Review: Olympus PEN-F | Best Retro Mirrorless Camera?

With retro aesthetics being all the rage, many photographers are flocking to find the perfect camera for vintage-style shots. If you’ve struggled to find the best retro mirrorless camera, we may have found the solution.

Few cameras blend style and substance like the Olympus Pen-F. With its snazzy retro design inspired by the original PEN-F film camera from the ‘60s, this mirrorless model turns heads with its image capabilities and specs, including a 20-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor and in-body stabilisation. For folks who crave vintage charm without sacrificing modern features, the PEN-F undoubtedly hits a sweet spot.

Now, purists might think the whole appeal of “film-like” digital mirrorless cameras is somewhat of a sham. But if you're a digital photographer wanting that vintage vibe or you’re a film photographer transitioning to digital, this camera could be right up your alley.

Finding a digital camera that delivers the perfect retro aesthetic isn’t easy, but the Olympus PEN-F might be the best camera for the job. We took the PEN-F to the mid-century streets of Palm Springs, California, to find out if it’s the right choice for photographers craving that nostalgic look.

Overview of the Olympus PEN-F

The Olympus PEN‑F revives the legendary style of film with a stunning metal body, tactile dials, and premium Art Filters, all while sporting a 20.3-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor and 5‑axis stabilisation. Despite its age (first released in January  2016), the PEN-F remains a top choice for shooters seeking a compact, retro mirrorless camera with standout image quality and creative potential, though it does come with trade-offs in video features and battery life.

Olympus PEN-F Key Specs

Olympus PEN-F Design and Build

First, this camera looks slick. The PEN-F is actually modeled after the old Olympus Film cameras from the ‘60s and has an undeniably retro magnesium alloy build. This gives it a sturdiness that feels both dependable and fashionable. 

The PEN-F weighs 427g—a nice balance between light enough to use for significant stretches and heavy enough to feel sturdy in hand. Its size also makes it easy to store even in a small bag.

Olympus packed several physical controls onto this model. From the creative dial on the front to the exposure compensation dial on the top, there’s a slew of buttons and dials to help you take full creative control. The PEN-F also features a fully articulating touchscreen and customisable buttons to truly make this model yours.

Lens Compatibility

Due to its mount, the Olympus PEN-F is compatible with Micro Four Thirds lenses without an adapter. You can use lenses from other brands such as Canon and Nikon, but you’ll need a manual adapter; plus, certain features like autofocus are unlikely to work with non-MFT lenses.

It's important to know that a Micro Four Thirds sensor has a x2 crop factor to account for. This means a 17mm lens feels more like a full-frame 34, and a 25mm lens feels more like a 50mm. So, while on the streets getting those off-the-cuff retro shots, we stuck to the 17mm and switched to the 25mm for portrait photography.

For our tests, we shot with a Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH II and an Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f/2.8.

Image Quality 

The PEN-F’s 20.3-megapixel sensor gives you great image quality, but if you want to push it further, you can activate high-resolution shot mode. When in this mode, clicking the shutter combines multiple exposures to create an image equivalent to 50 megapixels. The trick is you can't move the camera; the camera has to stay completely still while it combines multiple exposures. So, you definitely need a tripod as even the slightest movement can mess up the multiple exposures. This might be more ideal for studio settings, or if you're shooting a landscape or a piece of architecture.

Image Performance

As the sun was setting in Palm Springs, we had to open the aperture more and turn our shutter speed down, making us prone to motion blur from handheld shooting. However, the PEN-F’s 5-axis image stabilisation kept our images as sharp as possible and allowed us to focus on steady subjects to avoid motion blur.

We tried not to rely much on ISO. The PEN-F has a recommended base ISO of 200, and we didn't push it past 1600. That's about as high as one can go without getting a lot of grain in the image. So, it's not spectacular in low light, but it's not bad either.

Creative Dial 

The PEN-F is different from other film-like digital cameras in that it lets you pick different filters. Its creative dial on the front of the camera allows you to choose from multiple modes, enabling you to use different presets or craft your own.

Art Mode

One of those modes is Art mode. When you switch to Art mode, you get the option to choose from a wide variety of different filters or presets baked into your JPEGs—many of which lend themselves to retro or vintage photography. The PEN-F also allows you to customise whatever look you've selected, so you can tweak the highlights, shadows, and saturation.

Colour Profile Control Mode

Another mode you can switch to with the creative dial is the Colour Profile Control mode. This mode essentially allows you to craft your own filter. Select the colours you want to highlight, which ones you want to remove and tweak all the little details: the shades, the tones, the highlights, the shadows. You create your own preset to bake into your JPEG. You can do the same when switching to Monochrome mode, but now you're just working with the black and white image.

