If you contemplating moving into mirrorless cameras, and are weighing M43 versus larger mirrorless formats, remember that you are buying into a system, so consider the size, weight, and price of the lenses as well as sensor size and quality before making your leap.

Beautifully designed camera with excellent functionality and great image quality

Pros:-Fantastic image quality-Small-Slow motion video is great-Silent modeCons:-Not the best in low light-Menu system is

The overall build quality and functionality are excellent, the image quality is great, although—as others are noting—the new 20 meg sensor does not appear to be a deal breaker

The articulating screen is nice to turn it around and protect the screen while in bag or even just to leave like that to force me to use the nice viewfinder.

If it can have the Pen form factor without the front dial (the only legacy camera I remember that had that kind of a dial was the Argus C-3 which was one of the ugliest cameras ever sold), so much the better!

Versatile LCD screen that can be rotated to face back into camera(for protection and EVA only mode.)

But I would have preferred a tilt screen instead of a flip one

The screen on the back can be flipped out of the way to save battery, protect its surface and just because it looks better this way

Its beautiful dials harken back to a golden age of camera appearances when the camera was just as beautiful as the art it created

The Pen F is beautifully made with excellent dials and no visible screws

Dedicated art filter dial so that art filters are not buried in

If it can have the Pen form factor without the front dial (the only legacy camera I remember that had that kind of a dial was the Argus C-3 which was one of the ugliest cameras ever sold), so much the better!

The controls can't get much better than the ones on this camera

The IQ is good for a MFT camera, with decent noise control, including nice usable images up to 3200 ISO

Also, the viewfinder position on the far left of the camera body made it hard to shoot with lwdr-eyed shooters like me; I had to permanently disable the touch-focus control, or hide the LCD, or continually shift the focus with my nose touching the screen

This is an update after learning more about the camera: While the menus, particularly the advanced custom menus remain daunting, I've learned to love the Super Control Menu which allows the user to change stuff on the fly

In my opinion, physically the most beautifully designed camera ever

The failure to auto-focus in low light and the poorly placed tripod mount are stupid, unnecessary design errors in an otherwise nearly perfect camera

The pictures seem fine, but not that much better than my old Lumix GX7, a much better designed camera.

For all the great ergonomics of the Pen F, that control disk and menu system detract from it's intelligent design

The reasons I wanted this model were:5 axis stabilization20 megapixel sensorBuilt in viewfinder on a Pen style bodyDesign!I love the design

Not only can you do things like change the contrast curve, color balance and even individual colors, you see the results as you adjust and can save them to custom banks.

And I should mention that I no longer feel the need to print really large images (good thing considering the cost of really large format printers...) which no doubt colors my views

A pretty significant thing you must be aware of is the positioning of the tripod mount screw

you can find niggling things to complain about, but at this level of technology, there are no major faults

If you contemplating moving into mirrorless cameras, and are weighing M43 versus larger mirrorless formats, remember that you are buying into a system, so consider the size, weight, and price of the lenses as well as sensor size and quality before making your leap.

But the size is a little disappointing

The original appeal of M43 was not only the smaller size of its cameras (which is now being matched by some with larger formats) but also the smaller size of its

It looks like it should be much smaller, not the same size as the E-M5.I can't make a practical argument for owning this camera, but with a nice little lens like the 17mm f/2.8, it is fun to use and looks great.

The slower zooms are smaller and work well, particularly with the in-camera image stabilization, and are the right physical size for this camera

So, with the above in mind, reasons to like the Pen F (besides silly stuff like it's stylish):(1) Starts out smaller/lighter than Fuji/Sony/Canon and the advantage grows if you add more lenses(2

With the Pen-F you have to first fumble around trying to find a place to grab the screen (easier said than done) then extend the screen out to the side in order to tilt it.

I recently was able to get one of the first available Pen Fs from Amazon, and this review is based on first impressions after using it for about two weeks

I have had the pen f for several months now and have not regretted my decision

So, although I can pair the Pen F with the f 2.8 pro larger lenses, it seems to defeat appeal of carrying the small, stylish Pen

This new Pen had a decent viewfinder even though the camera was not weather-sealed.

Right now, I using a 7-14 Panasonic which, on a full fame camera would be a stabilized 14-28 that fits in the palm of your hand.(4) Excellent viewfinder.

I had never considered a Pen series camera before because they lacked a viewfinder and were not weather sealed.

Not as good as a true optical viewfinder, but for that you'll need to go to the much larger Fuji X-Pro.(5

The articulating screen is nice to turn it around and protect the screen while in bag or even just to leave like that to force me to use the nice viewfinder.

HDR is an amazing feature: When the range of tones exceeds the camera's ability to capture you shoot in HDR mode which takes many shots at once of the same scene with varying exposure levels so one captures the detail in highlights and others detail in shadows and the camera stitches the composite together as one picture

A lot has been made of the plethora of dials/knobs on this camera, but I am a big proponent of being able to control a camera without having to go into the menu system for every feature- especially the critical exposure features.

Both nice cameras with great features but was seduced by the Pen F's homage to the rangefinders of the 50's

On paper this seemed like a great feature but in reality it is an absolute disappointment

Overall, I think this camera out retro styling ahead of important features, like weather sealing, and then they jacked up the price.

When you read favorable reivews of m43 cameras, the reviewers are almost always using the best lenses.

I use it with an Olympus 60mm macro lens, as well as Chinese CCTV lenses

But I was looking to get a smaller system, combined with some nice small Olympus prime lenses, and trying to decide on the EM5ii or the EM10.

Even Steve Huff, who never met a camera he didn't love, uses the best m43 lenses

I decided to give the Pen a try, at first with some of the cheaper lenses.

The failure to auto-focus in low light and the poorly placed tripod mount are stupid, unnecessary design errors in an otherwise nearly perfect camera

If it can have the Pen form factor without the front dial (the only legacy camera I remember that had that kind of a dial was the Argus C-3 which was one of the ugliest cameras ever sold), so much the better!

The failure to auto-focus in low light and the poorly placed tripod mount are stupid, unnecessary design errors in an otherwise nearly perfect camera