OM System confirms new PEN M43 compact camera in development to counter Canon PowerShot V1

Olympus — now OM System — and Micro Four Thirds fans have been practically begging for an updated version of the Olympus Pen-F camera that led the charge when it came to compact Micro Four Thirds cameras. When OM System announced the OM System OM-3 as a relatively compact interchangeable-lens M43 camera with strong retro styling, many assumed that this would be OM System's replacement for the Pen F. 

Now, though, according to OM System's Vice President of Brand Planning and Product Strategy, Kazuhiro Togashi (via PetaPixel), OM System is currently investigating how to approach an updated Pen camera. PetaPixel also said in the comments on the interview article that OM System confirmed the Pen is "in active development," which doesn't clear things up on a release timeline, but it should come as good news for fans of the Pen series. 

“So of course we are thinking the Pen series is an important lineup for our company. We are trying to study the success of the Pen series, but again, the OM-3 is not a successor of the Pen. The Pen series remains an important part of our portfolio, and we are actively exploring the possibility of a new Pen model, and are currently considering what Pen series model we can offer as OM System.”

This seemingly also confirms that any future compact Pen camera would continue to use the Micro Four Thirds system as its backbone. Further comments made in the same interview also seem to suggest that OM System will be casting a wide net with the next Pen camera: 

"We want to make sure photographers actually enjoy operating the camera. We are really considering which kind of product may be better to expand to new users. Maybe they want to continue to use their smartphone, but have some interest in standalone cameras.”

OM System would then be competing in the same market as cameras like the Canon PowerShot V1, recently leaked PowerShot V3, and Sony ZV-E10 II (curr. $998 on Amazon) for a user-base that is mostly focussed on compact cameras to handle their social media posting needs. While it's obviously still very early days, any camera targeting this user base will likely need to be priced relatively reasonably — around the $900–1,500 range — to make sense to most consumers. 

OM System's comments about appealing to smartphone users also suggests that it may opt for simplified controls, like the film simulation dial found on the Fujifilm X-T50 (curr. $1,399 on Best Buy)