OM System teases new PEN-style camera, but you’ll have to wait until September 9 for the unveiling

“Stay tuned. Something new is coming”

This is the news that will make any Micro Four Thirds fan leap from their chair. It’s a short video, but it shows something completely unlike recent D-SLR shaped cameras from OM System. It looks – gasp – like a PEN!

Now some Olympus/OM Systems fans will feel that the PEN series was the bedrock of the brand’s success, a series of cute, affordable yet powerful little pocket or handbag cameras perfect for influencers before influencers were a thing. They had in-body stabilisation, interchangeable lenses and even, in later models, 4K video.

The only thing they lacked was a viewfinder and, as this teaser video clearly shows, this new camera has an EVF. Indeed, the only Olympus PEN camera with an EVF was the PEN-F, now discontinued, which has achieved a cult status all its own. Indeed, could this new camera be the OM System PEN-F II, a camera fans have been clamouring for for years.

I’m not sure it’s quite that simple. But having looked at the video several times, and having used just about every Olympus/OM System camera to date, I think I can make a few guesses.

• There is an EVF. That’s obvious, as it’s the first thing show in the video. This alone is exciting, because the EVF made such a difference to the PEN-F and was so sorely missed in the rest of the PEN range.
• Is it an interchangeable lens camera? I don’t know for sure, but you can see a lens roughly the size of the OM 25mm f/1.8 on the front, and if this was a fixed lens compact I think it would have something a good deal slimmer and more compact.
• There’s a mode dial on the top, what looks like a control dial around the shutter release and another control dial at the rear, so I would say this is twin-dial camera rather than a simple point-and-shoot model
• I can’t see what the rear screen is doing, so I can’t tell whether it’s a pop-out vari-angle screen or a tilting screen. Some are saying it’s a vari-angle screen but I can’t confirm that.
• It will have a 20MP sensor, I’m pretty sure of that, since it’s all that OM System has right now, but the question is – which one? Is it the older un-stacked sensor, which I think would be the smart move, or the newer stacked sensor, which would seem unnecessary in a camera like this.
• What will this new camera cost? I think this will depend heavily on what sensor OM System chooses. If it goes for the stacked sensor, I think it will cost about the same as the OM-3. If it’s the older un-stacked sensor I think it could be a good deal cheaper, maybe around the level of the OM-5 II.

I’m really pleased to see OM System launching a camera like this. I feel it’s been leaning too heavily on the birding/wildlife/nature market in the past few years, and I’m convinced the real value of the MFT technology lies in the lifestyle PEN series which I was afraid it had abandoned.

Maybe not!