While I was visiting my parents some weeks back, mum excitedly took out her camera to show me some photos she took during her trip to Sri Lanka in December. She then ‘conveniently’ told me that the camera has been a little faulty. That IXUS is already more than 6 years old (it was my 21st birthday gift from Wayne 🙂 ) so there’s really no point trying to fix it.

Hence, I told her I’ll pass her my Canon S90 (which was also a birthday gift from Wayne during my last year in Uni). It’s about 4 years old, in perfect working condition, and a really good and handy camera. However, after I’ve started using Wayne’s EOS70D, I stopped using the S90. I found the photos on the compact lacking depth so I rather used the iPhone for convenience. 

 I thought I will no longer be interested in anything less than a DSLR (and I don’t need one since I can always borrow Wayne’s) because the quality of the photos from a DSLR is just so different. Especially the bokeh you get, with a good lens.

But after our Babymoon trip in Taiwan, I was briefly contemplating about getting a mirror-less camera. It will be good for taking photos of food, interior of small cafes and restaurants (especially dimly lit ones), hotel rooms and SELFIES. I think we look so hilarious when we tried taking a selfie with the EOS -_-

So after mum’s ‘subtle request’, we started looking at a potential camera to replace the S90.

The criteria – handy enough to bring around (when we want to leave the EOS at home), mirror-less (preferably with a decent collection of lenses), allows us to take selfies of good quality (doesn’t have to come with a swivel screen, as long as we can capture our faces completely – but MUCH better than iPhone quality) and my initial budget was around $700 (I refuse to pay the price of a DSLR for a non-DSLR camera!).

Stepped into a random camera shop last weekend and saw this promotion:

Seems like PEN Lite E-PL6 is pretty close to what I want but I have been a Canon fan for the longest time, I don’t have a single idea how Olympus work. I do know it’s a great brand for mirror-less though.

I asked to take a look at the E-PL6 and the extremely helpful salesman took out E-P5 and (gasp!) the OMDs as well.

To save you from the details of the half-hr ordeal, let’s just say I ALMOST walked out with an OMD. The almost-DSLR like feel of the camera (it even comes with a view-finder! Albeit an electronic one), the vintage look, the awesome lens that it comes with that can switch to MACRO mode on a click, the 5-point stabiliser, the sound of the shutter, the crazily fast auto focus and the photos are almost DSLR quality if I just look at them through the screen.

But because I had so little knowledge about Olympus (and I can’t decide between the older but more value-for-money EM5 and the newer but slightly less impressive EM10), we only left the shop with a brochure. PLUS, the OMD is almost at DSLR price…

After doing all the research (I think) I needed to understand Olympus’ micro 4/3 system and the comparisons between the different models, I thought I’ve decided on the newer EM10 model since the EM5 is already 2-year old. But since there is no promotion for it now, I wanted to wait till the next IT fair (in May/ June).

We happened to be at AMK Hub last Tuesday and decided to drop by M S Colour (we’ve been buying all our cameras there since my first IXUS 6 years ago). Discussed about the different Olympus models with the staff there and after weighing through the options with the ‘experts’, we realised there is really no need to get an OMD because the E-PL6 could comfortably meet all my criteria. It’s definitely not as impressive as the OMD, but since we already have a DSLR, there is no need to splurge on the OMD.

And we can get another lens with the price difference between the OMD and E-PL6 (which we didn’t, of course)!

That’s why I love going to M S Colour. The staff there always give sincere and extremely useful opinions. They are extremely patient and believes in educating their customers about the cameras before they commit to the product. *And they always quote lower than the RRP!*

So we went back there the very next day and bought the E-PL6!

(photos of E-PL6 taken with EOS70D)

We got the twin-lens kit because with a price difference of less than $200, it’s more worth it. If bought separately, the zoom lens will cost more than $500.

Free gifts include a body cap (it’s a very convenient lens option but being 15mm F8.0, don’t expect much depth from it), neck strap, camera case and an 8GB FlashAir SD card (which I upgraded to 16GB). The camera does not have in-built wi-fi, but is compatible with FlashAir which means I can still conveniently transfer photos from the camera to my phone using the card’s wifi!

Kit-lens 14-42mm f3.5-5.6

Zoom lens 40-150mm f4.0-5.6

Here’s a comparison of the photos taken with an EOS70D, E-PL6 and my retired S90 (all taken on AV Mode – f4.0, WB Sunny Day, ISO400):

Below are some photos taken with the E-PL6, straight out from the camera without any editing.

 Selfie shots!

The E-PL6 comes with an e-Portrait setting under the Scene mode which clears up the skin for portrait photos. But it saves 2 versions of the photo (original + e-Portrait) so the loading time to save the photos are longer.

Original

e-Portrait mode

iAuto Mode

And we went to Punggol today and took some test shots while exploring the park and stables!

And some random shots of tonight’s dinner :p

I’ve been a Canon user for so long, I’m still trying to get used to all the settings and functionalities of the E-PL6. The camera’s photo quality has proven to be great so far and the focus is really fast and accurate, but I thought the colour accuracy of the screen display and stabilisation mechanism can be improved slightly.

That said, I’m definitely no expert with all the techie details of cameras, these are just my initial thoughts as a normal user and I hope they provide some basic info if you’re considering Olympus as an option.

I’m only 3 days into my relationship with E-PL6 and I’m still in love with it 🙂 I hope our relationship continues to stay rosy and I look forward to collecting more moments with it! Especially those precious first few years of Baby L 😀

Big thanks to Wayne for feeding my camera obsession once again, 6 years on!