We had dinner the other night across from the Sony store (not a plan but it worked out).
I took my em-5 and once again asked the Sony people to load up an A7 (not R) with A mount lenses and adapters and compared it directly to the olympus. Photographed some people around the store in mixed lighting.
Came back and was really surprised. Now this wasn't a real test, because I'd have to shoot something that is a real project, but just focusing, trying different settings etc. the A7 file looked strange.
I purposely shot it at 1250 iso, the em-5 at 1000. The Sony at 3.5, the em-5 at F2. Both the same shutter though the Sony needed more light and had to drop the shutter some, so got a lot of blur movement, where the em-t had zero, even at the same shutter speed.
What kind of surprised me was the A7's file was kind of muddy and had that painterly look. You know where hair strands get kind of mushed together and you see those strange artifacts on skin like blotches like when there is too much noise reduction.
The Olympus had more noise, but had a sharpness and depth to it. Not as deep as my digital backs but had the same sharpness look.
Don't anybody misunderstand me, because this wasn't a real test or a fair test as I know the em-5 well and have the settings perfect for the post production I do and don't know the A7 well.
I'm also not saying the em-5 is a better camera . . . well ok, it actually is a better camera imo, but I didn't think it would shoot a prettier file given the size of the sensor.
The lady behind sony counter was knowledgable and nice and asked to hold the olympus. She said that's really well built how much is it and I said half the price of the A7. She said ohhhh.
Anyway I still like the thought of the Sony, don't like some of the functions, but guess I'm going to have to rent one and test it in the real world.
One thing I notice, when I was leaving the restaurant it was very pretty out, very dark and I did a quick snap hand held at 1/20th of a second of stationary objects, not people and it was dead sharp. Olympus really has stabilization down.
IMO
BC