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There are still a few left in Stock: E-P5 with 17mm f/1.7 lens and VF-4 EVF with a huge $550 discount at [shoplink 56566 ebay]RobertsCamera eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. On other US stores like BHphoto you have to pay $1,249 for the same kit.
More deals:
[shoplink 56557 ebay]$520 off on the brand new Panasonic 35-100mm X lens (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 56558 ebay]$350 off on the brand new Panasonic 12-35 X lens (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 56561 ebay]Silver E-M5II for $749 (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 56560 ebay]Black E-M5II for $749 (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 56562 ebay]GH4 for $1,069 (Click here)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 56596 ebay]LX100 for $589 (Click here)[/shoplink].
Panasonic US launched a new rebate on the GH4. You get it now for $1,297 at Amazon and Bhphoto. And the latter also gives you an extra $50 gift card and other free extras.
27 Responses
Wasn’t this setup $599 somewhere else last week?
One, this isn’t a “pieced together offering”, it’s the original E-P5 kit. Two, I doubt you could physically build an f2.5 to f4 pancake. And both Olympus and Panasonic offer very competent pancake zooms.
Personally I’ve been using this setup pretty much every day for nearly 2 years, and it’s kept me happy
I will relent and retract the “pieced together” bit. I am personally very happy with very frequent use of the 17mm f1.8 lens, but I am not partial to the rectangular camera. Even though some utility can be argued for having the hinged EVF, tilting screens suffice when the need is pronounced. I am lost on why the center hump EVF on the OM-D offends. The f2.5–4.0 zoom is another matter. I do think Olympus shorted the PEN community on a highly retractable, faster aperture lens, in the name of avoiding internal competition with the 12–40mm, constant f2.8 PRO lens intended for the OM-D. The cause for the imminent demise of current PEN formulation is lack of market acceptance. My belief is that the potential PEN audience got split, susceptible as it was to the nifty and powerful arguments, and went two directions, up to the OM-D and down to the RX100-iii as better options. The Zeiss aperture on the latter is 2 stops better than mZuiko kit, and the higher resolution sensor is only about 1-1/3 stops worse regarding ISO. The camera has an EVF and the market acceptance is astonishing. If I offended you, I am sorry.
I really appreciate the hinged EVF. For my own purposes, I can’t see any camera that could even attempt to replace the E-P5, and hence hope the current formulation will be kept intact. The OM-Ds aren’t really “up” to me.
What might profit this camera are three manual prime lenses akin to the old PEN-Fs from 50 years ago. The only weak one was the wide angle, but still a beauty.
I understand and accept your opinion, even though statistically speaking, there are too few to return the PEN to profitability. I guess it depends on what you mean when you say “up” or “down.” Take the OM-D E-M5, delete EVF and weather seals and you get the derivative PEN, E-P5, which, as far as the kind of pictures you can take, is identical. You can count it a move “over” if you like. Going without an EVF is a definite step “down” for me because it decreases the utility of the tool in many of the sunny, outdoor conditions I shoot. Snapping an EVF on was, I thought, too fiddly to bother.
Well you know, that the μ4/3 proposition cedes only a little to full frame, a slice of resolution (largely wasted) and a slice of ISO (one stop). It might be a world to someone else, but to me, it represents a cost-prohibitive overkill because I can print perfectly well on large media from an OM-D. The 4K digital cinema footprint, 40 feet wide and 21 feet tall, is 8 megapixels. 30 x 20 inch prints are plenty for me. I have 4 primes to love and 2 zooms to use. Even though I do not like the f3.5–6.3 apertures on the 12-50mm, semi-macro, electric zoom, it is on the camera quite a lot of the time. The 17mm f1.8 is the winner though. It makes easy work of many photographic opportunities. The 45mm is very nice for bokehlicious portraiture, used in the best picture I have taken to date.
Well, I think I’ll take the ep5 instead of an evf-less em5. To be honest, I bought an ep5 when I already had an em5, and I’m taking that ep5 with me all the time, even though that em5 is not evf-less at all. To decide which camera is better, just depends on how you use it, and what for.
