Small-ish and easy-ish to use, Olympus is claiming "big camera" results from its latest Pen. Pictures from it are invariably a match for its acclaimed predecessors if they're not quite, to our eyes, as sharp as a similarly priced mid-range DSLR with a physically larger lens can achieve.

We just love the results. You can gripe about manual controls all you want, but at the end of the day it has well-exposed, intuitive controls for making great photos with natural and artificial light, and its video mode is equal parts high-quality visuals and dirt-simple controls. After standing up to the test of the CTIA show for our main video rig, we wouldn't have any problem adding this to our regular gear list. It's not for everyone, and pro photographers should steer clear, but it's probably for more people than any other Micro Four Thirds we've played with yet.

The E-PL1 is the first mirrorless camera to marry its size and image quality advantages to the accessibility of a compact camera. Olympus has simply slipped an easy-to-use interface on top of its PEN DSLR-in-a-smaller-box concept. That power is there if you want it, even if the pared back design means the operation isn't as quick as it can be with the other PENs. Point-and-shoot users won't get the very most out of the camera but, thanks to an excellent JPEG engine, it's likely they'll spend much of their time too delighted by their pictures to worry about it.

The new Olympus E-PL1 is an attractive, well-built and very capable camera with a more aggressive price-tag than competing models. Beginners in particularly should seriously consider the E-PL1 if they've out-grown their compact, while it also represents something of a bargain for prosumers if you can live with the simpler interface. The E-PL1 is certainly another bold step towards establishing both PEN and Micro Four Thirds cameras in general - with Samsung's NX10 and even Sony joining in, 2010 could be the year when small cameras with big sensors go mainstream...

Micro-four-thirds cameras may be small in your pocket but their impact on your pocketbook can often still be significant. Stepping into the budget micro-4/3 market is the Olympus Pen E-PL1, packing much of the functionality from the 12.3-megapixel PEN E-P2 but with a considerably cheaper price tag. Built with mainstream consumer photographers in mind, we’ve been putting it through its paces for the full SlashGear review.