If you adjust the creative dial to the middle selection, you can select from some standard picture profiles: natural, vivid, enhanced, monochrome, etc. These are safe selections you can tweak in the camera, too.

Now, if you're not totally sold or committed to one specific look, one thing you can do is shoot JPEG and RAW to give you wiggle room in post. But the other cool thing you can do is enable bracketing. When you do this, you can select a bunch of different art filters that you like and when you take a single image, it will create different JPEGs with each of the filters that you've chosen in your bracketing system. You can also select any of the standard picture profiles or any of the crafted colour profiles or monochrome profiles that you've created.

This is to say that this camera really gives you the option to capture everything in camera and not go into post and create your look later. It's trying to keep you off your computer on the post end and capture everything in camera.

It's hard not to get a vintage look in Palm Springs, but the art filters certainly helped. Our favourite filters for retro photography were the Vintage art filters (surprise, surprise). These filters have rich colour casts like amber and teal, and the shadows are lifted to give your photos a slight fade.

It’s important to mention that these art filters aren't like Instagram filters that you just slap onto your photos. They deliver nuanced tones and film-like character, and you also have a lot of control over them.

Video

This camera isn't really built for video; it can only shoot full HD at 60fps. The 5-axis in-body stabilisation is nice, but it can look a little artificial. All things considered, we wouldn’t recommend this camera for shooting video. Stick to vintage-style still shots and you’ll be satisfied with your PEN-F purchase.

Olympus PEN-F Alternatives

Are you interested in the Olympus PEN-F but need something slightly different? Below are some top-tier alternatives available from MPB that include some of the same features and capabilities as the Olympus PEN-F.

Olympus OM-D Models

The Olympus OM-D line is a family of Micro Four Thirds cameras that combines classic style and cutting-edge tech. This line is great for photographers who crave performance without too much weight. From the beginner-friendly Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV to the tough Olympus OM-D E-M5 and leading E-M1 models, OM-D cameras are known for their standout image stabilisation, speedy autofocus and compact weather-sealed builds that beat DSLRs in portability. 

OM-D models offer features like 4K video, high-res shot modes, Live Composite for light painting and Pro Capture for split-second shots. Whether you're a street photographer or a content creator, OM-D cameras give you remarkable results in a body that’s compact enough to carry anywhere your adventure takes you.

OM SYSTEM OM-5

The OM System OM-5 is a travel-ready mirrorless camera that’s perfect for outdoor enthusiasts and content creators on the move. A rebranded successor to the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III, the OM-5 features a 20.4-megapixel Live MOS Micro Four Thirds sensor, a TruePic IX processor, and 5-axis in-body image stabilisation for up to 6.5 stops (or 7.5 with Sync IS lenses), making it great for handheld shooting in low-light settings. 

Despite its small size, the OM-5 offers high-res shooting modes (up to 50 megapixels handheld), Live ND (up to ND16), and advanced features like focus stacking and HDR. It also shoots 4K DCI/30p and Full HD at 120fps with vertical video support for simple social media sharing. It’s weather-sealed to thrive in all conditions, making it superb for outdoor shooters who want first-rate features without a bulky camera body.

Fujifilm X100 Series

The Fujifilm X100 series is iconic in the compact camera world. Each X100 model, from the original to the Fujifilm X100VI, features an APS-C sensor, a fast 23mm f/2 fixed lens (35mm equivalent), and Fujifilm’s excellent film simulations that deliver rich, cinematic colour straight from the jump. 

What sets the series apart is the hybrid viewfinder. You can toggle between optical and electronic views, perfect for responding to whatever the moment calls for. These cameras are beautifully built and impressively powerful, with advanced manual controls, leaf shutters for silent shooting, in-body stabilisation and 6.2K video. The X100 line offers creative freedom in a pocketable package so you can capture stunning shots any time, any place.

Final Thoughts: Is the Olympus PEN-F Still a Good Choice Today?

In the end, we loved this camera as much as we loved Palm Springs. Apart from it giving us so much control over the image directly in the camera and how we fine-tune what the JPEGs will look like, we also love the bracketing system. The fact that we were able to take a single shot and get so many options from our own selections was simply too cool.

For a camera released in 2016, we were really impressed with the Olympus PEN-F’s performance. And, again, the image quality is spot on. We highly recommend the PEN-F not just for fans of retro photography, but for any photographer who wants a strong alternative to film cameras or brands that also make digital film-like cameras. (We’re looking at you, Fujifilm.)

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