Picked up this camera along with a 45mm F1.8 lens at the duty free in Incheon (always dangerous to wait there for your flight). I had held off purchasing a full SLR for years because of the weight, but handling this, I found it to be light and extremely portable. The pictures it takes trumps anything you can Instagram on the iPhone (and I take a lot of decent iPhone shots). The optics and the larger photosensor gives you amazingly clear images that a point and shoot or smartphone cannot possibly match.
Take this shot, cropped from a larger image taken from my bedroom window with the stock 14-42mm lens.
The light capturing ability (this was dawn) and clarity are unmatched. The fixed 45mm F1.8 lens was chosen for the ability to compose portraits and capture kids in action. The picture below was taken with this lens.
All of these shots were taken on full program (auto) mode. The first shot of the camera itself was taken with the Olympus XZ-1 which has a F1.8 pancake lens. You can pick up the XZ-1 for cheap at about 200, while the E-PL5 is available for around 550-650USD.
While I love my iPhone’s camera -after all, it is usually the only camera I have on me, the E-PL5 gives me the chance at taking some amazing shots. I will extend this review as I use the camera.
