Olympus Pen-F

amazon Olympus Pen-F reviews

Design nostalgic, convenient

Design is what people say most about Pen-F. Pen-F’s design is very strange, can be said is rare in the world of digital cameras today. If only looking at the body of the machine, Pen-F is a classical beauty, in which many lines are quite like the rangefinder camera. When you add a lens and flip open the screen, you will see a professional-looking, modern camera with a complex control system consisting of multiple buttons, snapping and rotating.

Pen-F is probably the most rotary camera ever. At first glance, they looked a little confusing, but actually, Olympus did a lot of calculating the rotation. The position of the rotation is very reasonable, easy to manipulate. Depending on the function they undertake, the weight and degree of rotation when rotating is different. Even, users can adjust the direction of increase or decrease value when turning to the left or right. If you take advantage of this, the exposure parameters can be adjusted very quickly, according to a rule in the same direction that you installed yourself.

For example: When shooting manual mode, I set the first rotation when turning to the right will increase the aperture, the second rotation when turning to the right will decrease the speed. So by swiping my finger from left to right through two turns, I adjust the aperture at the same time and increase the aperture, preserving the light while the depth of picture field decreases.

I used a lot of different cameras but with my Pen-F control system it was most convenient. The user would like to personalize what type of machine operation Pen-F can also meet, suitable for many different schools of photography. It can be said that the control system of Pen-F almost without defects.

The body is very compact with a width of 124.8mm, a height of 72.1mm and a depth of 37.3mm. The shell of the machine is made mainly of metal material, the weight when the battery and memory card with many M.Uuiko lens less than 1kg, feeling very good. In addition, Olympus has designed an external grip, it supports the handle, both work against scratch bottom.

The highlight in this design is a black leather material, leather is glued very closely on the front and slightly overlap slightly, embellishing in harmony with the style of the rangefinder. Pen-F comes in two colors: black-silver and black. If there is no special reason then you should choose black-silver, so that later when buying more lenses whether bright or dark color also match the body.

Olympus says the Pen-F’s poorer operating performance is worse than its OM-D line. The quality of the waterproof finish is the strength of Olympus, but to get a design like Pen-F has sacrificed this.

In a nutshell, the Pen-F’s design is very good compared to the general plane, and it looks very nice and elegant to say that it is really a jewel.

Performance worthy of “Leica Asia”

With optimum image quality from the compact body and lens system, Olympus has been nicknamed “Leica Asia” by photographers around the world. It will not be proud if your name is equated with someone’s name, but in the case of Olympus is Leica – the monument of the Germans for hundreds of years has not been shattered.

Olympus representatives introduced many of the micro-four-thirds (MFT) sensors. Although the MFT sensor size is smaller than APS-C and full-frame, its image quality is “sufficient”, while optimizing the size of the camera body. The MFT eco-lens is therefore also more compact … combined with a compact body that gives the photographer a free experience. “The reasonable size and 4: 3 aspect ratio of the micro-four-thirds sensor will give you optimum image quality,” said Lucas Tan, director of camera products at Olympus.

Pen-F is the latest Olympus camera, equipped with a 20.3MP sensor combined with a 5-axis electromagnetic vibration damping system. This sensor eliminates the low-pass filterless filter, which supports an ISO range of 80 to 25,600. The image processor is TruePic VII, which optimizes the sharpness according to the optical characteristics of the M.Zuiko lens, offers high precision antialiasing, replaces the optical filter Low numbers. In addition, this processor is capable of accurately reproducing colors that are considered very difficult to reproduce such as turquoise. Besides, it allows the user to deeply control the level of compression and the way the image is handled.

The Pen-F’s 81-point AF system features a 10-fps continuous shooting speed. Touch screen LCD, 3 inches in size and resolution of 1,037,000 pixels. EVF viewfinder 1.08x magnification, resolution of 2,360,000 pixels.

Throughout the experience, the Pen-F showed very good vibration resistance, just like the OM-D models of the same company. During the experience, I took many pictures at very low speed under 1 / 10s but the picture is still sharp, not ghost phenomenon or blur. The auto white balance mode gives accurate results, keeping neutral colors very good in bright yellow light.

The speed of the camera is quite fast, although the ability to stick motion is not really excellent. In contrast, the touch screen allows you to select the focus point quite easily, when looking through the viewfinder, you can drag your finger on the touch screen to move the focus point.

Screen brightness of Pen-F has been improved a lot, easy to see and less glare. When flipping the screen in front of the selfie is quite simple, the image can be reversed to look good. The viewfinder is also clearly visible, with very wide viewing angles and almost no latency. The information displayed in the viewfinder is fully customizable, including information on the screen.

