My Pen F has become the no work only play camera.
Several reasons, but it mostly comes down to practicality. The Pen has a great vibe as a personal, immersive camera, but a poor handling dynamic for on the go, working for someone else, pro work.
It has in it’s corner;
Possibly the best base IQ of any of my cameras at lower ISO’s (100-800).
Very usable JPEG’s, but I only use them as a preview (especially the mono ones)
Great weight and solidity.
An off-set view finder and a rear screen that just begs to be turn inward (looks nice, feels right).
Nice looks that don’t scream “pro at work”, more enthusiast at play.
Great manual focus handling.
What it does not offer:
Great high ISO performance (on par with EM10 mk2). Like the EM5 mk1 the noise is tight, like good film grain, but at higher ISO’s the images just lose something.
Tracking AF. None to be had. AF is snappy, but useless for sports.
High ISO silent shutter (regularly bands at 1600).
Any similarity to any other camera I use, so switching mid job can be troublesome.
A separate battery and card slot.
Any consistency with batteries or accessories to my work horse cameras.
Nice shutter sound. In vertical mode it sounds “flappy”.
The little kit I tend to carry around with it consists of my spare 45 F1.8, the under used 17 f1.8 and my “just in case” 40-150 kit/junk tele.
The tele gets used more than I would have predicted, but the handling combination of the heavy, all metal Pen and super light plastic zoom is far from re-assuring. I see visible wobble, something I am not accustomed to. It is effectively the opposite dynamic to my 300 on the EM1x, which feels (and is) solid as a rock.
Looks though, can be deceptive.
This (Pardelotte), came from….
…..this. Plenty of light, but a flighty subject, blustery wind and my least steady feeling combo.
I expect great results from my 17 and 45. Both seem perfectly designed for (or the other way around) the Pen. The kit lens just feels like a wind cup up front, but the results I get are consistently good.