The new Olympus PEN E-P5 is the company’s latest Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera. Like those that have come before, it boasts a retro design. Don’t be fooled by its 1970s exterior, the PEN E-P5 is powered by the same technology as our Editors’ Choice Olympus OM-D E-M5($749.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). It doesn’t have a built-in viewfinder, so it’s a little bit smaller, but it does manage to maintain E-M5’s 5-axis stabilization system. The system has been improved so that it now automatically detects when you’re capturing a shot with an intentional panning motion.

The 16-megapixel PEN features front and rear control dials, as well as a toggle switch on the rear that is numbered 1 and 2. This switch changes the way that the dials operate; Olympus is referring to this as 2×2 Dial Control. It gives you four settings to control via the dials, and those will change based on the shooting mode you select. If you have the camera set to Manual, the dials will adjust shutter speed and aperture when the toggle switch is set to 1, and white balance and ISO when set to 2. You’re able to assign other functions to suit your specific shooting style.

The 3-inch display is super sharp. It’s an LCD design and packs an impressive 1.04 million dot resolution. Our brief time with the E-P5 was spent in a rather dark, windowless room, so it remains to be seen how well it will do on bright days.

There is a built-in, pop-up flash, so you don’t have to devote the hot shoe to adding a strobe at all times.  It uses the same accessory port as other PEN cameras, so you can add an EVF if you’d like. Olympus is launching a new model, the VF-4, with this PEN. It’s bigger than previous models, in part due to its impressive 1.48x magnification factor and 2.36 million dot resolution.

Wi-Fi is built in, a first for an Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera. You can pair it with your phone using a QR code. The code is displayed on the E-P5’s LCD and you simply photograph it with your phone’s camera to connect the two devices. This eliminates the need to type in Wi-Fi passwords, and ensures a secure connection. You’ll need to download the Olympus Image Share app for iOS or Android to get this working, but it’s free.

The E-P5 can shoot at up to 9 frames per second with locked focus, or at 5 frames per second with tracking enabled. Focus peaking is available as a manual focus aid, and the minimum shutter speed of 1/8,000-second makes it possible to shoot at wide apertures on bright days. You can sync with a flash at speed as short as 1/320-second.

There are a number of art filters built into the camera, and there’s also a Photo Story+ mode that is capable of combining a few images into a collage. The E-P5 can capture time lapse videos via an interval shooting mode; it can be set anywhere from 1 frame a second to 1 frame per day.

The Olympus PEN E-P5 will ship in May. It’s priced at $999.99 as a body only, or at $1,449.99 when bundled with the M.Zuiko Digital 17mm f1.8($399.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) lens and the new VF-4 viewfinder. The body will be available in black, silver, or white, and for the first time the 17mm f1.8 will be offered in a black finish in addition to the current silver design.