The Olympus Pen F came out nearly a decade ago; and Olympus and OMDS seemed not too keen on bringing it back. It’s nice to sometimes have hope, but there are a lot of factors that tell us that it’s probably never going to happen. First and foremost, it’s sad that they didn’t adapt and find a way to make it come back. To clarify that statement, it’s sad for them specifically. The Fujifilm X100VI took off majorly with its retro aesthetics, and even Leica got into it with the D-LUX 8. The brand seems only focused on the outdoors — which I truly don’t believe to be a winning strategy.
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It’s Too Late
The only brand that made a splash and got it right when there was so much hype around a product is Nikon. Everyone wanted a mirrorless variant of the Nikon Df. Then the Nikon ZFc launched; and it flopped. But when the Zf came out, it was highly praised because it showed Nikon really wasn’t holding back all that much. I even bought a Nikon Zf.
At this point, I don’t really believe in OMDS to be able to make the camera that we all wanted. The Olympus Pen F was incredible but needed weather resistance, a joystick, and a few other things. OMDS is only really focusing on the crowd who won’t buy this camera. Aftrer nearly a decade, I think that we can all agree that the dream is dead.
The State of Micro Four-Thirds
The current state of Micro Four Thirds is a concerning one. Truthfully, I think that it’s probably one of the best mediums for video shoots — especially for music videos. But for stills, I don’t think that current Micro Four Thirds cameras can hold their own against other mirrorless APS-C cameras. Sony, Nikon, and Canon are all making better products. Fujifilm, in some ways, also makes better products. Then when you get up to full-frame, there are so many good options out there.
On top of all this, the second hand camera market is at a peak right now. You can get older full-frame cameras very cheaply and they’ll have better autofocusing for wildlife. So why even bother buying a brand new Micro Four Thirds camera?
You might think that I’m spewing hatred — but since when is speaking the truth spewing hatred? Take a look at my previous statements and please find the flaws.
Manufacturers Don’t Seem to Like Rangefinder Style Camera Bodies
It’s always felt like camera manufacturers haven’t liked rangefinder-style camera bodies. It’s not that they don’t know how to make them — in fact, one of the strengths of the Japanese is taking ideas and knowing how to improve on them. Look at the denim market, for example. But they’ve never been able to make a solid rangefinder style camera in the digital age. The obvious exception is Fujifilm. Even Panasonic did a good job with some of theirs. However, I think that it’s all pretty insane that they consistently deny this part of the market. By that, I don’t mean that they don’t just not release the cameras, but they set the cameras up for failure with a lack of firmware updates and all.
Considering all of this and how small OMDS is, I think we can say that the Pen F successor is dead.