Olympus E-P1 - review and test shots

Well, I caved (very rapidly) and bought myself an Olympus E-P1 last Saturday. Judging by the week I've had to play with it so far, it was definitely the right buy for me. Because it's so light and portable, I've been happily toting it around with me all week - perfect for travelling. The camera fits very nicely in the hand, it feels solid but not heavy and nicely balanced with the compact 14-42mm kit lens attached. My only gripe with the build is the lens cap being totally detachable - it's fallen off in my bag once already and I imagine I'll lose it fairly soon.



The camera's start-up time is very fast, ideal for spontaneous shots. It's easy and intuitive to use, and having owned an Olympus digi before, some of the controls feel familiar. You can reach all the main functions/options using two dials on the back (as well as alternatively accessing them through on-screen menus); shooting mode is chosen on the top dial. The on-screen options are simple to read and manipulate. A great feature of the camera is the live preview on the large LCD screen, so you know exactly how your shot will turn out, and see how the shot changes with different settings applied.


iAuto mode (ISO 1600)

Being a newb to the world of DSLR, I've mostly just been using the iAuto mode which auto-selects the optimum settings for your shot - and actually produces really good results in most cases. I'm especially impressed with how it functions indoors and in low light - you can pump the ISO up with very little noise and it has several useful pre-programmed White Balance settings to neutralise artificial light.


iAuto mode


iAuto mode

The autofocus in iAuto mode is excellent, fast and sharp, and the image stabilisation does a good job reducing blur.


Before & after Auto shadow correction

I found that in very bright sunlight (as we've had in London this week) it casts rather dark shadows, but it has an in-built editor to lighten them up, which does a good job.


Aperture Priority mode; f/4.7, 29 mm, 500 ISO

I've also tried out Aperture Priority mode for macro shots - even though it only came with a 14-42mm kit lens, you can get in pretty close to a subject with sharp focus.


Pinhole Art filter


Pale & Light Colour Art filter


Grainy Film Art filter


E-Portrait before & after

I like the slightly cheesy Art filters; the Pinhole one actually creates quite authentic Lomo-esque results, and Grainy Film does indeed look like a noisy old black and white film. It also has an e-Portrait mode which airbrushes out imperfections on portraits! The results are quite effective but a little creepy - I'll probably stick to Photoshop for retouching as and where it's needed.



Perhaps most impressive is the quality of video recording. The E-P1 records in HD with stereo sound, and you can zoom in and continually auto-focus while recording. (You can also use the Art filters for video but I found this produced a very jerky playback.) I think HD video recording caps at around 7.5 minutes of continuous shooting which is more than enough for my needs. The image quality is excellent and looks great played back through a screen.



All in all, I love this camera, it's hardly left my side for the last week and I'm looking forward to learning how to use it properly and getting some really great shots out of it. Check out my Flickr set and Vimeo for lots more photos and videos from this week.

GDI09 - Brighton Illustration degree show

wow, there's some really strong graphics/illustration work from this year's crop of Brighton University illustration/graphics graduates. Here's a little peek at some of my favourites.


Chris Pell


Jade Powell


Sophie Alda


Yuko Michishita

Check out all the students' work here, and if you're in town, the show is on in East London from Thursday until Monday.

Meow meow - cat blog

Two of my favourite things - illustration and cats - combine in this amazing new blog, the baby of Anke Weckmann aka Linotte (who happens to be one of my favourite illustrators anyway) and Mary Kilvert, whose sweet illustrations are also worth a look. The blog features artists who love their kitties so much, they use them as inspiration for their work. There's already some really sweet stuff up there, so take a look! I'm actually slightly sad I didn't have the idea for it first - cats really are enjoying a wave of internet-popularity right now, aren't they?

Oh, and since I'm on the subject, here's a couple of recent photos of my own lil darling, aged six months now. These were taken on my new Olympus E-P1 camera, more on which soon..!

Vogue Designer dolls

My fascination with Russian dolls/matryoshka is fairly common knowledge, so of course I love this series of dolls given special treatment by top fashion designers, to celebrate Russian Vogue's 10th anniversary (what else?). Here's some of my favourites.


Christopher Bailey's doll sports a chic classic Burberry mac...


Dolce and Gabbaba's is clad in black glitter...


Matthew Williamson's is covered in his signature brightly coloured geometric print.

Check out the whole series of dolls here.

Marina and the Diamonds

I'm really loving the sound of new UK artist Marina and the Diamonds. There's whiffs of influence from Kate Bush and Regina Spektor, but plenty of uniqueness to set her apart. This video above for her new single I Am Not a Robot is pretty rad too, co-directed by photographer Rankin. Listen to more on her myspace page, and her rant-filled blog is quite interesting reading, too.

Typography necklaces

Sorry to post something so similar to my last entry, but I just found these necklaces and I'm a bit in love.





Typography necklaces for the graphic design geek (hello!), from Plastique on Etsy. Couldn't resist snapping up the Avant Garde one as Lubalin's typeface is one of my favourite pieces of design ever.



via welovetypography

When crafts collide: Crocheted jewellery

Firstly, a quick hello to new viewers/subscribers - I had an unexpected spike in traffic due to being featured on a few web design blogs lately, so hello and I hope you continue to visit!


I love when different crafts collide - you usually end up with a really interesting and unique result. I stumbled across some handmade jewellery on design-inspiration site ffffound earlier which just shows that if something is creatively made, it can inspire people outside of its direct audience. The item in question was this lovely necklace with crocheted motif from from etsy seller Tree & Kimball.


In the same vein, here's some more crochet-and-beaded necklaces from Muntedkowhai (beautiful product photography, too!).



Finally, I love the drama of these oversized fringe necklaces from Norwegian Wood. I might hit up the haberdashery department and make my own version.

Write Here Right Now - Gemma O'Brien

I'm late to the party with this one, but I love Gemma O'Brien's typographic body art here. One part homage to Stefan Sagmeister, one part university assignment for anti-graffitiing on private property, it's incredibly beautiful and effective. Nice to see someone so young (and female) getting into typography and coming up with great ideas like this.

Read an interesting interview with Gemma here and check out her blog featuring more lovely work (under the clever alias Mrs Eaves) here.

Olympus E-P1

I've been hankering after a new digital camera for a while, and since coming into a bit of money lately I decided to splash out on a DSLR. I was all set to buy the Canon 450d as recommended by everyone, until @mrlomo pointed me towards this little beauty, the new Olympus E-P1.





Siiiiigh, isn't she gorgeous? You can tell the body design is based on the classic 35mm Pen which makes it look stylishly retro, yet the gleaming white colourway makes it slick and modern too. It's a micro four-thirds design which means it has all the image processing power of a DSLR but in a much smaller package.

The downside? It's not even out yet, it will be £700 in the UK (£200 more than the 450d) and as it's a new model it will probably need refining before it's perfect.

So.... help, advice?!

If you want more information on the E-P 1, check out these links:
Japanese site, with 360 view
DpReview site with in-depth features
Engadget article with photo gallery
Photographyreview.com video tour

Present & Correct

I found the very cute Present and Correct online store because they are guest blogging over at Design Sponge this week. They carry a tasty range of retro notebooks, cards and other goodies, and everything is either handmade or sourced from vintage suppliers all over the world.

Plus the fact that they are graphic designers getting in touch with their crafty side rings a bell with me..! To pick up some goodies, check out the website, or shop on Etsy.