(FT5) New Penpal module picture
And finally we can also see the first picture of the PENPAL module.
I wish you Happy New Year guys! Thanks for sharing your time on 43rumors 
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Recent comments
Comment from safaridon: At first I was not impressed by this new...
Comment from Miroslav: Nice idea. It could even have hotshoe on...- Comment from safaridon: If you look at the rear view of this PEN...
Comment from Michael Meissner: Nick:
While I agree about the speed of ...
DjordjeJ
2 years ago |I dont know how useful this Penpal would be, but looking at E-PL2 pictures it seems that this is merge of E-P2 and E-PL1. I remember few months ago I red that there will be no more E-P. Looking at design of E-PL2 this seems to be truth.
Max
2 years ago |seems that E-PL2 has one dial (the mode dial) only…?
Ulli
2 years ago |nice gadget, the e-pl2 seems to look cool in black
Miklos Rabi
2 years ago |It seems Oly is going to focus on gadgets instead of real cameras and lenses. Shame.
tgutgu
2 years ago |And relying on the hot shoe for all accessories (VF, external flash, penpal …). The engineers should think about better alternatives than such a stupid concept.
Ranger 9
2 years ago |Every collector knows that it’s the odd little accessories that make a system appealing. (If you don’t believe it, try to find a Nikon SP “rangefinder illuminator” — simple idea, inexpensive when new, now almost impossible to find now because few were made and everybody wants one.)
But it’s the same deal as when their EVF appeared: what if you want to use your EVF AND your micro light AND your Penpal module? I’m sure some clever Chinese OEM could engineer a “Pen expansion chassis,” but it would be bigger than the camera!
hd72
2 years ago |Most uses would probably be shoot now, transfer later. I think Bluetooth would probably be way too slow to try to shoot tethered. Especially since anyone savvy enough to want tethered shooting is probably working with large RAW files. (Flash and EVF like you mention – that’s another story). But I agree that these little gadgets could definitely be fun.
hd72
2 years ago |As far as the micro light and the EVF at the same time, everybody has a different style of shooting, I know. But I always shoot macro on a tripod, and almost always with the LCD screen, so I don’t have to contort to press my eye up to the EVF. They may be counting on that method.
fta
2 years ago |If you save the picture above and open it in Photoshop or Lightroom and play with the contrast and brightness settings, you can see that the E-PL2 does not have the zoom buttons like on the E-PL1. I think it will have a jog dial like the new XZ-1. Interesting….
Zaph
2 years ago |Is it just me, or does that LCD look like it might be articulated? Have a look at how the back of the camera comes out around the screen.
Jim Ramsey Khoury
2 years ago |I hope it tilts like that on the NEX.
Miroslav
2 years ago |It certainly is a bit raised, but I don’t think it can move. I’d very much like if it is articulated.
bilgy_no1
2 years ago |That’s the first thing I thought when I saw this picture: where are the buttons? A dial would be nice.
owczi
2 years ago |@ranger9: true – funny enough, such rare accessories already exist for the PEN, like the rubber eyecup for the EVF – Olympus list it on their website but you have to look very hard to find one in any shop. Lens hoods for m. Zuiko are getting there as well!
Brian
2 years ago |If this will send images to my wife’s MAC mini and with the epl2 apparently up graded in video capability I will definitely be buying this for her. I think there are a lot of people out there who want easy good video, excellent olympus jpegs and easy file transfer. I think that’s great. Why such snobbery, many of them shoot more and use their images more than a lot of gear heads who sit around and angst about raw and mega high iso.
Dummy00001
2 years ago |> and easy file transfer
Bluetooth is slow. The transfers might be easy, but would take hell a lot of the time.
Others below suggested to check the Eye-Fi SD card instead.
Max
2 years ago |Thanks ADMINISTRATOR for all your wonderful work! Will follow you in 2011! Happy New Year!!!
hd72
2 years ago |Hi Brian, if you’re within Bluetooth range of a computer, there’s nothing easier than popping the SD card out of the camera and sticking it into a USB card reader on the computer. I know the USB ports on your wife’s Mac Mini are few and not very convenient to get to, but I think you’ll be frustrated trying to transfer lots of photos and maybe some video through Bluetooth, all while draining your camera’s battery. This little accessory really would be better for someone wanting to get a couple of photos to their cellphone for Internet uploading when they don’t have access to a computer.
If you really want a way to wirelessly transfer from your camera to a computer, look into “Eye-Fi” SD cards. They use the Wi-fi in your home. The transfer rate should be much faster, and the range will be greater too.
Whatever you decide, I’m glad to hear you appreciate the importance of taking and enjoying photos, and not just obsessing over gear.
