Photography News Issue 30

Camera test 78

Photography News Issue 30 absolutephoto.com

Olympus PEN-F From Olympus’s Micro Four Thirds stable emerges the PEN-F, a modern thoroughbred with a design pedigree that stretches back nearly six decades. So has it got what it takes to race ahead of its rivals?

Specs

Price £999.99 body only, £1199.99 with M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/1.8, £1099.99 or with M.Zuiko ED 14- 42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ Sensor 20.3-megapixels, 5184x3888 pixels, 12-bit Raws Sensor format Micro Four Thirds ISO range 80-5000, 6400-25,600 extension Shutter range Focal plane shutter 60secs- 1/8000sec, electronic shutter 60secs-1/16,000sec. B up to 30mins (4mins selectable in the menu). Flash sync 1/250sec or up to 1/8000sec in Super FP mode Drivemodes Maximum continuous high 10fps, 16 Raws in continuous mode Metering system 324 multi-pattern sensing system with ESP measuring, spot, centre- weighted, highlight and shadow Exposuremodes PASM, Bulb, Time, Live Composite, i-Auto, Scene modes, Art filter, Photo story, Movie, HDR, My Mode Exposure compensation +/-5EV in 0.3, 0.5 and 1EV steps. AEB in 2, 3, 5 and 7 frames Monitor Tiltable LCD touch panel, 3in screen, 1037K dots resolution Focusing Contrast detect AF with predictive, eye detect and tracking AF. Manual focus with enlarged focusing area or focus peaking. Focus points 81 points – All points, group target (nine areas), single target normal, single target small. 800 points in manual selection, magnified view mode Video Full HD 1920x1080 Connectivity Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, mini HDMI Storagemedia SD cards Dimensions (wxhxd) 124.8x72.1x37.3mm Weight 427g body only Contact olympus.co.uk

ReviewbyWill Cheung

The originalOlympusPENthat came out in 1959 was very much about ease of use, portability, attractive design and high performance. Jump forward to 2016 and the PEN-F’s core philosophy is identical. Pick up the PEN-F and even alongside its stablemate, the OM-D E-M5 Mark II, it feels small and petite. Its offset EVFalsohelps to give a realistic rangefinder experience. Despite its diminutive stature the PEN-F is packed with features and that includes a 20-megapixel, low- pass filter-free sensor, the highest resolution yet seen on an Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera. Much has been said about the PEN-F’s legacy design and looks and I must admit I am very taken by the retro feel, and a couple of the controls are straight off the Leica III series dating from the 1930s. Go online and see for yourself. The PEN-F’s on/off switch looks like the film rewind dial while the Creative Control Dial is the spitting image of the Leica’s front- mounted slow shutter speed dial. Lovely – and very practical too. Aesthetics aside and as I am on the subject, this Creative Control Dial is really interesting and potentially very useful. In five widely separated, firmly click-stopped settings you have the positions of ART, CRT, COLOR, MONO and off. These options let you fine-tune your in-camera JPEGs.

ART gives rapid access, with the rear input dial, to the PEN’s 28 art filters – 14 actual effects plus variations on a theme – while CRT lets you very precisely control colour vividness and hue. COLOR and MONO are new and very interesting modes. In COLOR you can set up three profiles and in each one you can fine-tune how vivid you want 12 colours to record. You can make a universal adjustment but where it is interesting that you can, for example, increase the vividness of yellows and oranges and desaturate greens and blues. Clearly, it depends on the subject as well as your tastes but I thought this was rather fun. In MONO, you are stimulating the effect of eight colour contrast filters with three different strengths. Traditionally, mono photographers used to carry yellow, orange and red filters as amatter of routine – usually to enhance sky detail – and this is what you get here and then some because you have the options of magenta, blue and cyan too. Raws shot with the art filters and profile modes have the appropriate data applied you can have the exact same (or any other) effect applied during processing in the supplied Olympus Viewer 3 software. Overall handling is very sound and there is serious potential if you want to customise camera set-up. The brand’s considerable experience

I am very taken by the retro feel, and a couple of the controls are straight off the Leica III series dating from the 1930s

with shoe-horning controls into small spaces is much in evidence on the PEN-F and the layout is good and doesn’t feel cluttered. The on/off control has already been highlighted and it is good that it is unlikely to be moved while putting the camera into a bag. The same applies to theexposure compensation dial. It does not have a lock but the click-stops are firm and the flush design and the presence of the thumb grip prevent accidental use. A dial with a lock is the exposure mode dial. One push of the centre button and it’s fixed, push again to rotate it. At the base of this dial is a lever which, depending onwhat’s set, brings in the colour profile graphic or the shadow/highlight function. The shutter release is lovely and smooth– and evenhas a screwthread for a cable release – and that is helped by the input dial surrounding it which makes it great resting spot for the forefinger. The input dial itself is great to use, being large, tall and with a knurled finish for positive action.

Although I had no issues with using the controls on the back-plate the body’s lack of height does mean you have to adjust the grip (with my average-sized hands) to get the thumb to the various controls. After some use with the default set-up of the four-way control where ISO and drive settings can be adjusted, I changed that to move the single AF point around the 81 points. Composingwith themonitor you can use the touchscreen to move the AF point around. Amenu option lets you set the camera to spot meter from the active AF point if you prefer. I did have the touchscreen active initially but then found my nose was moving theAFpoint with the camera up to the eye. The touch feature can be turned off or set so that it turns itself off while the eye is at the EVF. The monitor itself can be folded out to the side so perfect for selfie shots as well as shooting at a low or high level. Alternatively, it can be folded facing inward for a realistic rangefinder shooting experience.