Olympus PEN E-PL1 12.3MP Live MOS Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens (Black)

I've had the camera for a few days now, have been going out each afternoon experimenting with it, and so far I'm very happy with the purchase. But I think there's a lot of personal taste involved in buying any expensive camera, and you should try out several cameras "live" before buying this or any other one. I'm not going to repeat the pros and cons listed in other reviews - by and large I think others have done a good job pointing those out. I'm probably the target market - I was looking seriously at a Canon G11 or a Lumix LX3 before deciding to plonk down a bit more cash for this. I am happy with this camera because my priorities are:

- small size: I hike a lot, and want a light camera that will happily go in my backpack with lunch. DSLR's were just a little too too bulky for my taste. I really like the size of the camera, was willing to pay a bit extra for it. At some point I will probably spring for the 17mm "pancake" lens to trim it down even more. But when I have... Read more

Customer Video Review Length:: 3:54 Mins

What do you get when you take Olympus PEN and mix it with a stripper (Of course I mean someone who strips features from a camera). You get the E-PL1 camera which is a little bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand you have one of the best versions of the m4/3 sensor to date. From what I have read it is better than both the E-P1 and E-P2 sensors. It is hard to tell the difference at normal screen and printing resolutions and I take a picture at its whole and don't pixel peep so I cannot verify that. What I can say is this camera is capable of producing world class images. Additionally, this camera has the Olympus JPEG engine which is regarded in the business as one of the best. This camera is also relatively small and light and includes a fill flash. Additionally, it has image stabilization (IS) built into the camera. It is not pocketable and the size of this camera has more to do with the lens that it is wearing then the actual camera itself.

On the other hand, you... Read more