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A beginner-friendly camera whose charms are all too familiar.
Straight out of the box, the E-PL10 will put a smile on your face because it’s a dinky and attractive camera. Looks alone could seal the deal for some.
We had the white version with a gold, embossed Olympus logo, but it’s also available in black or tan. The body is covered in a tactile faux leather and sandwiched between top and bottom metaleffect plates.
A thumb grip and curved front hand grip provide some extra purchase, although you wouldn’t want to use particularly heavy lenses – those are more suited to cameras in the OM-D range, like the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III.
Being an entry-level camera, the E-PL10 has a plastic build, which is more obvious on the top and bottom plates. However, all of the controls feel solid enough, the faux-leather is delicious and the top dials are particularly pleasant to rotate.
A tilt-touchscreen dominates the rear. It will flip 180-degrees to the underside of the camera for viewing from the front, appeasing the occasional selfie. Yet without a socket for an external microphone, this is no blogger’s camera.
Olympus has settled on a tried-and-tested 16.1-millionpixel sensor on the E-PL10. By current standards, this resolution is modest. However, image quality isn’t all about how large you can print or view the images at 100% size (without loss of quality due to interpolation). There is plenty to like about the photos that the E-PL10 creates.
Video specification is pretty much identical to the E-PL9, which impressed on its launch two years ago. There is 4K video at 30fps. Crucially, again, the E-PL10 offers in-body image stabilisation (IBIS), for both video and photos.
With a good range of lenses available, including some that are a sensible price- and size-match such as the 45mm f/1.8 and 12mm f/2, the E-PL10 can push your photography further.
In sunny conditions, the E-PL10 can make sharp images full of contrast and tonal range, backed up by a lovely color rendition. JPEG photos – that’s those straight out of the camera – especially using the ’natural’ color profile, look great. Art Filters provide fun alternative styles, too.
For a camera that might be used a lot for general family shots, poor low light performance would be more of a turn-off than lowresolution. The native sensitivity range of ISO 200-6400 is modest, suggesting that E-PL10 images will struggle more than larger-format cameras in low contrast light. There is plenty to like about the E-PL10; it looks great, has an array of creative and beginner friendly shooting modes, the JPEG color rendition is lovely and natural, plus 4K videos are supported by powerful image stabilisation. On the flip side, the camera does have its limitations.