AI that picked Oscar winners could predict the next President

There’s artificial intelligence in numbers. Unanimous A.I., a silicon valley startup, has built a platform that taps into the collective knowledge of a group of people to form its own opinions, preferences and surprisingly accurate predictions. The software called UNU successfully guessed last year’s Oscar winners (11 out of 15 categories) and most recently predicted the winning horses in the Kentucky Derby. Now the artificial swarm intelligence is hosting its first AMA on Reddit, where it will respond to questions pertaining to the US presidential elections.

Unlike robotic AIs that are being built to emulate the human brain, UNU works with existing human intelligence instead of replicating it. The platform, which is open to public, allows a group of people to come together and converge on an answer in real time. While a swarm of seven predicted the Oscars, the Derby decision came from 20 people. For the AMA at 1 P.M. ET today, the group that will make political predictions is expected to range from 100 to 200 people.

The participants will come from UNU’s current user base that has already answered fantasy football and cooking queries. The decision-making process, which will be live on Youtube through the AMA, is straightforward. When the users sign in, they are presented with a question and its potential answers. The group has 60 seconds to drag a puck towards a chosen answer with a graphical magnet. While each participant can only see their own puck, the group arrives at a collective decision that best represents the intelligence of the swarm.

UNU’s human-based group intelligence follows the natural workings of certain insects like bees that tend to find solutions in swarms. There’s a lot to learn from the hard working honey producers that thrive in togetherness, live in well-organized colonies and work in groups to find solutions for their striped community. As supporting evidence from nature, Louis Rosenberg, CEO of Unanimous A.I., points to a study that looked into the decision making tactics of honey bees.

Around early summer every year, a couple of hundred bee scouts split from a hive of thousands in search of a new home. When they spot a branch in a tree or a hole in the wall with the potential to make a good nest, they bring that information back to the colony, where instead of casting buzz votes, the bees break into a “waggle dance” to communicate their preferences.

Based on the bodily movements, the swarm reaches a decision. “They negotiate in real time through body vibrations and converge on a solution for the whole group,” Rosenberg tells Engadget. “Biologists have found that bees will pick the optimal site almost 80% of the time. No individual bee can understand the question or find and evaluate the site. But when a group of bees form swarm intelligence, it functions as a brain of brains. It [operates] like a neural network.”

Like the bees that swarm or birds that flock together, the artificial intelligence of UNU is based on the idea that people can be smarter together. “Nature has shown that by allowing groups of similar organisms to function in a closed loop system they can become smarter than any single individual in that system,” says Rosenberg. “In fact it becomes a super-organism.” The collective wisdom gives the swarm the ability to make decisions, have opinions and even take on a unique personality.

Since the system relies entirely on human knowledge and even instinct, it’s easy to think of it as a kind of crowdsourcing platform for opinions and intelligence. But according to Rosenberg, UNU doesn’t work like a poll or a survey that finds the average of the opinions in a group. Instead, it creates a platform that amplifies a group’s intelligence to create its own. For instance, when predicting the Derby winners, the swarm picked the first four horses accurately to win $11,000 in a grand bet called Superfecta. But individually, when asked to make the same predictions, none of the participants had more than one winning horse.

“Collectively, they make an expert,” says Rosenberg. “The individuals who participate in the swarm don’t have the answers that the swarm does. They got one horse right on an average. But even though no single individual in that swarm came close, the swarm was right.”

Experiments in predictions, like picking Derby winners or Trump’s potential VP, validate the premise of UNU: The intelligence of the swarm is greater than the sum of its participants. It builds the evidence for the effectiveness of collective thinking. But it also highlights the fact that an intelligent system can be built with human knowledge at its core. “We see swarm intelligence as a way to build systems that keep humans in the loop,” says Rosenberg. “Unlike AI, [where] we’re creating an intelligence from scratch that we have no reason to believe will share human values or interests or even act in ways that we as humans understand. When we’re building artificial neural networks we’re building an alien intelligence. But with swarm intelligence, we’re amplifying what’s most human about us rather than replacing it. UNU inherently has human values and interests in the system.”

