A fantastic affordable camera you can still buy new from eBay

Guy Parsons wrote:

paul613 wrote:

Guy Parsons's many posts inspired me to switch from a Panasonic G3 to a silver Olympus E-P5. It looks and handles like a jewel.

Yes, my pair of E-P5 live on. Can't see anything current or on the horizon that I would like to replace them.

My menu list at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/56-ep5-custom-menus.html if anyone decides to go that route.

Last week, I took delivery of my second E-P5, a white model ordered from Japan. The white one lives on my belt, soon to be joined by a white Olympus 9mm body-cap lens. My black VF-4 viewfinder stays on the silver body. But to help me compose in bright sun, I've dialed up the brightness of my LCD (under "Setup"). I'm hoping that this discreet, svelte, all-white setup, together with the body's flip screen and the lens's ultrawide field of view, will allow me to capture more candid shots.

I find no problems even with the 12-40/2.8 for random street shots, always screen and never the VF-2 and nobody seems to flinch.

I don't know how many times I've used DPReview's "compare cameras" feature to compare the E-P5 against other Pens--the older E-P3, or the newer E-PL7, 8, and 9. None of the other Pens would save more than 65 grams, and none would use the same BLN-1 battery. The E-PL9, at least, would give me an electronic shutter and a newer JPEG engine, without giving up the built-in flash.

If anyone has been wondering what they're missing, now is a great time to pick up one of these older Pens on eBay.

An American seller has at least 10 (probably 20) black E-P5s, new in their sealed boxes, for $260 U.S. , with free shipping within the States; he'll ship to other countries, too.

Only potential downside is the possibility of front/rear dial failure (on some batches I guess). My black one failed early and badly but fixed under warranty and never failed again. My silver one with a slightly earlier serial number has been always good.

It's a must to bring the firmware up to date on purchase as then the 0 second anti-shock is available and solves the initial shock problems.

A used E-P3 can be bought from Japan in any color for about $130 to $200 shipped.

I would not bother, never warmed to my E-P3 that Olympus gave me as a replacement for an unfixable E-PL1.

A used E-P8 can be bought from Japan in any color for about $250 shipped.

I guess you mean E-PL8 which is also good with later firmware and image processing features, but not the same feel and heft as the good and great E-P5.

My timeline has a few clues as to feature changes. http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/80-Oly-timeline.html

..........................................

Oh for a real E-P6!

Simple to keep the same body and controls, update the sensor and image chip, lose the pop-up flash and fit a fixed or pop-up VF-4 equivalent. Job done. Oh yes, must be tilt screen again and not that flippy out sideways thing.

Sigh, will never happen in this era of proposed expensive huge and chunky E-M1X things.

Regards...... Guy

(Joking)

GM5+, sigh .... why don’t they make the cameras that the users really want and not the ones that sell well on the market?  This is one of life’s little conundrums ....

Maybe it is because those that know that they have a good one tend to keep it and not upgrade.  I am sure that this is why every so often car manufacturers make cars that are so ugly and sell them to everyone who must upgrade to every model released - then they make more handsome models and even those that would never buy an ugly vehicle will buy one ....

Maybe someting like airbags - fit them and then tell all car owners that all other cars are suddenly unsafe wthout them.  IBIS?  How did we ever manage pre-IBIS? Plurry silly lens OIS .... Dual stabilisation?  Oh, I never though about that .... (But Olympus IBIS will always be better .... and can also be proved by any test).

Cameras take images for our amusement it they are amusing then we enjoy them but there must always be something that sings and dances better and ... there is always the Joneses ....  Mr Jones sells a lot of cameras and lenses ... (grin)

PS: for our non-native-English-language friends - my joke as in the expression “keeping up with the Joneses” = not letting your neighbours (“the Joneses”) have a better car (for example) than you have - or camera/mobile-phone for that matter.