Olympus PEN-F review

The most advanced PEN-series camera has the features and handling to charm enthusiasts

Digital Camera World Verdict

The PEN-F is an excellent camera with bags of features, plus lots of scope for customisation of both the controls and the appearance of the images it produces. It may take you a while to work through the various options and optimise it for the way you want to shoot, but it’s worth taking the time to explore and experiment.

Pros

  • +

    20-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor

  • +

    2.26-million dot EVF

  • +

    Classic camera controls and styling

Cons

  • -

    Some control quirks and glitches

  • -

    Plastic buttons on rear

  • -

    Expensive

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Olympus has two lines of Micro Four Thirds compact system camera: Pen and OM-D, with the latter the more ‘serious’ of the pair. The Pen-F comes in at the top of the current Pen line-up and has a 20-million-pixel Four Thirds type sensor – that’s four million more pixels than previous Pen models.

Until now, one of the key distinctions between the two lines has been that the OM-D cameras have a built-in viewfinder, while the Pen models don’t. The Pen-F changes that, integrating an OLED electronic viewfinder with 2.36 million dots into its body. It also has Olympus’s excellent five-axis image stabilisation built-in. This is claimed to extend the safe hand-holding shutter speed by up to 5EV – that’s the difference between 1/500 sec and 1/15 sec.

The best lenses for your Olympus camera

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