Olympus PEN E-P1 production unit unboxed, we shudder with jealousy

Some jerk in the UK went and bought an Olympus PEN E-P1 camera from a store and had to go home and tell the whole internet about it. They even bothered to shoot an unboxing of the little Micro Four Thirds wonder, like we would care.

[victorvalkov @ Jun 28th 2009 8:26AM]

Oh man i LOL-ed so bad after reading this...

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jun 28th 2009 8:59AM]

"Shudder," or "shutter?"

You make the call.

[darkmax @ Jun 28th 2009 9:35AM]

I was laughing my head off too! What a refreshing commentary!

[wtfitsRICK @ Jun 28th 2009 1:34PM]

ahah. Yess. My friend and I just stared at the screen in awe.

[shuxtable27 @ Jul 15th 2009 9:54AM]

The read link no worky

[Zane @ Jun 28th 2009 8:38AM]

The read link has http:/// in it? Where's the vid?

[Zane @ Jun 28th 2009 8:38AM]

Oh shoot!

[MattyG @ Jun 28th 2009 8:50AM]

obviously they don't care enough to put the link in

[allenvanhellen @ Jun 28th 2009 8:40AM]

El read link esta no bueno. Come mierda y muere a causa de intoxicación alimentaria.

[RLBurkes @ Jun 28th 2009 8:26PM]

I think your lost...try http://es.engadget.com/

[Information Central @ Jun 29th 2009 6:53PM]

I think YOU'RE lost.

Try this:

http://www.iei.uiuc.edu/structure/structure1/salzmann_index.html

[kevin @ Jun 28th 2009 8:44AM]

Are you sure you don't mean "shutter" with jealousy?

[Jurgen @ Jun 28th 2009 8:49AM]

I think not, because that would be a horrible pun.

[al3nas @ Jun 28th 2009 8:44AM]

Link is

http://www.recentlyreviewed.net/2009/06/olympus-pen-e-p1-unboxed-cameras-pics.html

[pedro @ Jun 28th 2009 8:52AM]

Tks, al3nas!

[richb93 @ Jun 28th 2009 8:58AM]

Yeah, I'm sure that EVERYONE wants to go to your crappy store that sells poorly made crap that doesn't work.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jun 28th 2009 9:00AM]

I think Mike is a spambot.

[Smart People Play Tuba @ Jun 28th 2009 4:36PM]

I guess I was right. My original post was a reply to Mike's post, and now "Mike" is gone, and my "reply" is now it's own thread.

Nice work, Engadget police.

[John @ Jun 28th 2009 9:11AM]

Whats the deal???

[xadacka @ Jun 28th 2009 9:18AM]

The read link goes to http: and the image link goes to http:// http://*actuallink*

phail!

[Tom @ Jun 28th 2009 9:22AM]

Okay, now that I know the E-P1 uses SDHC cards I can officially get behind this camera and say I'm excited about it! Normally I don't push Olympus cameras at work because of those occursed XD cards, but with this one using SDHC, I can say even I'd like one. Hopefully this is the beginning of Olympus' abandoning of XD.

[Skrubis @ Jun 28th 2009 9:24AM]

smth wronh w read link

[Tonicboy @ Jun 28th 2009 9:28AM]

smth wronh w yer english

[Agent .25i @ Jun 28th 2009 9:31AM]

El read link esta no bueno.

[Sisyphus @ Jun 28th 2009 9:52AM]

Why is it every time I see the name of this camera I think of a "Pen 15" joke?

[AndrewNoNumbers @ Jun 28th 2009 1:56PM]

I was going to say something about that name too. It makes me think that Olympus made one of those mini spy pen-cameras.

[Jordan @ Jun 28th 2009 7:34PM]

It's an Image Stabilized version, making it the Olympus Pen-IS.

[loon @ Jun 28th 2009 1:48PM]

Piece of crap. Especially with an "Olympus" or "Canon" logo on it.

GO NIKON!

[kevin @ Jun 28th 2009 3:35PM]

Thank you for that insightful comment. I'm now convinced that Nikon makes a better product than anyone else.

[Plothole @ Jun 28th 2009 4:08PM]

I'm a Nikon dSLR user myself, and yet I'm extremely excited for this camera. I'm certain to get one as a secondary, carry around camera.

