Another one: E-P1 and 17mm with viewfinder for £399.99.

http://www.jacobsdigital.co.uk/index.php?target=products&product_id=53968

Or something new coming out?

What is that in USD though? Do any of those deals beat the Costco $500 USD price for an E-P1 with the 14-42mm? (in other words, I'm going to feel jealous if they are cheaper!)

But instead I thought I'd make an extra post on the forum. God knows it needs them.

I suppose I should own up and admit that I came to the uncomfortable conclusion about ten days or so ago that the Jacobs E-P1 Stainless Steel Pancake Kit, despite being the one system I had been completely ignoring all this time, since my white E-P1 was stolen with the H-H020 20mm lens on it, was probably the most sensible choice of all.

Firstly, I had been looking for a temporary replacement without spending much money at all. I had returned to film, happily, particularly using a couple of rangefinders with 40mm lenses on (one a Voigtländer VF135 (with possibly one of the best lenses I’ve encountered) (but on such a cheaply built camera!) (which jammed partway through a roll of Agfa APX100 the other week) and a Ricoh RF-500 (which is jolly nice, actually. I only got it some weeks before my white E-P1).

I’d been considering one from a bunch of pocket cameras, such as the Sony HX5V, Panasonic LX3, Samsung EX1, and was almost on the verge of getting a Nikon S8000 (but the reviews were not happy about image quality overall, and I didn’t like the lens being 30-300 equiv - would prefer something like 24-150 equiv for my purposes). Didn’t like the EX1 at all, very nearly considered getting an LX3 so many times, similarly the HX5V. The bigger Samsung NX10 appealed a lot too, but would have been a lot more money — too much. I just wanted a temporary replacement. Until Nikon do their E-P1 equivalent.

I even tried using my Nikon D50 as a small camera, with the 50mm on it. It was only just rammable into my bag, and sort of worked that way. I bought a 35mm f1.8 DX lens, but that turned out to be too fat to squeeze into the bag, even with the body capped and separate from the lens. Also, within the week I had the 35mm f1.8 DX I never got a good picture from it, it always seemed to have a feint double image and disturbing lack of sharpness. I shot some stuff in my studio setup and found that it was just full of CA, even in the middle of the field (as well as having intolerable barrel distortion). I took it back and got a refund.

An E-P2 is far too expensive, but the E-PL1 had some attraction. The E-PL1 price went down about then to £499 for a 14-42mm kit. This was a bit much, but on the way to being tempting. But still too much. Especially through adding yet another H-H020 20mm Panasonic lens. There’s no 17mm pancake E-PL1 kit, I noted. Nowhere.

Then I realised that perhaps a 17mm pancake would be a good lens to have as a replacement for the lost 20mm. Even when I still had the 20mm, I looked wistfully at the small size of the 17mm. I already had a VF-1 that I had bought secondhand to use on the 20mm when I had that. Maybe a 17mm E-PL1 kit would be the thing, if only there was that kit — but of course, there isn’t.

Then I remembered what I saw the day before in Jacobs but had ignored — the Stainless Steel E-P1 pancake kit down to “half price”. The price is actually not that higher than the Sony HX5V I was considering, or the Panasonic LX3, or the Canon S90. It was lower than the G11. It was actually, technically, about the price of buying a new 17mm lens and new VF-1 viewfinder, and having a whole E-P1 body thrown in for nothing. I hadn’t considered the steel E-P1 before, as I quite liked my old white one, but they’re just not around any more.

The next day, I reluctantly went in and had another look at one, and got one. The advantages are: the white E-P1 was stolen with my 20mm panasonic on, but the original silver 14-42mm was at home. The VF-1 was in a pocket, and survived. The spare battery was in the camera (a Uniross) and the original battery was also in the pocket. I had the USB lead at home, as was the charger.

So, now, for the price of only a bit more than an LX3 or HX5V, I have a stainless steel E-P1, 17mm lens, two VF-1s (I still use the old one, which was scuffed from my use anyway), two USB leads, two chargers, two original Olympus batteries, an FL-14 flash (which now turns out to not work, so I sent it back last week), and a silver 14-42mm zoom (which I think matches the steel E-P1 better anyway). I hate having to fork out for another E-P1, especially right now, but I think it was probably the best course of action overall. I’m coming round to the idea that the stainless steel might look okay after all. I’ve also got two manuals now, and I’m spending a lot of time reading the old one. I’m using this E-P1 in manual focus (just like the rangefinders I was using a week or so ago) and also in manual exposure (and trying out the spot meter for once), and in essence, treating it as a totally manual camera this time round.

The choice of going back to an E-P1 instead of “forward” to an E-PL1 was made easier by remembering the control surface usability of the E-P1, versus just buttons on the E-PL1, the retro / jewellery look of the E-P1 (even the steel one I suppose) versus, well, just a box, for the E-PL1, and the lack of “complete beginner” facilities on the original E-P1. In other words, it was not only familiar to me, but more respectable in a way. But the biggest governing choice was that it was a way of getting a 17mm without ending up with a spare (plastic-mount 'L') 14-42mm, which the E-PL1 kits would have landed me with.

I also note a few differences between the original white E-P1 and this new steel E-P1. The new E-P1 came with v1.1 firmware out of the box! (Which I updated to 1.4.) The rotary wheel on the back is quite a bit stiffer — not stiff enough, I still think, but noticeably differently stiff this time. The old white E-P1 would’ve been from the initial manufacturing run or near enough, and the rotary dial was exceedingly runny. This probably accounted for a lot of the occasions where I’d pick up the E-P1 and all the settings were totally randomised. It was probably rubbing against my scarf (which of course it will because that’s where it hangs) and changing it constantly. This one still changed, but not as frequently. Nevertheless, I disabled the four-way button pad and am happier not using it. The thumb control also seems stiffer. Also, the 17mm lens focuses a lot faster than the 14-42mm zoom. Probably matching what I remember of the 20mm on the old E-P1, and probably exceeding it in speed of acquisition of focus. I’m quite a bit happier with this little system than I found myself being with the old setup, so far.