While the human swarm system sounds safer than its robotic peers, its accuracy and superiority is yet to make an impact beyond the predictive format where it’s currently being tested. But eventually, if the idea sticks and takes on a large number of global users, UNU could turn into a “super expert”. Rosenberg presents the idea of a medical swarm of doctors that can accurately diagnose a disease. “Instead of relying on a single expert you’d have a group of experts who can collectively come up with answers that are significantly more insightful than individuals working on their own,” he says.​ “What we’ll see is the ability to democratize expertise.”

Wrap yourself in a cone of sound with this directional speaker

If you work in a crowded office, you’re probably considerate enough to wear a pair of headphones so you don’t disturb your co-workers with your raucous tunes. But headphones can be uncomfortable, plus they’re cumbersome to put on and off if all you want to do is catch a few seconds of a YouTube clip. The Soundlazer VR, however, offers a different solution. Debuting today on Kickstarter, it’s a unique speaker tech which aims to resolve that issue by surrounding you in a private cloud of sound.

Inside the Soundlazer VR is a slew of tiny little speakers that combine to create what founder Richard Haberkern says is a new directional audio system. It uses something called planar wave technology, which essentially broadcasts sound through parallel wave patterns that bounce off a curved reflector. “It’s like taking a bunch of flashlights side-by-side and pointing them at your ears,” he says. Haberkern is a serial inventor who’s done several successful projects on Kickstarter before, like the GPS Cookie and the Lumapad.

Sound reflectors aren’t anything new of course, but Haberkern’s take on it is a little different. He says he developed specific planar wave drivers that would work with a linear reflector instead of the more common parabolic models. This, he says, results in an “ultra high bandwidth” directional audio beam. Plus, unlike most parabolic reflectors, the Soundlazer’s slim design looks a little more appealing when hanging over your desk.

Haberkern gave us a brief demonstration of the Soundlazer VR in our San Francisco office. He hung it over a desk with a wire hanging system which is adjustable thanks to a spring loaded cable locking mechanism. He says the recommended height is around three to four feet above the desk, but you can of course change it to your preference. You’ll still need to connect it to a power outlet (via a standard 120/240VAC universal power adapter), but Haberkern says the power is delivered via the hanging steel cables so you won’t see any messy wires. It transmits your computer’s audio through Bluetooth. There’s also a two channel stereo amplifier built in.

I sat underneath the Soundlazer VR and watched a few YouTube music videos on the connected laptop. I heard the sound pretty loud and clear, as if they were transmitted through regular speakers. The audio level is consistent from the top of the unit all the way down, so you could theoretically use it with an adjustable-height sit-stand desk without issue. Then I got up from the desk and walked a few feet away. The audio gradually became softer and more muffled, and at around eight feet apart, I couldn’t make out much of the song’s lyrics at all. That crisp audio I heard just a few minutes ago was suddenly just background noise.

At this point, you might be wondering why Haberkern added “VR” to the product name. He says it’s because the Soundlazer surrounds you in a “virtual reality of sound,” not because it has anything to do with VR. You could theoretically use it while wearing a VR headset underneath, which would presumably be more comfortable than having to wear headphones along with the headset, but that’s sort of a stretch. It’s unfortunate, because the use of “VR” here is pretty misleading.

That said, Haberkern also added VR to the name to differentiate it from a previous product he invented a few years ago which bore the same Soundlazer moniker. The original Soundlazer, however, used tiny ultrasonic transducers to project audio, which resulted in a much lower fidelity than he wanted. Still, he took lessons learned from that project and applied it to the “VR” edition he’s pitching right now.

