I would not say that the E-PL5 has all the good stuff from the E-M5, it lacks the excellent EVF which I use over 90% of the time, it is not weather sealed the way the E-M5 is but it still has a lot of very interesting upgrades. What I like best and I hope OLYMPUS is reading this is that it has ISO 100 and a NEW high sync speed of 1/250th. The E-M5 has the 1/250th but no ISO 100. Come on OLYMPUS the E-M5 needs ISO 100 or even ISO 50, Olympus may not know why we need this but many of use sure do.
I also like that the new Olympus housing for the E-PL5 has gone back to the stock port without the headlights, what a piece of s--- that was. I also hope that they were not as dumb as you were with the E-M5 housing and that the existing
ZEN Underwater ports will work going forward. On the E-M5 housing Olympus has one M43 port for the kit 14-42 lens which buy the way is not included with the housing. They expect buyers to add the adapters for the 43 DSLR lenses and use the old DSLR ports for lenses like the 50mm macro and 8mm fisheye. These are the Athena, Inon and Olympus ports.
Regarding the 12-50 kit lens, while it will work in the stock port without a gear by switching between W/A and macro in the underwater modes this is what you will get. 12mm and 50mm. The lens will not shift into the macro mode, this can only be done with the Nauticam gear and port which allow you to zoom across the entire range and shift into macro. I have not tested the 12-50 underwater and what I said is that lenses wider than about 28mm or 14mm in M43 will ALL vignette to some degree behind a flat port.
Regarding the 60mm macro, the price has been set in the US at $499.00, to me this is a real bargain if you are a hard core macro shooter. It is less than the Panasonic 45 macro and I think it will be a much better lens for the PEN cameras and the E-M5 V. the 45 macro which I own. I would rather spend the money on the 60 macro lens and a wide lens than on the 12-50. My 12-50 remains my out of the water travel lens and is well suited for that perpose. If you are a video guy this may not be the case and the 12-50 may just be your lens.
Phil Rudin