I was looking for an upgrade for my Olympus Pen E-PL1. The E-PL7 fulfills my needs. My primary use for the camera is in a studio setup doing focus stacks of plants. It is indeed a great camera for that purpose: easy to use in the manual mode and easy to adjust exposure.

Replacing the E-PL6, the Olympus E-PL7 is a retro-styled mid-range 16MP Compact System Camera that sits below the O-MD E-M10 in the Olympus line-up. Boasting a slender, all-metal glossy body with a leather-style finish on the front, and a screen that flips 180° for shooting selfies, the camera is...

The Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7 is the latest PEN camera from Olympus and features built in Wi-Fi, tilting "selfie" touch-screen, updated Art Filters, along with a 16 megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor.

Good noise performance; Great image quality; Built in Wi-Fi; Wide range of Micro Four Thirds lenses; Stylish metal body; Dual axis electronic level; Excellent 3inch touch-screen; Live Bulb / Live Time feature; A large number of Art filters and effects available

Panoramic auto-stitching not available; Menu system could be daunting for new users

Gorgeous camera, perfect for street-style no fuss photography. Picture quality seems great and the facility to use additional lenses is really great too

Easy to use

Quite pricey

The Olympus E-PL7 is a compact and very portable ILC that provides very good image quality and performance. A great collection of lenses and creative shooting modes makes this camera a must see for the photography enthusiast. Read more in our Full Conclusion .

iAuto shooting mode is accurate and easy in all situations; Camera produces excellent overall image quality; Very compact and lightweight; easy to carry and operate; 3-axis IS is very handy and effective; High Res 3.0-inch LCD is great for shooting and viewing images; Screen tilts a full 180° for...

No built-in flash; Possible to forget external unit at home, No built-in OVF/EVF, although there is an optional EVF, Occasionally iAuto produced unreliable exposures with face detection

Much of the rest of the E-PL7 is familiar - it's based on a familiar sensor and the TruePic VII processor that offers very similar results to the chip used in the existing model. However, our early testing suggests the shutter shake isn't nearly as prominent as it had been on existing PEN models.

The new Pen E-PL7 doesn't introduce anything fundamentally different or novel; there's a screen that flips down (yes, down rather than up) through 180 degrees to facilitate selfies for example, and a couple of new Art Filters: Vintage and Partial Colour.

With fun features such as a "selfie screen", pared down controls and a user-friendly interface, the Olympus PEN E-PL7 is primarily aimed at point-and-shoot users. However, experienced photographers can find plenty of depth to keep their interest, with enough manual control to feel serious, and with...

Looks great; excellent touchscreen; improved handling; Wi-Fi works a treat; selfie screen if you fancy it

Incremental improvements for the series; detail lacks at high-ISO settings; Auto ISO has limited use

The E-PL7 is the first PEN-series camera to be announced since May 2013 and shares many features with the flagship E-P5 model unveiled at that time, along with the previous 'Lite' model, the E-PL6 (which didn't make it to the local market).

Olympus has received lots of praise for its OM-D series of compact system cameras, such as the OM-D E-M10 , OM-D E-M5 and OM-D E-M1 , but its Pen series has been a little overlooked in recent times.