Olympus announces PEN E-PL8 entry-level mirrorless

The Olympus PEN E-PL8’s distinctive look is highlighted by modern, rounded body lines, an embossed Olympus PEN logo, intricately detailed metal dials, and premium metal and leather-grained finishes that perfectly complement each color option — white, black and brown. Each color palette is tailored to suit the user’s personal style, whether it is vintage, elegant and sophisticated, traditional or relaxed.

The 180-degree flip-touch LCD monitor takes the guesswork out of selfies, with a straightforward user interface that automatically switches the camera to Selfie Mode when the LCD monitor is flipped downward to its front-facing position for easy stills and video. With high-speed Touch AF, the Olympus PEN E-PL8 instantly focuses and shoots with a simple touch of the monitor. Use e-Portrait Mode to automatically smooth skin tones or one of 14 Art Filters to capture unique and creative shots, then wirelessly upload and share them using the Olympus PEN E-PL8’s built-in Wi-Fi^® and the Olympus Image Share smartphone app.

Enhancing the Olympus PEN E-PL8’s stylish design and ease of use is the Olympus imaging technology inherited from the acclaimed OM-D^® series. The TruePic VII Image Processor is paired with a 16 megapixel Live MOS sensor to deliver beautiful stills with high resolution, superior color reproduction and excellent low-light performance for stunning nighttime images.

In addition to the Olympus PEN E-PL8’s robust creativity functions, the new OI.Palette free photo editing app provides popular features from Olympus interchangeable lens cameras, including Art Filters, Art Effects, Color Creator, and Highlight and Shadow Control, for convenient use on smartphones and tablets with intuitive controls. Joining the existing Olympus apps OI.Share^® and Sweet Photo, OI.Palette will be available for download beginning September 20, 2016 and includes all 28 Art Filter options that may also be combined with eight Art Effects. Features included for the first time on a smart device app include Color Creator, which lets users control hue and color saturation, and highlight and shadow control, which makes it possible to adjust highlights and shadows that are difficult to control with exposure compensation. Users can directly post edited images to social networks using OI.Palette.

Main Features

Premium PEN Design

The Olympus PEN series is highly regarded for its compact and lightweight bodies, excellent operability and premium design. The Olympus PEN E-PL8 carries on the features of the Olympus PEN series with a sophisticated design that’s perfect for every occasion.

The camera’s soft, modern body lines are incorporated into a rounded shape that fits perfectly in the user’s hand. The embossed Olympus PEN logo[1], aluminum finish on the upper part of the body and metal dials show Olympus’ commitment to detail.

The front of the body features synthetic leather and carefully selected grained finishes for each color option. The bundled strap and the triangular split ring color compliments the body color[2] for a cohesive premium look and feel.

The camera body is available in three colors, including white, black and brown. The white is elegant and sophisticated with contrasting beige tones, the black provides a traditional camera look with silver accents, and the brown offers relaxed vintage appeal. Pick the color that best suits your style.

Downward-Opening 180-Degree Flip-Touch LCD Monitor and Creative Shooting Functions

Selfies are easily captured as both still images and videos with the Olympus PEN E-PL8’s tilt-touch LCD monitor. A wide range of shooting functions provides high-quality selfies with unique and creative expressions.

1. Downward-Opening 180-Degree Flip-Touch LCD Monitor

The Olympus PEN E-PL8 is equipped with a large high-definition touch-enabled LCD monitor that rotates downward 180 degrees to enable simplified operation without accidentally capturing the user’s finger in the shot. The compact grip on the front makes holding the camera more comfortable.

The optional Fisheye Body Cap Lens, BCL-0980 (9mm f8.0 Fisheye), can capture the entire background in the shot, perfect for group photos and selfies while traveling.

2. Selfie Mode

When the LCD monitor is flipped downward, Selfie Mode is automatically activated and the image shown on the monitor turns into a mirror display. In addition to the e-Portrait[3], shutter release, custom self-timer and brightness adjustment buttons[4], video Clips and movie recording buttons have been added to the monitor display for a variety of touch operations. The video Selfie Mode makes recording selfie movies smooth and easy, and displays a movie effect button as well as a movie recording button, brightness adjustment button and video Clips button.

The shutter release button is designed to capture a photo one second after it’s touched so you can shift your eyes from your finger to the lens for better selfies. e-Portrait makes skin look smoother in photos. When an electronic zoom lens is attached to the camera, it automatically switches the zoom to a wide-angle setting[5] for quick selfie shooting with the optimal wide angle.

3. Creative Shooting Functions

Art Filters may be used with selfies for expanded expressions. Users can check the effects in Live View while selecting filters for shots that perfectly fit their image. Art Filter options may also be applied to each frame[6] in Photo Story, a feature that allows users to combine multiple shots into a single image for a greater variety of expression. 

Built-In Wi-Fi for Remote Shooting and Wireless Uploading and Sharing

The built-in Wi-Fi and dedicated Olympus Image Share smartphone app allows users to wirelessly connect the Olympus PEN E-PL8 to their smartphone for instant sharing of high-quality images on social networks. Users avoid troublesome initial settings by simply scanning the QR code that appears on the camera monitor with their smartphone to complete the connection with a few easy steps. Remote shooting allows users to use their smartphone as a remote control. They can adjust camera settings and compose on a smartphone screen to capture the best shot.

Clips and Art Filter Movie

Users are increasingly posting videos to social networks. To meet this need, the Olympus PEN E-PL8 is equipped with enhanced movie recording features.

1. Clips

This feature combines multiple short video clips and adds background music and effects to create a single video. With Clips, users can easily turn everyday scenes into impressive short movies. They can also download and add background music that suits users’ tastes[7].

2. Art Filter Movie

Art Filters are available for video capture, just as they are for still-image capture. Everyday scenes and precious moments can be captured with an artistic finish in videos for lasting memories.

3. Movie Effects

Four different Movie Effects can be applied to videos. The Old Film Effect allows users to record videos that look like antique films and Art Fade Effect provides smooth transitions from one effect to another. 

Excellent Imaging Performance

The camera’s high image quality, inherited from the Olympus OM-D series of interchangeable lens cameras, allows for quality and performance that satisfies professional needs. The 16 megapixel Live MOS sensor retains details in shadow and faithfully represents night scenes and dark indoor scenes. The wide dynamic range provides smooth transitions from light to shadow to beautifully capture high-contrast scenes. The TruePicVII Image Processor (also used in Olympus’ flagship OM-D E-M1) brings out the best of the excellent optical performance and quality of M.ZUIKO^®Digital lenses for high resolution and vivid color reproduction. The powerful VCM in-body image stabilization makes it possible to capture sharp, blur-free images even in low light.