M43 nerds videos I can't handle, but Gordan does good ones. Not sure I'd want that 2 lens combo, and not sure what B&H is doing with the 14-42mm bundles. With just the zoom it doesn't say III, but the one with the tele zoom does say III for the 14-42.
I'd be more inclined to say it needed the 14-42mm III zoom and either the of the newer 17mm or 25mm f/1.8 prime...
serhan_ wrote:
Animal eye af is the difference from OM-5 II or pen-f... It is same 15sec long handheld hi-res and 4 stop nd camera with OM-5 II with 1 stop less IBIS...: It looks like more a gx9/L10 clone rather then pen-f update...
Gordon's review covers pretty good with 4sec hand held shot:
The PEN-F never had many of the advanced features of the OM-5. Also, the OM-5 sensor has twice the readout speed of the PEN-F sensor. There is quite the jump from the PEN-F to the OM PEN, but of course not the capabilities of the OM-1/3 including doubling again the sensor readout speed.
RWNPhoto wrote:
M43 nerds videos I can't handle, but Gordan does good ones. Not sure I'd want that 2 lens combo, and not sure what B&H is doing with the 14-42mm bundles. With just the zoom it doesn't say III, but the one with the tele zoom does say III for the 14-42.
I'd be more inclined to say it needed the 14-42mm III zoom and either the of the newer 17mm or 25mm f/1.8 prime...
The UK is offering kits with either the 17mm F1.8 II or the 25mm F1.8 II. I don't know why the US only has the kit zoom.
This should have slotted in alongside the OM-3 with a full metal build, premium materials, and the same weather resistance, but instead this is just another uninspiring budget build. I get not wanting to cannibalize sales of the OM-3 given the insane hype around any camera with an offset viewfinder, but the previous Pen-F was such a good camera, that this one just feels lackluster in almost every regard from the early looks I've seen.
I guess if having the smallest, lightest possible OM is your goal, then this makes sense, but the m4/3 system is already so small that I'm not sure what shaving a few ounces off the kit is really going to do for anyone.
matthewm wrote:
This should have slotted in alongside the OM-3 with a full metal build, premium materials, and the same weather resistance, but instead this is just another uninspiring budget build. I get not wanting to cannibalize sales of the OM-3 given the insane hype around any camera with an offset viewfinder, but the previous Pen-F was such a good camera, that this one just feels lackluster in almost every regard from the early looks I've seen.
I guess if having the smallest, lightest possible OM is your goal, then this makes sense, but the m4/3 system is already so small that I'm not sure what shaving a few ounces off the kit is really going to do for anyone.
This feels like a cash grab 2 years too late. ...Show more →
Seems obvious to me. The overall camera market has crept up to $1500 base models across the board (just look at the new Ricoh GR!), and small/light/cheaper cameras simply don't exist anymore. It's good to have choices.
For people who actually want to see some real world examples:
RoamingScott wrote:
Seems obvious to me. The overall camera market has crept up to $1500 base models across the board (just look at the new Ricoh GR!), and small/light/cheaper cameras simply don't exist anymore. It's good to have choices.
For people who actually want to see some real world examples:
I think there's merit in having choices, especially more economical ones. I guess I was just hoping we'd see an actual Pen-F successor instead of an EPL7 successor with an EVF.
Nobody feels like it’s a little unbalanced? The right half of the top silver plate is so much taller and has so much more blank space that it feels quite unbalanced to my eye.
I like small range finder style body, but this one I am not really digging.
gjoliver wrote:
Nobody feels like it’s a little unbalanced? The right half of the top silver plate is so much taller and has so much more blank space that it feels quite unbalanced to my eye.
I like small range finder style body, but this one I am not really digging.
I think they basically took an EPL7 and just tacked on enough height to squeeze in an EVF, which is why it feels so unbalanced. But I agree... and considering there's no OVF to house, they could have made that silver so much smaller to balance the design better.
gjoliver wrote:
Nobody feels like it’s a little unbalanced? The right half of the top silver plate is so much taller and has so much more blank space that it feels quite unbalanced to my eye.
I like small range finder style body, but this one I am not really digging.
matthewm wrote:
This should have slotted in alongside the OM-3 with a full metal build, premium materials, and the same weather resistance, but instead this is just another uninspiring budget build. I get not wanting to cannibalize sales of the OM-3 given the insane hype around any camera with an offset viewfinder, but the previous Pen-F was such a good camera, that this one just feels lackluster in almost every regard from the early looks I've seen.
