i whent from a E-510 to this little camera and man was i in for a treat. not only is it much smaller it is much larger in what it can do. not sorry in what i did. thank you OLYMPUS

I purchase my E-PL3 four month ago, and was happy with my purchase until yesterday. I removed memory card to print pictures. When I inserted card back into camera, I got: “Card Error”. But memory card is working with any other devises. Could not find an answer on Olympus tech support website, so had to call. They made me back up all pictures and try to reformat (how can you reformat memory if camera does not recognize the card) No success. I tried another memory card (probably they hoped I don’t have spare one to try) but got the same: “Card Error”. Now I have to pay for shipping and insurance of $500 defected product to mail it back to Olympus. Company would not pay for shipping of item that broke within warranty covered period of time! Now, if I am lucky, I will have refurbished camera for free! If not they will make me pay for this again. Looks like Olympus is the only company who will not take responsibility for selling low quality cameras for large amount of money. My ten years old SONY never give me any headache, and for next 10-14 business days (while Olympus evaluates the problem) I will have to use it again. I will strongly recommend to buying other brands or buy refurbished: it is cheaper from the very beginning and you can save money on postage fee.

Due to the smaller size of this camera, I actually take it with me! The larger cameras are too heavy and cumbersome for my use (hobby). It has been user friendly, fun, and inspiring! My only complaint at this time is not being able to shoot on sunny days. I can't see what I am shooting at all (I KNOW there were marmots in the scree slope over there - but where the heck did they go?!?!) - it has been a gamble as to whether we 'got the shot' or not. And now I am ordering a viewfinder and can't really tell the difference between the options on the VF-2 and the VF-3...or whether it really works for the E-PL3. Not clear info on the website and reviews are all over the place. I only hope that Olympus can come through with standing behind their product. I tried a brick and mortar store (90 minutes away was the closest) to try the viewfinders out but they are in bankruptcy and cannot help me at this time. Battery life hasn't been great - ordered a back up one.

So far my results have been excellent. I will have a real handle on ite flexibility by mid August when I get back from Alaska

Having started with Olympus film cameras (two O-products!) I remain very satisfied with the digital models in my bag. From my first C-4040, through a 730 and C-8080, and the e-300 and 500 series, my EPL-3 acquits itself in a wide variety of shooting situations. With the accessory telephoto and flash it has quickly become my go-to camera for most daily shooting.

I bought this camera because of the Olympus reputation. I have quite a collection of 35mm Olympus camera gear, which I really enjoy. The EPL-3 is a great little camera (with emphasis on little). It's quite small and to make it worse there is no grip. I had to buy an aftermarket grip so I could hold it with out dropping it. The video is truly "jellyvision" and not very impressive. However, the camera takes truly great photos and the scene selections and art filters are fantastic. LIGHTNING FAST FOCUS! The battery life is about average but extra batteries are not that expensive. I DO HIGHLY RECOMMENDED this product!

It is true that there is a learning curve when it comes to mastering all of the various settings. I have not yet had time to do more then scratch the surface. Even with that the quality of pictures is high and the reduced size and weight makes the camera a pleasure to use. My biggest adjustment so far is finding a comfortable grip on the camera.

I am just learning about the camera. It appears to live up to its reputation of being similar to an SLR and superior to a point and shoot. I bought the camera and accessories for underwater photography but will also use it more than my point and shoot and possible my SLR.

What I like : Image quality at low iso
Jpeg colors
Fast auto focus
Great features ( art filters 5fps etc)
In body stabilization
Lens selection
Needs Improvement: image quality at high iso
LCD - don't like 16x9 aspect ratio
resolution ok but could be better
no pop up flash
difficult to navigate menu

Overall I love the camera. Its lots of fun to use, I get great results. The cons are really a wish list.

I purchased this camera as a replacement for my full sized DSLR. I found I wasn't as likely to just carry my full sized camera around because of it's size and weight. This little camera is much easier to "grab and go." The feature set is wonderful, with your standard point and shoot, to full manual. I love the ability to fine tune the focus with the manual focus rings on the lenses. The photo quality is on par with consumer level full sized DSLRs, and it produces very nice video.

Quality gets a slight ding because the auto focus in video mode sometimes seems to get "confused" and will adjust. This seems to be worse after extended recording when the battery is getting hot and lower on charge. Value also doesn't get full marks since it is fairly high priced, but the feature set is excellent giving it an overall Excellent rating from me.