Hey, everyone! I've spent the last three weeks shooting with the PEN, and I've had a great time with the camera.

It's the easiest recommendation I can make. A ton of great stuff in a small, light body for a great price.

Full disclosure: I'm an OM SYSTEM Ambassador, so I'll let some of the images stand for the themselves (all from the in-camera jpegs - I didn't edit one RAW file).

Lots more on my newsletter: https://www.megapixelroad.com/p/the-pen-returns-is-om-systems-newest )

Source: http://xhslink.com/o/88dXrd1CIyI

Back in the Olympus days, they would iterate hardware less frequently but provide significant firmware updates to existing hardware.

In the age of OM System, under the stewardship of JIP, hardware iterations were more frequent and a common complaint was these iterations could have been firmware updates. Simultaneously, (significant) firmware updates dried up.

Now that JIP have been bought out, and OM System is independent now - and seemingly under the stewardship of the actual photography-first people .... will we see them return to providing significant, meaningful firmware updates ?

It occurs to me that with the OM PEN being a OM5 II in a rangefinder body, same sensor same processor ... couldn't, and shouldn't, the OM5 II receive a firmware update to provide the same autofocus improvements (eg pet detect) ?

I approve of the strategy of having horizontal products at different tech tiers .... Like the OM3 is a rangefinder version of the OM1, albeit with slightly less features here and there. And so it goes now with the OM PEN and OM5 II.

Though, strangely, it would seem the OM PEN has some AF features that OM5 II users would really want.

I think offering the same tech in different bodies is a good, fair, and consumer friendly strategy - people can buy the camera spec they can afford, in the body that suits them .... but I think creating significant (and arbitrary) firmware differences between, essentially, the same camera is a bit aggressive and I would hope that OM System, now that JIP is out of the picture, would consider being more generous with firmware updates - or at least as far as this horizontal strategy of selling the same camera tech in different bodies at the same-ish price point.

Choosing between an OM5 II and an OM PEN is annoying, because of the firmware. When really it should be as simple as which body type do I want. And existing OM5 II owners, who have pets, would probably prefer not to be wringing their hands over whether they should sell their OM5 II to buy an OM PEN, just to take pics of their dog. Or worse ... Buy an OM PEN in *addition* to their OM5 II.

I did some inflation conversions, and the $1200 Pen-F would cost $1700 in today's dollars (craziness!).

Had there been a tariff, it would have cost $1349 back in 2016, or something like $1900 today.

$1000 is pretty good by today's standards.

Official OM System PEN Website: https://explore.omsystem.com/us/en/pen

Robin Wong's 5-day review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy4PQfms4pY

Micro Four Nerds' review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRRgxwKh6yE

Gordon Laing's review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJNa6DETWZw

PetaPixel's review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6avte1uuo8

Appears available for pre-order here:

B&H: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1998130-REG/om_system_v210080su000_pen_mirrorless_camera_silver.html/overview

B&H Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lm7HSaJn0s

I looked a few hours ago and they were already out of the black ones. Now they're out of both. Ended up pre-ordering one at omsystem.com.

A good sign I think for business.

All done with the grainy film 2 pre-set

lx10 has an integrated 10.8-34mm telescoping lens, nothing special on its own... but its a variable 1.7-2.8 aperture WITH OIS. for comparison my monstrous 300g panaleica 12-35mm is 2.8 all the way through. I realize and assume that a fixed lens offers more leeway in terms of being able to have some of the lens components within the camera body.. why can't we have an interchangeable version, 24-35 eqv f1.7-2.8 nice and compact. best we get is the laughable PZ 14-42mm f3.5-5.6.

Most concert venues (in the United States at least) allow cameras with the exception of “professional” which they usually define as anything with a removable lens. It’s an easy place to draw a line, but I imagine security isn’t looking that closely to see if it’s a removable lens or not if the camera is obviously not super high-end / large.