I think you are absolutely correct. If you are fortunate to have two cameras, the sort of shooting you intend to do will dictate which one makes it to the car. I haven’t quite solved the second-camera problem just yet. I am still thinking and kicking tires. For the time being, I either take the whole bag, or the OM-D with the 17mm f1.8 lens alone.
I’m not so sure a clearly executed [and communicated…] PEN strategy of craftsmanship [and craftwomanship?] throughout wouldn’t work, unobtrusively boosted by modern technology, of course.
The other thing was (sorry I forgot, oops) my initial exposure to the Olympus brand was a half-frame, probably a Trip, given to my high school friend by his father. Those were days when most everyone else had Kodak Instamatic cameras. Truly awful, but did we know any better? In 1979, when I was older and had my own dollars, I splurged on an OM-1. I eventually acquired an OM-4. My first try on μ43 was an experiment. I got an E-PL1 on Best Buy closeout. Although I shot several hundred pictures on the 12mpx chip, I had many focus-hunting difficulties under the constraint of the 14-42mm, f3.5, 3-tube, lens. I was also not entirely satisfied that my life in ISO land pretty much ended at 800. I bought my daughter an XZ-1 and messed around with it long enough to surmise that the fast f1.8–2.5 lens had fewer focus failures and effectively mitigated the 400 ISO limit on the 2/3 inch sensor. So, back to tire kicking (I almost bought a Nikon D-5100) I did not make my OM-D splash until June of 2014. I have accumulated 6 lenses and not one regret since. The system is more powerful by a mile, than anything I ever owned.
Interesting, thank you for recounting your wanderings! I do wish Olympus had gone half-frame for digital, it’s probably ideal and would continue their proud tradition seamlessly, in a way.
Those Trip and PEN cameras were technological tour-de-forces, and they really made a great effort to also build lenses supportive of that format.
I also own the rare 60mm 1.5, and while it’s noticeably less contrasty than modern lenses, handling, sharpness, and character are nice.
Well, the E-P5 suits me, but I’m not particularly bothered how it works (or not) for others. I don’t think I’d recommend today, against say an EM-5ii. The tilting EVF is a big deal though. I can’t really use the screen without glasses, and I prefer a viewfinder anyway, off-tripod. And the extra flexibility of the tilt is a big deal. However, there’s lttle point arguing that the Ep-5 wasn’t overpriced when it came out. It’s really well built though…
Ugh. Glasses are continuously annoying when you are trying to operate a camera. Do you use the super control panel with your eye up to the viewfinder? I do. And I cannot hand the camera to anyone else because I always forget to put the diopter back to zero..
No, I can, fortunately see well enough without glasses to work the SCP and Menu. But for composing and focussing … well, let’s just say that 10 years ago, or even 5, it was considerably easier 🙂
Olympus needs an X100T/Ricoh/RX1r II competitor.
Would you care to elaborate or clarify? You have named two 16mpx, APS-C, fixed lens cameras (X) and a 42mpx, FF, interchangeable model (Y). Why not the Quattros or the DP Merrills? There are so many cool cameras in the market at the moment, to each his own, that I am completely happy for everyone else to sort the virtues of their favorites any way they like. I am confused when folks say Olympus should do one thing or another because they usually intend one of three meanings, (1) high confidence that Olympus could field a particularly nifty competitor, (2) a craving for Olympus to field a strong competitor at a lower price, or (3) that what Olympus does currently is complete rubbish and they could be saved by a change of strategy based on a competitor’s product. I am not qualified to evaluate 1, 2, or 3 against your X or Y. I am all ears about enthusiasm for fixed lens, single-focal length cameras. I don’t get that part. I do quite like the 42.4mpx Sony Mirrorless cameras and I expect successive degrees of refinement to shake the full frame market. I am frequently mystified, also, by the fetish for rectangular cameras, and I am intolerant of any favorite that lacks a decent viewfinder. I am a happy convert to the electronic version because I make drastically fewer white balance mistakes. Buy a camera. Let’s go have fun.
Actually, I’d argue that what most people mean by “Olympus should do that” is merely having a specific camera made by a manufacturer they like, as it will be imbued with qualities they find only with that specific company.
As to the fixed , single focal length cameras, what’s there to say? They provide the best IQ in the smallest possible package.