Ideally, Haberkern wants Soundlazer VR to be used in an office environment much like ours, with desks next to each other. Still, I wonder if that’s entirely practical. Even at eight feet away from the computer, I could still hear audio coming from it. Haberkern says that we’d eventually adjust to the audio levels so that we’d hear only what was coming out of our own SoundLazer VR units, but I’d have to use it on a regular basis to be sure. Additionally, the fact that you’d have to actually hang it from the ceiling sounds like way too much work for normal people. That said, Haberkern is selling a smaller desktop version of the Soundlazer VR that just sits on the table, no wire installation required.

The Junior version of the Soundlazer VR starts at around $169 on Kickstarter while the “full” size model starts at $209. If the campaign is successful, Haberkern hopes to ship the product by October this year.

Source: Kickstarter

BMO, Scotiabank, and TD Canada Trust Launch Apple Pay in Canada

BMO, Scotiabank, and TD Canada Trust, which make up three of the five largest banks in Canada, support Apple Pay starting today.

Apple Pay currently works with MasterCard and Interac at BMO, Visa and Interac at TD Canada Trust, and Visa, American Express, and Interac at Scotiabank. Eligible cards can be scanned or added manually to Apple Pay by tapping the “Add Credit or Debit Card” option in the Wallet app on iOS 8.1 or later.

All three banks are now listed as participating issuers on the Apple Pay website in Canada since May. Meanwhile, ATB Financial and Canadian Tire Bank have added support for in-app purchases with Apple Pay on compatible iPhone and iPad models, expanding upon their existing support for in-store payments.

Apple Pay is now available at all of Canada’s “Big Five” banks, which collectively cover more than 90 percent of Canadian banking customers, after CIBC and RBC began supporting the iPhone-based mobile payments service three weeks ago. The banks serve over 50 million customers combined worldwide.

Scotiabank direct banking subsidiary Tangerine will also support Apple Pay in the near future, according to its Twitter account.

The next largest Canadian banks and credit unions that would be suitable Apple Pay candidates in the future include Desjardins and National Bank of Canada, the two largest financial institutions in Québec, along with Vancity and Meridian. None have been listed as “coming soon” on the Apple Canada website.

Apple Pay can be used virtually anywhere contactless payments are already accepted in Canada, including at Apple Stores, Canadian Tire, Chapters, Coles, Indigo, London Drugs, Mark’s, McDonald’s, On The Go, Petro-Canada, Pizza Hut, Staples, Tim Hortons, and hundreds of other merchants nationwide.

Apple Pay support is also coming soon to Air Canada, Aldo, Domino’s, Pizza Pizza, Zulily, and the TTC transit system in Toronto. Additionally, the payments service can be used in apps such as Apple, Delta, Etsy, Fancy, Groupon, Kickstarter, Priceline, Starbucks, Ticketmaster, Uber, and Zara starting in June.

Apple Pay is compatible with iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and iPhone SE, in addition to the Apple Watch when paired with an iPhone 5 or later, for in-store payments, while the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4, and iPad mini 3 support Apple Pay for in-app purchases only.

Apple Pay has been available for non-bank-issued American Express cardholders in Canada since last November.

Apple Pay launched in the U.S. in October 2014 and expanded to the U.K. in July 2015. The service is also available in Australia, China, and Singapore. Apple is “working rapidly” to expand Apple Pay to additional regions, including Hong Kong and Spain and possibly France, Brazil, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia and Europe.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: Canada, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, BMO
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Apple Set to Enter Taiwan Bonds Market With $1 Billion Issuance

Apple is set to issue bonds in Taiwan with the aim of raising $1 billion, according to Reuters.

The news signals the company’s first attempt to sell bonds on the island where many of its supply chain partners operate, such as iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, contract chipmaker TSM, and camera lens producer Largan Precision.

The move would place Apple alongside a number of big global names that have already sold billions of dollars on Taiwan’s debt market. In December, for example, Intel sold $915 million of 30-year bonds with yields of 4.7 percent. Sales of bonds by global brewer Anheuser Busch InBev with the same maturity shortly followed to the tune of $1.47 billion, yielding 4.9 percent for the company.

