Olympus PEN E-PL5 vs Olympus PEN E-P7

In this comparison, we will evaluate the Olympus PEN E-PL5 and the Olympus PEN E-P7, highlighting the advantages of each over the other, discussing their pros and cons, shared strengths and weaknesses, and providing a rating based on their available features and specifications to assist you in choosing the one that best suits your needs.

Olympus PEN E-PL5 was introduced in September 2012 and Olympus PEN E-P7 was introduced in June 2021. Let us first list highlights of the models.

Now that we've looked at the most essential specifications and gained a basic understanding of these cameras, we can delve into more details and see the differences between them.

This section shows those features and specifications which are the reason to choose Olympus PEN E-PL5 over Olympus PEN E-P7.

This section shows those features and specifications which are the reason to choose Olympus PEN E-P7 over Olympus PEN E-PL5.

We already listed pros and cons of each model. However, you may also find useful to look at their common strengths and weaknesses shown side-by-side.

Screen

Olympus PEN E-PL5 and Olympus PEN E-P7 have 3.0" Tilting screens with 460k dot and 1,040k dot resolutions respectively. Tilting screen makes cameras very useful for photography purposes but not so useful for video shooting. Both models feature touchscreen which has advantages such as easy menu navigation, intuitive controls, quick setting adjustment and most importantly a Touch-to-Focus functionality allowing users to select a specific point on the screen where they want the camera to focus. This feature can be helpful for achieving precise focus in both photo and video recording.

Camera does not have a built-in viewfinder but an optional electronic viewfinder can be attached on Olympus PEN E-PL5.

Olympus PEN E-PL5 features a 16.1 megapixel Micro Four Thirds CMOS sensor with dimensions of 17.3 x 13 mm and a total area of 224.9 mm². Its native ISO range is 200 - 25,600. Olympus PEN E-P7 features a 20 megapixel Micro Four Thirds CMOS sensor with dimensions of 17.4 x 13 mm and a total area of 169 mm². Its native ISO range is 200 - 25,600 and expands to 100 - 25,600 in boosted mode.

Here is a sensor size comparison chart where you can see how different sensors compare with each other:

Sensor size chart

	Sensor	Dimensions	Area	Aspect Ratio	Crop Factor
	Medium Format	44 x 33 mm	1452 mm2	4:3	0.79x
	Full Frame	36 x 24 mm	864 mm2	3:2	1x
	APS-H	27 x 18 mm	486 mm2	3:2	1.3x
	APS-C	23.6 x 15.6 mm	368.2 mm2	3:2	1.5x
	APS-C (Canon)	22.3 x 14.9 mm	332.3 mm2	3:2	1.6x
	Micro Four Thirds	17.4 x 13 mm	226.2 mm2	4:3	2x
	1-inch	13.2 x 8.8 mm	116.2 mm2	3:2	2.7x
	1/1.7-inch	7.44 x 5.58 mm	41.5 mm2	4:3	4.7x
	1/2.3-inch	6.17 x 4.55 mm	28.1 mm2	4:3	5.6x

Olympus PEN E-PL5 can take pictures up to 4608 x 3456 resolution. It can also take pictures with lower resolution like 2560 x 1920, 1024 x 768 with 4:3, 16:9 aspect ratios. Olympus PEN E-P7 is equipped with TruePic VIII processor and can take pictures up to 5184 x 3888 resolution.

Lens Mount

Cameras have Micro Four Thirds lens mount. Due to their Micro Four Thirds sensor their crop factor (also called lens multiplier) is equal to 2x. This means that a 35mm equivalent focal length of the mounted lens will be equal to its actual focal length times 2.

No Low-Pass Filter on Olympus PEN E-P7

There is no optical low-pass filter (OLPF), also known as an anti-aliasing filter, in front of the sensor on Olympus PEN E-P7. This results in a slightly sharper image but may also introduce moiré patterns and aliasing artifacts when photographing subjects with fine, repetitive patterns or details.

