The new "Olympus" Pen E-P7

[Siegfried]

Hi Guys

Updated:- 7th Aug

I have been studying the E-P7 Users Manual and what I could find out there while preparing for a short overview on the E-P7. Must say the enthusiasm seems lower than for any other Olympus camera launched in the past...

Another challenge is how the youtube videos or written previews/reviews evaluate the new E-P7. Most reviewers use the same style they have been using for years. For example, as few as 10% of all reviewers talk or write about the new Color and MonoChrome Profile function added to the new E-P7. Do you think photographers are reluctant or afraid to discuss creative ART photography?

From what I can see, OMDS refocused the "new" Pen series with the E-P7. They removed all the OMD type features to increase the creativity of the new camera. The E-P7 does not only have ALL the Pen-F creative features, but it also offers a little more. For example, some of the ART filters are now adjustable with a new opacity slider.

The creative features in video recording are also a little different but at the same time, the E-P7 video is now streamlined for a different user profile - interesting...

The one thing I personally doubt is that the E-P7 has no EVF. I think this is a mistake.

The price seems OK. They seem a little difficult to get, but I am looking forward to trying one...

Any thoughts...

Siegfried

[DeMorcan]

I think it is aimed a cross over market for cellphone users. Which is not who is reviewing it. It is not meant to be full blown photographer camera. It is meant for people who use the filters on a phone they hold in front of them. It also offers them more photographic things cellphones do not. In my opinion it does this and should be marketed this way. Perhaps commercials with someone using it like a cellphone with cellphone users. Then changing lenses and shooting across the room for a head shot. And the cellphone people looking at the photo and wowing at the E-P7 can do that. That is the market audience for this camera. And if there were cameras like that sold this way as super photographic cellphones (with a bluetooth connection to the cellphone for sending out the photos immediately) it would bring in new purchasers and expand the market. Right now the camera market is mainly trying to out top end each other competing for existing users. How about new products to bring new people in and expand the market. And with more sales to pay for research, manufacturing facilities, etc spreading the cost, lowering the price of some cameras. Business is about a ROI (return on investment). The Ferrari way is make limited amount and sell as high cost getting a large part of the ROI on each sale. The old camera way was sell a ton of them at a low cost (think Canon Rebel) and get the ROI from the numbers game. The camera market is moving rapidly to the the Ferrari sales model. It is not like horse and buggy days when cars replaced the horse and buggy. It might be in camera makers keep on with the old horse and buggy (current dSLR and mirrorless ff cameras). But it does not have to be. Cameras are currently technology based. Using this technology, they can cab create new kinds of cameras and new markets. The E-P7 is not there yet. But it is slight bend in right the direction. While the camera industry is all about pixels and sensor size for image quality, the internet has millions of photos posted each day taken with a tine sensor in a cellphone. Maybe some thought should be given to the people who just want to take photos and making it easier and better for them to take photos they cannot take with a cellphone. Come out with a nice collapsible zoom no viewfinder small camera (1" or m43 sensor) and set up booths at (for example) the massive Texas high school football stadiums and rent them out to all these parents trying to photograph their kid with cellphones. Then offer to sell them the rentals discounting the rental prices. Those photos will get on social media with people saying look what I did. And millions of people will be asking how did you do that and where can I get that camera. Or do it at FBS stadiums or soccer stadiums. Just make sure it looks similar to a cellphone and not a big box camera (which some venues ban). Sell what the masses want and the income from that will keep the profitability of the companies up so they can keep making the cameras we want. Of course no one wants this. In every photography forum I am on, when ever someone asks a question the answer is always you need a top end camera and pro lenses. If we were not such damn elitists, we could help the camera industry. But when we tell people asking what to get to start with that they cannot afford to own a camera, we are just driving them back to their cellphones. And when questioned about this, the people who do it say they are protecting the questioner from getting "junk". It is almost impossible to buy a bad camera or lens today for taking photos to post on social media. Maybe it is time to quit telling people how bad kit lens are and tell them get an M50 or EP something (the 7 is not available in North America which might be a good marketing decision or not, I do not have the figures to know) and have fun.

[Siegfried]

A quick update - the new E-P7 seems like a truly interesting camera. The more info I find the more exciting it gets. This could be that pocket camera with truly amazing IQ and lots of creative features.

See this interesting review https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews ... _p7_review

I tried a few of the raw files from the above review in WorkSpace. They are 100% compatible with my Pen-F color profiles plus the new opacity slider available with some of the ART filters is a great new addition.

See my preview here - https://myolympusomd.blogspot.com/2021/ ... -e-p7.html

Folks, this seems like a really interesting M43 camera...

Siegfried