It was early April. I got an offer I couldn’t refuse 🙂
DSLR-Forum is a very active community of german-speaking photographers and they have a lively marketplace. I’ve sold most of my Nikon gear there and I’ve also bought some Olympus and Panasonic lenses. It’s all private to private, it’s all based on trust, but I’ve never had any problem when I’ve payed in advance. Everything always arrived in exactly the condition that was advertised.
I can’t really say that I need something, but I still have the habit of browsing the Olympus sales forum at least once a month. You never know, do you?
Early April I was electrified: I saw an Olympus PEN E-P5 in silver, with VF-4 and without a kit lens, for a very reasonable price. Low count of exposures, good condition, what was not to like?
This is a camera that I’ve always wanted to buy. It came out while I had the OM-D E-M5, shortly before I switched to the OM-D E-M1. Basically it’s E-M1 tech in PEN format. No weather sealing, but otherwise the same perfect stabilization, an external electronic viewfinder with the same resolution. It’s elegant. A beauty.
When it was new, I found it too expensive for a second body that I’d probably rarely use. It’s also not the camera for big and heavy lenses like the 40-150/2.8 PRO. Now, after almost two years, I got it for substantially less than half of the initial price.
I added a Kalahari leather wrist strap and a Garitz half case. The latter is pretty mandatory, because the grip of the E-P5 is exactly as bad as everybody says. It contains the WiFi antenna, therefore no good external grips are available. With the Garitz case I’ve got a pretty decent hold on the camera. I had to order it from Singapore though. It’s not made any more, not available in Europe, and the few US shops still having it refused to ship to Austria. Well, it was cheaper in Singapore anyway.
Here we are, I’ve got a second body 🙂