PORTABLE YET POWERFUL, TWO NEW CAMERAS HAVE HELPED TO CHANGE THE RULES FOR COMPACTS. TERENCE GOH REPORTS

You may be an advanced photographer who loves your digital SLR (DSLR) but wishes it wasn’t so darned big and heavy. Or perhaps you’re happy with your point-and-shoot camera, but wish you were able to take more creative control of your shots. Either way, Olympus and Panasonic have just the thing for you.

In their revolutionary new Micro Four Thirds camera system, announced in 2008, the two companies came up with an elegant solution to the problem of the large camera body size that plagues traditional DSLRs.

By disposing of the large reflecting system in DSLRs, their latest offerings, the Olympus E-P2 (the Pen) and the Panasonic GF1 manage to offer much smaller and lighter builds (a mere 335g and 285g respectively) than many thought possible.

With these Micro Four Thirds cameras, you get the full manual settings and interchangeable lens ability of a DSLR, with all the creature comforts and portability of a compact, allowing precise creative control to capture the important moments of your life. Here, we distill the essentials of each camera.

OLYMPUS E-P2

Buy-it factor: You don’t just take good shots; you look awesome taking them. A modern version of the 1960s Olympus Pen, the E-P1 created waves in the photographic community with its nostalgic feel, classic design and superb images. Its successor, the E-P2, released in December, updates the Pen. Pre-set “art scenes” ensure you always get a perfect shot if manual settings prove tiresome. The E-P2 has its image stabilizer built into the camera body. Plus the E-P2 shoots in glorious high-definition video, with stereo sound.

Bottom line: Like the E-P1, there’s still no built-in flash; you must attach one through the hot-shoe. And you can’t use a flash and an electronic viewfinder at the same time – a real limitation. But all is forgotten when you take your first few shots with this beautiful camera. Add to it the optional, retro-styled leather body jacket and you’re truly in business, ’60s style. (From US$1148)

PANASONIC GF1

Buy-it factor: There’s a sedate simplicity to the GF1, which looks uncannily like a beefed-up version of Panasonic’s wildly well-received LX3 model. The collaboration with legendary camera makers Leica means you get top-quality lenses and build. Engineers have clearly put thought into its simpler navigational system, as everything is just where you expect it to be. Its built-in pop-up flash, although not the strongest, means you won’t have to pay extra just to take night shots. And for those with butter fingers, the GF1 has a great grip.

Bottom line: The image stabilizer is built into each lens, and only into certain lenses, makes each lens slightly pricier as a result. And shouldn’t such a superb camera also make a design statement? Yet for the urbane globetrotter who values simple navigation and no-nonsense functionality, GF1, despite relatively utilitarian looks, is an easy choice. (From US$933)

WARM NOTES

THE ROOTS OF INDONESIA’S BIGGEST MUSIC FESTIVAL ARE CAPTURED IN PRINT, AS LUKE CLARK WRITES

Bringing the World to Indonesia by Widyasena Sumadio is a labor of love. Celebrating a half decade of the Java Jazz Festival, the 147-page coffee table book is as ambitious as the event, though not as well executed. But good things begin with a strong heart, as the event itself has proven.

In the midst of a turbulent decade, launching a sprawling jazz music platform in 2005 in Jakarta was a leap of faith. Verification came through the talent assembled, including legends James Brown, George Clinton, Patti Austin and Sergio Mendes. The book takes a similar leap, and the initial result is an imperfect vision. The text has numerous grammatical and editing errors (Miles Davis becomes David at once stage), while the text at times flows poorly. Prose filled with interesting nuggets on jazz past and present too often breaks down into unexpected lists. Yet there is still a lot to enjoy. This is jazz after all, a genre celebrating life’s excesses and vagaries. What it lacks in precision, the book makes up for in passion. Java Jazz was a landmark for Indonesian music, and this is a solid first attempt at housing four years of heart and soul. The design has a spacious and timeless quality, recalling music books from the height of jazz in the early 1960s. Highlights include the emotive live photography, together with the elegant use of wood and stone motifs, mirroring the music’s earthy quality. Worth a read for festival lovers and newcomers alike, one hopes that as the festival approaches its tenth anniversary, we will enjoy a more polished reissue in years to come. R&W Publishing, US$60.