Olympus has announced the PEN E-PL9, which improves upon its predecessor in terms of design and features. The camera has a more pronounced grip and larger mode dial, and its faux leather wraps around the body. The E-PL9 finally has a built-in flash, so you no longer need to tote around the small external flash that came with earlier models.
The E-PL9 uses a 16MP Live MOS sensor as well as the same TruePic VIII processor found on the E-M10 Mark III. While the E-M10 III has in-body 5-axis image stabilization, the E-PL9 is limited to three axes. The two cameras share the same 121-point contrast-detect AF system with face and eye detection.
The most significant new features are 4K video capture (at 30p) and Bluetooth. The latter allows for quick pairing and the ability to have tagged photos transferred while the camera is turned off. Olympus has also added a 'Sweep Panorama' feature (nine years after Sony pioneered it,) a new Instant Film art filter and improved automatic scene selection.
