 lacks. It is part of the only mirrorless camera line with in-body image stabilization, enabling IS for any legacy lenses. It is sure to be cheap- earlier iterations of the E-PL line have been known to dip into the $399 range and I expect it will start at around $599 for a kit. But I and many other interested photographers will not be considering a purchase of the E-PL3 when it is release this fall for one simple reason: no orientation sensor.
As one online commentator put it last year, when the E-PL1 was released without an orientation sensor: "No orientation sensor in 2010? How is that even possible?" Given the low cost of an orientation sensor on a camera that already has an internal stabilizer, this is clearly done merely out of a desire for Olympus to handicap its cheaper models- much as Panasonic has removed the microphone jack from its new G3's.
Olympus is not alone here- Panasonic doesn't include an orientation sensor with any of its mirrorless cameras (other than an external one on Mega OIS lenses). Olympus includes one in the $800ish E-P3.
How many serious photographers want to come back from a photo shoot and sift through hundreds of images to right-position the vertifical photos because the camera company couldn't be bothered to spend the $2 or whatever to include an orientation sensor in camera? Not many. How many inexperienced amateur photographers want to be bothered with this? Not many either. Total design fail on Olympus' part. This is the same reason why I have not considered an Olympus E-PL2 (that and the slowish autofocus which Olympus has reportedly resolved with the E-PL3).
I'm looking forward to the release of the Samsung NX20 and NX200 later this month. With the NX10, Samsung found room to include an electronic viewfinder and an orientation sensor in a camera with a better form factor than any of the micro four thirds models at a competitive price.
Among micro four-thirds cameras, only the Olympus straight E-P cameras (e.g., E-P2, E-P3) include orientation sensors.
Seriously? All it takes is a couple mouse clicks in Lightroom or any other photo editor/organizer on the market to rotate a photo properly. Issue solved. Much cheaper than getting an EP-3.
Posted by: Sam | July 2, 2011 at 07:28 PM
I hear you. If I had a burning desire to pick up this camera, I would get over it. I had to rotate Fuji point-and-shoot a couple years back that needed to have the photos rotated (there was a mistake camera for reasons far beyond portrait orientation). But for me, it's just an annoying thing that I don't want to deal with every time I open a photo shoot for processing. There's already so much other crap I have to deal with, checking on contrast, colors, cropping, resizing photos for the web. I realize the lack of orientation sensor does not effect picture quality, a far more paramount issue.
Posted by: Breningstall | July 2, 2011 at 09:43 PM
I used an EPL1 as a backup body at a wedding and shot maybe 500 shots with it, mostly vertical and I'll tell ya, one of the MAIN reasons I'm going with the EP3 is the orientation sensor. Those "simple" button clicks done 300 times, get tiresome.
Just my two cents.
Posted by: Mitch Hamilton | August 1, 2011 at 07:37 PM
That's the biggest issue for me with my E-PL2. Orienting photos in Lightroom is annoying waste of my time. 100s of photos are pain to orient, and usually required before picking out best shots. If they'd add it somehow to EVF, I'd get it to compensate for this...
Posted by: Get it straight | August 29, 2011 at 08:33 AM
Totally with you on this one. It's simple decontenting. Sad because I prefer the size and style of the EPL over the EP, but it's extra lame given that the internal IS is effectively one big orientation sensor.
Posted by: Dolan Halbrook | October 10, 2011 at 02:25 PM
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Posted by: Kamera tilbehør | October 19, 2011 at 07:55 AM
Well,its great to know that Panasonic doesn't include an orientation sensor with any of its mirrorless cameras (other than an external one on Mega OIS lenses) and Olympus includes one in the $800ish E-P3.
Posted by: spionkamera | October 28, 2011 at 02:45 AM