Olympus' new PEN E-PL7 caters to the smartphone and selfie set
Thursday, August 28, 2014 at 1:00AM 
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
Instead of trying to compete with smartphones, Olympus is finding the best ways to integrate and enhance both experiences.
It's no secret that smartphones have been eroding the sales of traditional DSLRs and point and shoot digital cameras into oblivion.
The convenience of carrying a capable and connected large megapixel camera built-into a smartphone, has made it difficult for camera companies to adjust. Olympus has managed to keep innovating, and their latest crop of PEN ILC's offer features that complement rather than compete with smartphones.
The company's latest Olympus PEN E-PL7 brings the latest interchangeable lens camera technology to the popular compact line but also covers new features that smartphone users and selfie enthusiasts will a dedicated flip-touch screen and improved smartphone connectivity for sharing images and even for controlling the camera remotely.
Coming to market this September, the E-PL7 will come as a Body Only (Silver, Black) for $ 599.99 and kitted out with a 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II lens for $699.99. What's most notable is that despite the abundance of consumer friendly features (selfie mode, various filters and effects as well as smartphone app), the E-PL7 brings many of the premium features found in Olympus' celebrated OM-D line of prosumer cameras.
Access to the growing list of Micro-Four Thirds lenses is a given, as is access to older Four-Thirds glass by way of adaptors. What's really exciting is the addition of the TruePic VII image processor with a 16.05 megapixel Live MOS sensor. The in-body 3-axis VCM image stabilization system is derived from the Olympus OM-D E-M10. This powerful technology compensates for horizontal and vertical angular shifts and results in stable images and HD video without the need for a tripod.
More a advanced users will want to know that the E-PL7's on-board FAST AF is Olympus’s fastest-ever AF system and uses 81 points that cover the whole image.
Speed and number of frames per second has always been a statistic that has kept larger DSRL's ahead of the smaller Interchangeable Lens Cameras but the E-PL7 boasts an impressive 8fps sequential shooting, the fast processor supports continuous capture of up to 20 RAW frames or an unlimited number of JPEG frames, and the Continuous Auto Focus with Tracking mode accurately tracks and captures moving subject as fast as 3.5 fps. This is huge coming from such a small and compact body.
The feature Olympus feels will resonate most with smartphone users is the 3-inch, 1.04 million-dot high-definition touch LCD monitor automatically turns into a mirror display and activates into its “Selfie Mode” when tilted downward in the 180-degree position. To accompany the new PEN is Olympus Easy Smart Phone connection app on Android and iOS.
The current app is already one of the best implementations of software that can bridge smartphone and camera by allowing the easy transfer of photos, various editing modes and detailed remote control of the camera even using the smartphone as a remote Live View screen to frame and focus photos.The new version has various selfie-focused effects and settings.
Instead of trying to compete with smartphones, Olympus is finding the best ways to integrate and enhance both experiences. The PEN E-PL7 looks to be one of the first smart-cameras in the market designed to please smartphone users while still being powerful enough to attract serious camera buyers. Stay tuned for our review in the coming month.
Source: Olympus
Reader Comments (1)
Yes, truly impressive after reading this article. This is something very innovative by the Camera company Olympus as Olympus new PEN E-PL7 has incredible features which can give the photo images the clarity more than you believe. It is obvious as nowadays most of the smartphone makers providing smartphones with high mega pixel camera facilities. This is somehow the reason behind less in popularity of camera nowadays. Bluetooth Selfie Stick