Review on 📷 Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mirrorless Digital Camera with 16MP Live MOS Sensor, 3.0-Inch OLED Touchscreen (Black) - Body Only (Discontinued by Manufacturer) by Julia White

First a little background: This is the fourth (!) Micro Four Thirds camera I own. First I bought an Olympus Pen E-P2 (almost release date), then an Olympus PEN E-PM1 and finally a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2. I also had an Olympus PEN E-P3 for a while, but eventually switched to an E-PM1. fully justify the promises of the system. I always wanted more; In the case of the PEN, the sensor wasn't exactly where I wanted it to be in low light, and an external flash defeats the whole purpose of such a small camera. The GH2 had a slightly better sensor, but it was also bulky, felt cheap and JPEGs were weak. All this led me to OM-D E-M5. So the first major benefit of the E-M5 is that it has the best Micro Four Thirds sensor available today. For the first time in a Micro Four Thirds body, I finally feel like I can push the ISO as high as I've ever wanted and get acceptable results (in combination with a fast lens like the Panasonic 25 mmf/1.4). Owners of the latest APS-C format cameras may be surprised at how close the E-M5 can get to the larger format in terms of image quality. Performance is even faster than the (already fast) E-PM1/P3 cameras. This is an incredibly responsive camera. Autofocus is very fast indeed (at least with the right lens), with the caveat that AF tracking is still disappointing compared to DSLRs in this price range. The image stabilization is said to have been improved over the previous models, but I hardly notice a difference in photos in comparison. to the E-P2 (although the E-M5 performs best with the rather disappointing stabilization of the E-PM1). In short: sometimes it helps, but don't expect miracles. The "killer feature" of the E-M5's stabilization is that it now works for video, greatly reducing the nervous handshakes you're used to. expect from home cinema. As a camcorder, the E-M5 lacks many of the advanced options (frame rate, bitrate, etc.) that the GH2 has (and that serious filmmakers will need), but for everyday use it's hard to overestimate just how much the E-The stabilization does from M5 helps. Weather protection is welcome, although the list of Micro Four Thirds lenses with this feature is rather small. It might be tempting to buy a kit with a 12-50mm lens just for weather protection, but the extra three hundred bucks for a mediocre kit lens was a little more than I could swallow just to get weather protection. If you can't afford it, get the Panasonic LUMIX GX VARIO 12-35mm/F2.8. Overall construction is good. It's a solid camera, which I can't say about the GH2 with its cheap plastic faces. The E-M5 feels solid in the hand, just like the E-P3. The camera is the largest body of the Olympus Micro Four Thirds, but it's still fairly portable, which might not be apparent when looking at camera photos. Peel off the electronic viewfinder tab and you have something very similar to the E-P3. It's slightly smaller than the GH2 and has a much less noticeable grip than that camera. The electronic viewfinder is more or less the same as the Olympus VF-2 add-on for PEN, but the processing power of the camera and the unusual sensor are combined. offer an EVF experience that's significantly better than the GH2 and slightly better than the VF2 on the E-PM1 (the new PENs aim to reach parity with the E-M5). The EVF has an automatic eye sensor (unlike the VF-2), a sometimes useful feature that often gets in the way when using the touchscreen at an angle. The capacitive OLED touchscreen is similar to the E-P3 touchscreen except that it's foldable and can be tilted up to 45 degrees down and up to 90 degrees up. It's damn nice. The screen is noticeably brighter and sharper than the E-PM1 or GH2, and the touch sensitivity is much better than the Soft-Resistance GH2. In truth, I prefer this over EVF in most scenarios. The physical layout and breakpoints are a moderate departure from the PEN series. Instead of the odd little combo D-Pad dial and (on some models) thumbwheel, the E-M5 gives you two dedicated dials on the top of the camera: one for your thumb and one for your index finger. Actually I really like it; Setting up EV compensation in A or S mode is very easy, while M mode is quick and painless. You never have to use the touchscreen to control anything on the E-M5; All of this can be done with physical buttons and these watch faces. I appreciate the FN2 button and (thankfully reprogrammable!) REC button on the top of the camera, and the D-Pad and surrounding controls are easy enough to use (although some say they're small and a bit bulky due to the weatherproofing). are bland ), but the FN1 and Play buttons are a little awkward for me to press due to the protruding screen in front of them. I really like the rubberized rear thumb grip that allows for comfortable one-handed shooting with small lenses, and the front grip is more than adequate (in fact, the E-PM1 didn't have one at all). The power button is a bit difficult to flip, which in practice means I often leave the camera on and just let it go to sleep. The software user interface is essentially taken directly from the PEN series. The Olympus menu system is highly customizable, and while it may seem overwhelming at first, I'd rather have all the options than not have them. My favorite mode is "SCP", also known as "Super Control Panel", which offers quick access to settings. The camera looks almost comical with a built-in flash. Annoyingly, to use the plug-in flash, you have to remove a small piece of plastic from the AP2 connector (and you'd better keep that little plastic handy when removing the flash, as weatherproofing is subject to availability). The most notable feature of the plug-in flash is wireless triggering for compatible Olympus flashes, otherwise you can just leave this dumb thing at home. To break it down: Pros: + Weatherproof + Significantly improved sensor + Exceptional speed + Extra grips (for those who like them) + Excellent lens choice (other than no weatherproof options) + Exceptional one-shot AF performance + Excellent JPEG engine + Tilt OLED capacitive screen + in-body image stabilization in video mode soft" by weather protection. APS-C digital SLR cameras. New battery not compatible with PEN. " than the PEN series. In many ways, the E-M5 is 'just' an upgraded PEN with weather protection, a new sensor and a built-in electronic viewfinder, but it's what a lot of people will be looking for in a camera, especially when switching from a DSLR: this one Camera is hard work, it's the best Micro Four Thirds camera yet and its only major downside is the price (which is no doubt a premium over comparable DSLRs compared to).