Was the E-P2 PEN a bit too heavy on your wallet? Good news, Olympus just announced an affordable offering in their line of PEN interchangeable lens cameras. The PEN E-PL1 (what a mouthful) takes most of the E-P2’s features and puts them in a mostly plastic body, throws in a couple of new features like Live Guide to make the camera more beginner friendly and a built-in popup flash.

I will have a preview of the camera ready and online very soon.

Olympus E-PL1 PEN camera
(Micro Four Thirds camera)

• 12 megapixel Live MOS sensor (Micro Four Thirds, 2.0X crop factor)
• Micro Four Thirds lens mount (adapters available for normal Four Thirds and Leica lenses)
• Sensor-shift image stabilizer
• Dust reduction
• 2.7 inch LCD
• Optional electronic viewfinder attaches via hotshoe
• Six Art Filters (photo effects)
• On-board flash
• Live Guide feature for simplified manual control adjustment for beginners
• ISO range of 100 – 3200
• Full manual controls with RAW mode and flash hotshoe
• 3 FPS burst mode
• 720p (1280 x 720 at 30 FPS) movie mode with sound
  Optional external microphone accessory; attaches via hotshoe
• Takes SD/SDHC memory cards
• Uses a lithium-ion battery
• Available in March for $600 (with 14-42 mm kit lens)

Olympus also announced two new Micro Four Thirds lenses today: the 9 – 18 mm f4.0 – f5.6 ultra-wide angle zoom lens to be available in May for $700 and the new 14 – 150 mm f4.0 – f5.6 all-in-one super zoom lens, which will go for $600 in June.

Related articles:

• Panasonic Lumix GF1 now official
• Olympus E-P2 Micro Four Thirds camera; now official!
• Olympus E-P1 interchangeable lens camera
• Panasonic Lumix GH1 HD video interchangeable lens camera
• Olympus PEN E-PL1 Preview