Olympus PEN E-PL9

The Olympus PEN E-PL9 combines the unique PEN style with generous features. Audley Jarvis learns whether it’s Olympus’s best entry-level mirrorless model to date

- Audley Jarvis

Alongside the E-PL8 that was released in 2016, the E-PL9 serves as the entry point to Olympus’s PEN family of retro rangefinder-inspired mirrorless digital cameras. Positioned by Olympus as a fashionable entry-level camera for style-conscious users, the E-PL9 is primarily targeted at bloggers and first-time mirrorless buyers looking to upgrade from their smartphone. As such, it’s designed to be small, stylish and easy to use.

Features

The E-PL9 is built around a 16MP Four Thirds CMOS sensor that has been widely employed by other entry-level and mid-range Olympus mirrorless cameras over the past few years. This has proved to be very capable in the past, delivering image quality that is far above anything that could be expected from a small-sensor compact or a smartphone camera. While the sensor remains unchanged, the E-PL9’s image processor has been upgraded to the TruePic VIII – as used by both the OM-D E-M10 Mark III and the flagship OM-D E-M1 Mark II. The primary benefit this brings is 4K video capture at 25fps, along with a 120fps slow-motion capture mode. It’s also possible to extract 8MP still images from 4K footage while in playback mode. While the E-PL9 features twin stereo microphones directly in front of the hotshoe, there’s neither a dedicated microphone input nor a headphone socket.

The E-PL9 also inherits the same 121-point contrast-detect AF system found inside the OM-D E-M10 Mark III, which provides an 11x11 grid that covers the majority of the frame, with only a small border around the edges left uncovered. In addition to single-point AF, the E-PL9 also provides nine-point group AF and a fully automatic AF mode that employs all 121 AF points. Face priority and Face/Eye priority are also provided for easy portrait shots, while autofocus modes extend to Single (S-AF), Continuous (C-AF), Tracking (C-AF + TR) and Manual focus (MF).