They say that nostalgia isn't what it used to be, but you won't be able to convince anyone at Olympus that this is true. It's less than year since the company gave its successful PEN series, which began in 1959, a digital makeover in the shape of the PEN E-P1, and now hot on the heels comes its successor, the E-P2.

Bowing to photographers' pressure, the E-P2 is designed in sleek jet black but in most other respects the retro-styled base unit is virtually identical to its big sister. It still measures 120.5 x 70 x 35mm and thanks to the solid metal casing it weighs a chunky but reassuring 335g. This is the second Micro Four Thirds System, 12.3-megapixel camera shooting at 4:3 aspect ratio to use Olympus' TruePic V engine.

The layout of the controls is also the same, with an easily accessible row of buttons in a strip beside the 3.0-inch LCD display, next to two separate Fn and Info buttons on either side of a raised control dial which handles white balance, ISO, AF and continuous shooting. Unfortunately this means that one niggling design feature is also retained and that's the wheel on the mode dial on the top left, which is positioned so tightly to the body of the camera that it's unwieldy to operate.

When you open the box, however, you will find a completely new and entirely welcome piece of kit and that's an electronic viewfinder (the VF-2). This clips into the camera via the hot shoe and a dedicated accessory port, can be tilted to 90 degrees (a big boost for tripod filming), and provides 100 percent field of view and 1.15x magnification. Once it's engaged the LCD goes blank and all the viewing information is transferred to the EVF, which is ideal for darker interiors. External mics and flash units will also be able to plug into this port, which is another response to criticisms of the first model.

That's not all that's new. The range of focusing options now includes AF Tracking which will be especially valuable for video recording, the latter now offering manual control of exposure and speed while shooting up to 30fps, 1280 x 720p, HD movies. Two new quirky Art Filters have also been added to the six existing ones: Diorama, which creates the illusion of a model world, and Cross Process which flips colours around. In addition there's a novel i-Enhance feature to make colours appear stronger than in reality.

The standard of picture quality and colour reproduction remains high and with Olympus planning a constant supply of interchangeable lenses, you can soon supplement the surprisingly compact 14-40mm zoom lens that comes in the box.

Verdict
Olympus has listened to its customers and kept all that is best in the PEN E-P1 whilst adding a much needed electronic viewfinder and a range of enhancements to focusing, movie mode, filters and colour-boosting.

Company: Olympus

Contact: 01923 831 201

Tags: micro four thirds system olympus corporation liquid crystal display olympus olympus pen camera international organization for standardization photography