Just got an E-PM2. The GF loves it.

So I went from this:

To this:

There were several reasons for this move. First of all, I loved shooting with the G5 and largely, I loved the pictures I was getting with it. However, I had the same problem that a lot of Panasonic users have: I fell in love with the primes and rarely could benefit from image stabilization. As I shoot indoors and low light a lot, low shutter speeds were pretty common for me. Plus, I wasn't a fan of the Auto-ISO only going to 1600, and I didn't like how it handled above that. Also, I wanted mic input. To be perfectly honest, the camera I wanted was the E-P5 (don't we all), but I could see myself keeping a tiny camera around in the future, so I decided on the E-PM2.

Anyway, having just gotten the E-PM2, I'm still making my way around it, and I haven't really put it through its paces, but I can already tell that I love the smaller size and the image quality and the iPhone-esque touch screen (the G5 touch screen is... mushy/bad). But there are a few lovely things about it that I didn't expect to like so much:

1. The EXCELLENT capacitative touch screen with the touch to shoot feature. Since I've gotten a G5, I've often given it to other people to take pictures of me. With the exception of exactly two people who were photo geeks, pretty much everyone has completely botched the focus, and it's probably my fault for assuming people know how to half-press the shutter. With the E-PM2, I can quickly set it to fire the shutter when I tap on the screen. Finally, something a novice can't mess up. I also ended up using it way more than I thought I would, because the act of tapping a touchscreen is a very light touch compared to pressing a shutter, so it helps with keeping the camera steady. Plus, it's just a really intuitive and FAST way to take pictures of a moving subject. I love it.

2. The Art Filters. Yes, I use Instagram, and no, I'm not ashamed of it. Now, I can take Instagram-ready pictures on the spot, but still save the RAW file for later use. I found that using these filters is a great way to get some mileage out of extremely high ISO situations where the pictures largely look terrible but you still got an usable shot that's ready to share.

3. The GF loves it. It's not just because, in her words, "it's so pretty." The camera just really makes sense to her. She never bothered to pick up my G5 when I had it because she assumed she'd "break it" (why do people think that?), but when I left her alone with the E-PM2, she turned an art filter on and started to take pictures of my cat, using the tap focus/shoot feature.

3. Auto ISO in Manual. I had high expectations for this, but not like THIS. Right now, I have the ISO set to go all the way up to 8000, which it will happily go to in order to keep my shutter fast. But when I want to bump the ISO back down, I can easily to to M or S, slow down the shutter, and the ISO easily adjusts to my liking. Love it.

So, largely I love it. Now, of course, no camera is perfect, and here are some of my concerns:

1. The menu system is not THAT bad, but it really is bad. I mean, what was Olympus thinking with the custom menu within the menu? Average people who buy an interchangeable lens camera are really not THAT dumb. That said, I'm making my way around it. Thankfully, most of the most used settings are very close at hand.

2. A little volume meter for the microphone would have been nice. I really liked this about the G5. Especially given the external mic option with the E-PM2, it'd be nice to know if I'm overloading the mic input or just forgot to plug a mic in or something.

3. I knew this coming in, but I wish it had a mirror mode like the E-PL5. In fact, I wish the E-P5 could go 170 degrees like the E-PL5. That's the one thing the E-PL5 has on everybody, it seems. That said, this isn't that big a deal.

4. While the E-PM2 seems to be cleaner than G5 at the same settings, if I let the camera decide, the E-PM2 tends to pick really noisy settings in order to get a sharp picture. The G5 seems to let the shutter speeds get slower to keep the sensor noise down. Once again, not a huge deal, but something to get used to.

5. The bundled flash is AWFUL.

6. I do miss the viewfinder. And I miss being able to somewhat discreet about what I'm shooting.

7. The pancake power zoom that was so reliable on my G5 seems to be much worse here. Good thing I got a kit zoom.

8. Also, is it just me or is the Olympus JPEG engine overrated? Every RAW picture I viewed in Aperture looked better than every JPEG, and that was before any processing. I decided that there's little reason to ever take a JPEG that's not an Art Filter and left it in RAW.

All in all, I love my new E-PM2. I took a very small risk, since it cost all of $350 with the zoom (factory reconditioned). I do fiddle with settings quite a bit, but I usually shoot a bunch of pictures, then change the settings, then shoot again. That's something that's not at all bad with the E-PM2. Plus, the excellent touch screen just begs to be used. However, once I get my E-P5, I'll see if the E-PM2 is still worth keeping.

Anyway, one last thing, should I get an Olympus 12-50mm zoom lens? As rarely as I use zooms right now, I'd probably use it more if it went more wide angle, more telephoto, and had a macro setting, and I can grab one by selling my Olympus 14-42 and Panasonic X Vario 14-42 power zoom lenses.