I recently got myself an E-PL1.
Its an old model. Now E-PL3 is in market.
If you are on a tight budget and do not mind digging out hidden features at cost of your time, then E-PL1 is a good choice for learning the ropes. Infact it is the best way to get into micro four thirds format.
The biggest difference between the E-PL1 and the E-PL2 , E-PL3 is the kit lens. The new kit lens is more silent and auto-focus is faster.
The addition of a control wheel is not a big thing for me cause I am anyways upgrading from a point and shoot. And never got to use it.
Rest of the stuff is mostly same between the three models.
Touchscreen is not a big news for me BTW.
Ok. Now lets start.
What you will like:
1. Very good straight out of the camera JPEG. I think this will be the biggest draw for the people who want better quality but do not want to mess around in Photoshop either because of lack of knowledge, sheer laziness ( like me) or lack of time.
2. The price. I got mine for 18k. Starting price for a DSLR will be 24k upwards.
3. The long list of features. You name it and it will be there somewhere in the menus. The most prominent one is in-body stabilization. So
any micro-four thirds lens you use, you get to enjoy at-least on stop of speed. You can latch on your legacy lenses with an adapter but it will be manual focus. Yes the stabilization benefit will be there too.
4. Size!! You won't look like a hunter out for a kill.
5. Evident cost cutting apparent when you see the LCD. Its resolution is less.
6. The flash!! Yes this is one of the trump card of this camera. The more expensive professional line, E-P series does not have an in-built flash. You need to carry it around in your pockets.
7. Good ISO performance. I am happy with the ISO 1000 shots.
8. The anti-alias filter on this camera is weaker than one on E-P1 and E-P2. Has a positive effect on the sharpness of the image.
9. Art modes. Nice, easy and sweet. I specially liked the black and white effect. But they are slow to apply.
No wonder it stole the thunder from E-P series when it was launched.
What you won't like:
1. The lack of control wheel will put off the experienced hands. Its all buttons.
Though point and shoot guys will be at home with this I guess.
2. The kit lens is slow to auto-focus. There are many times that you will feel frustrated because it will simply not auto-focus quick enough. Lack of auto-focus light adds salt to the wound. Though I must say that optics of this lens is good. Not ground breaking but good enough.
3. The menu system. Everything is there. But superbly hidden. You have to work your way through.
4. The build is mostly plastic. It is not flimsy but some people find it cheap. I did not.
5. Lack of good cheap primes like in case of Nikon or canon. There are two noteworthy primes, one is 17mm f2.8 Olympus pancake (14k something in India) and other is superb Panasonic 20mm f1.7 pancake. Though why it is called a pancake is not clear. It is almost same as the collapsed kit lens as far as size is concerned. And yes its very expensive too.
So who is this for?
I will say someone on a tight budget, looking for a compact system camera and willing to invest time and efforts in learning the camera. As someone on DPReview forum said "It won't sleep with you on the first night".
In the remaining sections I will list out some of the camera setting up I have done. Most of the stuff will be from DPReview site. I will list out the settings which have worked to my liking.