The new E-P2 is, in many ways, a simple update to the original E-Pl. But the new black and silver affair is 10 times closer to enabling you to be more like a serious photographer, and less like a tourist, than the original. The big change is that the camera kit now comes with a clip-on electronic viewfinder (EVF) that enables you to use the PEN at eye level, rather than forcing you to use the large LCD screen at the back. This pays dividends in bright light, and means you can concentrate better on the exposure information that the camera provides you with. The VF-2 viewfinder attachment slots into the hot shoe creating a bulge on this otherwise retro looking camera.

The timing of Olympus’ PEN E-Pl launch wasn’t a coincidence. Its 50 years since Olympus launched the original PEN. a revolutionary ‘half-frame’ camera that was eventually developed into an SLR with a ‘pro-finder’ rather than a conventional pentagrams, a design which resurfaced in the Olympus E-300 and E-330. There’s another non-coincidence here. The original Pen was a half-frame format (half a 35mm frame), and the Four Thirds/Micro Four Thirds format is half-frame too.