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The axiom that is so true: The best camera for you is the camera that is with you! Grew tired of backaches while hiking with my Nikon DSLR gear, which increasingly never left the house. Bought an Olympus XZ-1 as a camera that could always be with me ... and was so impressed with it that I wanted its "big brother" for better image quality when on walkabouts or hiking. The Olympus P-3 seemed a bit too much; the PM-1 seemed a bit too little; the PL-3 seemed just right (especially with the tilting screen). The form factor and menu navigation features of the XZ-1 and PL-3 are very similar. The XZ-1 is pocketable; the PL-3 is not due to the protruding lenses. Getting some of the best photos of my life with both the XZ-1 and the PL-3 ... because they are with me.
There is another side to this, and that is that people often appear uncomfortable around people taking photos with large DSLRs with large protruding lenses. I feel none of this discomfort using either the XZ-1 or the PL-3 in public places.
Exploring capabilities with the Olympus 14-42mm kit lens and the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens (have the new Panasonic "X" lenses and the Olympus 45mm lens on order). The Panasonic 20mm is incredible small, making the PL-3 feel and operate like a small rangefinder camera. The f/1.7 lens allows one to take natural light photos in places impossible with slower lenses. The Olympus 14-42mm kit lens appears to be of high quality, although it does have a plastic lens mount (please manufacturers ... charge us the extra cost and ban plastic lens mounts!). The SLRgear website is an excellent place to compare lens quality with its graphs and metrics, and the Olympus kit lens fairs better than comparable lenses with metal mounts with respect to center and edge sharpness across the zoom spectrum.
On the downside, the PL-3 menu structure is difficult to navigate. One must do considerable research to become familiar with the options. Also, the LCD screen is excellent in all but bright sunlight. An Electronic Viewfinder (VF-2 or VF-3) is a necessity to do more than guess what you are photographing in bright sunlight. The add-on flash in the PL-3 kit is so small that it is only good for fill in or firing a larger flash such as the Olympus FL-36R via the RC flash capability. Wish that Olympus had something similar to the excellent Nikon SB-400 mini-flash for the Pen-series cameras. Finding it difficult to get the almost perfect bounce flash effect that the SB-400 provided in the FL-36R/add-on camera flash combination.
The movie quality in the PL-3 is excellent compared to my Nikon D5000 (in my experience "live view" in DSLRs tend to be a joke). The tilting LCD screen is proving especially handy for movies. As others have commented, the new Pen-series auto focus for movies tends to hunt but in my experience this happens only when when the subject is moving quickly or I fail to keep the camera steady (cameras belong on fluid-head tripods to take quality movies).
I've been a photo enthusiast since 1973 when one needed a SLR or medium-format camera to get acceptable image quality for 8x10 and 11x14 prints. I've followed and experienced the technology from film through the DSLRs to, now, the new ILCs. I'm amazed at the quality one can get from something the size of the PL-3!
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