Olympus Pen E-PL1 Video Review / Sample Footage
by TV Smith

The annual Vesak Day (Wesak) floats procession at the Maha Vihara Buddhist Temple in Brickfields presented a perfect opportunity to assess the new Olympus E-PL1 in a real world environment.

The only in-camera adjustments I made was to set the white balance to warm to preserve the ambience. All other camera settings were left at factory default.

The video was edited on the new Edius Neo 2 Booster. Again, no adjustments were made to the footage so that viewers can evaluate the original video quality of this new micro 4/3 camera.

While the E-PL1's HD avi files can be viewed and edited natively on the Edius Neo Booster, I preferred to convert them to Canopus HQ Quality first. Slo-mo were applied to a couple of clips and the logo was inserted via a luminance key instead of chroma. The PIP feature was relatively painless and quick on the Neo. All in, it is quite a powerful package for its price.

The camera -- being primarily a still camera -- of course has its quirks when used as a camcorder. Although there is a separate record button, it was in an awkward position when the camera was mounted on a chest harness or balancing rig.

I didn't want to carry along a tripod, so I used a giant alligator-jaw spring clamp which I clamped onto metal street signs whenever needed. A LitePanels Micro LED Light was mounted on the hotshoe for fill light.

The audio from the Olympus Pen was surprisingly good. Normally the sound from a built-in monaural microphone tends to be a bit muffled and will pick up a lot of camera handling noise. The camera's AGC handled the challenging noise environment very well.

Camera: Olympus Pen E-PL1
NLE: Edius Neo 2 Booster
Acquisition Files: 1280 X 720 avi

You can find more info and a map to the Brickfields Temple here:
MyCen Map & Directions to Buddhist Maha Vihara Temple

Watch also: Olympus Pen E-P1 HD Video Sample