With all the talk of the Pentax K01 mirrorless camera these days, it made me think of the recent decision I made to stay with Pentax after picking up an Olympus E-P3 kit. My first DSLR was Pentax K100D Super and I have never owns anything other than Pentax since. I recently thought I would try out the PEN camera because of the idea that a pocketable camera with IQ slightly less than my Pentax K7 would be a nice thing in concept. I wanted to see what the m4/3 system had to offer.
So, I picked up an E-P3 kit, with VF-2 EVF, and 20mm F1.7 pancake prime. After a few weeks of shooting with the E-P3 with mostly the 20mm Panasonic, and VF-2 EVF attached, I realized the grass was not greener on the other side. While there are some super nice primes on the m4/3 system (making it a much nicer system than Sony's NEX lens lineup), only the Olympus 12mm was metal. While the others had a nice plastic build quality to them, I kept going back to my Pentax DA15 and DA100 WR and thinking how absolutely in love I was with the metal build on them (not to mention their IQ). The PEN was also nowhere near as nice to handle as the K7. It had considerably less direct buttons, no real grip, and no green button (man I love that button!). Ultimately, the straw that broke the camels back as they say, was the fact that the camera was not really pocketable. Being able to carry a camera with DSLR-like IQ in your pocket was the single biggest alure to the PEN m4/3 system; or so I though! After using the camera with the 20mm pancake, I realized that it was not pocketable in the real sense of the word. I would imagin 90% of PEN owners out there end up buying a pouch or bag. In my mind, if you are going to carry a pouch or bag around, you might as well be carrying a K7 inside with some nice Limited primes!
With all that said, I came to the conclusion that IMO, a truly pocketable camera has to be about the width of the E-P3 body alone....so around 40mm or less. Now i'm not a optical wizard, but until flange distances get down to 20mm or so and you can design a fast 20mm long pancakes on those camera, I don't think we will see a truly
pocketable large sensor interchangeable lens camera.
PS. I hope I am not coming across as a m4/3 hater. The build and style of the E-P3 was wonderful, and I did love the touch screen feature of the E-P3. It allowed you to touch the exact area of the image you wanted the camera to focus. Along with the very FAST focus speed of the E-P3, it made it really easy to pick your focus point and snap a shot off. With the K7, I would have to use the focus/re-compose method, or mess around with selecting the focus sensor for the camera to use.
Anyway, with all this said, I hope it helps someone else that was in my shoes and saves them the time of purchasing, testing, and then re-selling a m4/3 or other mirrorless camera. Not to mention saving you from having to break the news to your Pentax gear that you've been fooling around!