My YouTube problem seems to be resolved. One thing I don't like about not being able to use "native" controls, is that I often relied on the little "skip ahead 10s" arrows, which was more convenient than dragging the timeline.

In any event, I still seem to be something of a sucker for videos about "film-like" cameras. Most YouTube videos embrace those click-bait title schemes, and I took the bait about a mysterious camera in The Most Film-Like Digital Camera Wasn’t Made By Fujifilm.

I suspected it was about either the Olympus PEN-F or the OMDS PEN-7, both of which include dedicated b&w profiles with a couple of different "grain" settings, and which have received generally favorable reviews from people who care about such things. In any event, I'm always interested in a new video about an Olympus body and this looked like it might be one.

To my surprise, it was about an Olympus body, but not either of those two cameras. It was about the E-620 and one of Olympus's Art Filters "Grainy Film."

Grainy Film first appeared on the E-30, which was the first Olympus camera to feature Art Filters. They were also incorporated in the later flagship model, the E-5, which added Dramatic Tone. (And maybe a couple of others, I haven't checked. I do recall that Dramatic Tone was introduced on the E-5.)

The Art Filters were never universally accepted or praised by the "serious" photography community. Disparaged as "gimmicky," or "nothing you couldn't do in post," they nevertheless subsequently appeared on every Olympus mirrorless body and many of the later compacts. I was first able to use Dramatic Tone when I bought an XZ-1 on sale. I suspect Olympus market research found that consumers liked the art filters. I know I do.

So I watched Ms. Lumen's video and enjoyed her surprise and delight, and many of the images she included.

It got me thinking about the E-620, which I'd never owned.

Out of curiosity, I checked KEH.COM and they had one in stock, EX+ for $195, battery and charger included. It uses the same batteries as my PEN-Lite bodies, so that wasn't an issue, but nice to have another battery.

I have the 8MP E-500 with the Kodak CCD sensor. It's a fun little body, and I enjoy the experience of shooting with it in a "retro" sense. The sensor isn't stabilized, but I mostly use it with the 25mm/2.8 pancake, so it's not a big deal. I did buy an 18-180mm super-zoom for the four-thirds mount, and I had the 40-150/f3.5-4.5 "Made in Japan" kit lens, but I seldom use them because of the necessity of steady hand-holding technique. (I can, but it's like anything else, it takes practice and if you don't do it all the time, because you're spoiled by IBIS, it takes a while to get good at it again.)

I also have the E-420, which was marketed as the smallest DSLR ever made. Olympus was big on small. I think I have it because I recalled enjoying using the E-410 with the 25mm pancake, and it was cheap, so why not? Anyway, I have the 10MP LiveMOS (Panasonic CMOS) sensor, which first appeared in the E-410/510 bodies.

The E-620 uses the same 12MP LiveMOS sensor as the E-30 and the first three generations of PEN bodies. One of the criticisms of Olympus was that a 4/3 sensor was too small, but also that it wasn't updated as rapidly as Sony, Nikon and Canon. But I liked the files I got from that sensor. The 10MP LiveMOS has issues with chroma noise above ISO 400, (200 in the shadows if you have "Auto" gradation turned on, which lifts the shadows.) the 12MP is much better controlled with noise appearing primarily in luminance. They're both much "worse" than the 16MP Sony sensors that first appeared in the E-P5 and OM-D, E-M5, but they were decent sensors for at least the first part of their time.

I owned an E-30 for many years. I bought it a year after I got the E-520, after I'd shot a wedding for friends with that body. I'd decided I needed something "more serious." Shot a few more weddings with the E-30. (By agreement, I was never paid. They wanted "nice pictures" and I had a "nice camera.")

So I have thousands of shots with that 12MP sensor, and I think I'd enjoy revisiting it now and then. And I do have those telephoto zooms, so it'd be nice to have some IBIS to help get some use out of them.

So I bought another body. After going to some lengths to reduce the number of camera bodies I have cluttering my shelves!

I recall distinctly the resolve that I had that I would confine my photographic efforts to my OM-1, my E-M1 bodies, the two 20MP PENs, my XZ-1, and the Stylus 1s. (Itself an absurd number of cameras.)

Oh well.

To be clear, I'm not excited about the E-620 for "Grainy Film," I have that on every other body. In later versions, Olympus added a second variation that was a little less contrasty and grainy, but still rather unsubtle. I may play with it some more, I don't know. I've never felt that strong connection to b&w that many people seem to have.

And, as a bit of a "completist" sometimes, I'll have all the different sensor manufacturers Olympus used in its cameras. I had an E-1 with the Kodak 5MP sensor, which is also beloved for reasons more nostalgic perhaps than technical. The 8MP Kodak sensor in the E-500 is a refinement, I think. So, 8, 10, 12, 16 and 20MP sensors. Kodak, Panasonic and Sony manufacturers.

Why? I don't know.