DPReview review of Olympus OM-D

[BarbaraArmstrong]

In response to BJL, I think you should get this camera in hand, with the lens(es) you intend to use, before buying it.  I tried it in the store, with the 12-50 kit lens attached.  My reaction was that that lens was designed to balance rather nicely with the camera, felt svelte, in fact.  The impression may have been helped by the fact that the lens was in silver finish. Pancake-style lenses would work nicely. I knew that my m4/3 14-140 wouldn't feel nearly as good.  As for my collection of 4/3rds lenses I bought for my old E-1 and E-3?  I think you'd feel you had a tugboat pulling a canoe, and the camera is the canoe.  Am I exaggerating?  Well, I didn't put a 4/3 lens on the camera, and of course you'd have to add the (small) bulk of the adapter, too; I think much depends on how you want this combination to feel for hand-held shooting.  Also, the "grip," such as it is, is puny.  With a large lens on this camera, you will never hold the camera/lens combination by the camera, always and only by your hand around the lens.  You asked about image quality.  I think the m4/3 cameras with their lenses have given me files every bit as good as I got from the larger/heavier lenses on my 4/3rds cameras.  And the sensor, while maintaining the same size as the older sensor (in fact, at least some of the new ones are larger to accomodate variable aspect ratios) enjoys the benefits of advances in engineering.  --Barbara 

[BJL]

Barbara,

   Thanks for the comments. Fortunately for me, the whole issue of "lens-body size imbalance" has always been irrelevant: I support the weight of a camera with my left hand under the lens and maybe partly under the body, and simply position it far enough forward or back to get a comfortable balance, with my right hand only operating controls, not bearing any weight.

However, for carrying the camera, I am hoping to get a "knuckle strap" for whatever EVIL camera I eventually choose: one that attaches to the body at both top and bottom on the right hand side and wraps behind the knuckles. With a light camera, that could give my grip on the camera enough "back-up" to allow me to do away with the neck strap.

[thebatman]

I rather liked the ergonomics of the camera.  I put on a wrist strap instead of neck strap, then the "thumb wedge" on the upper right part of the back side (not sure what else to call it) allowed me to grip the camera easily with thumb on the back and 2 fingers on the front.  However, there is no 2nd lug on the bottom of the camera for a knuckle strap.  I do have a knuckle strap from opteka where the bottom screws into the tripod mount, so that may be an option.

On image quality my initial impression is very good.  Better low-light performance than my 7D.  Did a few test shots at 12,800 and although needed a fair amount of noise reduction, were certainly very usable. 

[AFairley]

I find I am really liking the E-M5, it pairs very nicely with either the Panasonic 20mm or the Panasonic pancake 14-42mm zoom, which is a teriffic lens if (a) you don't have a copy that suffers from the ghosting issue and (b) you don't mind the slowish apertures (esp. at tele end).  Since I come from the Olympus E-5, I did some head to head comparisons between the pancake zoom and the Olympus 14-54mm Mk II, at various focal lengths and subjects, and at my normal shooting aperture of around f5.6, handheld in good light it's totally a toss up between the two at 100 and 200% pixel peeping.  I have adapted fine to the EVF, however, the technology is still evolving, since the screen has much less dynamic range than the sensor, so it's not yet in WYSIWYG land.  My only real gripe with the camera is that button placement is a little cramped.  I carry it with a light wrist strap, to carry I either "palm" the camera with thumb and index finger around the lens, or hold the camera pinched between my thumb and first two fingers.  I have become pretty much a convert to m4/3 for "on foot" photography, and the gear is only going to keep getting better. Exciting times, if you ask me.

[Wolfgang_F]

Even with the 12-50 kit zoom on board you can still set this value to a fixed f/l. Which seems a bit odd...
Roy

Hi Roy, I consent, this sub-menue should not be accessible if a MFT lense is mounted. The programmers of the firmware just forgot the 2nd step to implement:
1. Unneccessary elements in the IS menue are greyed. This information gives a hint about the F/L , if one wants to change to a non MFT lense for the next shot. -> Implementation o.k.
2. If the unneccessary elements are greyed the access to the sub menue via "Info" should be blocked. 
As a matter of fact, even if I change the F/L to 1000mm the ISIR just works fine with my M.Zuiko 12mm 1:2. Conclusion: This parameter is not read although it is open for change by the user. ->Small software bug.
Cheers, Wolfgang.

[250swb]

I think for people worried about the small size of the camera and getting a firm hold the two part grip and battery pack make a big difference to the ergonomic's.

I'm not a fan of making a small camera big with gadgets attached all over it, but the simple first stage grip adds that level of security more common with big DSLR's. The second stage battery pack adds the other release and function buttons, and makes instant sense when using a bigger telephoto lens. Olympus should be congratulated on thinking up the two part accessory grip, it shows a commitment to making photographers happy.

As for being happy, the more I use the E-M5 the more I smile at its shear brilliance and versatility. A camera that can do almost any type of photography well, be it street, landscape or sport. One word about the magnify function for manual lenses. You don't need to assign the Fn2 button to this in the menu section. Press the Fn2 button down and rotate the front dial at the same time and you will get a series of options for that button, one of which is 'magnify'.

Steve

[OldRoy]

The impossibility of having both the reduced size focus/zoom box - there seems to be some dispute as to it's exact function - and the histogram at the same time, is an infuriating software design error and needs urgent fixing. Do you concur, Wolfgang?

