Olympus PEN E-P3

The E-P3 is a compact mirrorless camera from 2011 built around the Micro Four Thirds system. At 369 g and 122 x 69 x 34 mm, it slips into a small bag or a large coat pocket, and the interchangeable mount lets you swap lenses to suit the day.

Composition happens entirely on the rear screen because there is no viewfinder. That suits photographers comfortable with live-view framing and favours travel, street and everyday use over long lens work.

In-body stabilisation keeps handheld everyday stills steady, and the three-frame-per-second burst plus modest battery life suit a considered, unhurried way of shooting.

The 12.3 megapixel sensor keeps files small and gives enough resolution for prints and web sharing, though heavy cropping is off the table. The modest Optics score of 45 reflects that resolution together with the Micro Four Thirds format, and the camera sits in the bottom 15% of cameras in our database for Optics.

In-body stabilisation is the highlight. Because it works with any lens you mount, handheld shooting at slower shutter speeds stays practical, which helps you keep the ISO down instead of pushing toward the 12800 ceiling in dim rooms.

Thirty-five autofocus points give you plenty of places to put focus, though a count alone says nothing about tracking speed. Continuous shooting tops out at three frames per second, so it suits portraits and still scenes rather than fast sport.

The shutter reaches 1/4000 and the base ISO is 200, figures that cover ordinary daylight shooting.

Video records up to Full HD in AVCHD format, with frame rates reaching 60 fps, which helps motion look smooth. The Video score of 56 is modest, and Full HD rather than 4K is the main constraint if you want footage that holds up on large screens.

Those are separate maximums, so the fastest frame rate is not assured at the highest resolution.

The in-body stabilisation carries over to handheld video, taming the camera shake that makes walking footage hard to watch. It cannot steady a moving subject, since only camera shake is reduced.

There is no built-in intervalometer, so timelapse sequences require an external trigger rather than a camera menu setting.

The three-inch OLED screen shows 614,000 dots and adds a touch layer for direct control. The screen is fixed rather than tilting, and with no viewfinder it is the only way to frame a shot.

A built-in flash is handy for dim rooms, and the camera also supports external flash when you want more power or direction over the light.

There is no weather sealing, GPS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so the body needs shelter from rain and dust and there is no wireless route for images. The missing Bluetooth and weather sealing are part of why the Features score of 52 is modest.

The Storage & Battery score of 21 is limited. The BLS-5 battery is rated at 330 shots, a figure without stated test conditions, so a spare battery belongs in the bag.

A single slot takes SD, SDHC and SDXC cards, covering a wide range of capacities. With one slot there is no in-camera backup or overflow during a shoot, so it pays to start important days with a formatted card.

Charging happens outside the camera, since there is no USB charging. You cannot top the battery up from a laptop or power bank between sessions, so carry a charger and plan charging stops on long days.