I am of two minds about if this is the camera for me.
The autofocus is not quite as fast as I'd hoped (slower than the Panasonic G1), and it is bigger than hoped. It might feel just Goldilocks, I liked my Pentax ME Super. But I dunno.
It looks a bit more compact in a man's hands.
I am starting to lean towards the position that we probably won't ever get a real pocket camera with exchangeable lenses, because the lens can't retract into the camera. For me an "everywhere" camera has to fit easily into a pocket. And it's fine with me if the lens is not exchangeable for that kind of camera. A 28mm-100mm zoom built in works great for me. Even a non-zoom 35 mm, if it was fast and very sharp, would be very welcome.
I want a pocket camera with a damn good lens, good low-light performance (useable able 1600 ISO), and fast autofocus. We are inching towards it from various directions, but we are not there yet.
The very compact Canons are not far from it: wonderful lenses. Autofocus is better than compacts used to be, but still can be too slow for people photography. And the noise is unbearable over 400 ISO. The autofocus I'm sure will be fast enough soon, but the question is how long it will be before those tiny sensors will be that much more noise-free. Five years? Ten?
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I am still using Pentax ME Super with 45mm pancake when I am lazy to carry RTS-II or 20D... :-) With this size (and price) the new Pen has to be waterproof at least!
That pancake lens was a brilliant invention, makes such a tiny package. I bought one last year on eBay for my ME-Super. (I don't actually use film cameras anymore though.)
They say it's pretty good, but not super-sharp. From what I gather, a pancake lens never is, too many compromises in the design.
Many reviewers have mentioned that, although the E-P1 is larger than they hoped for, it actually feels just right when taken in hand. And still, it's not pocketable...
This strongly hints that the tiny "dream camera" so many are wishing for might not feel so wonderful when translated into an actual object (I'm sure Olympus have explored a lot of options before settling on this one).
Anyway, Olympus execs have mentioned that they can, and will, make smaller MFT cameras, but they opted for the best in-hand experience for their first model. I, for one, do support that choice; not enough push for quality and beauty in product design nowadays, kudos to Olympus for their stand.
From what I could gather, the new Pen is very similar in size (only slightly smaller) than a Leica M8, and that has been good enough for many, and for quite a while now! ;-)
Well, so has the Nikon D3, but you won't catch me logging one around. :-)
the guy in the video looks like one of the Lone GUnmen
Akira Watanabe at Olympus says "yes we can" make a smaller version of the E-P1: http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=863832
Yeah, I know, but it seems it'll be a lower-spec'ed model. We'll see when we see.
I'm interested in whether Panasonic has a compact model coming soon, seeing as how good the G1 is. They've hinted that the SLR-form factor was only the start.
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