This Selfie-Friendly Camera Is Good for Non-Egomaniacal Photography, Too

Olympus

Olympus’s mirrorless camera lineup runs the gamut from larger-sized DSLR replacements like the flagship OM-D E-M1 to pint-size, beginner-friendly cameras like the PEN E-PL7, which was just announced. The company is positioning it as a step-up camera for smartphone photographers, and true to that billing, it has a 180-degree flip-down touchscreen for framing and shooting selfies.

Of course, you don’t have to use this camera to take selfies, but the tilting 3-inch touchscreen is a unique twist on an existing design. In “selfie mode,” which is automatically enabled when the LCD screen is tipped all the way down to face forward, you get a pared-down UI that lets you tap the screen to focus and shoot quickly. By flipping downward instead of upward, the hotshoe and control dials don’t obscure the lower portion of the screen, and it’ll let you frame duck-face shots from more-flattering angles.

Like many of Olympus’s recent cameras, the E-PL7 also has built-in Wi-Fi to share photos of your own face more quickly. The sidecar Olympus Image Share app for iOS and Android also lets you remotely control the camera from a smartphone, and the options are pretty extensive: Manual exposure controls, a remote live view, and zoom capabilities when you’re using a powered zoom lens with the camera.

Otherwise, the camera shares features with the E-PL5, including a 16-megapixel Micro Four-Thirds sensor, ISO settings up to 25,600, 12-bit RAW and RAW+JPG shooting, and a body-based 3-axis stabilization system. While the new camera’s continuous-shooting speed remains a brisk 8fps without AF enabled, the autofocus system has been beefed up quite a bit. The E-PL7 has an 81-point contrast-detection system that offers more coverage than the 35-point system of the E-PL5.

The PEN series’ more-compact size means you won’t get all the knobs and buttons of the O-MD lineup, but it still has manual and semi-manual exposure controls. Fans of Olympus’s in-camera Art filters (which are awesome) should be excited about the addition of a selective-color mode that lets you highlight one color in an otherwise black-and-white photo.

Price-wise, it’s also inspired by the E-PL5. The new PEN E-PL7 will cost $600 for the body in black or silver, or $700 as a kit with a (non-powered) 14-42mm zoom lens. It’s available for preorder now and will be shipping in September.