Olympus E-PL5 Mirrorless Digital Camera with 14-42mm Lens (Black)

Camera is defective. Screen is upside down and will not rotate with position of the camera. Also, this is an Olympus Pen E-PL5. The camera came in a box labeled for the E-PL8 and with the E-PL8 owners manual. Real helpful..

I'm a longtime point and shoot user upgrading for the first time with this camera. I bought it with the Panasonic LUMIX G 20mm f/1.7 Pancake Lens and have been pretty happy with the purchase so far. My first impressions are below. Note that I'm not a pro photographer. Things I like: - Image quality is great. Despite some of the features I don't like about this camera, this was the single strength that convinced me to keep it. - Great color reproduction. Colors are warm and vivid without being over-saturated. - Super easy menu system. I picked up on the basic navigation quickly without opening the manual. - Pretty fast shooting. I love using the touch screen focus shooting. - The body is fairly compact for a camera this high quality. I wanted something I could fit in a relatively small purse and tote around easily on trips. Things I don't like: - Less than optimal way of manually adjusting aperture, shutter speed, and exposure. I have to click the up/down or left/right button once just to get into the "edit" mode and then again to actually change the setting. The process feels amateurish like the designers didn't fully think this through. On the plus side, there are customizable buttons on this camera so I can choose to map aperture or shutter speed to them and avoid the two-step clicking. - The flip out LCD is a bit awkward to flip out. It takes multiple steps and more force than you'd expect to get it out (just watch any youtube video on this). Also, the screen is thick and adds a lot of bulk to an otherwise slim body. I almost think it would be a better camera without it. - Is it really too much to ask in this day in age for my camera to be wifi enabled and play nice with my other electronic devices? For those of you who are looking forward to the wifi enabled memory card, you'll have to keep in mind the card doesn't come in the box. You have to get it through a mail in rebate and wait 8-10 weeks. The other mirrorless camera I was seriously considering was the Sony NEX 5R. While that camera had many more bells and whistles, I ultimately chose the Olympus for two main reasons. (1) Better lens selection. Yes, Sony will make more lenses eventually. But the NEX line has been around for years now and their Marketing department is probably going through some extreme verbal gymnastics convincing people to keep waiting. (2) Despite the smaller sensor on the Olympus, a number of reviews I found said the image quality is only slightly better on the NEX. Overall, I'm really happy with the Olympus and can't wait to take some amazing pictures with it.

The camera takes great pictures but whenever I recorded videos, there was this rattle sounds that annoy me. I ended up returning the camera.

I must say that this camera is amazing. I have been using a Nikon D7000 before this but I decided to reduce weight and went with the E-PL5, and I am not missing the D7000 at all. I used to find myself ditching the big chunky D7000 in most situations and always carrying around a pocketable point and shoot, unless I was going somewhere with breathtaking scenery. So this camera will actually replace two previous cameras I own (D7000 and my small point and shoot). From what I have seen, this camera shoots images with very comparable quality to mid range DSLRs such as the one I had. The size and features of this thing are right on. The touch screen auto focus is a great feature. The camera does a really great job in low light settings. You can shoot with ISOs up to 3200 and still come out with very decent looking photographs. One thing I must point out though, if you are going to shoot in JPEG, make sure to switch to the Large FINE Quality JPEG setting when you get the camera. I don't know why on earth Olympus did this, but the default setting is Large NORMAL Quality JPEG. I have used the 14-42mm II and 40-150mm R lenses with this camera and they are very good and sharp lenses, but the camera really excels with the amazing prime line up of lenses that Olympus and Panasonic offers. The image quality with these prime lenses are just amazing coming out of such a small body. I also have the 15mm Body Cap lens which is fun to use and makes the camera completely pocketable (which I will use for backpacking trips where I need to shave down on weight). Although this lens is a little soft around the edges, the image quality that it produced was surprisingly much better then I expected (similar quality to mid-to-high range point and shoots). For the attention grabbers out there, I have also had several people that have seen me take off the 15mm Body Cap lens and put on the 40-150mm for close ups and were so impressed that I was able to do that with such a small camera. I was thinking between this and the Flagship OM-D. I am glad I decided to go with the E-PL5. I cannot justify the increased size/weight, and the price difference for getting a slightly better image stabilization system, weather-proofness, and a built in view finder. I actually like the option of being able to stick an external view finder on a very bright sunny day, and not having the carry it around when in low light. Just recently there have been direct comparisons of image quality, noise, and dynamic range between the E-PL5 and OM-D and the results so far, to everyones surprise, show that the E-PL5 actually excels slightly in all three categories (which is making the OM-D owners very angry). The explanation for this seems to be that the E-PL5 does not have a low-pass Filter (AA filter). So all in all, you would be paying double the price of the E-PL5 to get the OM-D for some features that do not make the image quality better which in my opinion is not worth it. If you are thinking of getting a mid-range DSLR and/or high range point and shoot, then you should seriously consider this camera. Most importantly for me, my neck/shoulder does not hurt anymore without the expense of image quality after carrying this camera around all day.

Great Camera

Full warranty, brand new, and priced less than reconditioned or used examples, my PL-5 has all I need while moving up from my PM-2 Olympus: tilting LCD, removable front finger rest, mode dial, super ISO, excellent software, improved buttons, clearer menus, assignable button and dial combinations ... and the same lightweight, coat-pocket sized body. Better yet, the price fell 10 or 15% while I dawdled over checkout! So I won a bigger bargain. The camera is 99% the equal in Image Quality of the Olympus MD lineup, though neither waterproof nor Electronic Viewfinder-equipped, among other missing pro features. Pair it with the excellent VF4-viewfinder or the nearly perfect VF2, however, and you'll have a delightful choice of LCD or EV focusing. The VF3 is a decent, cheaper alternative. The LCD allows overhead, waist-high, self-portrait, and other shots; the 25,600 ISO is usable -- I shot 12,800 without thinking one day (processing saved a lovely shot) but you can limit to 800 or 1600 and feel safe from noise. This body bargain I got saves you enough to buy 2 super-fast prime lenses! I got 25mm f1.8 and 45mm f1.7. Purrrrrfect. Thanks, Amazon.