James, you really need to try the OM-D E-M1 (did I get that right? Who the F names these things???)
The E-M5 was ok. The M1 is really a step up.
I'm not a evangelist on any format and like I said I backed into m43 because of the panasonic gh3 for a smaller form factor for video to compliment our REDs. I'd tried sony video etc. and nothing was close to the gh3, I can't wait for the gh4's.
The olympus stills were just a plus. Nick I've go the em-1 and 5 (yea who does name these things) but would I have rather had 35mm? My inner photographer's paranoia told me to, the results compared to the Sony A7 never proved it, in fact it was the opposite.
I'm not against big cameras, but dslrs like my 1dx and d3 have become crazy big, even larger than the leica s2 I just bought.
The images are so smooth they look like plastic . . . the cameras look like plastic so it kind of puts me off.
In fact I tried hard to make the A7 work to the point of using a computer to view next to the em-1 shooting this and that in rooms, outside and finally just put them up on screen and to me and everyone that passed by, the em-1 file looked better and I hate this term, but more film like.
The deal is the Sony synced slow on flash didn't have touch screen, didn't have stabilization which I use and don't always use, didn't have near the same build quality, didn't look as nice, (kind of like a mock up of the em-1).
But, why I really wanted to do was replace my Canons. I find them uninspiring in a lot of ways. I also like an evf. It think it's the future, allows you to really manually focus.
What really hurts ALL the mirrorless cameras except large cinema cameras, is they leave stuff off to hit price points. NO TETHERING! I will continue to yell this because no camera is professional without tethering, even if you never tether.
It's like owning a race car with tiny brakes. You just have to tether, at times and the wireless I've tried is just too difficult to set up and too flaky to rely on. If any company stencils professional on the side of the camera, it must tether.
There is no free lunch though. I don't care about always shooting at f 1.2 but if your going to do that outside your also going to need nd filters so m43 is far from perfect.
The fuji was actually the perfect size and other than long lenses has a nice lens set. The only thing with it is there is no professional video with that lens mount and I defeat my purpose adding another camera mount, where m43 covers both stills and video.
Also m43 lenses are more interesting. There are remounted 8mm wides from video c-mounts to .95 manual lenses. There are the olympus 43 pro series lenses which are killer, so other than tethering, battery use and less than perfect still image tracking, the m43 is almost there, but not quite.
In video the gh4 will rock nearly all points and allow for professional production. That's enough to keep me in the system, even if I never pick up an olympus still camera.
Olympus hit upon something with the em-5. Though slightly too small, it got us thinking about how 35mm type cameras use to be, in terms of size and use. The em-1 is better but still misses a few points next to standard dslrs, that would be easy to fix.
Panasonic has made the almost 100% complete video camera with the gh4, it's now up to olympus to do it with stills.
IMO
BC