E-PL6 vs E-P5

bwalter wrote:

I am taking a bit of a size/weight hit by going with the E-P5 but I think part of this is due to better build quality and I think it still is reasonably compact.

With a small prime lens, it will still be a pretty compact setup. And it is a different beast than the E-PL models.

I assume trading the 14-42 IIR in exchange to moving up to the E-P5 should be worth it?

Yes. That E-P5 should easily serve you for a good chunk of time, provided you don't catch G.A.S. The lack of EVF is probably the biggest complaint you could have about it, but even that can be solved if you hunt down a used attachable EVF.

On a side note, I'm considering picking up a used 12-50 EZ lens as this seems to be a more versatile lens than the 14-42 IIR.

Yes, if you can get one at a good price, that's not a bad idea. It will however make the camera rather bulky (the lens is rather long), even if it's actually lightweight. If I were in your shoes, I would not bother with the standard Oly 14-42 R zoom, unless you can get one for pennies.

I know what I really need is a fast prime, but I think the zoom will give me flexibility and let me figure out what focal length will work best for me (the ones I am considering are the 17mm 1.8, 20mm 1.7 or 25mm 1.8).

IMHO, this would really make the biggest difference. It would allow you to shoot without using flash in many situations that would require it when shooting with a slow zoom lens. Not to mention the ability to get shallow depth of field (this should be easy when shooting a small child from close distance, even with a lens as wide as 17mm).

And there's one option which might not be for everybody, but I find interesting. Get a cheap legacy lens and an adapter to mount it. There's plenty of fast 50mm primes in a variety of mounts. You can probably get one for 20-30 bucks, and an adapter would be about $10. Most of those legacy lenses are nowhere near close to the quality of modern lenses designed for digital cameras. But still, it's a very cheap way to have some fun. And you can get nice results, especially when you have time to set things up, so a posed family portrait or something like that. Just throwing an idea. I know I enjoyed this kind of stuff when I bought my first mirrorless camera (E-PL1, body only) and only had legacy M42 lenses to use with it. Now that I have more shooting experience, I can actually notice and enjoy the unique look some of my legacy lenses produce.

And about using flash, if you actually find yourself needing it often, I highly recommend buying a proper unit. A second hand Olympus FL-36R can be had for very little (got mine for about $100). It's an old model for 4/3 system, but is compatible (except the focus assist light, which will not work on Micro 4/3 cameras). You will not believe how big of a difference it makes when you bounce the light off of a ceiling instead of blasting it straight at your subjects. And it can be set up so that the built-in flash triggers it remotely, so you can experiment with different lighting setups.

Well, that ended up being quite random and all over the place