Greyhat
2 years ago |Articulated screen would boost sales, first in m43 besides Gx/GHx. But I doubt… Admin, can you confirm?
Paulus
2 years ago |Dear Admin!
Top news – super performance!
Thank you for your oustanding work – I will stay tuned to http://www.43rumors.com 2011!
Happy new year!
PS.: Ilike the E-PL2 very much for the new feature PENPAL (first starting with android and windows mobile – apple, blackberry, symbian and palm will follow) – Olympus-Innovators are fighting back the mobile attack (Panasonic with lumix phone – Olympus E-PL2 suits me better) Next will be WIFI for the consumer market too – like Apple Ipod/Ipad, Samsung Galaxy/Tap
mambastik
2 years ago |Too many accessories and my guess is that they will all be overpriced. I’m still waiting for the price drops on the VF-2; it’s still too damn expensive.
Simon
2 years ago |A Wifi or GPS module would have made sense…but Bluetooth is way too slow to make any sense!
Camajan
2 years ago |Hopefully it will have the basic feature available. To send photos to any bluetooth enabled phone, computer.
Hope they didn’t forget this in their search for the ultimate next big seller feature…
Michael Meissner
2 years ago |I tried to post this earlier, and it couldn’t read the capcha file, so we’ll try again.
We will know in a few days when it is announced, but I tend to agree with Camajan that the main feature to send pictures via bluetooth to your phone, which can then be uploaded to facebook, etc. You don’t even need or necessary want to send full size images in this case, so the bluetooth bandwidth might not be an issue.
Bear in mind that the number of people whole follow these groups tends to be a rather small number compared to the potential users that this feature is designed for. Whether those users have gone permanently to using the camera on their mobile phone and wouldn’t be interested in carrying around a separate camera is a different question.
Now, if we are dreaming about potential features, I tend to think pure upload is boring, and already done (via the Eye-fi wifi card, which can upload pictures straight to facebook at open wifi hotspots). What I think would be neat would be to use the bluetooth module for command and control. For example, I could have the module on the camera, and from my Android/i-phone/blackberry/etc. smart phone, see the image in live view, and have a button to fire the shutter.
One such wireless device already exists on ebay that plugs into the combined USB/AV out/shutter release cable that should work for the E-P2 (and there are at least 3 different makers of wired devices). Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for the E-PL1 since Olympus eliminated the electronic shutter release support from that camera.
Given how the current accessory port/hotshoe only allows for one device (VF-2, SEMA-1, external flash), I could imagine extra bluetooth units that provide external microphones and flash support (which would fix the problem with the current remote flash support in that it needs line of sight).
Nick
2 years ago |bluetooth is way to slow for transferring big JPG files, let alone RAW! They should produce a WiFi module with a GPS option!
Paulo
2 years ago |We can clearly see a hidden dial in the picture:
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v116/pmarcelo/SemTtulo-1.jpg[/IMG]
Michael Meissner
2 years ago |Nick:
While I agree about the speed of bluetooth for transferring full images, I imagine the main thing that it was designed for, namely sending images to your phone so you could update facebook et. al.
On my new Android phone, yes I could probably turn on mifi mode (where the phone acts as a hot-spot), lock down the ports so only the Penpal could communicate and run an app that waits for the picture. But that is likely overly complicated compared to just associating the two and doing upload.
I should mention that I have no plans to do such things, but I could imagine people wanting to do that. However, as I said, I suspect however, that the people who obsessively update their facebook page, probably are using their camera phone and would not be using a m4/3rds camera.
safaridon
2 years ago |If you look at the rear view of this PENPAL module you will see that it is about the same size as the rear of the EP2 VF2 EVF. So perhaps Oly will build a high rez EVF model that will sit much lower on the camera which you could leave on except when needing to use the hot shoe? Maybe this will alternatively be the shape of a digital OM?
Miroslav
2 years ago |Nice idea. It could even have hotshoe on top, so you could have both EVF and externaal flash.
safaridon
2 years ago |At first I was not impressed by this new EPL2 model and questioned why Oly would replace the successful EPL1 so soon by merging with the EP2 series? However if Oly is at the same time merging three series including their 4/3rds line with a digital OM based on essentially the same body then then it makes a lot of sense from the manufacturing standpoint.
I would have to admit that if they produced an OM version which I think they are bound to do it would be very appealing to me especially if they follow up with metal bodies for the EP3?
I still hope that Oly will produce a smaller version of the EP2 much like the photoshopped version of a year ago to compete more directly with the NEX5 and GF2 in size but that would require dropping the IBIS. I doubt they would do it as would compete with their new XZ1 just being released.