If you're a camera enthusiast taking pictures of vacations, pets and kids' birthday parties and willing to spend a few extra bucks on your gear, this camera is a marvel. (The video it shoots is so good that several filmmakers have made films with the E-P2 as their only camera). At its tiny size, which is comparable to high-end P&S cameras, you can't beat it. Good image stabilization, decent resolution at 12+ MP, good low-light performance, a growing range of decent interchangeable micro 4/3rds lenses. In general, the image quality is closer to a low-end DSLR than a high-end P&S if you factor in the lenses that the low-end DSLR shooter is going to purchase. The small size spares you a lot of the misery of taking a decent photographic outfit through the gauntlet of modern air travel. If you want to take decent flash pictures, you can get into the rather silly situation of using an on-camera flash unit that's bigger than the camera itself, but even that can be more convenient than dragging around a full-size black-brick SLR setup.Note on image quality: you clearly cannot expect a camera like this to match the image quality of a high-end professional DSLR with a $3,000 lens attached to it. But you definitely can compare this camera to a low-end DSLR with its bundled el-cheapo kit lens. Given the choice between the E-P2 and the low=end DSLR, I would go for the E-P2 for convenience reasons. If on the other hand you're planning to build up a collection of top-quality lenses, then this camera is not a candidate.
My particular E-P2 tends to over-expose a little, but if you shoot RAW that's not always a bad thing. If you're into tweaking parameters, there's pretty complete manual control over everything in addition to a million geeky bells & whistles like reliable face-detection focus.
In general, I've found myself driving to the airport with this camera in my bag and my much fancier DSLR sitting at home recently, quite a few times. Broad generalizations are dangerous, but my feeling after decades of photography with film and then digital is that this camera or its successor would make a lot of amateur photographers happier than the low-end DSLR they've had their eye on. At this point it may cost a few extra bucks, but it takes great pictures, has a lot of features, and is feather-light and fits anywhere.
Highly recommended for anyone who needs a small, reasonably priced camera that takes excellent pictures and video. In my opinion, greatly preferable to an entry-level DSLR with a bundled kit lens--and worth the few extra bucks.
But this technology changes so fast that reviews like this are worth what you pay for them.
About my experience with DSLR's: First time ever using it.
Over all experience: Love it, got a book on basic photography and I have to say I am ready to just shoot the world, there is so much one can do with this, first thing only shoot in Manual mode, you will learn so much more than priority modes etc. (if you dont understand what I just said you are like me when i got the camera) Dont worry the manual with this product does a very good job of explaining how things work. The Kit lens is good, plus i did not know any better when i got it. Now I barely use it but for the first few months that is the only lens I had and loved. Since then I have upgraded to few better lenses same price as the camera infact and man the results look great.
I thought picking this camera i could shoot like a pro, little did i realize pros spend a lot of time shooting in raw and then spending hours touching up their Pic, I dont have that much time or patience so I just do mild touches here and there using usual stuff like Aperture (software in MAC) and i get results which are pretty much 80% of those highend 3000 dollar kits.
Overall Love it..only issue I have is the strap it comes with is flimsy, So good place to start, save the extra dough for lenses and also make sure you take good care of it, It can and will last a long time. It is solid, heavy compared to what you expect for its size. It does a very good job at what it is supposed to do. Overallit is not the arrow its the Indian,but this still makes a pretty good arrow.the E-P2 appears simple. People on the street have asked me if it's a retro film camera. The working size with a 17 mm lens ( yep purchased separately and worth it ) tucks into a jacketno bulk and simple controlsthat admittedly take some studying to learn all the options available. Give it time . Soon it all becomes very workable, even if you don't need all the functions supplied. Great camera for unobtrusive city shots. No flash, no distraction indoor shots work wellhave taken great shots while subjects are unawarevery much looking forward to traveling this Spring and pushing all the possibilities.
The newer P3 has differently placed controls and I understand is faster but for half the price with the same pixel count the P2 was the best cholce for this amateur photo bug.
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