(FT2) Olympus E-PL1 bundle with the new 9-18mm lens?

April 30, 2010
Rumors
8 Comments

A dpreview user had a small talk with an Olympus representant. According to him the “E-PL1 will be bundled with the Olympus 9-18mm Lens and also with the Olympus 14-150mm Lens at very low prices, he seemed to be hinting at around £800-900. ($1200-$1400)”

More infos he received:
“new mount options being available via adapters by Novaflex”

Direct link to the Olympus 9-18mm pre-order page: Pixmania UKDirect link to the Olympus 9-18mm pre-order page: Amazon JapanLink diretto alla pagine dell’obiettivo 9-18mm: Redcoon ItaliaDirekter link zur Vorbestellung des Objektives: Redcoon Deutschland / Amazon DeutschlandDirect link to the Olympus 9-18mm lens: Redcoon Poland / Pixmania PolandDirect link to the Olympus 9-18mm pre-order page: Amazon France / Pixmania FranceDirect link to the Olympus 9-18mm pre-order page: Amazon US / Adorama / BHphoto

Whenever you go for a shopping just click on those links and buy whatever you want and I will get a small commission for it without you having to pay one single penny extra: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, Olympus US store, FocusCamera, eBay.

CR102

E-PL1 with 14-150 makes an acceptable upgrade to superzoom compacts. Supezoom DSLR lenses are very popular among entry level Canikon users and this combo is way lighter and smaller. I expect Olympus to sell loads of them if the price is right (about 900$).
OTOH, the 9-18 is a specialty lens. I expect it to interest mainly E-P1, E-P2, GH1 and GF1 users.
Miroslav

E-PL1 with 14-150 – that’s what I’m waiting for!
If you read this Olympus, make it happen, you’ve got a certain customer :). You have to get AF speed as quick as with 9-18, though :).
jt

It’s not going to happen that Olympus will try to charge $1,200 to $1,400 for these bundles in the US. You would actually be paying more than if you bought the lenses and cameras separately if those were the prices (it does give some insight into how expensive gear is in Europe though). The micro 9-18mm is over two hundred dollars more than the regular Olympus 9-18mm- so I think Olympus could easily afford to sell the bundle for around $899 and still do well. We’ll see if the upcoming Sony cameras puts pressure on Olympus/Panasonic pricing. That Sony with 16mm pancake for around $500 is looking very attractive.
Steve

There is a lot of pent up demand for these 2 new lenses from existing m43 customers, so I don’t see Olympus offering these in a kit until that demand has been met. I would say we could see these kits in the fall, at the earliest.
Michael Meissner

IIRC, Olympus has done similar pairings in the past, mostly in Europe. As I understand it, the European taxes are higher if you buy a lens separately, rather than as part of a kit.
Tom Stuart

Never had seen a camera manufacturer “budle” a wide-angle zoom with a camera body before. If they ever decide to “bundle” it, I might be interested ;-)
- admin
  
  oooops! Corrected ;)
shep

I expect Steve is right that it’ll be a while before we see such bundle bargains. But this possibility has made me decide to delay buying the 9-18mm for now. It’s not cheap (although it’s an impressive lens), and hopefully will come down a bit in a few months, just like the E-P1 and E-P2 have already.