If you want the excellent low-light performance and changeable lenses of an SLR in a form factor closer to the pocketability of a point-and-shoot, Olympus’ PEN series of mirrorless, Micro Four Thirds cameras have always been easy to recommend (See our review: Olympus PEN E-PL1 Camera Is Almost Perfect). Now they’ve expanded an already great camera line with a new model… as well as a couple of new lenses to fit onto it.
The Olympus PEN E-P2 is a black smart looking 12.3 megapixel mirrorless that comes with a matching M.ZUIKO Digital Ed 17mm pancake lens and a matching FL-14 flash. All together, the kit will cost $999.99 when it drops in October… although if you’d rather exchange the flash for a black VF-2 electronic viewfinder, you can opt for that and pay about $80 more.
In addition, Olympus has expanded its lens line-up with a pricy new 75-300MM zoom, which (at 35mm equivalency) Olympus proclaims to be the world’s smallest and lightest 600mm super telephoto lens. It’s priced at $800, but don’t expect spectacular low-light performance, since it is specced for an f-stop range between 4.8-6.7. It will drop in December.
As for the other lens, it’s a far cheaper 40-150MM (35mm equivalent is 80-300mm) affair rated at f4.0-5.6. It will cost just $299 when it is released in November.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
