Review on 📷 OLYMPUS OM-D E-M5 Mark II (Silver) (Body Only): Unleashing the Ultimate Photographic Power by Michael Baek ᠌

Name: 📷 OLYMPUS OM-D E-M5 Mark II (Silver) (Body Only): Unleashing the Ultimate Photographic Power
Item: 📷 OLYMPUS OM-D E-M5 Mark II (Silver) (Body Only): Unleashing the Ultimate Photographic Power
Rating: 4

September 30, 2022

It was a reasonable purchase, I will order more.

We decided to buy after renting the E-m1 mark ii a couple of times and realizing that this is a crazy camera. We started looking, but in our city they sell e-m5 m3 for 30k cheaper, and even with 45mm 1.8 (a fairy tale, not a lens) and a second battery as a gift. It's just a find.
Considering that the "Brains" and the e-m5 sensor got from one, they did not see the point in overpaying for a more comfortable grip, increased burst speed and a couple more functions. Autofocus was compared head-on. Everything is absolutely identical to the unit. Tracking - excellent, continuous - excellent. We especially felt this in the video. Since tracking or continuous autofocus in 10k is simply impossible to use - it is slow and stupid. And here we were simply shocked by its speed and accuracy. Now there is no point in twisting manually. Shooting close-ups in dance breaks at a banquet on autofocus with 45 mm wide open and perfect focus - easy, perfectly working tracking even in dark conditions - easy.
In fact, autofocus, stub, and some really cool photography features - this is the difference that WORTH overpaying if you want to upgrade from 10k to 5k. Well, if you consider this camera as the first in the Olympus system, then it will definitely please you with its capabilities. However, it is worth remembering that m4 \ 3 loves light and, accordingly, fast lenses are needed for high-quality shooting. We currently have Olympus 12mm 2, 25mm 1.8, 45mm 1.8. I especially liked the 12 mm - a chic lens, but about it another time. All of these lenses give crazy sharpness in 4k video, focus well and allow you not to raise ISO above 800.
I sincerely hope that some of these disadvantages (the most critical for me - the delay) - will be corrected with new firmware and then the camera will become an ideal tool in the hands of photographers / videographers.

Pros

Bought as a second video camera for Olympus e-m10 mark iii. Therefore, basically the review will be based on a comparison with this model. First, stabilization. Really awesome stub. It is definitely better than on 10k, so it’s easier to shoot penetrations and long-focus compositions with your hands. 2) Many bells and whistles for photography, such as Pro-Capture, Hi-Re, focus bracketing, exposure bracketing, etc. 3) Sufficient continuous shooting speed - 10 fps with an electronic shutter (I don’t feel the difference) and 6 fps with a mechanical 4) Flexible adjustment of color profiles with a curve of shadows / highlights, which can be adjusted to +7 and -7 respectively (Works in photos and videos). 5) IPX waterproof 1. You can shoot safely in the rain 6) The swivel screen is very convenient, but on the 10th it is probably more convenient when it is not retracted to the side. (I am a photographer, I shoot with an old canon 5d m2 and 7d, however, neither in 5dm3 | 5dm4 | 6d - there is a rotary screen, and therefore after shooting with a folding screen, you don’t understand how to live without it in other cameras. There are no complaints about the quality of the screen, bright and contrasty. 7) There are a lot of different functions in the camera - HDR, photo stitching, processing from rav to jpg. 8) Gorgeous autofocus. Very fast and accurate. Considering that the camera has its own backlight, there are no problems for focusing either in poor lighting conditions or during the day. There are no even misses. Seriously. This is especially noticeable in comparison with the Olympus 10 m3, in the video - heaven and earth. 9) According to the photo - the difference in noise with the Canon RP is half a stop. Yes, and on the Internet you can find the RAVs of this model, and twist, pull the shadows and lights and make a decision. 10) High-quality 4k and Full - hd video. I was pleasantly surprised that 1/32022 shutter speed can be used in video. I don't think many cameras allow this. 11) Of course, the weight 12) WiFi and Bluetooth 13) Appearance (subjectively) 14) Sufficiently long battery life 15) Much and much more.

Cons

For me, every nuance that prevents effective camera shooting, especially when there are no such nuances in younger models, is critical and, in fact, because of these small shortcomings, lowered the score. 1) Since I bought it for video - Why is there such a terribly long delay from pressing the REC button to actually starting recording on the card? When shooting in 4k, after you press the button and before the video actually starts writing - 1.5 seconds. That's an awful lot. Reporting is just not allowed. In the younger e-m10 m3 in 4k, the delay is 0.7 s (70 ms) - and this is half as much. e-m5 m3 accounts are late (i.e. e-m10 writes from the number 4, and e-m5 - from 5) 0 This is a terrible jamb, and memory cards have nothing to do with it (we use 170mb / s sandisks). I wrote to the service, but there, as expected, they unsubscribed that there is a delay, but on the TOP models of the system it is less - and this is so (see comment) 2) It is a strange decision to push the microphone input port from the same side where the display opens - with the wire inserted on the 180-degree tilted monitor to the left, it will not work to rotate it up - down - you need to move it a little to the right so that it crawls out from under the cord, then turn up or down - and put it back under the wire. I really don't understand how the engineers could have calculated this. 3) As for me - so here is a small pupil of the viewfinder - in order to be fully felt by the eye in the viewfinder - you need to squint strongly, which causes tension and discomfort. Perhaps a matter of habit, but on the canon 5d m2, this is all right. 4) You can not take a photo in video mode - just the opposite. It looks very strange, and the instructions indicate, however, this can be done on e-m10 m3