Thank you. There is truth to what you say. Zoom lenses cannot fully escape the optical compromise. Although there is not, actually, any such thing as a perfect lens, the very best lenses are primes. The smallest full frame cameras have fixed primes. If the market niche is wide enough to make money, no problem. If one’s pockets are a deep enough, likewise, go for it. The trade-off selected in this case is for size to trump the flexibility of a lens mount. That’s the problem, no matter where you sit, you have to pick (A) the disadvantage you are willing to live with and (B) the obsession you are willing to die for. The latter is, of course, an exaggeration. What it means is to identify the advantage of greatest importance to you. Convictions drive choice and make you the target of criticism from others whose convictions and priorities differ. I wonder, though. Is the Leica Q buyer the sort of person who has only one camera, or one who only needs 28mm today? What is his mount camera?
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Well, evidence is obviously anecdotal, but I don’t know of a single person whose only camera is a single fixed focal length one. For me, though, current high-res sensors alleviate the disadvantage of a prime lens, as they allow me to zoom. The new Sony RX1RII (don’t you love the naming) is easily a 35-50mm camera.
On the other hand (second reply) I have wondered for a long time, what my take would be on the “What Olympus should do” question. Here’s my shot, for today. First, they should find a way to evangelize the OM-D system to the high grade enthusiast and semi-pro market in the USA. Europe and Asia seem to be further along. The proposition is powerful, cost-effective, and the coverage of doable is astonishingly high. Second, they should resurrect the PEN, without the mount, preferably along the lines of the LX100 but with 20mpx; or second best along the lines of the RX100-iii, but more dial friendly. Third, rather than come up with a 7/8 inch sensor, they could use 80% of a 1 inch sensor in a Stylus-1-esque bridge model. In am not sure what to do with the 2/3 inch market. The other end, going larger, is very hard. APS-H has already been tried. The market entrance trick is to find a crack and do something different in order to attract a following you can grow. I have a funny feeling that the Olympus/Sony relationship cedes full frame mirrorless to the latter in order to gain sensor tech for the former, soon in the form of stacked BSI. Eventual hopes are pinned on organic (read carbon-based) sensor tech, to increase the resolution and deepen the sensitivity. In the meantime, we have a world of beautiful photographs to shoot.
The Pen’s price finally becomes acceptable… but too late.
I own this camera and hate it:
– it is heavy and the grip is painful
– the 17/1.8 lens is a dud
– the EVF is not very good, colors are off
– the sensor is color blind at ISO 800 and above
– AF point is easily moved by accident when using the EVF
Its too bad because I really loved my E-P2.
First time I see someone complaining about the VF4. I was about to get one, so will you not recomended it?
It complements the E-P5 very well. I’m using it more and more without complaints.
Dont be a muppet. If you find a camera of this size too heavy may I recommend a gym membership, 17mm lens is superb, I suspect if you can’t use it may I suggest lessons, and again, as for the sensor at ISO 800 being colour blind, I think an eye check is in order.
That 17mm is an absolutely terrific lens. Like you, I have not experienced any color shift relative to ISO. That would be an accusation against the TruePic VI processor, not the sensor. I go both ways on 3200 and 6400 ISO. My tendency is use the lowest ISO possible, which is very easy with fast lenses, and to use high ISO’s last ditch, and be very surprised at how usable the images turn out. The easy solution to the shifting AF position is be mindful of whether the touch screen is on or off. It has nothing to do with the VF.
There are plenty of plasticams that weigh less, but won’t balance a simple manual 50mm. And my E-P5 survived violent contact with a concrete floor. As for colors, EVF, and ISO, how about unpushed in any way ISO 3200 [edit, noise reduction applied, with the PEN-F 38mm 1.8] [edit: hair is sharp in RAW]:
I picked up a mint but used one on Ebay about a year ago. Thought I had a steal at $500 for the body and the viewfinder. In a separate auction I picked up a Panny 14mm f2.5. I use the combo as a street photo rig and like it. I use the VF4 in look down mode quite a bit so I like the hinge. About the only thing I don’t like it for is flash photography as your forced to give up the viewfinder to use a real flash.