The PM2 is an excellent second generation Oly MFT camera

My trusty 14-42 II R lens isn't as trusty as it was, so instead of buying a replacement for about a hundred dollars, I found a PM2 and the 114-42 II R lens on Ebay for a hundred bucks, instead. It's like the PM2 body was free.

There are about three Oly MFT cameras that seem to have no lovers, the PL2, the PM1, and the PM2. Folks are missing out, when they pass over a nice PM2 body if they want a bargain second generation Olympus MFT camera.

The PM2 has essentially the same 16 MP sensor that's used in the PL9 and M10 III and M5 II in Oly's MFT camera range today. There's an 1/8 second delay anti shock shutter option if you are worried about shutter shock. Autofocus is blazing fast, the PM2 has the shoot and touch screen, and this little camera has menus miles deep, like all Oly cameras.

The PM2 has no PASM wheel on top. It doesn't need one. Instead the user touches the screen on top of the mode icon and the screen flashes up everything that's usually on the PASM dial. You punch what you want and keep shooting.

But the real value of a PM2 is for converting folks over to MFT cameras.

This camera represents the least intimidating Micro Four Thirds camera Oly has ever made so far. I took it out of the box, set the date and time, and reset the functions to defaults. As these came from the box, they automatically default to Automatic, and can take these photographs as a point and shoot.

This is what MFT was supposed to be, all about.  The customer, who didn't need to know one thing about photography, could buy a camera and lens set up for about four hundred dollars or so, and then take it out of the box, charge up the battery, put in an SD card, and start taking excellent quality photos.

Later on, if they cared to learn, there are hundreds of ways to customize the camera, and then they might buy the $100 kit zoom telephoto, and maybe then a $150 Panasonic 25mm f1.7 prime lens, and take up the hobby of MFT cameras.

Olympus needs to try again with a PM3, only make it fit the original PL1 box, update it to PL9 standards, and call it the Pen LIte X.

Because from now on, when somebody admires one of my MFT cameras, instead of a PL1 I'm advising them to start out on a PM3.  The PM3, even looks like a sawed off PL1.

It's the easiest camera Oly ever has made, so far, to learn to shoot.

The beginner, doesn't need a PASM dial on top, and the rest of us can learn to use the screen instead of the dial, anyway.

Humansville is a town in the Missouri Ozarks

I had a pm1 that I thought quite highly of. Then came pm2 for the 16mp sensor. It is very capable and I used it for a couple years. It was my secondary system but never quite warmed up to it, however. I have no reservation on IQ though.

Space the final frontier wrote:

I had a pm1 that I thought quite highly of. Then came pm2 for the 16mp sensor. It is very capable and I used it for a couple years. It was my secondary system but never quite warmed up to it, however. I have no reservation on IQ though.

I think the reason neither the PM1 or PM2 seemed to sell well, was they were sold as bargain basement, cheap versions of the PL3 and PL5/6.

The enthusiast wanted the P3 or P5 if they wanted a rangefinder style camera, and the OMD M5 if a mini SLR, and the first time buyers thought spending another hundred dollars for a PL3 or PL5/6 was going to buy them a better camera.

All it bought them, was something more complicated.

The original PL1 has by far the coolest looks, and the best ergonomics, of any Oly rangefinder styled camera. If you gave a kid a tablet and crayolas and told them to draw up a camera they'd draw a PL1.

Oly makes these MFT cameras today.

The mighty OMD M1 II for the pros.

The half price OMD M5 II for the want to be pros.

The OMD M10 III for the folks who want OMD styling but have a Pen LIte budget.

The mighty Pen F, for those who want the best rangefinder styled camera Oly makes.

And then, at the bottom, the Pen Lite 9, with the selfie screen, and in designer colors. It has wheels and dials and buttons all over it, and the people that buy the camera likely won't ever use them, and worse, they'll put them in the wrong mode.

There's a market for an original PL1, only so simple that everybody that can use a smart phone to take pictures can use the camera to take even better pictures. It should have a built in flash.  It should be exactly the same size and shape as the PL1.  The camera should default to the same settings as the PM2.  It should NOT have any PASM dial.

Take it out of the box, point it at the subject, and press the screen where you want the camera to focus and shoot,,,or just press the shutter button.

The PM2 was the perfect "Here, you try it" camera.