“Taiwan insurance companies don’t have enough good (quality) fixed-income investment targets,” an unnamed securities house official told Reuters. “But their funds continue to grow because in this low rate macro-environment, consumers prefer to buy financial products offered by insurance companies rather than park money in a bank deposit.”

Apple appears ready to take advantage of the current liquidity of Taiwan’s flush bond market, where long-term buyers of debt continue to seek creditworthy names in a race for higher yields. Cash-rich investors have reportedly made the island a haven for debt financing, and Apple’s planned entrance into the market is likely to help the company secure solid partnership with its suppliers.

The U.S. dollar bonds will have a tenor of 30 years and be redeemable after the second year, sources told Reuters. Apple declined to comment, while the OTC exchange said it wasn’t aware of any plan by Apple to issue bonds. However, bond issuers only need three days or less to notify the exchange before being listed.

Tag: Taiwan
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New Objections to Apple’s Irish Data Center Focus on Proximity to Nuclear Power Plants

Apple continues to defend its proposed data center in Galway County, Ireland, during an oral hearing brought together from an appeal by independent planning body An Bord Pleanála. This time, those against the company’s site in Derrydonnell Forest argued that it is planning to build in a location that’s too close to a local nuclear power plant (via Business Insider).

Oscar Gonzalez, who works in data center site selection at Apple, defended the company’s west coast of Ireland location, stating that it meets Apple’s goal of being at least 320km from the nearest nuclear facility. According to a few witnesses present at the oral hearing, however, the Derrydonnell Forest location was so desired by Apple that the company manufactured the arbitrary 320km rule of thumb to eliminate areas of Ireland that are specially designated for data center construction.

“Brenda McGuane and Others” suggest that Apple adopted the 320km radius to eliminate more suitable plots of land in other parts of Ireland. They say: “the selection of sites greater than 320km from nuclear facilities is not a criteria adopted by Apple for its data centres in the US. The criteria has not been adopted by other international corporations.”

The fact that the likes of Google and Microsoft have built data centres near Dublin shows that other large tech companies are willing to put their server farms less than 320km away from UK nuclear sites.

The nearest nuclear facility to the proposed site – called Wylfa Nuclear Power Station – is located in Wales and is approximately 280km away, but it’s been closed down for a few years, so its use as a violation of Apple’s own rules didn’t hold much water during the oral hearings. The second farthest site that is currently operating, located in Sellafield in the United Kingdom, is about 370km from Derrydonnel Forest.

Gonzalez said that Apple first and foremost attempts to “minimize the risk” of site selection, referring to the 320km rule, but when it has to accept compromises it does so “reluctantly.” Engineer Allan Daly pointed out that Apple’s ruleset for picking and choosing data center locations remains largely nebulous on a plot-by-plot basis, suggesting the company “picks and chooses” when it decides to meet them. “The distances to nuclear facilities, military installation and fuel distribution centers are arbitrary, and can be increased or decreased,” Daly wrote.

In response, Gonzalez stuck to Apple’s reluctant compromise point, explaining that as time passes, potential data center sites are evaluated by different rules and perspective as Apple’s “huge growth in demand” changes the need for such sites. Other protestors of the Derrydonnel Forest location have attempted to use its negative impact on the population of local bats and badgers, and poor water maintenance that could flood a local golf course, as their main points of contention against Apple.

Tag: data center
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PES 2017 preview: First extended play of potential FIFA beater

FIFA has been sitting on the footy games throne for a fair few years now, with little or no competition of note, but it could very well be replaced this year. We’ve played PES 2017 and it is good. Scrub that, it is superb.

Considering we’ve only had access to a first-look build so far, that’s a bold statement. But we did have hours with it, amounting to around 13 to 14 matches, so feel comfortable that we’ve seen a lot of what it has to offer. On the pitch at least.

