Olympus Pen F

A portion of the Q2 proceeds went to an Olympus Pen F (pictured) and an Olympus 17mm/f1.8 to go with it (not pictured).

But Mike, why?

I mean, lots of reasons.

I don't know much about the Micro 4/3 world, so there was some curiosity at work. I love the diversity of the ecosystem, the huge selection of lenses, and the "APS-C, just 15 percent smaller" vibe.

I love the size, stealth, and IBIS of my Ricoh GRIII X, but after my recent trip to San Francisco where I tried to full-time with it I really miss having an EVF. The optical viewfinder in the hot shoe didn't cut it.  I am pretty sure it is for sale.

I love my Fujifilm X100V, but the idea of something slightly smaller than that with interchangeable lenses and IBIS is pretty appealing, especially since there are some tiny M43 zooms I could easily drop in my EDC bag or take on a trip. (Yes, I have an X100VI on order, but given I ordered four days after announcement, and there are people who ordered 45 minutes after announcement who say they're waitlisted until October, that camera isn't real.)

So, initial impressions:

It's tiny. Much less wide, somewhat less tall, and lighter than the X100V, and not that much more thick with a lens attached. At the same time, it feels good: very solid and dense. I was concerned about grip, given the flat front, but there's a thumb rest that makes up for it.

It's got a PASM control scheme, which is fine. I'll live.  There's an exposure compensation knob, the assorted buttons are all reassignable, and it's easy to get at the most important settings. The menu system will take some learning, but in the process of turning on a viewing grid, making sure the auto ISO settings made sense to me, double-checking how IBIS works, and fiddling with the power saver settings, I didn't find it any more dire than a Fujifilm camera.  We'll see once I decide to start fine-tuning the picture presets.

The rear display is a touch screen. You can turn off the touch sensitivity, set it to just set the autofocus point, or set it to focus and shoot with a tap. I use it to set autofocus, and will do so until the third time my nose moves the focus point. Since it has no joystick, you set the autofocus point manually by tapping the left button on the d-dap, then setting the point with the d-pad, then tapping the center "ok" button to exit. Works fine.

There's an interesting picture mode knob on the front that lets you choose between monochrome, color, or "art" settings. The monochrome and color positions can hold one of several presets. I've got the monochrome one set to a very Tri-X-like preset, and the color one set to a very saturated color chrome preset. I don't see myself using any of the "art" settings, but I'd say the knob and software combination is the interface implementation I hadn't thought through when I wrote about "the VSCO camera." 

I understand the battery life isn't superb, but you can get spares from Wasabi for $12 each, and I always carry two spares for any camera I own if I'm doing more than walking around the block.

Getting the firmware updated was a small ordeal: You have to do that through an app, and the app has to be able to install kernel extensions on a Mac, and that requires a reboot, altering some boot settings, and then installing and making sure not to miss all the other permissions dialogs. So it took two reboots to get the camera and Mac to talk.  Given this is an eight-year-old camera, I don't think I will ever have to deal with that again.

It also has a Micro USB charging port, which ... it's an eight-year-old camera. That's understandable, and I seldom charge from a cable.

So that's that. I imagine the next several sets I post will come from it.