In-Body Image Stabilization

The cameras have a built-in in-body image stabilization (IBIS) (4.5 stops of compensation in Olympus PEN E-P7). This means that you are still getting vibration reduction when cameras are paired with non-image stabilizied lenses. It also works with lenses with optical image stabilization and in combination can achieve even better compensation.

Built-in Wi-Fi on Olympus PEN E-P7

Olympus PEN E-P7 has a built-in Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n, 2.4 GHz) which allows to easily transfer photos and videos from the camera to other Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as smartphones, tablets, printers, or computers. This eliminates the need for cables and allows for quick and convenient media sharing and social media integration. It gives you the ability to control your camera remotely using a smartphone or tablet. This is particularly useful for taking self-portraits, group shots, or capturing images in challenging conditions without having to touch the camera. Firmware updates can also be downloaded and installed wirelessly.
  Check out the cameras in our database that have built-in WiFi.

Bluetooth on Olympus PEN E-P7

Olympus PEN E-P7 has a built-in Bluetooth (version 4.2 LE) which lets you to connect the camera to a smartphone or a dedicated remote control device. This allows you to remotely trigger the camera, adjust settings and controls remotely through a paired mobile app. While Wi-Fi is generally faster for transferring larger files, Bluetooth can be used for small, selective transfers, it can provide real-time information about your camera's battery status, memory card capacity, and other key settings directly on your paired smartphone or smartwatch.
  Check out the cameras in our database that have built-in Bluetooth.

USB Inputs and HDMI Outputs

Both models have USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/sec) inputs for data transfer. Olympus PEN E-PL5 has a Mini type C HDMI and Olympus PEN E-P7 has a Micro HDMI connector for video signal output.

Battery

Olympus PEN E-PL5 comes with BLS-5 battery pack with battery life of 360 shots and Olympus PEN E-P7 comes with BLS-50 battery pack with battery life of 360 shots.

External Storage Slots

Olympus PEN E-PL5 has a single SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot. Olympus PEN E-P7 has a single SD/SDHC/SDXC (UHS-II) card slot.

Shutter

Olympus PEN E-P7 has Electronic focal-plane shutter. Shutter speed can go up to 1/4000 sec on Olympus PEN E-PL5, and up to 1/16000 sec with electronic shutter and up to 1/4000 sec with mechanical shutter on Olympus PEN E-P7. Olympus PEN E-PL5 can shoot continuously up to 8.0 fps. Olympus PEN E-P7 can shoot continuously up to 8.7 fps.

Exposure

Exposure meterings of Olympus PEN E-P7 ranges from -2 to +20 EV and you can set the exposure compensation within the ±3 EV range on Olympus PEN E-PL5 and ±5 EV range on Olympus PEN E-P7. You can also do exposure bracketing and manual exposure adjustment on Olympus PEN E-PL5 and exposure lock, exposure bracketing and manual exposure adjustment on Olympus PEN E-P7.

Flash

Olympus PEN E-P7 has a built-in flash with maximum range of 5.40 m at ISO 100 and also accepts external flash. Olympus PEN E-PL5 has no built-in flash but an external flash may be connected via Hot Shoe or Wireless connection. The fastest flash synchronization speed is 1/250 sec on Olympus PEN E-PL5.

Olympus PEN E-PL5 body has dimensions of 111 x 64 x 38 mm (4.37 x 2.52 x 1.5") and Olympus PEN E-P7 body has dimensions of 118 x 69 x 38 mm (4.65 x 2.72 x 1.5"). Olympus PEN E-PL5 weighs 325 g (0.72 lb / 11.46 oz) and Olympus PEN E-P7 weighs 337 g (0.74 lb / 11.89 oz).

Olympus PEN E-PL5

Olympus PEN E-P7

111 mm

64 mm

118 mm

69 mm

64 mm

69 mm

38 mm

38 mm