The preview build offered exhibition matches for one or two players, using any of four teams: France, Germany, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal.

We played with all of them many times, and in both single and two-player versus games, so have experienced all the options available to us at this stage. Naturally, that means that we didn’t get to see the main user interface, other modes or the overall presentation, but all of the new in-game features were present, so have a good understanding of the most important aspects of any football game. And it is here that PES 2017 excels.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 was a significant return to form for a series that had lost its way in recent years, but this year’s game steps up several gears more.

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PES 2017: Graphics

Graphics are so much better it looks like a different game entirely. Konami has now fully employed the Fox Engine for all in-game effects. This has resulted in far better player models, with lifelike physical attributes and faces. In addition, stadiums and crowds are better defined and animated, while things that FIFA fans now take for granted – such as graphical deterioration of the pitch as players slide and scrape across it – have made it to PES.

There are also small touches that, when added up, make the experience more rich than ever before – breath from players’ mouths on a cold day, water droplets coming from the nets as the ball hits them, that sort of thing.

In short, this PES finally takes on FIFA in the looks stakes.

And that’s without compromising on the speedy, fluid gameplay that made the series famous to begin with.

PES 2017: Gameplay

PES 2017 is fast and fun, as before, but also has realistic ball physics this time out to add realism. In addition, animations of players – goalkeepers especially – not only make the game look better in motion, but have a distinct effect on control and shot stopping.

The goalies, for example, now pull off a much larger variety of saves – from one-handed blocks to spectacular, twisting leaps. They can also make multiple saves in the same attack, something not likely in previous iterations. They can bounce to their feet to save a follow-up attempt and more.

The new animations go hand-in-hand with better artificial intelligence – again, for ‘keepers especially. Different goalies have different attributes, generally matching their real-life counterparts. Petr Cech, for example, is far more likely to stay on his line, while Manuel Neuer will rush out a bit more often.

AI improvements don’t stop there. An all-new feature added to PES 2017 is adaptive AI, where the computer is constantly learning how you play during a match and will adapt its own tactics and movements to counter your most regular traits. If you favour a winger too much, it will start to put more men on him. Or if you try through balls too often, defenders will position themselves better to cut them out.

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In single-player this makes a game ebb and flow much more like real football, where you require different strategies in order to take or maintain a lead. In practice, it works superbly. We constantly found ourselves having to switch the way we play as matches progressed, even changing set tactics and formations completely.

PES 2017: Tactics

Thankfully, a few new tactics have been introduced that you can assign to D-pad directions. Tiki Taka and Gegenpressing are two of the more modern real-world styles that have been added. They each make a big difference to how your players respond around the pitch and the latter is hilarious play with and against as players swarm around the man with the ball.

Corners also now afford more control and tactical options. Pressing the D-pad left at a corner brings up four orders for your players to undertake, including crowding the six-yard box, which we found to be very effective against computer and human opponent alike.

A complete reworking of the first-touch system, called real touch, makes keen control more important. And seasoned PES players will savour a more precise passing system. In short, this is a game by fans for fans, without little spared. Everything a PES loyalist could want seems to have been implemented, but without alienating newbies. And we get all this from just a first-look match build. Amazing.

First Impressions

There’s no doubt that the years in the wilderness, where the games were not of the standard expected, hurt Konami. However, rather than giving up, the development team has learned from its mistakes and is well underway in presenting a Pro Evolution Soccer as good as the much-loved PES 6. High praise indeed.

It’s worth noting that we’ve only played exhibition matches, without seeing MyClub or any of the other game styles set to be on offer. And although some teams have been fully licensed, the vast majority will once again be made up and require third-party patching. But it totally gets the basics right.

PES 2017 presents a fantastic game of football, the sort that will have you and your friends wailing with laughter and banter – as it did us, during our gameplay session.

We left with massive beaming smiles. As did Konami, because it knows it’s finally backing a winner.

