OM System's new PEN proves retro sells; soul is another matter

Is a camera retro because of how it looks, or because of what it asks of you? The new OM System PEN is the perfect test case, and the market has already voted with its wallet for the first answer.

The PEN was announced on September 9. As Digital Camera World reports, demand in Japan was high enough that OM System Japan pushed first-day pre-order shipments to November 28. In the US it is shipping on schedule, at $999. All four variants also appeared among B&H's top trending cameras for September.

The pitch is a compact retro body with stabilization and IPX1 weather-sealing, a combination that outlet calls difficult to find at this price. The reviews are warm. Testberichte.de gives it a 1.4 ("sehr gut"). Digitalphoto.de also rates it "sehr gut". DPReview calls it charming and quirky, with some dated technology and performance that it says is reflected in the price.

Retro looks are the cheap part

Anyone can dress a camera body in nostalgic styling. The pre-order numbers suggest the look works, and that is about all they tell us. A pre-order queue measures desire for an object. It doesn't tell us whether the camera is good to shoot with.

We think the cynical reading is tempting: the PEN is a familiar silhouette, a fair price and a famous name, which is a very safe formula. Some of the details may be more than cosmetic, though. Digital Camera World's buying guide says the PEN has repositioned controls for one-handed operation and is loaded with film-inspired picture profiles and Art Filters. Those are choices about how you shoot, not just how the camera looks.

The soul is in the constraints

The Olympus PEN-F, as a 2018 review on the Mu-43 forum described it, was thin and candy-bar shaped, and with a pancake prime it fit in a jacket pocket. Constraint was the point: a small camera you carry everywhere, which, in our view, makes you shoot more and fuss less.

That is the standard the new PEN should be held to. The guide's drawbacks list is revealing: IPX1 sealing, and 8-bit 4K capped at 30p. In our view those limits are a feature if they steer you toward stills, street work and travel. They're a flaw only if you wanted a hybrid video machine, and Digital Camera World itself says that, even by OM System standards, the PEN isn't the best choice for video.

Not every limit is charming. Fotomagazin's measurements found relatively high sharpening artifacts of 13.8%. That is a reminder that part of the "character" may be processing, and you should look at real files before deciding it suits you.

Judge it by what you'd actually carry and shoot

Ignore the nostalgia and ask three questions. Does it fit in a pocket or bag that you'll actually carry? Do the film-style profiles give you a look you'd otherwise spend hours chasing in editing? And does the one-handed layout make you take pictures you'd have skipped?

If the answers are yes, the PEN earns the name regardless of the retro styling. If you'd mostly be buying it as a shelf object, there are cheaper ways to do that.

Our verdict: the revival looks like a commercial success and a promising camera, but the soul isn't the retro skin. It is a small, restrained tool that nudges you toward a certain way of working. Buy it for that, wait for your own test shots if you can, and let the images decide whether the name was deserved.