Steve Huff Reviews the New Pen F

Nice looking machine, but I'm not a fan of the look of the ooc b&w - not a Monochrom killer to my eye. And the leather accessories, though nice (and with more than a little bite of Wotancraft's style) together with the uber-retro look of the body, kind of say "man jewelry" to me. The large lenses look terrible on it. Why am I focusing on the looks? Because I don't see any other reason for this camera to exist. And I'm in a contrary mood! 😱
 
I agree with harpo the ooc B/W doesn't look all that great and the tri-x emulation is about as close to tri-x as kodak Ektar. The color pictures look okay maybe a bit too saturared but that is a personal preferences.

So Leica Monochrome killer no way but he also sees some of the sharpest most detailed m4/3 images yet the monochrome is a ff camera.

The camera looks good though
 
Not impressed with those black and white photos at all. Very contrasty, blocked shadows, blown highlights. Nice looking camera, but not impressed with the image quality posted in that review.
 
I would be hard pressed to make any judgement on what this camera can do with Huff's imagery, or how they look on the web. He is producing images to HIS liking. I am a big fan of M4/3 despite its shortcomings. Having begun the system with a Panasonic G1 through using an OMD extensively, I love the color and the way the files convert to B&W. My one big regret was selling my Panasonic GF1. I really loved that little camera.

I look at this and think about what I can do with it. If it is a step above and expands on my OMD, so much the better. It just seems to have so much customization. I love the look and the size. I was a big fan of the film Pen Fs when I was younger.

Does anyone remember the Pen ads with W. Eugene Smith??

My judgement remains open.
 
Keith I think you're right -- I've never been a huge fan of the sample photos that Steve posts (though I do appreciate the effort he puts forth), so maybe this camera has more capabilities than he is presenting here.

The one thing about this camera that I like, but don't like (if that makes sense) is that front wheel a la screwmount Leica. Seems pretty silly to have that nice-looking wheel on the front of the camera only to have it be used simply for 'art' filters. A bit superfluous, if you ask me, and I think it could have been put to much better use. Wouldn't it have been cool if that was the 'slow speed' dial!
 
Although it might be a capable digital camera, it looks pretty ugly.
I don't like the front leica looking wheel. Also, the on/off switch that looks like the film rewind knob of leicas, zorkis and feds is ugly. Atop of that Olympus has decided to add the on/off inscriptions of the Onlympus OM cameras.
A big stylistic fail for me. It may be a capable camera, but it is a very ugly franken-thing.
 
I love the m4/3 format for its portability but to be honest the B/W examples (tonality not subject) of the new pen f suck and they appear to suck even compared to older m4/3 cameras. The color images are good I even like the higher noise as compared to a ff cameras as it gives the images some life. I am sure some raw post processing will take the suckiness out of the B/W picture but right ooc not so great.
 
Vince, I agree with you on the images Huff posted of the "Tri-X" B&W. I think they look terrible, especially the blown highlights. Very digital looking.
 
Vince, I agree. The front wheel does look funky. What I think Olympus was trying to do is put all the controls at one's fingertips, knowing where they all are when the camera is at your eye. I am curious as to the handling of this camera.

I think we all can agree that Huff's examples are not the best. I hope that someplace like DPReview gets a hold of one soon.
 
reads just like most of his reviews;

-a bit overly enthusiastic
-clearly not a "review" but more of a "hey ,guys! I got this new camera, played with it for a week, have no RAW file support, but here's what I think so far"

agree that b&w looks like crap. I really dont understand his Monochrom comparisons.
Color looks OK to me, looks like it might even be a fun camera to use for some people, but I have no interest in a m43 system.
 
There are some things about the layout of this camera and how it might work operationally which seem really nice to me. Enough appeal that I could at least imagine myself buying one, though I probably won't. The amount of work he puts into his reviews is welcome as well, with the usual caveats.
Enthusiasm aside, it does not seem to me that the "modes" advance the art of digital film emulation at all. Looks like Tri-X? Looks like "color slides? Errrrrr?! Got something in your eye? Am only reminded of conversations with people in their twenties and thirties who are quite sure that their Instagram shots "look like film", a belief which can only be held by people who have never seen much, or any, film. If Tri-X or Kodachrome or Velvia gave the results shown in the review, even the die hards would have abandoned film long ago. And the "grain" talked about in the review, still looks exactly like what it is, randomized noise. Unpleasant randomized noise. And it's not that it's "just jpegs".
This looks to be a really nice digitalcamera, but if you love how film looks, a $30 Spotmatic will blow this out of the water.
 
Well, those photos don't appear at all impressive in technical terms. And considering UI design, I see a hugely wasted opportunity with the stand-out jpeg filter control. Then again, I'm sure many will like it as is.

It is possible to build a very capable kit around this body for years, assuming you will spend on the best available lenses. They are rather expensive though, and so is this camera body. The 20-megapixel sensor anyway hits a good point given today's post-processing setups. I assume many buyers will be happy despite the typical rockhuffwellian marketing hyperbole.
 
I have a huge investment in the E-M1 Micro Four-Thirds system. It's a fantastic outfit to use, but when it comes to a "retro" shooting style, nothing beats the real thing of shooting with a real rangefinder and zone focus shooting via the depth of field scales on the lenses vs. these retro bodies companies like Olympus and Fuji have created.

I'd rather be out experiencing the handling of my M9 outfit. If I want black & white images, using the Huelight M9 monochrome preset in Adobe camera raw provides really nice results.
 
I have to say I like the look of the camera. With the built in EVF and 20 mp sensor, it seems like a legit upgrade from the E-P5, which I have and really like. Leica digital Ms are completely out of my price range, but the Pen-F seems worth considering. I'll await other reviews and photos from the early adopters.
 
After being put off by what he termed less than ideal vibration issues with the E-M1 and E-M5II, I expected to see more comment from Ming about how he felt the stabilization system worked. I guess he didn't find enough "wrong" to comment about.

As to his comments about how Olympus and their software handles highlight recovery, the answer to that is, they don't very well at all. I'll just leave it at that. There's typically plenty of detail to get at in the highlights of Olympus raw files if you use one of the better third-party software to get at it, like Adobe's camera raw. Olympus' own software is worth what you pay for it, which would be, nothing.
 
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