Olympus Pen-F review: Not F-ing about

Say hello to the first Olympus Pen with a built-in viewfinder: the Pen-F. If you were knocking around 50-years back then you might know it as, well, the original Pen-F – the half-frame film camera that looks very similar to this 2016 digital re-work.

There’s something of a fashion going on with the compact system camera market at the moment, with most makers – well, all the serious ones anyway, sorry Canon – focusing on products with quality build at their core. We’ve seen the Fujifilm X-T1, the Panasonic GX8 and now Olympus with perhaps the best-looking of the bunch in the Pen-F. But that comes at a price: it costs £999 for the body alone. Yowch.

A quick glance and you can see how the Pen-F stands out from the crowd. That retro design features a front dial to adjust between mono/colour/filter options, to give a distinct point of difference from its competition. Go under the hood and there’s a new 20-megapixel sensor, plus built-in five-axis image stabilisation system to show off what the company can do.

Does that set the precedent for the Pen-F? We’ve been shooting with the one both at home and abroad to find out if there’s any F-ing about for the sake of visual design.

Olympus Pen-F review: Design

When we first saw the Pen-F it was in its black and silver combo finish (as photographed), which we think is the more dazzling finish compared to the all-black model we’ve received for review. It’s actually quite mind boggling how not a single screw face can be seen within the construction, apart from a semi-hidden pair behind the vari-angle screen, keeping the overall design profile rather high-end.

There are extra points of distinction that help the Pen-F further stand out. From the twist-dial on/off switch to the top left of the camera, down to the barrel-like shape of the viewfinder which protrudes slightly to the rear. We love the metal dials and the presence of a lock on the mode dial up top – although there’s still no lock on the exposure compensation dial, which is a shame. The Pen-F is all about its nuanced details.

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However, it isn’t quite perfect at every turn. Details such as the plasticky flap to the side or the dinky and squashed-together buttons to the rear stop it being quite the masterpiece that it first appears. Additionally we find the screen, which is fixed to a vari-angle bracket, a little tricky to purge from the rear of the camera. Not impossible, of course, but where the top corner of the screen is most accessible, it’s tough to dig fingers around its edge to extract the panel and manoeuvre it into a new position. Not that we’d want it too loose, but it shouldn’t be so stubborn.

So we’re splitting hairs here, as the Pen-F design is delightful (certainly better looking than the Panasonic GX8), but there are tiny tweaks that could be made for the better.

Olympus Pen-F review: Turn that dial

Then there’s that big dial to the front of the Pen-F, which is a defining point of the design – how many other cameras have anything like that? Olympus is clearly pushing its in-camera customisation agenda, with pre-set Mono, Art Filters, Colour Profile and Color Creator options available via a quick twist of this dial.

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Select “Art” (i.e. Art Filters) and use the thumbwheel control to the rear to move between different filter options. It’s like Instagram for the serious shooter, with all manner of options on offer. Actually too many options in our view: there should be a way to cut down the listings with a customised menu, to keep things simpler.

“Color”, a hue/saturation colour wheel that can adjust images to a considerable and customisable degree, is a feature that’s been in the last few generations of OM-D cameras but has been so hidden away within menus (that’s an Olympus special). Well, now it’s right at the fore and you can use it to portray interesting colour casts and adjust vividness.

The new “CRT” (Colour Profile) mode allows for isolation of primary colours across 12 points within the frame and their hue/saturation to be individually adjusted. It’s like plotting a graph, with fun results, but it’s complex and there’s only one pre-set to play with – if you want three distinct colour profiles for different scenarios then you can’t cater for that. Which seems odd given the excessive breadth of Art Filters.

“Mono”, which also has its own position on the dial, does as you would expect: dials all colour out for some sumptuous black and white shooting. You can apply one of nine colour filters at three varying levels of severity for different filtered results, which is great.

