I came to Micro-4/3rds looking for a small light camera. I initially settled on the GX850 as the smallest lightest then available. Since then I've been tempted by, and discarded various cameras, for various reasons. The cameras have been, with weights in grams, and relative to the GX850.GX850 267gGX9 448g  (1.7x)GFX 50R 785g (2.9x) Fuji, medium format 1865GM5 210g (0.8x)EPL-7 365g  (1.4x)The main thing that differentiates these is the viewfinder, or lack thereof, and the screen, whether it flips or not.The one big thing I missed with the GX850 was a viewfinder. I can do without it in most circumstances, but in bright light, or shooting action, it's handy.So I looked at the GX9. It's a seriously nice camera, but just too big. Not only is the weight 1.7x the GX850, it's enormous (compared to the GX850). I just couldn't get used to it as a camera to take with me, so it got relegated to "studio" work, where size doesn't matter so much as it's sitting on a tripod. I could do without the extra pixels (20MPix vs 16Mpix), and the attendant larger files.Taking the thought of a studio camera to the extreme, I decided to try the Fuji medium format, in the shape of a GFX50R, which is a lot like the GX9, but twice the size (2.9 GX850s) and 6 times the sensor area. Surpringly, I'd have no problem hefting that for special occasions. With my favorite lens (110/2), that weighs in at 1,856g. But it's not something I fancy taking for general travel photography, where size and weight matter.Also, while the GFX makes very nice photos, unless you're going to print them at greater than 30" (my standard for a large print), you really don't see that much, if any, difference to any of the micro-4/3rds cameras. At the extortionate cost of GF lenses, I was never going to have as full a set of lenses as I do for m4/3. Not to mention the enormous files it produces (48MPix, and 50MB).Next I got interested in the GM5, nice and small, and has a viewfinder. I found a nice copy of that, and excitedly set about trying it out. Then I found I could no longer get on with a non-articulating screen. If I'm using a screen, which I prefer, I like holding it at waist level, for which you really, really need an articulating screen, preferably a fold out one.One other problem with the GM5, it doesn't have DFD (depth from defocus) which means its focus performance notably lags behind the GX bodies. Apart from those issues, it is a really nice camera, and amazingly small.The EPL-9/10 caught my eye as a compromise, a little heavier, but not much bigger. On deeper research, reading the manuals, I found that those had suffered greatly in the last big Olympus "rationalization" of the menus. Olympus revamped the menus between the EPL-8 and 9. One thing they totally killed was bracketing. Bracketing is a feature I use heavily, and decided I can't do without. Instead of brackets being applied to any shooting mode, it's now relegated to a special mode "AE-Bracket" and basically useless.Looking further back in the line, I decided the EPL-7 looked like a good choice. It has a flippy screen, which also flips down, something the GX850 doesn't do (the GX9 does). It has an accessory viewfinder (VF-4). I found a new in box, old stock, one for sale. It's probably the last new EPL-7 ever sold. i've been using an EPL-7 as my main camera ever since.It's 16Mpix, which is a good thing to me, 20+MPix doesn't make better pictures, and just wastes file space.It does have an anti-alias filter, which in theory makes it less sharp, but I've had problems with aliasing on cameras without them. So I think an AA filter is a good thing.It uses Olympus menus, and the Olympus UI. I'd much prefer the Panasonic interface, but I can live with the Olympus one. One interesting difference is bracketing, on the Panasonic, you select bracketing, it works. On the Olympus, there's about 5 different settings you have to manage to make it work. The Olympus still treats it as 3 shots, not a bust, so if you don't hold the shutter long enough, it doesn't take your entire bracket, which has an entire set of consequences like the UI not working in any sensible manner, until you take the final shot of the bracket. Clunky, but I can live with it.The camera is surprisingly heavy, it's very dense, but it's not too heavy for me. It's is a bit bigger than the GX850, but not sufficiently bigger to bother me (like the GX9 bothered me).

