What Photo Gear

Remember the Olympus E420 that was unveiled just a few days ago? Well, if you’ve been anticipating a release date, it looks like it won’t be that far off - as they are now available for pre-order on Amazon.com, with a quoted release date of May 20th.

You can get the body only for $499 ; with a 14-42mm lens for $599 ; or with the new 25mm f/2.8 pancake lens for a cool $699. The 25mm f/2.8 pancake lens is also available for pre-order and that will set you back about $250.

With the E420 being the worlds smallest DSLR (as of this writing) - pairing it with the new 25mm pancake lens would definitely make for one mean compact shooter. The new lens is less than an inch thick! This combo could be a very very interesting alternative to the likes of the Sigma DP1, and the great thing is, you have the added flexibility of using any four thirds lens.

It won’t be quite as pocketable of course, but the E420 + 25mm f/2.8 combo is compact, and I mean really compact, it’s even smaller than some of the fixed lens ultra-zooms. Sometimes, it’s hard to appreciate compact DSLRs like the E420, the Nikon D40 and the Canon 400D when comparing them to non-DSLRs, but if you lug around a Nikon D2X or even a Canon 40D all day and are looking for a take anywhere, travel and backup camera, then these are fantastic options, especially since you don’t give up the speed, flexibility and image quality afforded by the DSLR systems.