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dmpop.xyz | The joy of rediscovering a 12-year-old camera
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The joy of rediscovering a 12-year-old camera
I've had enough of using my Android smartphone for casual snapshotting, I said to myself one day. I climbed to the attic and, after rummaging through boxes of stuff, unearthed an Olympus PEN Lite E-PL7 camera. I won it a lifetime ago when I participated in a photo competition held by Olympus Danmark. It wasn't the camera I would have bought myself, but that didn't stop me from having fun using it. Since then, I'd occasionally pull it out of storage, use it for a few days, and put it back where it came from. Because as much as I liked using it, it couldn't compete with the sheer convenience of an Android smartphone.
But things change, and convenience is no longer the overriding factor. I grew tired of the detached experience of photographing with a smartphone. In fact, taking a snapshot with a smartphone doesn't feel like an experience at all. It's more like a perfunctory action. So I thought the time was right to put my trusty Oly into action once again.
Even after so many years, it remains a solid performer — at least when it comes to everyday photography. Its 16MP sensor still delivers excellent results, and the JPEGs the camera produces require a minimum of tweaking. I installed the OI.Share app on my iPad, which I use to transfer selected JPEG files from the camera via Wi-Fi and then process them in Apple Photos. Admittedly, the Wi-Fi transfer is slow, but I usually fetch only a handful of files, so it's not a serious issue.
Unlike a smartphone, using a proper camera makes my heart sing. I can control the aperture via a physical dial, I can zoom using the lens's zoom ring, I can control exposure compensation and metering. And the shutter sound... I tell you, the E-PL7 has the best shutter sound in the world.
I wish the camera supported USB charging so I wouldn't need to rely on a proprietary charger. But that's the only inconvenience worth mentioning, really. Knowing how often my priorities and tastes change, there is no guarantee that the camera won't end up in storage again. But for now, I'm enjoying every moment I spend with this humble 12-year-old machine.
Published: 2026-07-19<br>Permalink
https://dmpop.xyz/article.php?id=2026-07-19_olympus-pen-lite-e-pl7.md
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dmpop
Linux user, amateur photographer, aviation enthusiast, clueless developer of TERMINAL-1090 and digiKampanion. I can mix a decent negroni, too. You can reach me at me@dmpop.xyz