Hey you, I ♥ reading your past cheap used Olympus camera thread.  But I'll be honest, there are so many model I'd lost count.  Can you put them in a LIST form #1 to last,  which model you recommend for how much on used market.  I need a quick & dirty guy to Olympus.

My first MFT body was an EPL1, and I loved every second of it.  But, I'll also second your thoughts on the EPM2.  For me, it is the absolute perfect backup body.  It can do just about everything my larger body does, if I need it to. But, it is also perfect when I just need to take a quick snapshot in Program mode.  It certainly doesn't take much room up in my bag, especially as I generally have it paired up wit the 15mm bodycap lens.

007peter wrote:

Hey you, I ♥ reading your past cheap used Olympus camera thread. But I'll be honest, there are so many model I'd lost count. Can you put them in a LIST form #1 to last, which model you recommend for how much on used market. I need a quick & dirty guy to Olympus.

Until today, I invariably recommended a nice used PL1 body, maybe fifty bucks, and with the first gen 14-42 they run about a hundred dollars.  These are common, and easy to find.  Oly must have sold them by the container ship full.  The best looking Oly of them all, the least offensive, the best handling, and just a fine little MFT camera to learn on.

But the PM2 is styled exactly the same, only a bit shorter, and has no built in flash.  But the IQ is better at high ISO, the ease of shooting is better (has touch and shoot screen, no PASM dial to mess with), and while mine was below market at a hundred bucks with 14-42 II R, it wasn't by much.  A hundred and fifty dollars should buy one like new, with the box, and all the accessories.  It's a second gen camera, and the best cheap camera for a beginner, if you can find one.

Above the PL1 is the PL3.  They are smaller, faster autofocusing, and command a little more money, maybe $75 for the body.

I've not owned a PL2 or P1 or P2.  They weren't made for long.  Same goes for the PM1. All first gen cameras that seemingly weren't as successful as the PL1.  They are dirt cheap. Fifty bucks for any camera body.

The Pen P3 is a hidden jewel in the first gen cameras.  They are worth a hundred to a hundred and a quarter for the body.  These were thousand dollar cameras in their day, and look and feel like it.  The hands down best of the first gen Olys.  Buy one.

Oly sold boat loads of PL6 cameras with a 14-42 II R lens kit for $299, and another hundred for the 40-150 tele.  The bodies are still worth about $200, it seems.  Same for the PL5.  These don't have real WiFi, you use either a Flash Air or Eye Fi card if you want to transfer pics to phone.   The EM2 is essentially the same camera, only minus PASM dial, and less than half the money.  These have two axis IBIS, good but not great.

At $250 for the body, you get to chose between a nice M5 or OMD M10, and I have a pair of OMD 10's.  The OMD 10 is actually more advanced than the original M5 in most ways except the M5 had better IBIS.  The M10 has the same three way IBIS as used on the current P9.

My current daily shooter is a brand new camera sold for $399 as a refurb by Roberts, a black M5 II, and the IBIS is miraculous, fabulous, amazing, jeezus it's good.  Plus, the camera feels like the thousand dollar camera it was.

And for the folks that want a Pen F, but on the cheap, there's the favorite camera of our own Olympus guru Guy Parsons, the P5.  They had some dial issues, but were a better and more advanced camera than the original M5, and the M10.  Had built in flash, and five way IBIS, and updated to zero sec anti shock, just like M10 can be.  I'm looking, but a nice P-5 body is still about $350, and you have to worry if the dials work.

After $400, don't bother looking.

$400 buys refurbed M10 II's with lenses, and my M5 II body from Roberts, and after you get an M5 II, that's really as high as the hill gets, before the mighty OMD M1 II or the Pen F.

That's my market summary for Oly cameras, as of June 2018.

The E-PM2 is my most frequently used camera nowadays. Very happy with it on the whole. I don't have to grab a big bag of stuff if I want to go shooting.

However, I find that the camera's IS is this camera's Achilles heel—having the IS on seems to consistently result in blurrier pictures than leaving IS off, and I also find that leaving IS on induces shutter shock with the m.Zuiko 40-150 f/4.0-5.6 in particular, regardless of whether the anti-shock feature is turned on. It's frustrating, since that's the main reason I bought the camera in the first place: a secondary camera to support a telephoto lens while shooting with my wide zooms on one of my big cameras.

