I like my OMD EM10 which I bought as a backup to my OMD EM1. It is tiny. At the Photo Plus Expo I compared it to the Pen F (which I love) and it is smaller than the F.

Adorama has it with the 14-42 EZ (electronic zoom) or the 14-42 II R lens ($599 and $499 respectively). Both lenses are high quality and I have made 24X36 inch enlargements with each. You can put any Olympus M43 lens on it.

I would also recommend as someone else did, the Olympus Tough, since you can be in some bad conditions considering your use.

Yes jpgto, but I grew up in Naugatuck.

Hi. I have been a member since 2013, but only recently resubscribed to the "digest" (and only today noticed the "Introduce Yourself" button!).
I love to be helpful in photography subjects (where I feel qualified to do so) and have even answered some questions posted!

My photography spans from nature and landscape to architecture, street, and more - I shoot whatever catches my eye.
I consider myself a pro as I do sell my work and shoot for hire, but I don't do enough to make a living at it (sigh).

You can check out some of my work at www.RonD-Photography.SmugMug.com and here is one of my favorite photos:

Working the Team - Bethlehem Fair

Re your question of 16MP half frame vs 12MP full frame.

I had this discussion when I was trying to decide Olympus M1 or Nikon D700. At the end of a Scott Kelby seminar I attended, I
asked him this:

In the film days, bigger film meant more detail. What governs the detail in digital? Will a full frame 12MP give you more detail than a 16MP APS or 4/3 sensor?

His answer was that pixels are pixels - more is better for detail. Where you will trade off is in noise - FF is better because the pixels are bigger.

This is logical, as you are dividing an image up into 16 or 12 million small pieces and the displaying it. Which way would have more detail? Of course the one consisting of more pieces.

You are shooting landscape, so the other advantage of FF, where you can get shallower DOF than with the crop sensor, is no great advantage to you.

I chose the Olympus over the Nikon because I just could not see myself carrying that D700 everywhere (it overwhelmed the MeFoto tripod I was using).
I am very happy with my choice and I recently bought a Mark II which is 20MP and even has better noise control than the M1.1.

Part of my decision was monetary - for the money I had, I could buy a brand new Oly kit or a used Nikon. The other factor was that I trusted Scott's analysis - he encouraged me to go with the Nikon because it is main stream but acknowledged that the greater detail would come from the half frame camera, so I knew he wasn't speaking out of his - oops - I mean he was giving me an honest answer.

Also, the mainstream issue is not such a factor anymore. You can get a lot of aftermarket equipment for Oly now that did not exist when I was shooting their DSLRs.
And the menu is just something you need to deal with when you decide to make some change that can't be handled by Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, and WB settings. Pretty much the stuff you use day to day is right there on the 2 buttons near the power switch or accessible via the Super Control Panel. People obsess too much over the menus in this camera and I just remember that "Google is you friend".

One cheap way to view and process the raw file before you spend more money is to download FastStone Image Viewer. I have not hit a camera yet that it did not support. I found it when I was in the same situation as you.

After that, you will have to make a decision, since you probably will want to shoot raw forever. Affinity Photo is inexpensive, requires no subscription, and is very PS like.
Photo Shop Elements is great too, and not all that expensive. Eventually, you will hit the same issue if you don't update to latest version and you buy a camera that is newer than your version. It seems Adobe likes to keep you coming back!

I like shooting in mono sometimes just to allow me to see the scene in mono as I shoot. It is helpful to learn, but back in the film days we did not see the scene in color. You had to previsualize the scene, knowing that there would be no color after you left the dark room! So, I look at the mono option as just a help in getting better at purposely shooting for mono.

If you are shooting JPEG only, shooting in mono would probably not be a good idea. Once the camera renders the jpeg in mono, you are stuck with mono (please correct me if I am wrong on that assumption).

If you shoot mono in RAW only, Lightroom (at least with my Olympus OMD) will lose the mono setting and will display the photo in color, so you won't really know how the camera rendered it. No big deal, you toggle Color/Mono with the "V" key and see which you like, then enhance it. However, you shot all those photos thinking you would be seeing what the camera showed you when you were shooting in mono and now they appear in color - frustrating.

So if you want to use the mono setting to get the hang of previsualizing in mono, but you want the raw file, shoot RAW + JPEG and just delete the JPEGS once you find the RAW ones you would render in mono. You might even like the JPEG.

