OM SYSTEM Olympus E-PL5 16MP Mirrorless Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD, Body Only (Silver)

Bought this in September. I did a lot of research (engineer by training) and this camera had the best combination of image quality, very good lens selection, and features for the money. I knew the tradeoffs going in. I would definitely like another top dial for EV adjustment. Using the dial wheel on back is not efficient. If I paid double for the body I could have gone for the OMD-M10. So if you have the money go that route. I don't miss the EVF since coming from iPhone use and like using the screen and touch to focus/shoot feature. But if I had the OMD I would maybe say that the EVF is a must have. You have to live with your choices. What I like about E-PL5: - Very compact with 45mm lens even more so with 14mm prime. Fits in coat pocket, perfect for street photography. - Super fast focus, when I show people they are amazed, especially DSLR owners - great bokeh - high ISO I have taken street shots at night at 25,600 ISO and they are very usable. - very solid build, shutter mechanism just feels right, clean look in silver. - attached flash is secure and low profile so I leave it on all the time, good for fill light - Get the hand strap like in my picture, believe me that way is quicker to shoot, easy to walk about without camera swinging into things and comfortable. Ditch the neck strap. You can tighten the rubber/foam loop around your wrist and camera can't fall off. Maybe a Full Frame DSLR would be too heavy for this method, but the E-PL5 is light. - face detection works great - can show hilight/blacks over/under exposure colored areas in LCD before shot - lots of bracketing modes and 1/3 EV steps - has a specialized HDR-bracketing function of 7 frames at +- 2EV which is astounding. A 12EV range!! - RAW files have info embedded, bring into LightRoom and already corrected almost like the jpeg. So why shoot jpeg at all. I don't. - Very good dynamic range of RAW files. - Full manual mode and manual focusing lens for studio work. - 45mm has very high resolve power. Sharping in post can't add details that aren't captured in first place. - Obviously I am a advocate for prime lens. Also one less thing to fiddle with. A zoom makes you lazy and you give up aperture and sharpness. My goal was to get into the micro four thirds system cheaply and put the savings into prime lens. Mission accomplished. See a model portrait I took with this setup. I think this is a DSLR killer.

I am a semi-professional photographer, and I recently used this camera in combination with the Olympus 14-150 on a private trip to New York. One of the intentions on this trip was to travel light, so rather than lugging around my Canon 5D MK III or 7D, all I took was the Olympus E-PL5, the 14-150 lens, and an external flash(which I didn't use). I really put this camera through it's paces testing all types of lighting situations, and the results are very impressive. I have printed some of the images at 20 x 16, and they look really sharp, and I have people wanting to purchase some of the printed images. All of the images on this trip were shot hand held using a number of different ISO settings, with little noise. In future, I will only take the Olympus E-PL5 on my personal trips, as I am fully confident the resulting images will be just as good as those from the NY trip. I will also purchase the new Olympus E-P5 when it comes out at the end of the month.

I didn't keep the camera it was in Chinese so I sent it back.

Great camera. excellent deal and transaction

Have only shot minimally with the camera and , as expected (I previously had the E-pl2), it handles well. If image quality is what the reviews claim it to be, it'll be a gem.

ok