OLYMPUS PEN E-PL9
We test this stylish offering
Style may still be the priority for the PEN E-PL9, but there are a handful of key changes under the skin too
The E-PL9 is one of the latest options intended to sway smartphone users towards more serious photography. Both its design and feature set broadly mirror what the previous E-PL8 offered, with a swinging LCD screen still its main party trick, although the headline changes are more significant than we often get at this level.
These include a beefier TruePic VIII processing engine – the same, in fact, as that inside the flagship E-M1 Mark II – together with 4K video recording, a built-in flash and Bluetooth. The focusing system has also been upgraded, from the E-PL8’s 81 points to 121 here, although this is still based on contrastdetect AF technology, rather than the hybrid phase- and contrast-detect AF system as some of the camera’s peers (and the flagship OM-D E-M1 Mark II).
Despite this, focusing still happens relatively swiftly. When the camera needs to travel through its whole focusing range it bounces through at speed, and the touchscreen is sensitive enough to register light presses, which is great when you choose to focus in this way. Face and eye detection are particularly fast and sensitive too, which is a massive bonus when you consider the vlogging and selfie-loving audience at which the camera aimed.
Together with its pancake-style M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 EZ kit lens, the camera makes for a nicely portable setup that can be easily grabbed on the fly and carried around securely. The electronic means of operating the zoom may not be to everyone’s taste, but at least there’s no awkward unlocking and relocking to do, as on so many other lenses designed for compactness.
The body is clearly designed to be compact too, and with a three-inch screen on the back there’s little room for physical controls. This often translates to awkward operation, with the buttons on the back about as small as could be got away with, and the zoom controls are awkwardly placed between the top and rear plates. The camera’s menu system – long criticised on previous models for its order and general lack of clarity – also continues to be a frustration here, although more casual users largely keeping to point-and-shoot operation may not be too bothered by this.
The camera redeems itself elsewhere. The single command dial is smartly finished and turns easily, with changes to exposure parameters registered instantly. The grip has been gently restyled and is a little more substantial than before too, which is always welcome on such small bodies. The LCD screen is particularly flexible, with its dual-
hinged design usefully allowing a broad range of positions for the screen to end up in.
The metering system does perform well in everyday situations, although it’s somewhat sensitive to scenes with an abundance of shadow details. This leads to slight overexposure, although this can be easily rectified. Scenes with denser shadow details captured at lower ISO settings have a reasonable amount of detail willing to be brought out during post-production, so you can easily underexpose by a couple of stops to preserve highlight detail and bring these back up later.
With the exception of a little corner softness at wide-aperture, wide-angle settings, JPEGs captured with the kit lens are generally free of optical issues. RAW files opened in a thirdparty converter exhibit pronounced curvilinear distortion at the 14mm end, but a profile automatically built into RAW files means you won’t see this if using a more mainstream program such as Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom.
4K footage has a lovely crispness to it, and the camera’s image stabilisation system noticeably steadies footage. There don’t appear to be any unsightly artefacts too, although rolling shutter is very obvious as the camera is panned across the scene.
“4K footage has a lovely crispness to it, and the camera’s image stabilisation system noticeably steadies footage”