Comments about Olympus Olympus E-P1 Pen, with 14mm-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED Black Lens, Silver Body - Refurbished by Olympus:

I considered many DSLRs before deciding to buy this camera. I wanted a camera that would allow me full manual control + focus and would accept interchangeable lenses. I considered Canon & Nikon low-end DSLRs as well as Olympus 4/3 DSLRs. What finally tipped the balance to this camera was the ability to use my legacy Rokkor lenses with an adapter and the value of this refurbished package. I now have a kit that consists of this camera, the 14-42 lens, and 5 prime lenses for about half the cost of a Canon or Nikon consumer DSLR + kit lens.

The camera provides excellent performance outside and in other well-lit conditions. It will perform in low-light situations with a fast lens, but obviously not as well as a camera with a larger sensor, and the autofocus will struggle as there is no focus-assist capability. If you want a flash, you can find one relatively reasonably (still no focus-assist capability, however, so the camera will still struggle to focus in low light even with a flash). If you know how to use manual settings, however, you will be able to compensate to obtain adequate performance in low light.

The fact of the matter is that this is not a camera for someone looking to take party snapshots. It's a camera for someone looking to do outdoors, landscape, still-life, nature, or street photography who wants image quality in those environments that will compare to much more expensive cameras.

The ability to use legacy lenses is fantastic and you can get great results, but a couple of caveats: the 2:1 crop factor of the micro 4/3 means that your 45-55 mm lenses will effectively be telephoto lenses. Also, some of the required adapters can allow light to bounce around a bit, especially when a lens is wide open, leading to "softer" shots and sometimes a halo effect, but this can be greatly minimized by flocking the inside of the adapter.

The final thing I'll mention is the relatively few m4/3 lenses that are available at the moment. Panasonic, Olympus, and the rest of the 4/3 crew seem dedicated to bringing out more lenses, but they are not out yet. This camera was a great choice for me because of the legacy lenses I had available to use, but for someone starting out with no equipment, this is a factor to consider. Of course, many legacy lenses, and regular 4/3 lenses, can be purchased at a lower price than the few micro 4/3 lenses available, if you want to buy this camera and build out a kit.

Comments about Olympus Olympus E-P1 Pen, with 14mm-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED Black Lens, Silver Body - Refurbished by Olympus:

I missed not having a viewfinder more than I thought I would. I have a Panasonic micro 4/3 camera also and the image quality from it is better in my opinion. The E-P1 is not a terrible camera - just not right for me.

Comments about Olympus Olympus E-P1 Pen, with 14mm-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED Black Lens, Silver Body - Refurbished by Olympus:

Amazing camera and that comes from someone that had used Canon dslr's his whole life. I wish the video mode would be better. One star down for that