Another associated bug occurs after you have downsized the (grossly oversized) default rectangle. Now the control of its position by the cursor arrows becomes almost impossible - the damned thing flies about all over the place. Getting it into the position you require is an interminably frustrating fiddle: useless. As far as I know there isn't a centering function, which would at least help.

Of course they probably won't fix these simple problems in a firmware release - they'll release a new camera and expect us to throw away the E-M5. No manufacturer tests software properly before releasing the cameras. This stuff happens all the time. In the case of very specific odd configurations bugs will always emerge however any user, given a couple of days or at most weeks, will identify the sort of obvious deficiency mentioned above. Currently we are paying the manufacturers (an "early adopter" premium) to do the final production testing...

Roy

[leuallen]

Roy, boy do I agree. It makes using this camera like driving a Rolls Royce with a flat tire. Add to the nits that I can't usually see the normal focus box-too dim.

Larry

[OldRoy]

Roy, boy do I agree...Add to the nits that I can't usually see the normal focus box-too dim.

Larry

Larry.
This really surprises me. Mine is adequately bright, and then some. Have you compared it with another example of the camera?
Roy

[Wolfgang_F]

Hello Roy, as far as the combination of the live histogram and the reduced size focus/zoom box in ONE screen is concerened, I completely consent, not implemented! Nevertheless the customized Fn2 as described in one of my earlier comments helps a lot:

As the x-y-location of the magnification box also depends on the position of the standard focus box this results in an "special" behavior:
Let us assume both focuses are configured in such a way that the standard focus box is centered and the reduced size focus/zoom box shifted to the left lower corner. S-AF is on:
If the standard focus is activated you can add the live histogramm (via INFO button), if you then press the Fn2 the alternate focus is displayed (unfortunately without histogramm !!!).
If you press the Fn2 long (short = magnification is active) live histogramm and standard focus are shown again as expected.
If you half press the release button when the standard focus box is shown, the position of the reduced size focus/zoom box is automatically shifted to the (new) position of the standard box. This is an background operation in the camtera which only becomes visible when you press the Fn2 again.

For my practical use when I shoot in S-AF-mode:
I always use the standard focus box which can be maneuvered by the 4 arrow keys. If the photographic situation requires a smaller focus area I just press the pre-configured Fn2 button to size down the focus area.
Alternatively I use the pair of wheels on the right top side of the camera to move the standard focus box once it is activated by pressing either of the arrow keys. So I always regard the reduced size focus/zoom box as an refinement of the standard focus and not as stand-alone function in comparison to other cameras.

Hint: If one needs to resize the focus box one just presses the INFO button when the reduced size focus/zoom box is already displayed. This works in the same way with the SCP or EFV.

Another item:
A centering function for the standard focus seems not to be implemented as a default, but you can assign the home function for the focus box to either one of the buttons: Fn1, Fn1.  Even the Record button makes sense, if it doesn't matter to you to turn the menue wheel and utilize the release shutter for starting the movie recording.

Cheers, Wolfgang.

[KEH]

Wolfgang,

Thanks for your helpful posts - you have dug pretty deep.

I take it that there is no way to do what Panasonic cameras do automatically - press one button to bring up the magnified view, focus your manual lens, then half-press the shutter to cancel the magnified view? My workaround is to assign the 'digital teleconverter' to a button, which gives you 2X magnification (quite good enough for focusing in most instances). But you then have to press the button again to cancel the digital teleconverter before pressing the shutter - otherwise you have just thrown out half your photo. Frustrating doesn't begin to describe the situation...

Any further guidance much appreciated. Great little camera otherwise (although I share some of Michael's criticisms).

Cheers,
Kirk

[250swb]

I take it that there is no way to do what Panasonic cameras do automatically - press one button to bring up the magnified view, focus your manual lens, then half-press the shutter to cancel the magnified view? My workaround is to assign the 'digital teleconverter' to a button, which gives you 2X magnification (quite good enough for focusing in most instances). But you then have to press the button again to cancel the digital teleconverter before pressing the shutter - otherwise you have just thrown out half your photo. Frustrating doesn't begin to describe the situation...

Your Fn2 button has a few options already assigned to it, one of which is 'Magnify'. Press Fn2 and at the same time turn the front control dial, the options will appear, choose 'Magnify'. Then all you need to do is press Fn2, the first press brings up the smaller focus box (if you have adjusted the size to make it smaller). You can now carry on shooting with the small box if that is all you want. If you want the magnified view for manual focus press the Fn2 gain, and you get the selected part of the image magnified. Half press the shutter to go back to normal view, fully press to take the photograph, you don't need to touch Fn2 although it will cancel the magnified view.

Steve

[KEH]

Thanks Steve,

I had tried that without any luck. After hitting the Fn2 button nothing happened, but if I hit it a few times it finally would bring up the zooming frame - after that it behaved as you describe, but the process had to be repeated after each power-up.

The trick, it turns out, is that when you finally get the zooming frame, hit Fn2 again, which zooms and shows you where the zooming frame is located in the overall frame. Once you have got the zooming frame where you want it, you have to hit OK in order to register this position. Once registered, everything works exactly as you describe.

Not sure if this is documented in the manual (or maybe it is just very well hidden). But thanks for encouraging me to persevere.

Cheers,
Kirk

[250swb]

Kirk, on mine I don't need to press 'OK', just Fn2 for the focus frame (move it if I want to), Fn2 again for the magnified view and it magnify's the bit I wanted, then focus and the shutter button to return to normal view. I did originally make the mistake of keeping Fn2 pressed thinking it would bring up a magnified view, but it is just a touch.

Steve