OM System Confirms New PEN Camera Is Coming, Executives Hint at Iconic Revival

Two OM System executives at CP+ 2026 confirmed what Micro Four Thirds shooters have been hoping to hear for years: a new PEN camera is coming. Senior Vice President Tazuhiro Togashi and Director of Product Planning Hiroki Koyama told Spanish photo publication Photolari in an interview whose full transcript was subsequently shared widely: "We can't give a specific date, but we have plans to launch a new PEN series under the OM System brand." The quote, translated from Japanese via Google, marks a meaningful shift in how the company has been talking about the beloved line.

That language matters. At the BILD Expo last summer, OM System reps said the PEN series "remains as an important part of our portfolio" and that the company was "actively exploring the possibility of a PEN model." Exploring the possibility is hedging. Having plans is a roadmap entry.

OM System holds the licensing rights for the Olympus PEN name, which gives the company the legal runway to bring the line back under its own brand. What Togashi and Koyama declined to offer was anything more concrete: no model name, no specs, no target launch window, and no indication of whether a new PEN would ship globally or follow the regional pattern of its predecessor.

That predecessor, the Olympus PEN E-P7, is the last camera to carry the name and it is a product with a complicated footprint. Launched shortly after the Olympus-to-OM-System transition, it is available only in select markets across Asia and Europe. Despite approaching its fifth birthday, it still appears on best-seller lists in Japan, which tells you something about how much appetite there is for a compact, retro-styled Micro Four Thirds body at that price point.

The caveat worth keeping in front of you: plans confirmed in a trade-show interview are not shipping products. Digital Camera World noted pointedly that plans don't always translate into official launches, and a future PEN could again be limited to certain regions rather than offered as a global release. OM System itself would not be drawn on any of those specifics before an official announcement.

Still, the framing from Togashi and Koyama at CP+ 2026 is the clearest signal yet that the PEN is not simply a heritage brand OM System is content to let age out quietly in the Japanese market.