However the E-PM2 does play nice with OIS, so I've mine with the Panasonic 12-32 and 35-100 pancake zooms, and problem solved—while also creating a really efficient, lightweight landscape camera kit. The 40-150 mostly sees use lately if I'm only going out with the E-M1, or if shooting with telephoto lenses is a primary goal. (The 35-100 doesn't hold a candle to the 40-150 for image quality—btw, the 40-150 plus an inexpensive electronic extension tube from eBay is one hell of a macro combo.)

Gear shot—E-PM2, Panasonic 12-32, Olympus VF-4, Manfrotto 725b Digi tripod with head modified to accept an Arca-type clamp. Backdrop is the Plaza Blanca of Abiquiú, NM.

One of the advantages of ignorance about shutter shock, is that I doubt I could see shutter shock, if it bit me.

I've owned several PL-1's, a PL3, a P3, and a P6, and now this PM2, and I've dutifully turned on the 1/8 second anti shock on all of them.  The OMD M10's and the OMD M5 II have the zero second anti shock and are supposed to not catch that shutter shock problem.

But here's a crop from the default setting, no shutter shock nothing measures in place, of some folks fishing in the park.

As the little boy said, if that IBIS or the shutter shaking had been off by the width of a cigarette paper, that PM2 would have missed the shot of those folks fishing.

All I know, is that the first gen IBIS has worked for me, until I found something better.

-
Humansville is a town in the Missouri Ozarks

With the IBIS on, and the ISO up to 5000, and using an Oly 2.8 pancake, the PM2 will take 1/8 and 1/3 second exposures of my wife's garden at midnight.

My M5 II takes a six second hand held exposure at ISO 200 at f3.5 of this same scene, when set on Night Scene Mode.

But it's the essentially the same sensor, in the two cameras, and in normal lighting there'd not be a nickel's difference between the two.

How much IBIS, do we need?

I have the E-PM2 and it is a decent camera. I got it in 2012 as a cheaper way to get the E-m5 mark I sensor/5-axis IS/touchscreen than the E-m5 mark i at the time. I used it a primary micro 4/3rds camera until I got a refurbished E-m5 mark I in 2014. It came out shortly after the E-m5 mark I and it offered many of the features of the E-m5 mark I other than weather sealing and a built-in viewfinder.

The menu system is simplified, due to it being the low cost consumer camera in the line. While the menu system is usable, I prefer having a more traditional setup (P/A/S/M dial, etc.).

Unlike its precessor (E-PM1) and the current low end cameras (E-m10 mark III, E-PL9), the E-PM2 still had a lot of the expert features under the hood.

Given it has the 16MP Sony Sensor as the E-m5 mark I and most other Olympus 16MP cameras, I would imagine it has the same issue with purple fringing when using some Panasonic lenses.

Having migrated over to MFT via the Blackmagic Camera, I sold all my Canon bods and kept the lenses. One day I was on ebay and saw an OLY E-P2 with kit lens and nice bag for $AU90 so I grabbed it. I knew that I would be picking up a few MFT lenses to compliment the EF mounts.

I needed to adapt the EF mount lenses to the MFT system so I bought the Metabones Speedbooster EF-MFT for the Blackmagic Camera and a Knock-off Zhongli Speedbooster EF-MFT for the Blackmagic Pocket. Btw: The knock-off Zhongli Speedbooster fits the OLY PEN.

Now I can use my EF lenses on the E-P2.

I picked up the Olympus 12mm f2 and the 15mm Cap lens.

The Oly E-P2 is a fabulous 12mp camera and as long as I use the AF, cause the screen is so crappy and with my eyesight I couldn't focus a thing. That being said, once I frame the shot it takes a very nice photo in AUTO or Aperture Priority even with an EF-MFT lens.

I have been thinking about a body upgrade cause I love Rangefinder style cameras and I need to have the option and ability to manual focus and have a better IBIS and AF system. I think with a fast Auto lens, like the OLY 12mm f2 the E-P3 might be the sweet spot until the PEN f is a little older and cheaper.

There's an E-P3 on ebay for $100

An E-P5 for $250-$320

OM-D EM-5 MKII for $399

I love my PM2.the grip is tiny, but a bit of Sugru gave me a grip molded to my hand. I use it as much as I use my EM 10. The PM2 with the Lumix 14mm is a light and capable point and shoot.

