The Pen Is Mightier

Gussy it up however you want, Trebek. What matters is: does it work?

Olympus has mastered the art of the increasingly popular slow leak with the announcement of the new Pen E-P1. Pentax tried to make the "leaked" photos of their new K-7 more illicit-looking, but the build-up and pay-off of the E-P1 announcement has been incredible. The long and frenzied threads over at RangeFinderForum and the Fred Miranda Forums are your evidence.

I've ordered a product like this before (Sigma DP2). Wasted a pretty penny I don't mind telling you and if the Pen's iS (image stabilization) really works, I'll order a dozen.

The M43 Playing Field (with some competition):

Now that we have official specs, we can proceed with the inevitable comparisons with Panasonic's G1 and GH1. I've thrown in the Canon T1i and Pentax K-7 as well, since they represent different levels of the compact DSLR. The DP2 is in there to feel some shame.

	Olympus E-P1	Panasonic G1	Panasonic GH1	Sigma DP2	Canon T1i (500D)	Pentax K-7
Price	$800 with 14-42/3.5-5.6 lens (28-84mm EFoV) $900 with 17/2.8 pancake lens (34mm EFoV)	$700 (black) or $640 (blue or red) with 14-45/3.5-5.6 OIS lens (28-90mm EFoV)	$1,500 with 14-140/4.0-5.8 OIS HD lens (28-280mm EFoV)	$650 with fixed 24/2.8 lens (41mm EFoV)	$850 with 18-55/3.5-5.6 IS lens (29-88mm EFoV)	$1400 (est.) with 18-55/3.5-3.6 WR lens (27-83mm EFV)
Size	121x70x36 mm + considerably thinner than and approx 2/3 the volume of G1/GH1	124x84x45 mm	124x90x45 mm	113x60x56 mm (inc. lens)	129x98x62 mm	131x97x73 mm
Weight	410g body inc. battery	360g body inc. battery	385g body only (?)	280g body inc. battery and lens	520g body inc. battery	754g body inc. battery
Sensor	12.3mp (13.1 actual) 4/3" w/ 2x crop factor	12.1mp (13.1 actual) 4/3" w/ 2x crop factor	12.1mp (14.1mp actual) 4/3" w/ 2x crop factor + true multi-aspect sensor	APS-C w/ 1.7x crop factor	15.1mp (15.5mp actual) APS-C w/ 1.6x crop factor	14.6mp (15.1mp actual) APS-C w/ 1.5x crop factor
Video	720p @ 30fps MJPEG (weak compression)	None	1080p and 720p @ 30fps AVCHD or MJPEG	320x240 only	1080p @ 20fps 720p @ 30fps	720p (or 1080i) MJPEG (weak compression)
Stabilization	In-body - not active during filming + works with all lenses	In-lens + active during filming - each lens needs OIS	In-lens + active during filming - each lens needs OIS	None	In-lens + active during filming - each lens needs IS	In-body - not active during filming + works with all lenses
LCD Screen	3 inch - non-articulating - 230,000 dots	3 inch + tilt and swivel + 460,000 dots	3 inch + tilt and swivel + 460,000 dots	2.6 inch - non articulating - 230,000 dots - terrible	3 inch - non-articulating + 920,000 dots	3 inch - non-articulating + 920,000 dots
Viewfinder	None (optional hotshoe finder w/ 17mm lens)	Excellent EVF 100% coverage	Excellent EVF 100% coverage	None (optional hotshoe finder)	Optical TTL 95% coverage	Optical TTL 100% coverage
Built-In Flash?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes (but very slow and weak)	Yes	Yes
AF Assist	Only w/ add-on Olympus flash units	Built-in dedicated lamp (not flash strobes like many DSLRS)	Built-in dedicated lamp (not flash strobes like many DSLRS)	None (!)	Yes, but uses annoying flash strobes.	Built-in dedicated lamp (not flash strobes like many DSLRS)

EFoV is short for "equivalent field-of-view". Simply saying 'equivalent' is a bit misleading.