[ahaveng @ Jun 28th 2009 5:55PM]

I'm a Nikon guy as well but I love this camera.

Lots of potential with this format.

[weg @ Jun 28th 2009 10:09AM]

Uhmm. If I have to carry around lenses anyway, why not get a proper SLR? (for pretty much the same price).

[DutchGuy @ Jun 28th 2009 10:19AM]

If you have to ask, you won't understand the answer anyway.

[Germain @ Jun 28th 2009 10:53AM]

I see your point. I handled the E-P1 in Yodobashi Camera yesterday, and it's quite heavy. Sure, it's smaller than the DSLRs, but the weight makes it far from pocketable.

[Patriks7 @ Jun 28th 2009 2:15PM]

Same reason why people get an ultraportable like the MacBook Air instead of a normal laptop?

[hp540 @ Jun 28th 2009 10:28AM]

such a nice camera but no optical viewfinder. so sad :(

[Ken Lin @ Jun 28th 2009 10:48AM]

The reason why this camera is so nice and compact is precisely that it cannot have an optical viewfinder i.e. all the things associated with the mirror such as a mirror box, prism, shutter, etc.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 28th 2009 11:50AM]

It has a shutter, but no, it doesn't have a prism or mirror box.

[Steve @ Jun 28th 2009 8:02PM]

First, it's frikkin' ugly. It looks like something out of the 70's. Second, we have LCD screens now so we don't need viewfinders anymore gramps.

[tekdroid @ Jun 28th 2009 1:33PM]

Steve,
have fun squinting and shading the screen in the sun. Not to mention holding it steady when zooming.

Regards,
LCD Fever, Inc.

[Andrew @ Jun 28th 2009 6:40PM]

On the contrary, a small coupled rangefinder would make this a great deal. However, in its current form it would be near impossible to focus in sunlight.

[Mike C @ Jun 28th 2009 10:31AM]

I want one of these so bad >_< !!

[Pebble @ Jun 28th 2009 10:49AM]

No need to feel envious. I had an opportunity to play with the Olympus E-P1 Pen the other day. It's a good camera but not a great camera and although I welcome the concept think it will need a couple of iterations before they get it right.

The lack of in-built viewfinder an absolutely shocking mistake which will put off many street shooters who like to hug the camera. Yes one can get an attachment but it's a big ugly looking thing which completely defeats the sell of the small.

The shutter speed is slightly better than a good compacts but I felt was still slower than an entry level camera.

The design- it looks better in pics than in real life. Doesn't feel particularly well balanced with the 14-42mm lens and the grip could be a tad better.

And then the price £700. No way Jose

Don't feel envy. It's just not ready to feel envious about it

[KarlW @ Jun 28th 2009 10:58AM]

I hate that guy

[Richard Lai @ Jun 28th 2009 11:17AM]

The guy won't be that much of a jerk when we find out how much extra he had to pay for this preproducion unit.

[Richard Lai @ Jun 28th 2009 12:22PM]

OK, so the guy (Joshua) responded to my question, saying "Jessops (and Jacobs etc) should have stock in most stores now. Didn't have to pay more for it [the production unit], just RRP."

He must have been very desperate!

[Richard Lai @ Jun 28th 2009 12:24PM]

Argh, what the hell was I thinking? I got "preproduction" and "production" all mixed up! *hides in a cave*

[loci @ Jun 28th 2009 12:54PM]

cave is a good idea...im slightly embarrassed for you

[Richard Lai @ Jun 28th 2009 12:55PM]

@loci: Do send me some food once in a while. ;)

[danwhits @ Jun 28th 2009 11:56AM]

There will never be a relatively inexpensive rangefinder with D-SLR type interchangeable lenses AND an optical viewfinder. There are too many design problems with making that work. The film rangefinders that had interchangeable lenses and optical viewfinders could use only specific lenses and retain the use of the viewfinder. And they were generally very expensive, relatively speaking.

The camera I want is a rangefinder with a 2-10 MP/cm² pixel density, optical viewfinder, and a 50mm (35mm equiv) f1.8 or faster fixed lens.

Sorry, the Pen E-P1 misses the mark, IMHO.