3991 - An Old Camera and a New Sun


Well, not exactly that old, but at that time I’d already had the PEN-F for a few months.

Compared to the OM-D E-M1 it is a much more beautiful camera. It has a higher resolution sensor. 20 megapixels are not only nominally more than 16, I also experience it subjectively. It feels like substantially more. I suppose an increase from 32 to 36 megapixels would go comparatively unnoticed. But then, let’s wait a few years and see 🙂

Unfortunately the PEN-F has its faults as well. We could count that knob at the front as one, but actually I think it may be useful for some people. It’s just not for me. It would be nice if we could program it for any purpose, but I don’t complain.

No, after a year now I still see only two major faults and one weakness. First there is one stupid thing that drives me mad, and that could easily be changed in firmware by making it customizable: The button position that is used to zoom into the image upon viewing is in a completely different position than on the OM-D. In the position that I’ve come to be used to from the other cameras is a button for toggling write protection of the image. You can customize both buttons for shooting mode, but you can’t customize them for playback. Madness and fury 😄

Number two is the fact that there is no option for a deeper eye cup. I always order the deeper eye cup for my OM-D cameras, because that way I never get stray light onto the proximity sensor when viewing away from the sun. With the PEN-F it frequently happens that I want to take an image, stray light gets onto the sensor and the camera switches the electronic viewfinder off and the back LCD on. You can avoid it by shielding the light off with one hand, but this is clearly an issue caused by a priority of design over usability.

The third point is of course the smaller viewfinder. If you’re used to the viewfinder of the OM-D E-M1 or the E-P5, the PEN-F is a clear step back.

Would I sell it? No way. I love this beauty and I didn’t even sell the E-P5 😄


There are 2 comments

John Linn   (2017-09-24)

Blue and gold, always a good combination. Like the perspective too.

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andreas   (2017-09-24)

It's 50 meters from our house and the perspective is the obvious one 🙂 Anyway, I've had some images there through the years. Only this summer it's bad with the corn field behind the tree that ruins it all.

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