EPM2 image quality

joel artino wrote:

I bought the camera because the price was so good. After i ordered it i did online research, with most review sites and many individuals saying how poor the kit lens was. I then viewed images i could find online using the kit lens and didn't find many that were really good examples of what the lens could do and what I like to shoot.

I feel must weigh in here to say that buying a camera "because the price was good" doesn't make any sense to me. Pursuing deals is fine . . . if you determine that you need something. Furthermore, if you were happy with your LX7 there should have been no reason to buy another camera.

A second point is that you seem to misunderstand the system camera concept, which is that you should expect to spend money down the road acquiring better and various lenses. For example, some months from now after further research you might decide that a single focal length prime lens offers the kind of photographic experience you would like to try. Finding a good deal on the Olympus 25/1.8 lens you buy it and it produces not only a better image quality, but opens up a different way to use the camera: in short, the ability to switch lenses implies acquisition of new lenses to put on the camera. Judging a system camera such as the E-PM2 on the basis of the kit lens alone is silly, simply because it does not reflect what the camera is really capable of.

At the same time output with E-PM2 and the 14-42 IIR lens is more than o.k.. My wife has the E-PM2 with the kit lens and she gets nice clear colourful jpgs. The E-PM2's sensor and jpg engine is that good. My guess, taking a look at LX7 images posted on Camera Labs' review, is that the E-PM2 with the kit lens will far outperform your LX7. But as a scientist I am sure you will be familiar with drawing a hypothesis and conducting an experiment to arrive at new knowledge.

Finally, what do you expect for $200? You can throw the kit lens in the trash and it is still a very good deal for a quite capable system camera.