Olympus E-P1I see where Olympus officially unveiled its Pen E-P1 Micro Four Thirds camera with interchangeable lens. It may be the first of a whole new category of digital cameras.

Visually it’s beautiful with classic lines.

Size wise it’s smaller then the smallest full feature D-SLR and a little larger then semi-professional Point and Shoot cameras such as the Canon G10 or Panasonic LX3. Olympus is marketing its “uniqueness” and its heritage to the Olympus PEN line with their slogan: “NOT A POINT AND SHOOT. NOT AN SLR. IT’S A PEN.”

While technically it has some impressive specifications there are some obvious compromises as well–due to its smaller size, no built in visual viewfinder (one is available that will mount externally to the flash hotshoe.)

Image quality and firmware usability are still unknowns. You can find a preview at DPReview.

While I admire the beauty and technology, it’s not pushing any of my gear-head buttons for some reason.

One Comment

  1. Doesn’t do anything for me either, Earl. The main reason is because I have used EVF cameras before and I don’t think them. I like looking through glass! I’m sure that electronic view finders have improved over the years, as witnessed by the pretty good looking live view on the back of my D300 … yet, I still prefer to have my eyeball to the viewfinder and gazing out through the lens.