Photographs from the Pen-F rich in detail with a wide range of contrast. Particles at high light sensitivity are relatively comfortable and are not prone to spikes. Color retained at an ISO rating of less than 12,800 and a blemish of 6,400 or above. One thing you will notice is that the higher the resolution, the more noise the picture will have. Pen-F’s 20MP is sufficient for most situations, and when it needs a higher resolution, it has the 50M High Res Shot feature. Unfortunately, the RAW file data is only 12-bit.

Ability to control unlimited

Pen-F allows the photographer to intervene deeply and completely control the way the image is processed. If you want warm, rich color, please choose “Keep Warm Color”. On the contrary, if you want neutral color, please deselect it.

Doing so does not help you get the right color, it’s time to call a function called “Color Profile Control”. This function allows you to control the saturation of 12 separate color channels, enough to help you create images with your own style of tone, the right shot. Not to stop there, another function called “Highlight & Shadow Control” allows you to adjust the lighting of each area, just like Curves in Photoshop photo editing software. The thing to say is that it’s all encapsulated in a two-way sweeper located just below the shooting mode rotation, which lets you work very quickly without worrying about groping in the menu.

If you do not have much knowledge to adjust yourself, then do not hurry, Olympus has provided some color profiles, besides dozens of artistic effects … to spoil your choice. In addition, Pen-F is in favor of four more “creative” mode. They are assigned four steps on a single turn located in front of the body, including: CRT, ART, COLOR and MONO. These innovative modes are a combination of digital filters of color, light, film noise … that make up the specifics of the Pen-F camera.

In more complex tasks requiring greater precision, architectural photographers can control both the curvature and the grading of the image due to the angle of view created. On the Pen-F this function is called “Keystone Compensation”, letting you see the adjustment on the screen before you press the capture and support for saving images in uncompressed (RAW) format.

That’s not all but enough to see Pen-F’s control is almost limitless.

where can you get a Olympus Pen-F online

Olympus PEN-F (Body-Only) (Silver): Buy it now

Olympus PEN-F (Body-Only) (Black): Buy it now

Olympus PEN-F 20MP Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera w/ 40-150mm Lens Bundle includes PEN-F Digital Camera and M.Zuiko 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 R Lens: Buy it now

Olympus PEN-F Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera with Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ & 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 R Lenses (Black): Buy it now

Many unique features

Since ancient times, Olympus has been pursuing unique things that no other company has ever done. Up to now, the Olympus camera has a lot of things that other cameras do not have.

First of all, there are three features that support long exposure: “Live Composite”, “Live Bulb” and “Live Time”. In it, Live Bulb and Live Time allow you to see how the exposure process takes place. Specifically, after pressing the shutter button, you will see your photo flash up every second, shown on the screen while the sensor is still exposed. You can stop the exposure process at any time by pressing the shutter button again, the sensor will not record the moment you press the shutter button to avoid flickering.

With the same mechanism, Live Composite supports photographers of the movement of light (starscapes, light painting …) in a single press without light or bright light. Normally, to do that, photographers will have to press the shutter several times to get the parts and then put them together to form a complete photo at the backstage. Doing so is very laborious and requires careful calculation if you want to capture a long movement.

Next is the “Bracketing” feature – automatic compensation. Typically, bracketing on other camera manufacturers will only support metering compensation. But with the Pen-F, it includes focus compensation, white balance compensation, flash output compensation and multiple capture effects.

Next up is the “50M High Res Shot” feature – high resolution photography. Although the Pen-F’s sensor only has a resolution of 20 megapixels, but when activated, it moves to capture more pixels, producing a final resolution of 50 megapixels, even up to 80 megapixels. Of course, to do that you need to put the camera fixed. This feature will be useful in situations such as landscape shooting or artwork capture. With this feature, Olympus recommends that users use the high quality M.Zuiko lens PRO and Premium for best performance. The popular M.Zuiko lenses, cheap, will not produce the maximum results.

Last but not least, it’s a self-made feature in SCN capture mode that appeals to those who like to capture multiple photos in one. There are many different arrangements for you to choose from, which convey messages that a single image can not express. This type of photo is very suitable for traveling, shooting the main content with details, taking pictures with the material … And when printed, they will definitely be the highlight in your album or lookbook.

Psychological barrier and selling price

After all these attractions, Pen-F uses a small size MFT sensor that is still a big barrier to many handhelds. They claim that the MFT sensor for depth and bulk buzz is not equal to APS-C and full-frame sensors. On the other hand, the price of Pen-F is quite high, which makes many people afraid, leading to the thought of buying APS-C and full-frame cameras for “safety”.

However, that is just psychological. Many well-known photographers around the world are using Olympus OM-D cameras. There are also a lot of select manufacturers and are using the MFT sensor. The lens ecosystem utilizing MFT lenses is also very rich, involving both Panasonic and Leica. These lenses from the movie camera era are also well compatible with this bracket, which will be very well suited to the special design of the Pen-F. Taking advantage of these lenses will save you a lot of money while still ensuring aesthetics and performance.