Olympus E-P2 and Two New Lenses Announced

Olympus E-P2 and Two New Lenses Announced
Thursday, November 5, 2009

Olympus has announced a new digital PEN camera, the Olympus E-P2 (available for pre-order at Amazon). The major differences from the E-P1 are as follows:

Ability to use a new, high resolution add-on EVF
Black paint color under a glass coat

The Olympus add-on EVF looks to be a good bit larger than the GF1 add-on EVF, but based on specifications and early user reports, the added size comes with significantly improved resolution and quality. Here is a size comparison of the E-P2, GF1, and G1 approximately to scale:

Availability of the E-P2 has been reported as December or January.

Two new lenses were also announced and should be available in the first half of 2010:

M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6
M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-150mm F4.0-5.6

As noted above, the E-P2 is already available for pre-order at Amazon

Additional images:

Full coverage at 1001 Noisy Cameras.

Posted by Amin

Labels: Olympus E-P2

Comments (5)

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Matthew · 805 weeks ago

Wow. That was fast.
I bet all the people that jumped and made the E-P1 part of their photographic arsenal are pretty upset. It always surprises me when camera companies do this. It's sort of like they release something and then realize they missed a couple of things and release something else entirely. Seems a little sloppy on the design end. You'd think these things would have been caught before releasing it. Then again, these things are probably years in development so for all we know, they knew exactly what they were doing when they did it.

All these things aside, I still really love what I'm seeing from the GF-1, even with the sub-par viewfinder.

I'll be interested to see what the E-P2 reviews bring about.

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1 reply · active 805 weeks ago

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amin 67p · 805 weeks ago

I guess they were losing too many sales to the GF1. Otherwise the timing of the announcement makes no sense.

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Gman · 805 weeks ago

It's not really a replacement, but an E-P1 that comes with an EVF and a higher price tag. I think most people who felt they needed an EVF passed on the E-P1 anyways in favor of one of Panasonic's offerings.

I wouldn't feel too upset if I already had an E-P1. I'll be surprised if there are significant differences in performance between the E-P1 and E-P2.

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andrew · 805 weeks ago

i have an e-p1 and am not too upset. The price difference puts the e-p2 out of consideration.

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Linh 36p · 804 weeks ago

The price difference is basically the EVF, not too bad if you were considering it anyway. However, I think it should have been an option, not a forced kit. And wow is that EVF highly disproportionate to the camera.

But I don't think I would be that upset if I were an E-P1 owner. Maybe initially, but the camera doesn't bring too much else to the table (unless it focuses as fast as the Panny, but most people who didn't dump their E-P1 for the GF1 don't need/care about the speed). This really should have been more of an E-P1x or something.

I'm far more disappointed about the lens announcements. I would like to see some solid fast prime/pancakes and/or fast standard zooms.