I keep seeing good but probably irrelevant advice about holding the camera steady, here. The blurry character in this image does not have the usual directional signature of camera shake. Camera shake most often manifests itself as a "smear" in the direction of the actual shake. What I see almost looks like JPEG artifacts and improper sharpening, or an overly aggressive anti-aliasing filter, or the worst end of a cheap zoom lens. The early 14-42mm Lumix and Olympus lenses were okay at the short end, but performance deteriorated rapidly past 30mm.

Someone mentioned retiring the E-PL1. It's definitely old enough to put in the glass case... There are much better options, now!

I keep seeing good but probably irrelevant advice about holding the camera steady, here. The blurry character in this image does not have the usual directional signature of camera shake. Camera shake most often manifests itself as a "smear" in the direction of the actual shake. What I see almost looks like JPEG artifacts and improper sharpening, or an overly aggressive anti-aliasing filter, or the worst end of a cheap zoom lens. The early 14-42mm Lumix and Olympus lenses were okay at the short end, but performance deteriorated rapidly past 30mm.

Someone mentioned retiring the E-PL1. It's definitely old enough to put in the glass case... There are much better options, now!

Gorgeous color!
I think using an eye-level finder is more stable than a rear LCD.
The IS in the EM-1 I had was amazing!
It worked really well for me, one of the things I miss.
I assume your EM-10 would be similar.

The rule of thumb for lowest shutter setting used to be 1/focal length for 35mm film cameras ie: full frame (some say twice the ff focal length).
So with micro 4/3rds, you would use the full-frame "crop factor" of 2, doubling your focal length.
Example: Using a 25mm lens on your Olympus, you would double it.. 25 x 2=50, so 1/50 sec would be your lowest shutter setting.
She was at 42mm so...42 x 2=84 or 1/80sec at a minimum....but with using the potentially less steady rear LCD, she should up it even more. 1/125th wasn't enough evidently.
Give her the EM-10 and get an upgrade!

This rule of thumb was before IS, VR or whatever the particular brand calls it and it was just a loose guide.
Some people aren't as steady as others.
I have a friend who was a sniper in the military who can hand-hold at amazingly long exposures.

My wife is new to photography and is beginning to learn about all the issues to keep track of when pressing the shutter. She has a good eye for composition ... probably better than me ... but the techniques are still in process.

I have attached two pictures, one by her and one by me, from our recent Fall Colors shoot. They were both taken of distant landscapes in the same area. She was using an Olympus E-PL1 with only a rear LCD, and I was using an Olympus E-M10 with a viewfinder.

She was relying on the camera stabilization system, and I had it on but never trust it. So, I was trying to be a human tripod, but she was not. And then that arch enemy, the shaking gremlin, brings his unsettling ways.

In her photo, though well composed, the softness is evident. In mine, I think a higher degree of clarity seems to be apparent. I doubt the difference in megapixels is relevant (only a difference of 4 mp). So, I assume it is the Gremlin.

How have you managed to solve stability issues when hand holding?