OM System PEN Review

OM System brought the PEN back on 9 September 2026 and, for the first time in the line, put a viewfinder in it and sealed the body against rain. At 999 dollars that pairing is genuinely rare. Nothing else at the price gives you a 2.36 million dot finder, an IPX1 rating and a fully articulating screen in a shape this small. The command dials fall where they should, the custom buttons go deep, and the computational modes OM System keeps building carry real weight: handheld high resolution mode pulls detail the sensor has no business resolving on a static scene, and live ND still works.

What has not moved is everything underneath. The chip is the same 20.4 megapixel Four Thirds sensor the OM-D bodies have run since 2019, so files are fine for a print and tired above ISO 3200. The 121 point phase detection is a generation behind: subject recognition overrides the point you chose and locks onto a face in the background, and tracking needs more intervention than any 2026 camera should.

Video is the real failure, capped at 4K thirty in 8 bit with no headphone socket and 1080 at 120 as the only slow motion. There is no automatic anti shock setting either, which will cost a new owner sharp frames before they work out why. Charming, sealed, cheap, and a decade old under the skin.