Thing is, for all the time we used the camera it was quite rare that we ever reached for this dial. And when we did, we felt it a touch too far towards the lens for our liking – it’s a bit stiff to use with just one or two fingers. However, when you do make adjustments you can immediately see on screen or through the finder what you’re doing, while the rear thumbwheel allows for quick adjustment between sub-settings. Our advice is to spend a bit of time setting up the options as you want them, which is more likely to then lure you in to use them frequently.

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Olympus Pen-F review: Performance

Olympus has a certain way when it comes to in-camera controls. If you’re used to any other camera system then the abundance of menus and locations of some will likely feel alien at first. All it takes is a little learning, though, as everything you could need is to hand – whether quick-access to the main controls using the rear d-pad and two rear function buttons, or digging deeper into the menus.

Operationally the Pen-F is a lot like its OM-D cousins, really. With an eye fixed to that viewfinder an 81-point autofocus system is at your disposal. A quirky feature we like is that by pressing a finger on the rear touchscreen and dragging it around you can select the focus point with ease, which is an idea adopted from the OM-D range.

Back to the viewfinder for a moment, though. This is a big deal in Pen land, as the F is first of its kind to feature a finder, which Fujifilm would describe as “rangefinder style”. We wouldn’t call it exactly that, bar for its side-aligned positioning, as it’s a usual 2.36m-dot electronic panel. Plenty crisp to see in detail what’s going on, even if it does take a microsecond to auto activate and isn’t as physically large as the competitions’ offerings.

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Olympus Pen-F review – sample image at ISO 3200

The focus system is similar to that found in the OM-D E-M5 II – the Pen is contrast-detection only, it doesn’t use the Hybrid AF system of the top-end OM-D – which makes it snappy, just not the very best in class. We tend to lean to Panasonic G-series for that because of the Pinpoint focus mode option.

With the 17mm lens attached to the Pen-F for this review you’ll need to be careful with critical focus as close-up isn’t its forte and we’ve found focus can be behind where the AF point suggests it is.

Burst mode is speedy, offering 10 frames per second (10fps) which can hit 11fps with the electronic shutter selected and image stabilisation switched off. We used the electronic shutter for much of our test as it means silent shooting and faster shutter speeds that are particularly useful in brighter conditions when you want to use a wide-open aperture.

Battery life is claimed to be around the 330 shots per charge mark, which wasn’t far off the count. With some video work, fiddling with menus and not always fully switching the camera off between uses, we achieved 260 shots in one charge. Recharging the battery in its provided cradle means you can make the most of a second battery with ease, should you buy an extra. Overall that battery life is ok, but not great.

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Olympus Pen-F review – sample image at ISO 1600 (1/10th sec) – 100 per cent crop

Olympus Pen-F review: Super stabilisation

Premier to the Pen-F’s feature set is Olympus’ 5-axis image stabilisation system, designed to counteract pitch, yaw, roll, and vertical/horizontal shift. You can actually hear it “fizz” into action in use, with a sound that, despite being kind of irksome, lets you know for sure it’s operational.

The system is said to be good for counteracting 5-stops, putting it up there among the best systems on the market. And that can really be felt, especially in video mode where it’s like having a virtual Steadicam take ahold of the camera.

We’ve used the Pen-F in some dim conditions and have noticed its selection of slower shutter speeds to be of no concern (subject permitting). A sunset snap of the Hong Kong skyline at 1/10th second retains plenty of sharpness and saved us from shooting at a higher sensitivity than the selected ISO 1600. Very impressive. The obvious difficulty, though – as with any stabilisation system – is that subject movement can inject its own issues, as we found when snapping a dog sat on its owner’s lap (should have selected shutter priority, really).

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Olympus Pen-F review – sample image at ISO 1600 (f/4)

One potential downside of the stabilisation system is that it cannot work in tandem with lens-based stabilisation, should you have a Panasonic Micro Four Thirds lens attached, for example. It’s a case of one or the other, rather than enabling the lens to combat horizontal and vertical movements and the body to counteract roll, pitch and yaw. Plus it further impacts on battery life, which is part of the reason that’s not especially long-lasting.

