Olympus E-PL7 Field Test

It seems from some of our reader comments that the E-PL7 is not quite understood for what it is. Perhaps it's the change in style from its predecessor, bringing it closer in appearance to the flagship E-P5's look than the E-PL5, a line that has remained fairly consistent over the past few generations in terms of external design. Or maybe it's the marketing hype of the "selfie" screen, which we promoted in our initial coverage but didn't quite resonate with the enthusiast crowd. Whatever the case may be, after spending my first few days with this camera I can very much report to you that it's quite a solid step up for my tastes and shooting preferences.

I talked a lot about this basic differences between this camera and its predecessor the E-PL5 in our walkaround, but would like to expound on some of them now after having spent more time with it. The most significant improvement for my style is moving the control dial to the top deck, and making it a really solid one at that. It has a super-precision feel for this price range, is similar to the twin dials on the pricier E-P5, and having a top deck dial is so much easier and more intuitive to me than having to use a dial on the back located in the menu area. In addition, the mode dial is much more firm and solid than the one on the E-PL5, easily twice as firm, and far less likely to be accidentally bumped in a bag.