OM System posted a teaser for a new camera coming September 9, and it leads with the electronic viewfinder. The short video opens looking through an EVF, cuts through what appears to be a few city-life sample shots, then closes with the camera floating upward, its top and back plate visible. That is more than the usual shadow-silhouette teaser. It is enough to argue about.
The shape is the interesting part. Digital Camera World lined the teaser camera up against the existing Pen bodies, and the silhouette is rangefinder-style rather than the SLR-style hump of the OM series. The top plate has the same stepped two-tier profile as the 2016 Pen-F, and there is no pop-up flash on the shoulder. That combination is closer to the Pen-F digital than to the cheaper E-P7, which carries a flash and a plainer top. OM System has said nothing about specs, price, or the name.
The EVF is the telling detail. The E-P7, the last Pen, has no viewfinder at all. The Pen-F digital had a built-in one. Leading a teaser with the EVF points away from a bare E-P7 refresh and toward something closer to the Pen-F.
The Pen-F is ten years old
The Pen-F is the thing to hope for. The digital Pen-F arrived in January 2016 as the first Olympus camera with a 20-megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor, in a rangefinder-style shell with a front creative dial and in-camera monochrome and color profile controls. It was a homage to the 1963 half-frame film PEN F, and it has kept a following since.
It is also the one line OM System has left behind. When Japan Industrial Partners acquired Olympus's imaging business in 2021 and rebranded it OM System, the OM series got refreshed several times. The Pen line did not. The 2021 E-P7 is still the newest Pen, and it lacks the viewfinder that the Pen-F had.
The teaser does not confirm anything
A rangefinder silhouette and a two-tier top plate do not guarantee a Pen-F II. This could be an E-P7 successor or a new line. Some reviewers already argue that the OM-3 borrowed the Pen-F's creative dial and styling, so the slot is arguably filled. I am not persuaded by that. A dial on an SLR-shaped body is not the same camera.
Editorial
The handling was the point
I hope it is the next Pen-F, and the teaser points that way. The original earned its reputation on handling and looks: a compact rangefinder body, a front creative dial, and monochrome and color profile modes you could develop in the camera. The spec sheet was never the draw. Most of what OM System has shipped since has been capable outdoors gear, which is fine, but the Pen-F was the one that felt like an object you wanted to carry.
I should keep the hope honest. Even a real Pen-F II would probably carry the same 20-megapixel sensor family and the modest video that Micro Four Thirds critics keep raising. The test is whether the dial and the handling come back, not whether it wins a spec sheet. September 9 will show whether OM System remembered why people kept asking for this camera.