Olympus Pen E-P7 review
Summary
There’s a lot to find fault with in the E-P7’s specs. It has an MFT sensor, it has no viewfinder (unlike the classic Olympus PEN-F), it doesn’t even have phase detect AF and it’s expensive for what you get. What changes your mind is using it. It’s pocket sized but handles brilliantly, its 14-42mm kit lens is compact like no other, its AF is lightning fast and Olympus’s creative color and Art Filter modes are in a league of their own. The specs don’t tell the story; this camera has real class.
The Olympus PEN E-P7 seems to have everything against it. It has a Micro Four Thirds sensor when everyone seems to regard APS-C as the minimum acceptable sensor size and full frame as the desirable norm. It has no EVF when journalists like me (I admit it) insist that cameras should. And it’s sold at a price which put it in amongst cameras that – on paper – do a whole lot more. But still I bought one, and still I consider it one of the best cameras I’ve got.
See also
• Best used cameras to buy today
• Are used digital cameras any good for photography today?
I’ve been a fan of Olympus cameras for a long time. I think Olympus makes the only small cameras that handle properly, and that Micro Four Thirds is the only format where the bodies AND the lenses are properly compact. The E-P7 may follow on from the largely point-and-shoot PEN series, but it’s a camera in a different class, with more advanced controls, Olympus’s 20MP sensor (not the older 16MP one), and the retro look and feel of the wonderful Olympus PEN-F – though without the viewfinder. (I have at last been able to source a nice condition PEN-F for my collection. See my Olympus PEN-F review for more).
I think what does it for me with the E-P7 is the shape of it, the look of it, and the perfect match between this camera and the Olympus 14-42mm EZ pancake zoom. I do wish the E-P7 had an electronic viewfinder, but I also have an E-M5 III, which does have a viewfinder, and it’s still the E-P7 I reach for.
So enough of what it doesn’t have, what about what it does have (apart from sheer charm). First, there’s that 20MP MFT sensor which people who’ve never used Micro Four Thirds dismiss so readily. I’ve used a lot of cameras in my work, from MFT, through APS-C and full frame to medium format, so I do have some perspective. I would say that the E-P7’s image quality is so close to APS-C except at high ISOs that I’m not even going to worry about it.
Then there’s the in-body Image stabilization which, along with Panasonic’s MFT stabilization, is the best there is. I also shoot on Sony A7 full frame, and Sony’s IBIS does not come close to this.
I also have to talk about the 14-42mm EZ lens. It’s not as good as Olympus’s bigger zooms and primes, but it’s quite good enough for casual shooting – and it’s so slim! I would say it’s a notch above the average kit zoom for all round quality, and easily beats the lamentable Sony 16-50mm PZ lens sold with A6000-series cameras, which is the only other kit zoom to come close to it in size (there’s also Panasonic’s 12-32mm kit zoom, of course).
I also want to mention the color mode switch on the front. This toggle’s the E-P7’s creative color modes, which are actually rather good, and this is on top of the usual crop of Olympus Art Filters. These are easily the best filters on any camera, and often better than shooting RAW and trying to do something creative with software.
Finally, the autofocus. The E-P7 just has contrast AF, as Olympus saves its phase detect AF for its more expensive cameras. So the E-P7 should be slow, right. Well it isn’t. It’s blindingly fast. It’s one of the few cameras where you can stab the shutter release and get a sharp shot in an instant instead of having to go through the usual half-press-wait-shoot sequence we’ve all learned. You can also use the touch shutter mode on the rear screen, where a quick tap will focus and shoot almost before you know it.
The rear screen has a tilt mechanism only – it’s not a flip-out vari-angle screen – but I don’t even mind this. It has a solid, strong-feeling hinge and the screen stays on the same optical axis as the lens. Flip-out screens are more versatile, but they’re not always as good to use.
I wouldn’t use the E-P7 for my ‘main’ photography, but as a go-anywhere ‘casual’ camera capable of great image quality, great creative potential, yet utter simplicity of use – well, I can’t imagine a better camera than this.
Oh, but what’s that? The Fujifilm X100V? Yes, I bought one and used it for a while. But then I sold it and kept the E-P7, which kind of tells its own story.
It’s not just me. You might want to read what my colleague James Artaius says about the Olympus E-P7 on Digital Camera World.
Olympus PEN E-P7 prices at the time of writing:
UK: £849 (with 14-42mm EZ lens)
US: (not currently sold in the US)