Hmph. Am I having an epiphany here? Don't sell PEN-F because it's just crazy enough of a camera but don't buy any small, ugly rendering native lenses to it either. Instead I should probably go further with my Leica M glass and then purchase an adapter so that I can use my Leica glass for telephoto, landscape things. Oh my.
Update.
I bought a M-M43 adapter a while back and only today I got around to shoot something.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I took with me the 35 Summicron on my M, and the CV 50 Heliar on the Pen-F. Liked the combo in theory, go about the world with a 35 mm and a 100 mm view and capture each thing with the option that suits it stronger.
I looked forward making use of Pen-F's strong suits.
- Remarkably good IBIS that is still relevant and competitive against the newer wave of offerings by Panasonic, Oly.
- The EVF that is actually underrated. A crisp OLED screen with a smaller magnification actually has been the best EVF in a way I've used. The smaller view helps me see all the corners of my composition easily.
- The shutter is very quiet and swift at 1/8000 second min.
- The sensor/image processing is forgiving about some overexposure -- a great thing.
- The skintones come out of the camera really nicely.
But.
Hate to give such a strong judgment after a quick ~2-hour camera walk but Olympus is not a great platform for adapted MF lenses.
This is exactly how I envisioned things back in June, and previously. The tools that Olympus offers aren't that great for fast-paced work -- how I like to operate currently. I fully acknowledge that on tripod operation, Pen-F rocks the socks out of any of my cameras, with its great tilt/swivel screen, great Olympus features and so on. But on the streets, a manual focus lens of this FL caliber requires a cumbersome circus to get things in focus.
First, the focus peaking slows the display view down to jagged mess, worse than M240 to be honest. It's not smooth and it's not going to be my choice, ever. Not to mention that FP can't ever be that accurate anyway.
When I magnify, the camera won't unmagnify at half-press of a shutter. It becomes cumbersome really quick. Fine for landscape work, unfine for anything fast-paced.
Even if it did unmagnify, magnified view means I've lost the overall composition.
The camera forgets about my selected FL and I have to reset it every time I power on the camera. Infuriating. It has something to do with my custom presets from time times I had Laowa 7.5mm (a dead lens as well). This battling with the menus and custom presets (even if I stayed in A mode) constantly reminded me I'm fighting a fancy little computer here, not really operating a simple camera apparatus.
I think I can cross the pretty little Pen off my list. I still could try my luck with the Olympus 45/1.8 lens for instance but perhaps it's a lost cause.
I made my bed with Leica, I guess I gotta continue lie in it!