There is another Non RF forum here "halfframe" where PEN F issues are discussed in detail.
My black Pen FT with the 40/1.4 was good luck, sold in German ebay with bad pictures, but I got a few extra which looked promising. Next I've got a (chrome) FV (without TTL metering). The first roll of film looked promising too, still don't have the pictures back (it was a B&W film for C41)
The minimum distance of the 40/1.4 (and the 38/1.8) is just 1ft (35cm), great for close up shots. The 40mm with 18x24 is similar to 58mm with 24x36 (I LOVE this focal length...)
Saturday my 2nd lens arrived, a nice 100/3.5. It was 40 USD plus freight, I was the only bidder. It was announced with sticking aperture but probably the seller didn't know that the lens has automatic diaphragm.
I'm looking for a smaller standard lens yet because I seldom need the speed. The 38/2.8 is the smallest but probably too rich for me. The best lens said was the 38/1.8. It's a classic
Ultron type of Tronnier with 6 elements in 5 groups, similar to the Pentax standard lenses.
Olympus made a lot of Adapters for M42, Exakta, Nikon-F, even Leica LTM. But since the flange-to-film distance is slightly longer with the Olympus Pen-F, you need a collapsible LTM lense for focussing to infinity.
The camera is a bit smaller than a Barnack Leica, which means it is just very small for an SLR. Smaller as any other SLR in the world except the Pentax 110.
From the first shot on, I liked the upright frame as well as four thirds format. You can vote this format for people photography whereas the Barnack 2:3 was still designed best for landscapes, like the older 6x9cm roll film. There is less cut-off with the (as Olympus used to call it) "single frame" format, therefore the "usable size" isn't 50% but 75% of the "long" 24x36, so the film grain don't comes out that big.
It looks like an ideal concept to me, but of course the PEN-F created no half-frame SLR boom because the camera was an expensive one to build, but not possible to sell at a higher price than full format SLRs. And, as it's designer Maitani regrettingly said, no other could build it in a similar way Olympus did, because they hold all the patents. Maitani is such a great designer that he don't need to protect his inventions.
Processing prints from half frame format isn't that easy, but my next film will be a "normal" B&W for self-developing.
From what I've seen, the whole PEN F series keep their prices on a good level, when compared to other SLR's of the 60's and 70's. There aren't so much out there, and I will never sell mine.
cheers, Frank