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I Bought a £53 Micro Four Thirds Camera... Was It a Mistake?

Chris Baitson

4,834 views

Can a £53 camera still hold its own today?

In this video, I take out an ultra-budget secondhand Olympus PEN E-PM1 into the field to see what kind of image quality, usability, and dynamic range you can actually get for just over fifty quid. With modern camera bodies costing thousands, is it still worth picking up an older, compact MFT camera for landscape and everyday photography?

We'll look at the handling, autofocus, real-world image results, and whether budget gear like this can still inspire you to get out and shoot.

⏱️ Timestamps
0:00 – Intro: The £53 Olympus Find
1:15 – First Impressions & Build Quality
3:00 – Taking It Into the Field
5:45 – Real-World Image Quality & Sample Shots
8:20 – The Limitations & Quirks
10:15 – Final Verdict: Worth It Today?

📷 Gear Featured & Used
Camera: Olympus PEN E-PM1 (£53 purchase)
Lenses used in this test: Olympus 14-42mm

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What do you think—would you still shoot with an older budget MFT body, or are the modern upgrades too essential to leave behind? Let me know in the comments below!

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13 Comments

@chrisbrown6432 7 hours ago

Chris you did really well taking photographs one handed with that camera andI am impressed. Lovely photographs.

@GlennSchultes 34 minutes ago

I do shoot with older M43 gear already. An Olympus Pen-EP5, which was state of the Art when it launched, and an Olympus OM1-ii - also state of the Art when it launched. I love both very much

@barrettwbenton 7 hours ago (edited)

I have to say, Chris, that living in (or near) a place so breathtaking – okay, the chemical plant, maybe not so much – means it's actually rather hard not to take photos that are at least interesting, never mind breathtaking, regardless of what camera one has at-hand. (My digital EDC is an Olympus E-M5ii, which I got as a companion to my PEN-F, because not having an EVF frankly drives me nuts. (Great stream-of-consciousness video!)

@AndrewChristopher-c1j 10 hours ago

I bought one of those for £140 on eBay with two lenses, sold the two lenses on MBP for £93, couldn’t be bothered with eBay, took the camera out today and had a lot of fun and got so many good shots. It’s a bit quirky with the settings, but I got used to it in minutes. Really good photos of up close photos with my Zuiko pancake lens.

@happilyretired23 12 hours ago

Well thanks for this! I feel seen. Also, not surprised to see you get some images that I like.

@yashyna 11 hours ago

I like the creaminess of the colors of this matrix. The shutter shock is very noticeable on the pm1 body, so I set the anti-shock to 1/4 sec. I have a pm1, em10m2, om5 - I like the color rendition in pm the most, but not everything else.

@citruesilver 11 hours ago

Thank you 😊

@simongordon8182 9 hours ago

I just got an ep7 because I wanted smaller than the new pen or the om5 and thought it was newer and cheaper than the pen f. Seems very nice either for light carry ir as a second body to check before changing lens on the om1m2. I was thinking about the epm as well

@colininglis8918 11 hours ago

Wow, well, I bought Lumix g5 for £75.00 that included 3 batteries and a charger, 16 mpixels, however, its slower than the G9 but have taken darn good photos with it, just goes to show, older cameras are ok, I just have to slow down with it, thanks for this one Chris.

@GasProblems 10 hours ago

I just bought an Olympus em10iii with kit lens on marketplace for $40 . It’s ok . I let one of my friends borrow it

@oldguy1030 8 hours ago

It wouldn't do what I need my cameras to do. But sure it would do quite a few things fairly well.

As a kid I was using exceedingly cheap film cameras with fixed focus. Even some of those photos were quite pleasing. But if you expect to demand a lot at times you have to get better.
So for my MFT I have the very pleasing OM-1 Mk2. Not cheap and the lenses that complement it best are considerably more expensive than are the roughly equivalent over-priced lenses I got for my full-frame camera.