I'd been wanting a "Normal Prime Lens" for my Canon bodies, that equates to about a 30mm lens, which is a rare thing. There are 28mm lenses which is a little short, but doable. However, I would still be left with a large camera with a fairly small and light lens. There is of course the option of going to the Canon EOS M. They've gotten very cheap $279 for M body and 18-55 STM lens. I have an 18-55 lens, it's not all that small.
Enter the Olympus EPL1. The system I bought included both kit lenses, a 14-42, and a 40-150 both seemed very nice, good color and sharpness. Neither was small. I started looking on CL and saw Oly 14mm's, Oly 17mm's, Panasonic 14mm's and Panasonic 20mm's and a Pana 12mm. All were fairly priced. The Pana 20 is billed as a "Normal" lens, and I would liked to have had it, but it was a bit more expensive than I had or wanted to spend at $280. The Pana 12mm was very expensive at $560, I wasn't looking for a short wide lens. This left the 14 and 17, the 14 was cheaper at $180.
I tested the lens fairly thoroughly before buying it. I was very undecided, the lens was a little shorter than I wanted, the crop factor is 2X so the 14 is actually a 28mm, not terribly wide but not normal. It's a relatively fast lens it's very light at 1.9 ounces, and very short in size, making a very small package to carry on the EPL1. It focus' much faster than the kit lenses, has better color and sharpness.
I decided to bite the bullet, especially since I didn't pay the asking price.
First and foremost it meets my need for a small package that takes good pictures. My whole outfit will fit in a small camera bag that would only fit one Canon body with one lens, not a telephoto.
It's a good kit.
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