Barry, perhaps without you noticing, the future has arrived....Even if it's not marketed widely in the USA, the Oly E-P7 is a brilliant camera, with 5 axis IBIS (not 3) and a 20 MP sensor (not 16) - plus better controls, and seven years of other developments. etc etc.Review available at.... https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_e_p7_reviewPL7 and my own PL8 aren't bad cameras - but truly fail to compare!Peter

Isola Verde wrote:Barry, perhaps without you noticing, the future has arrived....Even if it's not marketed widely in the USA, the Oly E-P7 is a brilliant camera, with 5 axis IBIS (not 3) and a 20 MP sensor (not 16) - plus better controls, and seven years of other developments. etc etc.Review available at.... https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_e_p7_reviewPL7 and my own PL8 aren't bad cameras - but truly fail to compare!PeterI already checked that out in 2021, it has the same fatal flaw as the other newer Pens, an unusable bracketing mode.It may have been the camera which got me started looking at the Pens though, and I settled on the E-PL7.

Barry Twycross wrote:Isola Verde wrote:Barry, perhaps without you noticing, the future has arrived....Even if it's not marketed widely in the USA, the Oly E-P7 is a brilliant camera, with 5 axis IBIS (not 3) and a 20 MP sensor (not 16) - plus better controls, and seven years of other developments. etc etc.Review available at.... https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_e_p7_reviewPL7 and my own PL8 aren't bad cameras - but truly fail to compare!PeterI already checked that out in 2021, it has the same fatal flaw as the other newer Pens, an unusable bracketing mode.It may have been the camera which got me started looking at the Pens though, and I settled on the E-PL7.I've no idea what you mean by any of hat.Glad you're happy... though very far from a fatal flaw for me.Peter

Isola Verde wrote:Barry Twycross wrote:Isola Verde wrote:Barry, perhaps without you noticing, the future has arrived....Even if it's not marketed widely in the USA, the Oly E-P7 is a brilliant camera, with 5 axis IBIS (not 3) and a 20 MP sensor (not 16) - plus better controls, and seven years of other developments. etc etc.Review available at.... https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_e_p7_reviewPL7 and my own PL8 aren't bad cameras - but truly fail to compare!PeterI already checked that out in 2021, it has the same fatal flaw as the other newer Pens, an unusable bracketing mode.It may have been the camera which got me started looking at the Pens though, and I settled on the E-PL7.I've no idea what you mean by any of hat.Glad you're happy... though very far from a fatal flaw for me.PeterIt's explained in initial post you replied to.

Barry Twycross wrote:Isola Verde wrote:Barry Twycross wrote:Isola Verde wrote:Barry, perhaps without you noticing, the future has arrived....Even if it's not marketed widely in the USA, the Oly E-P7 is a brilliant camera, with 5 axis IBIS (not 3) and a 20 MP sensor (not 16) - plus better controls, and seven years of other developments. etc etc.Review available at.... https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_e_p7_reviewPL7 and my own PL8 aren't bad cameras - but truly fail to compare!PeterI already checked that out in 2021, it has the same fatal flaw as the other newer Pens, an unusable bracketing mode.It may have been the camera which got me started looking at the Pens though, and I settled on the E-PL7.I've no idea what you mean by any of hat.Glad you're happy... though very far from a fatal flaw for me.PeterIt's explained in initial post you replied to.Wish I had never bothered to do so - as a day's  worth  of others here have chosen.

Isola Verde wrote:Barry Twycross wrote:Isola Verde wrote:Barry, perhaps without you noticing, the future has arrived....Even if it's not marketed widely in the USA, the Oly E-P7 is a brilliant camera, with 5 axis IBIS (not 3) and a 20 MP sensor (not 16) - plus better controls, and seven years of other developments. etc etc.Review available at.... https://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/olympus_e_p7_reviewPL7 and my own PL8 aren't bad cameras - but truly fail to compare!PeterI already checked that out in 2021, it has the same fatal flaw as the other newer Pens, an unusable bracketing mode.It may have been the camera which got me started looking at the Pens though, and I settled on the E-PL7.I've no idea what you mean by any of hat.Glad you're happy... though very far from a fatal flaw for me.No EVF port.No excuse for that.PeterTEdolph

The E-pl7 was the last E-pl camera to be worthy of the moniker.The EVF II port has many uses besides just the EVF.  There never was a reason to get rid of it.I almost chose it to replace my E-pl1 but a local sale on the E-p5 moved me in that direction.  Honestly, for me the PL7 would have been the better choice, weighs less, less complicated, etc.The only thing "wrong" with it  (and all Olympus cameras) is that they abandoned the 4:3 aspect ratio LCD.Tedolph