Olympus E-P1 Design

Olympus E-P1 Design

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Front View. The Olympus E-P1 has a very clean, retro looking front, with minimal controls. The grip bevels down as it approaches the lens, and gives a little when you press on it. It's nice to use a metal camera again. Those dots left and right of the logo are holes for the stereo microphones.

Left View. No controls here. Note the D-ring, the only "retro" component on the Olympus E-P1 that we don't like much. Our key complaint is the noise the metal-to-metal interface can make while you're recording video.

Right View. The right side of the camera contains access to the USB/AV and HDMI ports. (Shown with M.Zuiko Digital Micro Four Thirds 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED lens in retracted position.)

Top View. The top panel has a few controls including the Mode dial (activated from the rear), On/Off switch, Shutter button, and Exposure Compensation button. A hot shoe is provided for flash or the optional optical viewfinder (it's included with the 17mm kit).

Back View. The majority of controls are on the camera's rear panel, along with the 3.0-inch, 230K dot LCD. The Main dial is easy to use despite its small size, as are the buttons on the Arrow pad. The SubDial is also easy to use, and well placed despite its position atop the rear thumb-rest.

Bottom View. The camera's bottom panel is flat, with a the metal tripod mount off-center from the lens mount. The battery door conceals the SD and battery slots.