Olympus Pen-F review: Image quality

Under the hood – not that you’d be able to get there with ease, given the almost screw-free design – the Pen-F houses a 20-megapixel sensor, upping the resolution ante for the Pen series. Although not confirmed, we fully suspect this is the same Micro Four Thirds sensor as found in the Panasonic Lumix GX8, tuned to Olympus’ standards. In many ways, therefore, the Pen-F rules Olympus’ image quality output, as it even outshines the OM-D line. How does it fare?

In short, very well indeed. It’s a close match to the Panasonic GX8 in terms of results, with that added resolution bringing larger images than before in the Pen line-up without apparent cost to sharpness or image noise presence.

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Olympus Pen-F review – sample image at ISO 200 (f/2.5)

Sensitivity kicks off at ISO 200 – still no ISO 100 proper option, which is a shame, but an ongoing issue with most compact system cameras – and the results are crisp and clear. From cheetahs shot in Namibia to teddy bears shot in low-light in shop windows, through to the skyscrapers peering through Hong Kong’s Peak foliage, the Pen-F has handled colour and exposure well for the most part. There’s some slight grain present if you inspect images at close detail, but nothing untoward.

The high ISO results are also very reasonable. We typically capped at ISO 1600 as beyond this the visible grain is pronounced to a more noticeable degree, particularly at ISO 6400 – despite colour noise being largely absent, even in raw files. Sticking to ISO 1600 and we’ve shot dogs on laps and low-light sunsets, with daylight shots hiding away the majority of unwanted results; but, saying that, even blacks remain deep and rich at this level.

Sharpness at the lower ISO sensitivities will be partly dependent on lens choice. We’ve been using the 17mm f/1.8 throughout, which brings the bundled price to £1199, often avoiding the widest aperture setting given how slight its depth of field is. Its results are decent and when its particularly on point – see the “no smoking” sign on the wall shot – it’s exceptional.

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Olympus Pen-F review – sample image at ISO 200 (f/1.8)

What sets Olympus apart from the competition, as we’ve mentioned, is the abundance of in-camera adjustments available. You can ignore them or go crazy with them, it’s entirely up to you – and you can always retain the original raw file in tandem if you happen to go a little overboard and want the neutral original. Oh, and there’s a tripod-specific mode called High Res Shot which can capture 64-megapixel still life images – it’s niche, but it’s great for specific non-moving subjects under continuous lighting.

Beyond stills the video capacity of the Pen-F doesn’t reach quite as far as its competitors. The ability to shoot 1080p is fine, but with 4K seeping into the market elsewhere it’s a surprise this ultra-high definition option lacks. However, the image stabilisation in video mode is rather spectacular for hand-held shooting. Shame the continuous autofocus is next to useless, though, drifting in and out of focus throughout extended capture.

Verdict

Just as it did with the original Pen, Olympus has launched another classic in the Pen-F. The elegant design is eye-catching enough to steal some of Fujifilm’s retro-styled limelight, without compromising on the feature set. Deciding between Panasonic GX8 and Fujifilm X-T1 just had a spanner thrown in the works.

However, the Pen-F’s battery life is so-so and the camera’s video capabilities are limited compared to its peers. Panasonic offers a more versatile viewfinder, 4K video capture and shooting options, plus more complex autofocus options in its GX8/GX80 models, while Fujifilm offers a physically larger viewfinder and puts up a fight in the retro style stakes with its X-T1/10 models.

So is it a case of style over substance for Olympus? Not really. Even if you don’t use that four-way colour/art filter dial loads, the Pen-F shows its worth thanks to great 5-axis image stabilisation, 10fps burst shooting, and a quality 20MP sensor. The problem is the price: even the company’s OM-D E-M5 II is a more affordable option, which sees the Pen-F arrive in a kind of limbo.