# Olympus Pen camera **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympus-pen-camera/539263 "2010-05-13T02:51:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympus-pen-camera/539263/1 "2010-05-13T02:51:09Z")
The LCD screen on my Nikon CoolPix developed an internal leak, which is ugly. The camera still works and takes good pictures. Still, it reminds me I should think about a new camera eventually. Does anyone have an Olympus Pen camera (the digital one, not the classic one)? Any reason why I should consider it, vs. a Nikon D5000? It’s academic, since I can afford neither at the moment. But I may as well gather data early. (Of course I could just use my FM3a or OM-1N and get digital copies of the photos.) ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympus-pen-camera/539263/2 "2010-05-13T03:42:15Z")
Don’t have the digital one, but I did have the old film camera, years ago. It was a great camera. It was a half-frame camera, which meant that you got twice as many exposures out of a roll of 35mm film as you would with a standard camera. Pretty good lens, too. Sadly, the camera was stolen years ago (sometime in the early 80s). Too bad. I miss that camera. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympus-pen-camera/539263/3 "2010-05-13T03:45:19Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Sadly, the camera was stolen years ago (sometime in the early 80s). Too bad. I miss that camera. You could always [replace it](http://photography.shop.ebay.com/Film-Cameras-/15230/i.html?_nkw=olympus+pen+f&_catref=1&_dmd=1&_fln=1&_sop=10&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Caractacus\_Pott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@Caractacus\_Pott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caractacus_Pott)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympus-pen-camera/539263/4 "2010-05-13T20:59:02Z")
A friend at work has the Pen E-P1. I took a few test pictures in the office. The lighting isn’t all that great but the stock lens had no problem getting sharp, blur-free images. The autofocus was about as fast as my full-sized dSLR. For some reason I expected slower focus but I was wrong. We put it in burst mode. It’s fast. It’s surprisingly small. I’d read about it a lot before I saw it and was still surprised at its size. It’s tempting me into looking at getting one. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2010, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympus-pen-camera/539263/5 "2010-05-14T06:24:12Z")
I bought the Panasonic GF1, which is pretty much equivelant to the Pen. It does have an onboard flash which is nice for the non-pro. They say the focus is better, some say the jpegs are better with the Pen, but both have RAW, and essentially the same sensor. The [DPreview.com](http://DPreview.com) eval of the GF1 takes some time to compare it to the Pen. [Panasonic Lumix GF1 Review: Digital Photography Review](http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/PanasonicGF1/) I’m no expert, and I never worked with the Pen, but I’m pretty happy with the GF1