I was just about set to pre order a PL2, but have read a few things about skin tones and maybe Olympus colors in general being too warm. I'm coming from more than one Panasonic p&s where I find Panasonic produces a very annoying magenta hue that's particularly noticeable in skin tones (at times). This is one reason why I was avoiding another Panasonic (maybe it's different w/the m4/3ds). Am I making a mistake? I've heard great thing about Olympus colors esp. jpegs ooc, but please, no more rosy skin tones!! Just wondering what peoples' experiences have been.
If you are coming from P&S, then you may never have shot RAW rather than jpeg. Jpegs are a compessed image format, designed to save on storage space, they are produced by a piece of software that decides what to throw away, and then simplifies the rest. Burning the results into an easy to view container. RAW files contain the raw data from the camera sensor (plus any special instuctions from the camera's firmware) they are not 'easily viewable' or designed to be small. But from the RAW you can use any number of converters; from free ones (that come with the camera) to workflow solutions like Lightroom or Apeture. These RAW converters pretty much let you make you own jpegs with exactly the compromises you want - no more colour woes, ever. Some people do prefer to shoot jpeg only, because it saves time in post production; but then with any camera, e-pl1, gf1, whatever you need to be much more careful with your white balance and getting exposure right - as you will not have much margin for error, and your ability to 'save' an underexposed, off colour photo will be drastically reduced. The majority shoot raw and don't look back, it doesn't really matter which m4/3 camera you use; choose one that handles well when you pick it up, and seems intuitive when you are trying to shoot with it. Since from a colour perspective all raw files are made equal (well, some are more equal than others). Hope this helps.
Olympus out of camera jpegs have the best colours I've ever seen, even for skin tones. I sure do wish my "pro" Canon gear had those colours. Gordon
I have noticed that the out of camera jpegs are "warm" withe E-PL1 using certain modes. I'm not sure which settings cause this, yet, because they don't appear on all of the photos. Just certain conditions, like low-light shots. I've only had the camera a few weeks, so there is much to learn. With that said, I capture each photo in jpeg + RAW, so I can go back and adjust any photo where the in-camera jpeg didn't come out the way I wanted it to. I haven't done this, yet, but I'm sure when I get the time to sit down and analyze my recent adventures I'll adjust a few of the shots.
