Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III vs Olympus Pen E-PL10 — Which Is Better?

The Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III and the Olympus Pen E-PL10 are both mirrorless Micro Four Thirds cameras, so any Micro 4/3 lens you own fits either body. The E-M10 Mark III from 2017 adds a built-in electronic viewfinder for eye-level shooting, while the 2019 Pen E-PL10 has no viewfinder and works from its screen alone.

The Pen E-PL10 is the smaller and lighter carry, measuring 117 x 68 x 39 mm and 380 g against 122 x 84 x 50 mm and 410 g for the E-M10 Mark III. That 30 g saving and slimmer body suit a jacket pocket or a small bag on city days.

The Pen E-PL10 is the stronger pick for catching a fleeting expression, shooting at up to 14 fps against 8.6 fps on the E-M10 Mark III. The E-M10 Mark III counters with its electronic viewfinder of 2,360,000 dots, which lets you follow a moving subject with the camera at your eye instead of at arm's length.

The stills fundamentals are shared. Both use a 16 MP CMOS sensor in the Micro Four Thirds format, so files print and crop from the same pixel count, and both offer in-body stabilisation, which helps keep handheld shots sharp at slower shutter speeds.

Both cameras record up to 4K, so handheld travel clips keep their detail instead of falling back to Full HD. Each supports 60 fps as its maximum frame rate, keeping casual motion smooth in handheld footage.

Built-in timelapse on both bodies lets you assemble a passing-clouds sequence without an external intervalometer, and both write MPEG-4 or MOV files that drop straight into common editing software.

The Pen E-PL10 offers Bluetooth alongside Wi-Fi, keeping a low-power link to your phone for image transfer and remote release between shoots. The E-M10 Mark III connects over Wi-Fi alone.

The everyday controls are shared ground. Each has a 3-inch touchscreen that flips out for selfies and waist-level shots, plus a built-in flash for fill light indoors. Neither includes GPS, so geotagging a hiking album means logging locations on your phone.

The E-M10 Mark III takes the faster cards, supporting UHS-II SD alongside standard SD, SDHC and SDXC media for quicker write speeds during bursts. The Pen E-PL10 is UHS-I compatible.

Both run on the same BLS-50 battery in a single card slot, and neither charges over USB, so a spare battery or the charger goes in the bag. The E-PL10's rating of 350 shots edges the E-M10 Mark III's 330.