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A quick sketch from a short trip: what it’s like to travel with the OM System PEN


Testing the PEN in its natural environment: outward bound and broadly abroad

A skateboarder grabs their board at the top of a jump above a rampRichard Butler

We received the PEN just in time to shoot the studio scene before I headed off to the UK for a short break. This meant I got to spend a chunk of time using it the way it’s intended: for everyday and travel photography.

Below are the results from that time: photos of the places and friends I visited, photos from Seattle, London, Northampton and Gloucestershire. What should come across is the degree to which I was able to carry the camera with me, much of the time, so I have a couple of late-night photos, I was able to grab a shot of a friend, mid-laugh: something I might not have got if I had to dig into a camera rucksack to use a larger camera.

Click here to read our OM System PEN review

I tried to make use of a selection of lenses (something made easier by having a choice of compact Micro Four Thirds options), and made sure to include a hand-held high-resolution mode sample and some side-by-sides in a selection of the camera’s color modes. As usual, you can download the Raws to run through your converter of choice, once support arrives.

Sample gallery

Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page ). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review); we do so in good faith, so please don’t abuse it.

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About the Author: Richard graduated as a scientist but had a lot more fun writing and shooting for his university magazine. A number of years spent variously as a reporter, writer and editor on science and engineering titles combined his knowledge of science with his interest in images and words. But it was spotting the connections between emission spectra, white balance and all the nonsense he’d taught himself playing around in Photoshop that helped kindle an interest in digital photography. Searching for a camera led to him discovering DPReview and Richard was recruited by Phil Askey in 2007. He’s been combining his love of photography, communication and attention to detail (pedantry?) ever since. He has unusually strong opinions about lenses for the APS-C format.

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Our DPREVIEW Tribute:

After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview closed on 10 April 2023. This difficult decision was part of the annual operating plan review that parent company, Amazon, shared earlier this year.

Over the course of 25 years, DP Review built up a reputation as being one of the most informative places to go for information about that new camera or lens you’re after. DP Review began as an independent reviews site based in the UK in 1998, the brainchild of Philip and Joanna Askey, but it was eventually purchased by Amazon in 2007 and relocated over to Seattle in the USA in 2010.

Cheers DPReview – thanks for the great work and content that guided photographers, videographers and techno junkies the world over!

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