Ok, can someone please explain Olympus' lineup to me?

Howard wrote:

Hi,

I have only started looking into micro 4/3 recently. I understand Olympus and Panasonic are the strongest players in this field. However, I find it hard to understand Olympus' naming convention -- such as E-P2, E-P3, E-PL6, E-PM2, OMD E-M1 .. what do these acronyms stand for?

To be painfully and pathetically pedantic, they are initials and not acronyms....

Anyhoo the Pen line of cameras consists of..

E-Px the traditional top end Pen

E-PLx the "Lite" Pen, usually with most useful features anyway, best value for money.

E-PMx the "Mini" Pen, cut down to as small as they dare. But still with good firmware features.

The OM-D line consists of confusion....

E-M1 top of the line, best for users of old 4/3 lenses.

E-M5 is meant to be mid-range but somehow is in an odd position.

E-M10 is the "Lite" ones of the three but again has all the good firmware and in fact is later than any so has the best firmware features. Best value for money.

The Pen name harks back to the old days of half frame Pen FT cameras, nostalgia kick for some of the old folk. Add-on viewfinders if needed.

The OM-D line harks back to the OM film cameras that were totally excellent but killed off when they didn't seem to want to pursue the ever growing AF film camera technology. Built-in viewfinders.

Mylinks page may help digging in the info maze. There's an Olympus history link there somewhere.

Regards...... Guy