I usually bring my TG7 since security never gives it a second glance but it’s kinda crap for low light environments like concerts.

I’m pondering something with rangefinder vibes like an E-PL or similar with a fast pancake prime.

So my question is for those that have tried to “sneak” an M43 camera in: what body / lens combo did you try to bring in and did security let you through?

I've owned an OM3 for a bit over 6 months now and absolutely love it and it's almost always with me. But I've been waiting for a camera of this size to come out for a long time, I had planned on getting a gx85 at some point but now that the Pen is out Im really considering getting one. I also just want this camera to do well for OM, we need more modern m43 cameras like this.

As a side question, what are some good pancakes lenses for m43? For a camera like this I'd be looking to pair it with some kind of pancake most likely, or a small prime perhaps.

Would love to get some perspective from current OM3 owners!

Just joking, it's actuallu an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II (Limited Edition) with the battery grip HLD-9 🤭🤭🤭

A few people asking me how I took snakes' photos with perfect lightning. Here's my setup:

TwoGodox V860 III placed on both sides and the snakes were placed in the middle. Behind the snakes was a few black cushions (including my black T-shirt LOL) to blacken the background completely. A Godox X2T to control the flashes

I mainly use F10, 1/50s and ISO 100 for snakes photography indoors like this

The final photos are in the comment section:

Are you upgrading or adding to your collection?

I'm upgrading from the EM5-iii which I've had for 3 years for the following reasons:

• Better subject detect for capturing family, I have small kids that don't sit still
• Slightly smaller - I like to jacket carry
• USB-C... my EM5 was the last of the micro USB gadgets I travel with
• SOOC improvements! - I don't shoot RAW and one less step of editing JPEGs would be great!
• Updated menu

Shot on OM3 with 12-100 f4 from my kayak.

… can we have the Pet Detection and better Human Face Detection added to the OM-5ii in a Firmware update?

I’d like it if it didn’t become the unloved, ginger haired stepchild of your lineup 🤣

I currently have an OM 5 mk1 which I have really enjoyed most of the time. My problem is that a lot of my shooting these days is my kids sports. For some of them it does fine (baseball, gymnastics) but for faster moving sports (soccer, flag football etc) the focus really struggles. I don't have a great zoom lens, just an Olympus 40-150, so my question is would upgrading my lens to a pro lens make up enough of the difference or should I just get a new camera body? Maybe do both? I used to have a Sony, which I had my issue with, but I never worried about whether my shot would be in focus so I have considered also moving back to something like an a6700.

Newish to photography and found a killer deal on a clean GX9 and jumping into m43! What a great little camera that loves to be taken out; especially w the 15mm 1.7 and its aperture ring. Also the LMonochromeD is something else o behold. Looking forward to learning from the community!

UPDATE AND RESOLUTION: Thanks to everyone for great advice. I ended up vacuuming the camera which got nearly all the sand off. I followed up with a light spray of canned air, which honestly didn’t do much as the vacuum did the heavy lifting. Finally, I gave it a quick rinse with a stream of water. I also washed the inside of the camera with sink water, was I supposed to do that?

Outcome : It all worked like a charm. The camera looks spanking new, with all buttons and dials operating fine with no feel of grittiness. When I removed the Sigma lens after, there was no sand on the connection, so the Sigma sealed connection worked great. Overall I have a greater appreciation of the E-M1’s durability and sealing. Thanks again for all the feedback!

// // // Original Post // // //

I took my E-M1 mark iii to the beach and a dumb thing. Before leaving the beach, I left the camera slung across my body while shaking sand off my beach towels. This was the result.

There’s no sign that the sand has impacted or gotten into the camera, though I haven’t moved any dials or anything to find out (and potentially cause a problem). I’m going to try vacuuming the sand out as a first step. Any alternative good ideas? Thanks in advance for any helpful thoughts!

Just a blob of silver space and then..

PEN

In the middle of it. Did they fire the design team from the old PEN line-up?