I see a few complaints in social media that the new OM Pen is not a Pen F successor. When you look at the spec the new Pen is better in almost everyway, as it should be. Better weather sealed, better focus, subject and eye detect, and the same price as a second hand ten year old Pen F.
People forget the Pen F was a commercial failure. It did not sell. That metal seamless body was expensive to produce. You cannot expect the company to risk it again. Would you pay £1500 – £1800 for a Pen F mark II, with the same features as the new Pen but with better weather sealing and a metal body. Thats a lot to pay for two small things.
I have been playing in the last week to create some black and white profiles for my OM Pen.
The first image is my highly customised mono profile, the second one of the defaults. The default had its good points, but I thought it needed more gray range and not just heavy blacks. It also has some built in grain which on mine I have removed.
I am not 100% sure about the heavy vignette that I added but I do think its a great looking out of camera image.
I was not expecting any new cameras in the latter half of 2026 from Leica, but we have seen a number of different colour schemes coming out.
Its expected that a Q3 43 Monochrome version is coming in the next few months, so will it be this year or next like I thought. Well the rumour sites are saying it might be here before Christmas, so Christmas present anyone?
I spent the weekend, shoot halloween themed shots in the studio and testing out my OM (Olympus) Pen. My trusty Nikon Z7 did duty in the studio and my new Pen being used for some street photography.
I have always had a soft spot for the Olympus. Of their film cameras the OM4Ti was my favourite and it pioneered multi spot metering and high speed flash.
In the digital age Olympus has not been so popular with them choosing a smaller sensor size.
This actually gives them a number of advantages including class leading image stabilisation and a size and weight advantage over full frame 35mm, unless your comparing it to the small light, jewel like Leica M glass which has a price tag to match.
If your into wildlife photography and regularly get into the remote regions of the countryside having to carry long telephoto glass, the Olympus MicroFourThird’s system is hard to beat.
So why have I picked the new Olympus or OM Pen. While it does not have the build quality of the orginal digital Olympus Pen F, its a small and well built camera. With a cheap 17mm f/2.8 lens bought secondhand, it makes a great little carry everywhere camera when I do not want to risk my Leica or carry my heavy full frame Nikons.
I had a quick walk around Boutham Park and the surrounding area yesterday after picking up my new Pen on Saturday.
I am still getting the hand of it and customising as I want but have already created a high contrast black and white custom profile I can quickly select.