I guess if having the smallest, lightest possible OM is your goal, then this makes sense, but the m4/3 system is already so small that I'm not sure what shaving a few ounces off the kit is really going to do for anyone.
This feels like a cash grab 2 years too late. ...Show more →
I agree. It doesn't make sense to build a camera that's bigger and heavier than the older Panasonic GX9, especially when the GX9 even had a small built-in flash. This PEN has the same guts as the OM-5 Mark II and its technology is ten years old. So what's the point to build this model?
matthewm wrote:
This should have slotted in alongside the OM-3 with a full metal build, premium materials, and the same weather resistance, but instead this is just another uninspiring budget build. I get not wanting to cannibalize sales of the OM-3 given the insane hype around any camera with an offset viewfinder, but the previous Pen-F was such a good camera, that this one just feels lackluster in almost every regard from the early looks I've seen.
I guess if having the smallest, lightest possible OM is your goal, then this makes sense, but the m4/3 system is already so small that I'm not sure what shaving a few ounces off the kit is really going to do for anyone.
This feels like a cash grab 2 years too late. ...Show more →
I just don't understand this viewpoint. This camera is better than the Pen-F is every specification except it doesn't have a metal body.
Everyone clamors about the Pen-F, but in reality it didn't sell very well. That is why it was discontinued and never updated under Olympus. This camera does everything the Pen-F did, updates the specs to what is current tech for OM, and adds weather-sealing that everyone wanted in the Pen-F.
Would it be nice if OM could iterate tech faster? Sure. But they can't at their market share. And for the life of me I don't understand the endless need for incremental spec bumps (I'm looking at you, Sony.) Digital cameras have been good for more than a decade. The tiny steps in specs make little difference to actually taking photos.
At the price OM is asking for this camera, I think it is a great release, just short of knocking it out of the park.
serhan_ wrote:
I guess OM tried to keep it cheap and use the old tech when AI is causing shortages... It could have been a killer camera with OM-1/3 tech...
TNCasual wrote:
I just don't understand this viewpoint. This camera is better than the Pen-F is every specification except it doesn't have a metal body.
Everyone clamors about the Pen-F, but in reality it didn't sell very well. That is why it was discontinued and never updated under Olympus. This camera does everything the Pen-F did, updates the specs to what is current tech for OM, and adds weather-sealing that everyone wanted in the Pen-F.
Would it be nice if OM could iterate tech faster? Sure. But they can't at their market share. And for the life of me I don't understand the endless need for incremental spec bumps (I'm looking at you, Sony.) Digital cameras have been good for more than a decade. The tiny steps in specs make little difference to actually taking photos.
At the price OM is asking for this camera, I think it is a great release, just short of knocking it out of the park. ...Show more →
I never said anything about specs. I'm not discounting the specs, and honestly, camera tech is completely lost on me nowadays anyway. I still shoot with an SL2s as my primary camera and it's almost 6 years old now. It does everything I'd ever want or need a camera to do. Honestly, any camera made in the last 20 years probably does everything I'd ever want or need.
But I think the folks that really liked the original Pen-F from Olympus were hoping for it's replacement in a similar form factor and build, and this camera falls short of that. In terms of specs, sure. It's got AI and computational photography and a thousand stops of IBIS and whatever else OM has managed to cram into it, which is admirable at this size and price point.
But from a materials standpoint, this is less a Pen-F replacement and more an EPL-8, in my opinion.
TNCasual wrote:
I just don't understand this viewpoint. This camera is better than the Pen-F is every specification except it doesn't have a metal body.
Everyone clamors about the Pen-F, but in reality it didn't sell very well. That is why it was discontinued and never updated under Olympus. This camera does everything the Pen-F did, updates the specs to what is current tech for OM, and adds weather-sealing that everyone wanted in the Pen-F.
Would it be nice if OM could iterate tech faster? Sure. But they can't at their market share. And for the life of me I don't understand the endless need for incremental spec bumps (I'm looking at you, Sony.) Digital cameras have been good for more than a decade. The tiny steps in specs make little difference to actually taking photos.
At the price OM is asking for this camera, I think it is a great release, just short of knocking it out of the park. ...Show more →
"At the price OM is asking for this camera, I think it is a great release, just short of knocking it out of the park."
I agree.
I've never liked the (non-traditional SLR style) looks, but more so, the limited features/performance of the Pen series, or any other brand's non flagship offerings, so I've never bought one. That's not to say I don't understand who they are made for and why.
This new OM Systems Pen I really like and appreciate for what it is and I think it's a very good camera at that.
