Studio images and Raw analysis back up the performance we saw when out shooting.
Richard Butler
With the release of Adobe Camera Raw 18.7, we now have Raw support for the OM System PEN, bringing us one step closer to being able to complete our review.
As you might expect, the PEN’s performance is a match for that of the OM-5 Mark II, with which it shares a sensor and processor. This may seem obvious but we have to check, to be certain that our assumptions about shared components are correct and that there are no unreported changes to the processing. It also ensures that you can select the OM System PEN in our test scene, if you want to make any comparisons in future.
Its 20MP sensor captures a good level of detail (our test scene gives a slight benefit to 4:3 aspect ratio cameras, reducing the already minor difference between the PEN and the 24MP of the Canon EOS R10). In terms of noise the PEN’s performance is a little behind the larger sensor of the Nikon Z50II, but it’s not significantly noisier than the Canon, whose 1.6x crop sensor seems to slightly underperform expectations.
The PEN’s performance is entirely in keeping with what we’d expect to see from a modern sensor, backing up the results we got when shooting its sample gallery. We’ve already seen that the JPEG engine can produce a range of attractive results and these confirm that the technical underpinnings are sound.
About the Author: Richard graduated as a scientist but had a lot more fun writing and shooting for his university magazine. A number of years spent variously as a reporter, writer and editor on science and engineering titles combined his knowledge of science with his interest in images and words. But it was spotting the connections between emission spectra, white balance and all the nonsense he’d taught himself playing around in Photoshop that helped kindle an interest in digital photography. Searching for a camera led to him discovering DPReview and Richard was recruited by Phil Askey in 2007. He’s been combining his love of photography, communication and attention to detail (pedantry?) ever since.
He has unusually strong opinions about lenses for the APS-C format.
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The update collapses three separate workflows into a single non-linear environment — a shift that’s about to change how busy photographers structure their post-production day.
Imagen
A wedding photographer coming off a busy season can have over 20,000 photos waiting to be worked through, and until now, no matter how far along a shoot was, everything ran through the same fixed order before anything could ship. Imagen’s Intelligent Studio removes that constraint, letting photographers work however the project calls for it, eliminating the round-trip to Lightroom that has defined AI-assisted workflows until now. The update rolls out inside the existing Imagen product in stages starting September 29, 2026. Here’s what to know about Imagen’s newest experience.
A full editor, built in
Imagen
The biggest day-to-day addition is a full manual editor, giving photographers the same depth of control they’d get from a dedicated editing program without ever leaving Imagen. It supports RAW and JPEG files and includes a comprehensive set of adjustment panels: Basic, Curves (freehand RGB and parametric), HSL across eight color ranges, Point color for up to eight colors per photo, Color grading, Detail (sharpening and noise reduction), Lens corrections, Geometry, Effects (vignette and film grain), and Calibration. It also includes masks and presets. Photographers who have relied on Lightroom solely because Imagen lacked a manual editing layer now have the option to stay inside a single application.
One workflow consideration worth noting: photos edited inside Imagen’s built-in editor are not synced back as Lightroom-compatible files. Imagen is clear that Intelligent Studio is not positioned as a Lightroom replacement, and photographers can continue using both tools in tandem.
The Assistant and what it does
Imagen
A plain-language Assistant lets photographers issue a single prompt to search, select, and adjust images at the same time. This is where Intelligent Studio changes the math on a photographer’s day: work that used to mean finding the right photos, selecting them, applying an edit, and checking the result, now happens with a single request. At launch, it covers five prompt categories: culling and selection, look and feel, conditional edits, workflow and studio and diagnostic tasks.
The intent is to compress what would otherwise be several discrete steps into one instruction. For example, rather than identifying and then editing images based on a specific set of criteria, you can prompt the Assistant to do things like “Denoise all images with ISO above 2000,” or “Apply Portra400 to outdoor photos, Fuji800 to indoor photos for groups with more than 10 people,” and it will process them automatically. The value here isn’t speed, it’s translation. A photographer already knows exactly which photos need what, the Assistant just lets them say it instead of clicking through it.
How pricing changes
Imagen
Intelligent Studio shifts Imagen to export-based pricing: photographers pay for images they export rather than at the moment an AI tool is applied. Two plans are available — Pay-As-You-Go, which carries a $7 monthly minimum plus usage-based charges, and Limitless, a flat monthly rate. The change makes the non-linear workflow practical in the first place: a photographer can cull and experiment with AI edits without accruing charges on images that never leave the application.
What’s on the roadmap
Imagen has a busy pipeline of improvements planned beyond the launch release, and sees this as a starting point rather than a finished product. The company is working toward AI that doesn’t just execute instructions but knows a photographer’s eye well enough to anticipate them, flagging what needs attention before being asked and applying an edit the way that specific photographer would want it.
Real-time AI profile application is a stated future goal, replacing the short processing time currently required when applying an additional AI profile mid-edit. A proprietary Editor model that learns directly from how a photographer works inside Intelligent Studio is also in development. AI filters such as key people detection and indoor/outdoor recognition are also coming, along with proactive insights and expanded AI filters.
Connexion
Richard Butler
