I examined an E-P1 today. While it has many nice features, I don\'t think I will be getting one after all. The grip is quite comfortable but the camera is heavier than I would like it to be. I was really looking for a large sensor pocket camera, and this one is bigger and heavier than I had expected. The body cap sticks out about 5mm, but even so I couldn\'t easily get this camera into a pocket. I found myself yearning for a digital Contax T2 or T3, and this isn\'t it. I also found myself wondering whether the weight/size savings constituted enough of an improvement over a 500D/OM24f2.8, or even 500D/EF24f2.8 to justify the expenditure and the loss of features and image quality.
The collapsing zoom is a great idea and it\'s significantly more compact that the G1 kit zoom.
When you turn the manual focus ring the EP1 LCD immediately and automagically zooms in to 7x, and zooms out again as soon as you finish - a very nice touch, but I couldn\'t work out how to disable it. I didn\'t find the autofocus entirely unconvincing - slow if it hunts, or focus starts way off, but fairly quick to trim focus.
I also checked out the G1, DP1 and DP2. I\'m afraid to say that the EVF of the G1 isn\'t going to do it for me. I don\'t accept that it offers better manual focus capabilities in its unzoomed state than a 500D. While VF zooming is a clever way around the problem, it\'s still an obstacle for me. I know from experience that I can focus an APS-C viewfinder adequately, if not perfectly, in quite low light, and shoot by feel without delays, covering for focus errors either by shooting volume or using depth of field. I didn\'t feel confident that I would be able to operate like that with either the G1 or EP1. In particular the lack of accessible distance scale focussing worries me. And again, the size savings of the G1 over APS-C seems quite little.
The revelation for me today was reconsidering the DP1 and DP2. They are significantly lighter and smaller than the G1 and EP1. The distance scale focussing method is well implemented and I decided today that of all these 4 cameras the DP2 would be the least frustrating to use, despite the speed issues. Pre-focus is quick and the camera is unobtrusive. I was just about able to get a DP1 into the back pocket of my jeans, which wasn\'t feasible with the m4/3 cameras.
I look forward to seeing what other m4/3 cameras emerge, but I would like to see something smaller and lighter than the EP1, if it\'s possible, because only a significant size/weight advantage makes it worth losing an optical viewfinder. Maybe that\'s why this market segment is still sparsely populated.
