Somebody may have read my Amazon experience.
Well, I took a plunge (the only risk really was a hijacked account - he has 31,133 100% feedback) and bought an EPL5 from a Hong Kong based Ebay seller.
He sent it on the next working day which was Monday (from Hong Kong), it arrived 40 minutes ago today on Wednesday. Which is rather splendid. Free delivery as well.

I'm still charging up the battery (gladly UK plug supplied) so have not turned the camera on yet.
My impressions:
* All metal body which is nice. Frankly I'd rather have a good plastic body if it was lighter, but I know that's not the popular thing
* Heavier than my EPL1
* Tiny buttons, really weeny - but in use I don't think this will be an issue, I find the four way circular switch easily pressable, the rotation ring has a very good travel and will not easily be moved accidentally. If you have klutz fingers the button size could be a real issue.
* Robin Wong complained of the shutter button action - this may have been altered in the production model because I find the button perfect - there is no
movement exerted on the camera when the button is fully pressed. Certainly a better action than my EPL1.
* it seems, that with the kit lens, I can keep the camera very steady when taking a shot, for some reason steadier than the EPL1
* solid connector flap - better than the floppy EPL1 one
* the black is really black
* as someone mentioned somewhere the strap eyelets are annoying if you are not using a strap (as I never do). I would in fact try to remove them if it were not for thinking of a future where I might sell it after a couple of years for the next leap forward
* this is my first experience of a flip screen - groovy. No more belly on the grass.

You get a nice soft bag for the detachable flash.

The niggles are minor.
I am naturally champing at the bit to turn it on and use it.


Note on the sale of my (great condition with box) EPL1 on Ebay. I had 216 looks and 20 watchers - and there was only one bidder. It went for my starting price of £120.

I look forward to hearing more as you get a chance to play with it.

I do a lot of timelapse, I am selling off my nikion gear to fund 43's. I plan to pick up a second camera, I am not sure if i want to go with another OMD or the E-PL5.

How do the controls feel? i have not used any of the E-PL's, are they easy to make manual changes on the fly? or are they more automated like the Nikon 1 system? I like having control. :)

That was fast. Had a quick look on ebay and prices are quite a good saving vs the UK rrp (£110 to £150 less). But did you have any customs or vat to pay?

Excellent! Especially pleased about the metal body - somebody had claimed it was plastic early on - happy to hear that's not true. Regarding the buttons, I think Olympus designed them with keebler elves in mind. My E-M5 has the same problem... Thanks for sharing.

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E-M5 | E-PM2 | mZD 12-50 | ZD 12-60 | P 14-42 X | mZD 40-150 R | PL 25 | mZD 45

The top panel with the buttons on it is plastic (rather lovely plastic), so not quite all the body in fact.
Maybe it is all some kind of special plastic, but I don't think there is a plastic that is cold to the touch in the way that it is.

It was delivered by FedEx ('priority pak' - it was interesting to follow it's progress across the world with the tracking), I hear they send the charges after they have delivered. I haven't been charged yet.
By my calculations if I get charged VAT and import duty I will have saved about £30 on the UK price.


I couldn't do any good comparison (compared to EPL1) tests today because it was misty. Here's one shot using continuous focus (boat going about twice good walking pace). 100mm on 100-300.


Cropped from:


I'll say everything in one go after I've had few days with it.

I see it is smaller than the EPL-1,is that a problem for you?
I am really thinking about buying one but I don't find the EPL-1 to be too big at all and I want to handle one before I commit to buying it.

How do we go about finding the supplier on the Amazon co uk site?

Thanks for the mini review anyway, post a photo of your camera too if you can.

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Oly e-P1&17mmF2.8 e-600, e-410&40-150MkI, E-1&14-54MkI, Tokyo-Koki 300mm
Lumix G1&Yashinon45F1.7, e-pL1&CZJ135F3.5, e-P2&45mm. e-pL2&30mmF2.8

Amazon were listing the EPL5 to be sold directly by Amazon. They removed the listing last week. It is not on Amazon at the moment. I got the camera from a seller on Ebay.
I'll do a few snaps of it in hand for you when there's daylight again.

Ah, your first paragraph made me get the wrong end of the stick.
Thanks Spuff.

__________________
Oly e-P1&17mmF2.8 e-600, e-410&40-150MkI, E-1&14-54MkI, Tokyo-Koki 300mm
Lumix G1&Yashinon45F1.7, e-pL1&CZJ135F3.5, e-P2&45mm. e-pL2&30mmF2.8

I was going to do everything in one go, but I couldn't resist this.
Both photos were taken from same position hand held at 300mm (on Panasonic 100-300).
The EPL1 had the advantage of being at ISO 200. The EPL5 was at ISO 2500.
Significant crop.

EPL1:


EPL5:



Wowza.