Olympus adds a new model to its Pen series of micro-four-thirds cameras. The Pen-F will have a retro housing with many buttons, a 20-megapixel sensor and a function that allows you to take 50-megapixel photos.
Until now, Olympus only used electronic viewfinders in the cameras in the OM-D series, which have more of the appearance of an SLR. The Olympus Pen-F is the first model in the Pen series with a built-in viewfinder. It is an OLED EVF with 2.36 million pixels, which corresponds to a resolution of 1024×768 pixels. The magnification of the viewfinder is 0.62x, making the EVF smaller on paper than that of competing cameras such as the Lumix GX8 and Fujifilm X-Pro2.
After the Panasonic Lumix GX8, the Olympus Pen-F is the second micro-four-thirds camera with a 20-megapixel sensor. Presumably both brands use the same chip from Sony. The ISO range is adjustable from 200 to 25,600 and a low setting with an ISO 80 equivalent is available. Olympus, however, uses its own five-axis image stabilization mechanism for the sensor.
Like the OM-D E-M5 Mark II, the Pen-F has the High Res Shot function, which allows high-resolution photos to be taken. The camera does this by taking four shots and moving the sensor a little bit each time with the aid of the stabilization mechanism. With the Pen-F, this results in photos with a resolution of 50 megapixels. Since several pictures are taken in succession, the function is only suitable for capturing static subjects and a tripod is required.
The Pen-F has a shooting speed of up to 10fps, but when using autofocus tracking, the burst speed is up to 5fps. The mechanical shutter has a fastest shutter speed of 1/8000th of a second. By using the electronic shutter, it can be accelerated one more stop to 1/16,000th of a second.
The 3″ screen is tiltable and has a resolution of 720×480 pixels. You can film in full-HD resolution with a maximum of 60fps. Olympus does not yet have cameras that can film in ultra-HD resolution and the Pen-F does not change that in. The device does have a 4k time-lapse function.
There is no flip-up flash in the housing, but Olympus provides a separate attachment flash: the FL-LM1. The retro design is inspired by the classic analog Pen-F camera, which came on the market in 1963. This half-frame camera used a roll of film with 18x24mm negatives.
The device will be available in the shops in a black and silver version in mid-February. Olympus gives the separate housing a suggested retail price of 1199 and also comes with a number of kits: the combination with 14-42 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens costs 1399 euros and the kit with 17 mm f/1.8 is sold for 1499 euros.