Signs are that Olympus is adjusting the price of the yet to-be-released E-1 DSLR downwards.

Here at dpnow.com we have high hopes for the new Olympus E-system, also known as the Four Thirds digital SLR concept. The technical aspects of the system formula make a lot of sense and we believe Olympus and its partners, Kodak and Fujifilm, can do a lot with the formula, given half a chance. So we were slightly surprised at how high Olympus had set the suggested retail price of the price of the E-1 body in the UK when it was formally launched on 24th June. That price was £1699, including VAT, but without a lens.

The E-1 is being positioned as a professional camera, but undoubtedly Olympus hopes and expects the E-1 to be a popular high-end amateur's camera, just like the Canon EOS-10D. However, the 10D can be bought for close to £1200 and with the consumer-targetted EOS-300D now revealed with a suggested UK price pf £899 without a lens or £999 with the 29-88 equivalent EF-S lens, there is a suggestion that the 10D price may be moved down further by Canon.

We have sensed some expectation among our readers that the Olympus E-1 price needs to come down, especially has there is no choice but to buy a lens with this new system. Maybe Olympus is reacting to that expectation. Over at Digital Photography Review, our fellow webmaster, Phil Askey, spotted one of his visitors, Mark Allen, noting that the Jessops online price of the E-1 has just fallen since it was added to the online catalogue.

The Jessops price is now £1819 including VAT, complete with the 14-54mm (28-108 equivalent) standard zoom, just £120 more than the original body-only price. The lens in question is definitely no budget cheapie and according to the dpreview report the kit price, including lens, shown on the Jessops online catalogue has fallen by £680. so either Jessops made a mistake with its original pricing or Olympus UK has decided to go with a more realistic price. Jessops appears to be the only online camera vendor in the UK to have advertised its pricing for the E-1 and no other system component (lenses, flash units, etc.) are listed and neither had Olympus UK officially announced prices either.

We're getting our first hands-on with the E-1 system
At the end of the coming week, here at dpnow.com we will get our first opportunity to use production specification E-1s and have access to most of the system lenses and accessories over several days. We are aiming to publish a full report on our experience with the system, including sample shots, on Tuesday, 2nd September.

Let us get your questions answered!
If you have any specific questions that we might be able to answer during our hands-on period, click here. We will have access to Olympus engineers during this time, so if you have any questions we can put to them, we'll do our best.