Surprising and promising !

Have owned a SONY SLT-A57 which I had some nice glas with (Sigma Contemporary series). I was quite satisfied with that combination. Except....the weight & volume of the package.

So I thought a bout a complimentary compact zoom camera. Unfortunately I am not too much a fan of other Sony compacts (I know they are quite good). Canons new to come superzoom was interesting as of 600mm effective lense. However quite pricey too and not out as of yet.

At LON Heathrow I stumbled across a demo E-PL5 with double lens kit. No more box but everything else complete. Got the whole pack for £220 after some negotiations which I found a reasonable price for it given the 14-42mm RII and the 42-150mm lenses with it.

Now I know what to expect from pretty much any camera system (Had m43 before (3 Panasonics)) and couple of DSLR's. But I was really surprised about the dynamic range of this little wonder. Quite amazing even up to ISO 1600. I am no pixelpeeper and sure every system has its shortcoming. Also I normally do not shoot RAW (only in rare cases) The jpg's of bespoke Sony were never that great and I must say the the Oly is way better in this regard.

Sure it is an older camera now but at the end of the day even the newest camera you buy will be outdated at least 2 years later. The better always being the enemy of the good. But I do not care so much about that. I find it a bit tricky to operate (WB/ISO/MF to Autofocus changes etc..) but got the hang of it. That way I travel way lighter and using the E-PL5 after some time time getting used to it is a real pleasure.

Sure not really for the one thinking about serious videos but sufficient enough for occasional use. In the end I shoot pictures mostly and once in a whVideo I would have gone Pana GH-4 or so but even that one is quite big and WAY MORE EXPENSIVE. Also one would need some really nice glas to justify such a machine. To my personal experience and people I know lots do buy some fancy camera but not all use them to their full potential. They go for buzz words and at the end of the day being only used for quick snaps.

Of course there are the serious semi & pro users taking it to the peak but I do not consider myself one of them even though having taken serious photo class years ago.

So to sum up I am happy about this little guy and will add a VF-2 or VF-4 to it for the mega sunny days and maybe later 1 or 2 primes or one of the PRO lenses from Olympus.

Autofocus speed is nothing short of being excellent. Manual focus could be better but works ok.

Only think that Olympus should have really worked better on their GUI or MENU system. That is really a bit annoying. However customisation is really high and you can set it up in a million ways. Also good that there is a lot of online help available. Some epeople have really taking it into some nice user guides revealing more than a standard manual.

My ratings go together with the kit lens combo I have. Would I have way better lenses then of course that ratings in detailed scoring would be better too.

If you haven't you should. You should have no issues changing WB and other functions. Its a great option.

I used my E-PL5 for almost a year for my weekly sports and other freelancing work for a small town weekly newspaper (Hopestandard.com).

Before I jumped from 4/3 to micro 4/3, I wanted to see if it was viable for my purposes. I soon saw that it was as good — or better — than my E-5, except for weatherproofing. To address that issue I got an E-M1 and the E-5 was sold.
The E-PL5 serves as a back-up or my "light kit" camera.

DEFINITELY get yours activated for the Super Control Panel, which makes many functions very easy. See Guys' tips, as Olympus' help guide is fairly hopeless — especially on the SCP activation.