10 years ago, this camera was the closest anyone came to Leica luxury – and an update could transform the industry

It's been ten years since the launch of the now-legendary Olympus PEN-F. I'm not the first person to wax lyrical about this camera over the past decade, nor will I be the last. (Though in 2015, the year before the camera was released, I was lucky enough to test one of only two production samples in the world.)

If you've been paying any attention to the camera community or the second-hand market, you'll know just how coveted the PEN-F has become. Search for it on YouTube and you'll see videos being made about it to this day, by a new generation of photographers. Search for it on MPB or KEH and you'll see its price appreciate like a classic car.

Aging like a fine wine, it's arguably the only mirrorless camera to have achieved this kind of Leica-like upmarket collectability. Heck, it might be the only non-Leica digital camera period to hold the distinction.

Curiously, though, the PEN-F was considered a failure during its lifetime. Released as a premium product, with a premium price tag (famously milled from a single block of aluminum, without a single visible screw or join), paying homage to the iconic Pen-F film camera from the Sixties, it was a calculated move by Olympus to market a prestige product.

Unfortunately, despite its undeniable appeal, it did not achieve its sales targets – leaving Olympus to retire the camera, along with its ambitions to be considered a premium brand.

We all know what happened next. Striving to find its identity, Olympus eventually sold off its camera business; under new ownership, the rechristened OM System now styles itself as an outdoor imaging brand targeting hikers, birders and adventurers – but not prestige buyers.

As such, we haven't seen a new PEN camera since 2021 – the year that Olympus finalized the sale of the camera division.

The outdoor rebrand has brought some success to OM System, particularly in Japan. But there's only one camera in its inherited catalog for which people have spent a decade begging for an update. Only one camera that has consistently gone up in value on the used market. Only one camera that everyone who sees it goes "Wow!" and agrees was ahead of its time.

Essentially, everything that has made the Fujifilm X100 cameras explosively popular is true of the Olympus PEN-F. Jaw-dropping vintage design, build quality without compromise, compact body with exquisite handling, built-in film simulations… and the PEN-F has a huge advantage over the X100 in that it's an interchangeable lens camera.

The success of Fujifilm's compact sets out a blueprint for success so obvious that even Stevie Wonder can see that OM System would make money hand over fist – and regain much of its luster lost during the pre- and post-sale years – if it only resurrected its prestige product.

So, will we ever actually see a successor to the Olympus PEN-F?

Recently, OM System teased users once again with the promise of a new PEN camera. "We can't give a specific date, but we have plans to launch a new PEN series under the OM System brand," said company execs. But they've been saying that since 2021, and clearly we're all still waiting.

Realistically, I think a "new series" is more likely to feature a successor to the Olympus PEN E-P7 – which actually is a brilliant "baby PEN-F" in its own right, though it's a much more junior product.

The truth is that the OM System OM-3 is probably the closest we're ever going to see to a PEN-F successor; the body design is different, but it features many of the same characteristics that made the PEN-F so beloved (which is why it has been embraced so passionately by everyone who has used it).

If we were ever to see a true PEN-F Mark II, there would be compromises. For starters, the signature "single block of aluminum" means that dissipating heat is a major pain point.

Not a huge issue, with the FullHD video of the original camera, but guaranteed to cause problems with things like 4K video. There's also the fact that the original camera wasn't weather-sealed – something else that would require a redesign.

As OM told me when I asked them last year, these considerations alone would likely result in a larger body with a far less sleek finish – and ultimately, that wouldn't be a PEN-F.

So why, after ten long and seemingly futile years, do we keep holding out hope for a new PEN-F like a photographic version of the Snyder Cut? Quite simply, because that's just how good this camera is. And as they say, all good things…

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