Olympus PEN E-PL1 Micro Four Thirds camera now shipping for $600
By Darren Murph 
posted February 24th 2010 10:22AM
posted February 24th 2010 10:22AM
[Thanks, Ron]
posted February 24th 2010 10:22AM
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Wow! Olympus is actually using SDHC cards instead of their terrible proprietary XD crap!
@Dafrety
Excellent news. One of the reasons I wasn't put off an Olympus E-620 was the fact that it had a CF slot so I knew I would be able to use SD via an adaptor if I so chose.
Good to see their smaller cameras catching up now, xD cards were always a black mark against olympus cameras what with being slower, more expensive and harder to find while on holiday.
@Dafrety
Yes, all the new Pens use SD. It's good to see the general swing towards SD. Even Sony is now offering cameras with an SD option along with memory stick.
@Atkins
I don't know if grippy thongs are something that I should desire or avoid.
Wow, that's very fast !
Hmm, the camera lacks the aesthetics of the E-P1 and has a lower max shutter speed of 1/2000 sec (might be harder to use at F1.7 in sunlight). However that is balanced by built-in flash and lighter AA filter which should result in sharper images. E-P1 or E-PL1? Decisions, decisions, des…
@Gward If you want to use manual controls, rule this one out. Just look at a picture of the backside of it :) It's made for easy, which is another way of saying that it's a clicketyclick hell to use if you want to configure stuff yourself.
f/5.6? Consider it resisted.
@Leicaman And how is this different from any other DSLR kit lens?
@piperthe
They should put a nice f/2 or f/1.8 lens on it. The biggest weakness of 4:3 cameras (even Olympus' pro-oriented bodies) is that they have significantly more noise than the competition. They need fast lenses with such tiny bodies to make them really sing.
Leica makes a nice f/1.4 4:3 lens. Give us the option to buy that with this body, and I'd think about it.
@Leicaman Well-reasoned. I'd like to see them bundle this camera with an equivalent of the panasonic 20 mm f/1.7 lens, but I can see their reasoning. Their "target market" for this camera, the "less-advanced photographer," is going to want a zoom of some sort. I just wish they didn't dumb this camera down so much. Put a control dial on it, and a more-or-less transparent way to switch from auto-everything mode to usable manual modes, and I'd be all over this.
Don't need another camera, must resist...
Hooray, and on Amazon.co.uk it is £599 WITHOUT the lens (body only). that's only US$926!
I really wanna like these micro four thirds cameras. I would love a camera with a little bit of that SLR flexibility in a smaller form factor. But, I am still hesitant for some reason. They're getting there though.
Got mine yesterday, very nice, and the grip is good, waiting for the big lens to come out too.
Nice but happy with GH1, price is like $1100 with the all in one lens worth $800.. might actually sell it to keep my 20mm.. PL-1 is nice but is not mean of gave you good video only 30 fps and 720p and still not good in video focus. I do like the wireless flash support.
I don't get micro four thirds. It seems to combine the non-portability of SLR's with the small sensor and reduced features of a point and shoot while having a higher price than either one.
@BdgBill1
? who told you that ?
The sensors are way bigger than the tiny tiny sensors in point and shoots and they would be way more portable than a DSLR if they all came with a prime lens like the GF1 does. With the overall space that my DSLR and the kit lens takes up I wish I would have gotten a this or a GF1 because I find myself reluctant to take the beast anywhere with me, resulting in way fewer shots than I used to take with my PnS.