And by the way, back in the day, you could shoot color negative film and print on special paper to get a black & white print (I never tried it tho), so the concept of having a
"raw file" that could be processed multiple ways is not new, just digitized.

And don't fret that you only have the jpeg if that is the case - while the ability to get "more" from a RAW file is very real, I have shot both ways and only the real problem photos (extreme dynamic range, bad WB, etc.) benefit greatly from raw. You can get outstanding results from well exposed jpegs.

Get PS Elements and the Kelby book Photoshop Elements for Digital Photographers (if you can't find it for the version of Elements you buy, you can use older books. The basics don't change, only the new stuff that is introduced in later versions of Elements). It is written so you can do stuff (need to replace a sky? look it up; soften skin in a portrait? look it up).
I used PSE for years and that was my go to book.

Definitely, Linda, as you say, it should be YOU decide. If people are uncomfortable with the idea of making adjustments to the image to make it better than what the camera can do, remember that even in film days what you see in a print is not what the camera captured - it is the interpretation of the photographer that makes it to print (and print can mean the digital image you post online or wherever)!

I agree - family, no charge for the digitals (you gave the prints at cost, why not the digital?). You can email or load on a free DropBox account for no money. If you need to for some reason use thumb drives or DVD's, and it is not in your budget, then maybe get some money for those materials.

I almost exclusively use LR. Import to LR, weed out the rejects, enhance the ones I think have potential.
If I need to do more than basic adjustments (keystoning, cropping, exposure, black/white point, etc.), then I go to PS or Affinity.
By more than basic, I mean if I need to replace a sky or background, clone out an object, or merge several photos for an artistic effect.
I don't open PS more than about once a month since I can do most everything I need in LR.

If you are opening raw files in PS and using the Camera Raw processor to adjust them, you already know how to use LR for those adjustments (LR and Camera Raw use the same
"engine" and the layout is nearly identical). LR is faster simply because you just jump from one photo to the next without ever going to PS. Export as JPEG and move on to the next photo. It took a long time before I bought LR, but once I did, I don't know how I managed to work in PS Elements for so long, opening 1 photo at a time, making the adjustments, then save - close - open another - fix in raw - move to PS - save - close -repeat. LR is SO much faster.

Not clear whether anyone gave the answer for finding "review" in Olympus.
Go to the Wrench symbol in the menu - from there to "Rec View". You can set it to anywhere from Off to 20 seconds (not sure why tho).
I set mine on several different Oly mirrorless cameras to .5 seconds. This lets me see if I totally blew the exposure, or missed the shot, etc.

Also, if you have it set for longer and want to take a picture before the review time elapses, just depress the shutter release half way. It will go
back to live view. Not sure if the Sony (original questioner) works that way, but it probably does.

Is noise reduction turned on? If you are in very low light, the noise reduction can take a while and cause what you describe.

Use Lightroom to move the photos. It is just drag and drop just like Explorer, except LR knows you did it.
If you use Explorer, LR has no idea where those photos went, but there is a "Find All Missing Photos" in the Library tab that
might locate them for you.

Love my Peak Design straps. Durable and functional. Have not lusted over a strap since I got one 3 years ago.
Best feature is that they come with a Swiss Arca style plate where the strap attaches, so you have the advantage of hanging the strap from
the tripod mount point but you can STILL USE the tripod. Also, when you detach the strap (quick and easy) there is nothing on the camera that
is in the way.

I also have their Clutch hand strap.

I have the Pro 100 and had great difficulty getting good prints directly from Photoshop or Lightroom (PS was better, but required me to open it just to print).
I finally realized that there is a plug-in for the Canon Print Studio Pro that comes with the printer. In LR, click FILE | PLUGIN EXTRAS | CANON PRINT STUDIO PRO. Something similar in PhotoShop.

Once launched (which takes a horribly long time, unfortunately) pick the paper and cropping you are using, along with the ICC profile if used, and print.
I wasted a lot of paper by not using this app, but since I switched, I get good results every time.

Also note that, when talking to Canon support, they give recommendations base on using Print Studio Pro, so they might tell you something that won't make sense when you go to print from another app.

Lastly, I have not been able to find a way to launch it other than as a plug in, so if you are not using software that supports the Canon plug-in, you may not be able to go this route.