Today I had business in Rolla, and drove nearly a hundred miles to Rolla, and returned home. Instead of taking my expensive, heavier, nicer OMD M5II I grabbed the little case my hundred dollar PM2 came in and used it today.

Less, is more.

I didn't have to worry about my hundred dollar camera and lens. I really didn't even need a bag, just a couple of spare batteries. It's small, light, and handles like a pistol. There's a touch screen, the photos are as good as my M5II, and it has easy access to set Program, Program Shift, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, even a tone curve, and Scene modes and Art modes, and great video.

The PM2 was the least expensive, smallest Olympus MFT 16mp sensor camera made. And it may be the very best one, because of that.

I shot over three hundred pictures on my travels today, through some of the most beautiful parts of my beloved Ozarks. The PM2 taks landscapes, portraits movies, and you forget it's around your neck, it's so light.

Folks, the PM2 is what Olympus MFT cameras, should be all about.

The entire idea is to have an inexpensive, capable, light, little camera that takes outrageously beautiful photos.

The sales tax alone, on my OMD M5II and a good lens, would be more than a new old stock PM2 with kit lens costs, alone. And I just bought an extra 40-150 lens for it, for $60 online.

Why do we beat ourselves up, trying to buy fancier and more expensive gear, when the PM2 will take these pictures out the window of a Suburban, using one hand, and usually moving?

I'm not selling my OMD M5 II, and I like a fancy camera.

But nobody needs any better MFT camera, than the PM2.

A MFT camera isn't ever going to grow up to be a full frame DSLR, so what's the point of trying to make the little cameras, what they were never intended to be in the first place?

Humansvillian wrote:

Today I had business in Rolla, and drove nearly a hundred miles to Rolla, and returned home. Instead of taking my expensive, heavier, nicer OMD M5II I grabbed the little case my hundred dollar PM2 came in and used it today.

Thats my hometown, lived there over half my life (so far), but I moved to the SF-Bay area 23 years ago.

I agree the PM2 is a little gem, I've used my wife's for a while, but finally bought a Pen F (and I love it).

Guy Parsons wrote:

007peter wrote:

Hey you, I ♥ reading your past cheap used Olympus camera thread. But I'll be honest, there are so many model I'd lost count. Can you put them in a LIST form #1 to last, which model you recommend for how much on used market. I need a quick & dirty guy to Olympus.

Maybe a Timeline would also help.... http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/80-Oly-timeline.html

For ease of use I finally settled on the minimum being the 16MP sensor, 3 or 5 axis IBIS, and ability to use 0 second anti-shock.

In my case a screen only user so the E-P5 made life rather good for me. Otherwise the E-M10 Mk2 would be my minimum camera I guess. The ability to use a fully electronic shutter would be nice but I have lived without that for years OK.

I had previously used the E-PL1, the E-P3 (briefly) and also E-PL5. Finally arrived at E-P5 and found what I really liked and when combined with the chunky but nice 12-40/2.8 delivers great image reliability.

Regards..... Guy

Guy thank you so much for that Excellent Table.  It really clarify the mystery.

Guy Parsons wrote:

007peter wrote:

Guy Parsons wrote:

Maybe a Timeline would also help.... http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/80-Oly-timeline.html

Guy thank you so much for that Excellent Table. It really clarify the mystery.

Also found this the other day, it helps sort out the very confusing Panasonic bodies as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Micro_Four_Thirds_cameras

Regards..... Guy

Thanks to some old guy down under, I got to reading up on the PM2 and decided that it might not be, the very best Olympus, because it was only the second cheapest, and the second smallest, because Olympus made it fancier than the PM1 it replaced.

But the PM1, was more or less the same camera as the later PM2, except the PM1 was the  cheapest, smallest, lightest, least complicated miniature Olympus MFT camera there ever was, period.

So naturally, I just had to have me one, for my rambles.

It's on the way. Only $80 with the kit lens, online.

Twenty bucks less than the PM2.

Maybe it's true, that when it comes to Olympus MFT cameras, that less is always more.

We'll see.

Olympus Prototype MFT camera, from Wikipedia

I'll bet even Guy Parsons Mk 1, skipped over the original Mini Pen.

But he did cover it in his timeline, and now I guess the only three early Pens I don't have are the P1 and P2 and PL2.

But I'm working backwards towards them, and eventually I might have those, too.