It certainly took them long enough, but Olympus has finally (finally!) introduced a Micro Four Thirds camera with a price tag that’s a little closer to earth. If you’ll recall, both of the previous PENs cost upwards of $750, but the E-PL1 touts a much more reasonable MSRP of $599.99. And that doesn’t mean Olympus has been stingy on features. Nope, quite the contrary as the the minuscule body is packed with the same 12.3 megapixel image sensor as the E-30 and E-620 (check the images in the gallery to see a size comparison of the actual sensors), in-body image stabilization, continuous autofocus, a 2.7-inch rear LCD, HD movie mode, in-camera "art filters" and a bundled ED 14-42mm f3.5/5.6 zoom lens (28-84mm equivalent in 35mm cameras). Oh and don’t forget the addition of the pop-up flash which just reminds us of E.T. You won’t be able to nab a E-PL1 until next month, but hit the break for some of our hands-on impressions.
The biggest improvement to the PEN E-PL1 comes in the form of the focusing — in our short hands-on we noticed the E-PL1’s 14-42mm kit lens lens focusing faster than in the past. We took a number of speedy test shots around a conference room and all were in focus; that’s not something we’d confidently say we could do with the E-P1. Speaking of lenses, Olympus doesn’t yet have a price on its 14-150mm lens, but it was noticeably faster and quieter than the kit one. PEN E-P1 users will immediately notice that you can now record video while in other modes (on the EP-1 you had to toggle to the video mode), but the dedicated record button is in line with the shutter button. We ended up recording a 720p video rather than taking a still a few times, so it looks like you’ll have to get used to carefully angling your hands. Other than that we’re thinking this camera is going to be perfect for that person that’s scared of the big-bad DSLR; we were blown away at how easy it was to change white balance and control the depth of field in the live guide menus. We’re looking forward to putting this one through the review ringer, but in the meantime check the full release below for some more details.
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