For more stories like this, please subscribe to The Phoblographer.
I really, really do hope that Olympus is considering making another high end Pen F camera. They tend to say that those cameras don’t work for them. But Nikon said the same thing about the Df. Then we got the Nikon ZFc, that’s proving to have a lot of hype. Nikon learned from their mistakes, for the most part. So why can’t Olympus? With that said, I’m still holding out hope for an Olympus Pen F Mk II. I’d love to see one.
AI Body and Face Detection with Tracking
AI is already in some of the higher-end Olympus cameras. So why can’t they take it further? I totally understand that some of their other cameras might have bird and animal AF instead. But why not major improvements to humans? I’d imagine myself using the Olympus Pen F Mk II and it being the best camera for street photography. Olympus tells me often that that’s not their audience. But personally speaking, I still have hope. There are lots of us who just want good performance, a small camera with good lenses, and reliability. And if Olympus just fixes their tracking autofocus issues, it could be a hit.
Weather Seal the Olympus Pen F Mk I. Seriously.
This was a major issue with the original Pen F. Why was there no weather sealing to it? Weather sealing is incredibly important not just because of wanting to shoot in inclement weather. But it affects lots of other things. A good weather-sealed camera will often function better over a long period of time. It will require less maintenance and cleaning of the lens contacts. But what’s more, it would be really cool to travel with a camera like this or go shoot in the rain.
A Sensor With Output That Looks Like the Old Kodak Sensors
I’ve loved Olympus cameras over the years. But what I really, truly adored was the output of the older sensors. The older 16MP sensor had an output that looked like Kodak Portra VC in some ways. But the 12MP sensor was made by Kodak and genuinely looked like slide film. I want that back.
Yes, for those of you newer to photography, Kodak used to make sensors. They made the CCD that was in the Leica M9, and that is valued and lusted for by many. To be honest, if you want nice image quality, try going for the old Olympus EP3 or the Olympus EM5 original that had the newer Sony sensor. Even now, I’ll sometimes go through our archives and look at the beautiful images those cameras shot.
Various New Art Filters Based on Old School Analog Processes
Olympus has always had fun with its art filters. There are grainy black and white, bleach bypass, and instant film right now. But how about a cyanotype filter? Or Ambrotype? Or silver gelatin? I don’t know. Honestly, I just want something else and Olympus can surely embrace their history and heritage.Â
Of course, these would be applied to the JPEGs. But it would also be really cool to get them applied to the RAWs and supported in Capture One. Olympus reps themselves have said that Capture One is solid for editing their RAW files.
Don’t Deny us a Joystick
I think this would hurt for a ton of photographers. Not including a joystick with the Olympus Pen F Mk II will really, really suck. The only way around it would be including an all-weather-sealing manual focus lens with great zone focusing abilities.
Dual Card Slots
Here’s an obvious one. I think that photographers need dual card slots these days.
Insane Image Stabilization
Lastly, I think that the Olympus Pen F Mk II would need some crazy image stabilization. Canon can do up to 10 stops of image stabilization with some of their camera and lens combinations. So I don’t see why Micro Four Thirds can’t negate more camera shake.
