Olympus Pen-F(antastic)
– The NEW Pen-F Reviewed at Krabi, Thailand.   Image: Aonang Beach Sun Set, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.

11th March 2016, Krabi, Thailand/ Singapore – Olympus Singapore sent us their new Pen-F & the new TG-870 recently, quite timely as we have a short getaway trip planned to Krabi, Thailand. Strange as it seems, Olympus seems to always know when we have a trip planned. If you do a quick search on the Search Bar on the right column, you will notice that we had reviewed Olympus cameras in destinations like Bangkok, Cebu etc.

As an OMD user, my approach to this review is trying to imagine that the Pen-F is just a digital reincarnation of the good old half-frame Olympus Pen from the film era. (But later found out that I was pretty wrong) Before I proceed, if you found your way here looking for specs and technical review, too bad, over here, our style has always been the End-User (layman)’s approach and we are really more interested to find out what the camera can do and the images that it can produce. (If you really need the specs, please visit Olympus Singapore’s website here.)

Image: The NEW Olympus Pen-F paired with the Zuiko 17mm & 45mm for the trip.
(35mm FF equiv: 17mm (34mm) & 45mm (90mm)

With much talk across every other photographic social media platforms – and like every other persons – we are very curious about the Pen-F. Some quick specs here before we get to the photos. “Reborn” as a micro 4/3 20 megapixel retro-style digital camera with interchangeable lens, the Pen-F features an electronic viewfinder with 2.36 million dot OLED – this means you get to view what is exactly outside the viewfinder from exposure to movements. The crazily fast shutter that does a 10 frame per second (FPS) and doubled to 20 fps when you activates the electronic shutter. Use the Pen-F with the built in 5-axis image stabilizer that comes with an automatic panning detection sensor, you can imagine what you can do with these functions.

What we really like is the how the way the buttons are laid out. Similar to other “Range-Finder” style cameras (think Nikon Df, Fujifilm X-series etc), the buttons & dials are purposeful and not overkill, which personally I find it a joy to use – just like film cameras from yesteryears. And the NEW Pen-F took this to another level as you can customize almost every function and assign it to a button of your choice, that is really something as this means every one can (now) have a camera that will be “tuned” to their preference.

The New Pen-F has a nice 3″ tiltable screen, best for the low angle shot or even the ocassional selfie! Although I am not a video person, the Pen-F is capable of video recording at a decent 1080/60p speed if you care to know. One of the feature which was highly speculated was the ability to shoot 50 megapixel under the “High Res Shot” mode. As an end-user reviewer, I did not venture there but already happy with what I had gotten from the regular modes.

The Pen-F is pretty small at 124.8mm width x 72.1mm height x 37.2mm depth and weights a mere 427g. This is perfect as it will fit almost any camera bags out there and a perfect camera for travel. The built is super solid comes cladded in an armour of aluminum & magnesium and the best part, you can’t really spot any fitting joints or even screws!

Like most of the Olympus cameras of today, you get lots of effects filters, art filters and whole lot more of customizable frames etc. Another highlight of the Pen-F is the “Grainy Film” effect. (You can find it at the Art Filter menu). Which I used for quite a number of shots. Let’s check out the photos that I’ve shot at Krabi using the new Olympus Pen-F.
(All images in this article are not edited except with the usual adjustment of alignment, cropping and adding watermarks. Click on them to view the full size.)

Image: Long Tail Boats for island-hopping tours docking back to mainland.
Aonang Beach, Krabi Thailand. Shot with Olympus Pen-F.

 Image: Bikes for rental. Aonang Town, Krabi Thailand. Shot with Olympus Pen-F.

Here’s what happened when I switch the dial at the front of the camera (below) to “Mono” and activated the “magic” of Film-Like black & white photos..

Image: The control dial at the front of the Pen-F.

Below are the images from the Pen-F in “Mono” mode. Like most tourists town in Thailand, Krabi is very much the same, from street food hawkers to street peddlers, selling a wide variety of souvenirs and art pieces, shooting them in Mono kinda added the “feel” of the image and looking at them brings me “back” to Krabi. Check out the next few images.

Image: Street Stall selling Leather Goods, Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.

 Image: Street Stall selling Leather Goods, Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.

Image: Art Shop , Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F. 

Image: Art Shop , Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F. 

 

Image: Tourists checking out a restaurant menu, Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F. 

Like the mono images? I do not know about you guys but I am certainly in love with it!
Now check out the color images below!

 

Image: Street Food, Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.

 

Image: Seafood Happiness for 50 baht, Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.

 

Image: Sea food on grill (Street Food), Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.

Since we are at Krabi, we decided to climb 1260++ vertical steps up the Tiger Cave Mountain. (It was a very, very tiring decision – but it’s all worth it!)

 Image: At the foot of the Tiger Cave Moutain, Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.  

Image: At the peak of the Tiger Cave Moutain, Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.

 

Image: 10 inch Sports Rims Wow!, Taxi at Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.   

Image: Take a stroll long Aonang Town, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.   

 Image: Aonang Beach Sun Set, Krabi, Thailand.
Shot by Olympus Pen-F.

In summary, the New Olympus Pen-F is a F(antastic) & well-packaged camera! Although Olympus market it as a Street Photography camera, I beg to differ. The Pen-F is pretty competent for travel and for most photography applications too. And for those creative ones, the art filters will ensure hours and hours of fun. Reasonably priced and well built, this is a camera that you should really consider getting it!

For those who might ask me, “What about the OMD”? Well, all I can say it fellas, go read up on Olympus’s heritage cams and find out for yourself. For me, I will say that the Pen-Series is a different class of cameras and it is one of those really fun ones to have. For now, I will continue to pretend the “F” in the Pen-F is a secret code that stands for F-antastic!

Thank You Olympus Singapore for the Sponsorship!

Do check out what we did with the Olympus TG-870 that we brought along here.
Read up past reviews that we had done for Olympus here.

To Read Part 2 Review by Gary Chow, click here.
To Read Part 3 Review by Daniel Ho, click here.

Images: Behind-the-scene photos for the Pen-F Reviews by Cyndris Neo.

 

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