The two cameras are priced only a hundred dollars apart. The Olympus E-620 with its 14-42mm kit lens sells for $699 and the compact E-P1 and its kit lens for $799. Usually DSLRs cost more than compact cameras, so this does seem a little backwards. The E-P1 isn’t exactly a compact – it creates its own “interchangeable lens camera” class. Perhaps the extra money goes toward the marketing for the retro look and radical feel? That “extra money” doesn’t count the accessories, which are very handy but not worth the money. By the time you purchase the optical viewfinder (which is only good with the pancake lens), the Micro Four Thirds lens adapter (which attaches bulky lenses and loses the novelty of portability) and the flash unit (which is good, but only works with the Pen), you might as well throw all that money into a great DSLR. If you can afford the E-P1 and all its optional bells and whistles, then you can afford a DSLR much nicer than the E-620. For the $699 though, the E-620 takes decent pictures with better color accuracy but more noise than the E-P1.

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