2026-11-01 Olympus Pen E-PL1 Digital Camera

 

    This Olympus Pen E-PL1 camera (make note of the flash) came to me with some fear the lens was damaged. It came with two zooms: 

• a “kit” normal lens 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 with Benro 37mm UV filter
• a 40 to 150mm f/3.5-4.5 with LH-61B lens hood

    Both lenses have their front and rear caps.

Much to my relief the damaged lens was just an unawareness the kit lens can be collapsed. There is a small switch marked “Unlock” that releases the lens to expand to shooting length.

The Olympus E-PL1 is basically an E-PL2 with a number of simplifications. Like its bigger brother, it features a 12mp micro 4/3 sensor with image stabilization built-in. Indeed, from a functional standpoint of the imaging chain (sensor, ASIC, etc.), for all intents and purposes the E-PL1 is identical to the E-P2.

Where the E-PL1 differs from the E-P1 and E-P2 is in the following ways:

Removal of the two control dials

Addition of a built-in flash

More use of plastic in the build

Slower maximum shutter speed (1/2000 instead of 1/4000)

Slightly different body build (a little boxier, less rectangular)

The orientation sensor has been removed (vertical shots are not oriented to horizontal viewing automatically)

…from a review at sansmirror.com

The opinion of many on the internet is this camera is hardly worth having. It doesn’t have many of the adjustments available to most digital Single Lens Reflex without knowing where they can be found on the extensive menu screens. Instead of pressing a button and spinning a single adjustment wheel you have to know where to travel to and what to change.

I would like to counter these criticisms with the straight opinion that you can do what you want with this jewel of a camera, but you have to care enough to shoot with this camera daily until the adjustments are second nature. It is true there is a simple setting (iAUTO) that turns the camera into a point-and-shoot, but that makes the camera available to all.

I would like to share with you an image made by Steve Huff. The image is copy-written and can’t be used for any money making purpose. Look at the quality!

This is the lens collapse/erect button on the Kit lens.

The lens can be carried with the lens collapsed…

And then the lens can be extended and used.

One other weirdness of the E-PL1 is you have to add an eye level electronic viewfinder (attached on the flash shoe) if you don’t want to use the rear screen on the camera body. Don’t feel put upon. 

    The E-PL2 required you to buy an accessory flash that the E-PL1 has built in. Some only partially erect the flash so it points at the ceiling for bounce flash shots. 

    The limited buttons can make you feel pretty stymied. The red (Movie) button is in the way of your thumb too.

    The top deck isn’t exactly bristling with controls either. 

    The 4/3rd sensor is smaller than the APS sensors. It is cleaned every time the camera is turned on and also does the image stabilization duties (so the lens don’t have to).

    The lens mount is all plastic (except for the 11 gold connecters and the screws). 

Moving on to the other zoom—the 40-150 mm f/3.5-4.5—it can get to be fairly long when zoomed to 150 mm (not to mentioned the additional length of the hood).

    Zoomed back to 40 mm the hood is almost the same length as the lens.

Luckily the zoom can also be attached reversed, so the lens when stored—although almost the same size and weight (480 g) as the camera with kit lens attached (462 g)— might fit into a jacket pocket. The 4/3^rd cameras focal lengths are equivalent to 2X the 35 mm optic size, so the 40-150 mm zoom is the same as a 80-300  mm zoom on a full frame camera. You wouldn’t be carrying a 80-300 mm zoom in a jacket pocket!

And in an aside to the weight the 40-150 mm zoom is mostly plastic too. Just in comparison, I recently collected a 1975 Vivitar Series 1 200 mm f/3 made of metal and glass that weighs 830 g.

When I actual tried to shoot with the 40-150 mm zoom I found out the Electronic Lens Adapter 43-M43 included in the bag is used to adapt the lens to the E-PL1. 

The adapter has its own tripod screw socket which takes the pressure off the camera’s tripod mount.