Well dear folks, I went ahead and did it. I canceled the order for my Olympus E-P1. But how did I get to this situation?

Some of you might have read my buoyant impressions of the E-P1 a.k.a. Digital Pen. In that article, my end conclusion was that although this seems to be the compact camera that many enthusiast photographers have been anticipating for years, I would wait a while before I bought it, for more reviews and perhaps some better lenses.

About a week or so ago, I bit the bullet and I placed a pre-order for the Olympus E-P1 with the 17mm 2.8 pancake and viewfinder. Total: $900. I was really excited about the whole thing but I knew I would have to wait a long time until I got it, because no one had this kit in stock.

So I waited patiently until yesterday when I decided brusquely to cancel my order. It wasn’t a hasty decision and I gotta say, I feel better now for doing it. The decision was reached after reading many user and professional reviews of the E-P1 and after a great deal of soul searching. Here are the main reasons why I decided to forgo this camera – for now.

Rumors have been going around lately that Olympus and Panasonic are planning to release more cameras for the Micro Four Thirds format. Olympus in particular has hinted that a camera smaller than the E-P1 is in the works, as well as a more professional model. Panasonic is also planning something. To be honest, although Panasonic makes some very nice cameras, I don’t think I will buy any of their future ones due to the fact that they refuse to add on-sensor image stabilization. They have invested a lot in their Mega O.I.S. system, which is in their lenses. Hence, Olympus remains the only attractive choice to me.

There are two main gripes with the E-P1 that have also come to bother me. The camera’s LCD and AF. Some people claim that both are good enough, even excellent, while others say the LCD sucks in low light (it becomes very grainy and hard to focus manually) and the Auto Focus is very slow and completely misses focus in many situations.

Well, initially I was happy to overlook these two “minor” issues but with time, doubts started creeping in. For one thing, I’ve decided that Olympus has cheapened out by using such a cheap (i.e. low resolution) LCD on a $750 camera. You will notice that I won’t even mention a viewfinder, whether optical or electronic. I realize that a viewfinder for the current iteration of the Digital Pen would be impractical so I’m not insisting on that. However, in its absence, a kick-ass LCD would have been really nice. Especially for the price.

The other major issue that people have been debating is the Auto Focus. Since it uses a contrast detection system, it is obviously slower and less accurate than a DSLR. However, I would still expect it to be faster than a compact camera. Yet, many are claiming that the AF is slow and sometimes misses its mark, especially in low light. That’s less of a problem with the 17mm pancake apparently but it still cannot be ignored. Again, I feel that Olympus could have spent some more time trying to figure out how to reproduce an AF similar in speed to that of the Panasonic G1′s. On the other hand, it is possible that they will correct this situation at a future date by firmware updates. It remains to be seen how often these updates will be released and how effective they will be in correcting some of the E-P1′s shortcomings.

A third issue that doesn’t sit well with me is the lenses. The 17mm pancake is the only one I have considered because I love a nice, bright prime and the pancake design makes it incredibly compact. Problem is, tests have shown that this lens doesn’t produce a very high quality image. It’s just not up to snuff. In addition, it isn’t even that bright with a 2.8 maximum aperture. That’s another reason to wait a while until Panasonic release their long-anticipated 20mm f/1.7 pancake.

So these are the 3 main issues that have bothered me enough this past week that I decided to cancel my E-P1 until further notice. LCD, AF and lenses are the main drawbacks in my opinion. While 2 of these (AF and lenses) could be corrected at some point, by releasing better firmware and some new Micro Four Thirds lenses, the LCD unfortunately will have to stay at least until the next generation.

As it so often happens in my case, I might end up suffering from buyer’s remorse, especially after an expensive purchase that failed to meet my expectations. In fact that’s another reason why I suspect many people were disappointed by this camera: they had set their hopes too high. I am not one to waste money on frivolous purchases, especially when I’m on such a limited budget. For the time being, the power (cash) stays in my hands.

I will keep watching for new releases in the following months, especially new lenses and better firmware. I might end up buying the E-P1 after all, after some more professional reviews are released (especially by DPReview) and if Olympus takes steps to correct some issues with firmware.

I still think that this is a revolutionary camera and that Olympus has created a beautiful thing. As is the case for initial iterations, they aren’t quite there yet but they’re very close. Ever since I heard the rumors of a more “professional” model that will be announced in the near future, I’ve been speculating whether that will be The One. I hope so. Olympus has managed to steal a piece of my heart with the Digital Pen and until now I’ve been a devout Canon man.

If you’re thinking about buying the E-P1 or you already have and are happy with it, then you will probably disagree with this article (or not). These are just my opinions which are wholly subjective and totally based on hearsay. In my situation however, it’s better not to be an early adopter of new technology. I always get burned in these cases.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 9:06 pm and is filed under Olympus E-P1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.