{LBBD} Review | Olympus OM-D E-M5

By Shiv Ahuja

I have been quite fascinated with the surge of new Micro Four Third format cameras for a while now, so when a quick tweet to Olympus India resulted in them sending me a camera for review, it wasn’t something I was going to pass up!

For me, the interest in this format lies in not using it as my main camera for assignments, since I already have a full frame DSLR for that, but to use it as a everyday/walk-around camera.  Whereas it is more than capable of handling a wide range of professional work, I was interested in finding out where, how and if this camera fits in with my style of shooting. APS-C sensor cameras are shrinking in size and losing their mirrors, it remains to be seen if there really is a space for another format between a prosumer bridge camera and budget DSLRs.

Although this review is based around the Olympus OM-D E-M5, its a larger take on the format rather than just this particular camera.  For detailed camera specifications look here.

Camera Body and Ergonomics |

If you’re approaching the EM-5 after using a DSLR for a while, the first thing you’ll notice is the size. This is a tiny camera.

It’s a simple 3 dial setup. 2 dials on the right hand side of the camera to control shutter speed and aperture, and one dial on the left, to select between modes. Its easy to just flick a switch and start shooting. The buttons on the back of the camera are well placed and muscle memory kicks in soon enough. Making the direction buttons customizable is a nice touch and helps you navigate the deep menus better. I just wish the image review and delete buttons were larger. Some of the buttons do feel quite fiddly, but that didn’t bother me much. Didn’t quite need to use the buttons as much while shooting.

With prime/pancake lenses, the form factor feels comfortable, but the added battery grip might work better for those wanting to use telephoto lenses, or those with larger hands!

It’s small, light and easy to carry, but at the same time, if you like a little bit of weight when you’re shooting you might be slightly disappointed.  Its sturdy, rugged and well built but it’s deceivingly light!

The styling on both, the black as well as chrome bodies feels like it’s a bit of a tip of the hat to older film cameras and the square-y edges make it look a little bit like some rangefinders.  Sure, it doesn’t ooze vintage goodness like the Fuji Xpro-1 but hey, I’m not complaining.

Lens |

The kit lens is a12-50mm f/3.5-f/6.3.  I haven’t used a lens designed like this before.  There’s two ways to zoom – The regular way{M-Zoom}, by turning the lens ring to the right or left or something Olympus calls E-Zoom, , where you zoom with short turns of the ring to either side – There’s no need to fully turn the ring since releasing it and turning again zooms in/out further.  I don’t quite understand why they’ve put this there – just the traditional method works perfectly fine.  Pressing down the Macro button and pushing the ring forward puts the lens into a nifty macro mode.

This is a slow lens. A widest aperture of f/6.3 on the 50mm end is quite limiting. I ended up shooting on the wide end mostly and because of the stabilization options and high-iso capabilities of the camera, it is possible to get by even on the telephoto end of the lens.

Autofocus is snappy and accurate. It is perfectly comparable to a DSLR and just as responsive. And I must point out that this is rare for a camera of this form factor. Although, I’m not sure how the choice of lens will affect focus speed/accuracy or if it does affect it at all – So I can speak for the AF performance with this lens only.

Combine a fast AF with a responsive shutter {no lag} and a large RAW buffer and you’ve won half the battle already. That said, all in all I’d get the body only and drop this lens. There are some nifty lenses available for this mount. And for my style of shooting, I’d much prefer a prime lens.

Electronic Viewfinder |

This was actually the biggest surprise for me. Looking through the viewfinder and seeing a screen felt strange in the beginning, but its something you get used to very quickly. Since it’s a mirrorless camera, there is no other way for you to see what the lens sees!

Since its an electronic viewfinder, changing the exposure affects what you see before you even release the shutter. So as soon as you put the camera to your eye, you know if you’ve got the exposure right.  Its easy to tweak shutter/aperture without removing your eye from the viewfinder and see the result before even pressing the shutter. Now for some people this is very strange and they might never get used to it and I admit it look me a lot of time to get warmed up to the idea, but as I used it more, I realized that the chances of completely screwing up the exposure are very rare with an EVF. Focusing is also quite quick and accurate using the EVF and I had no trouble. That being said, the widest I could shoot is f/3.5, I don’t know how easy/hard it is to focus at f/2 and wider. I suggest using the OLED if you’re shooting in Macro mode, though {The OLED swivels out too, for low-level photographs and hard-to-compose angles}.

 Other information/guides inside the viewfinder can be turned off and if you’d like, you can review the image within the viewfinder as well – I didn’t go that far, however!

 I didn’t end up composing using the touch screen OLED, which is normal for a camera this size and somehow comes quite naturally, only because of the fantastic EVF.  There’s a cool auto-detection feature that automatically switches between the EVF and LCD depending on if the camera is held up to your eye or away from it.

Once you get over the fact that its digital, its actually perfectly usable and much much better than any other electronic viewfinder I’ve used.

To conclude the review, here are some shooting and usage notes |

• - Apart from 4:3, there are several other format choices, 1:1 being my favourite. Although it’s a cropped image, you retain the full 4:3 RAW file.  Also, if you’re used to 2:3, Four Thirds does take a bit to get used to.
• - When I’m shooting using manual focus, I zoom in to check if the focus is correct between multiple images. Just like in a DSLR, the Olympus allows you to zoom in and retain the zoom amount while switching through images, so that you don’t have to repeat the LCD zoom in procedure each time while checking focus.
• - The On/Off switch is far away from the shutter. You can’t switch the camera on and off while its in shooting position.
• - For a Micro Four Thirds camera even f/2.8 is not wide enough in terms of getting a shallow DOF.  Light wise, you’re fine. But if you’re looking for an uber-creamy bokeh, you’ll need faster lenses.
• - The fact that there is in-camera image stabilization is great. It works really well. There’s a slight, almost inaudible hum that’s constantly being emitted from the camera’s stabilization mechanism whether its active or not, this might pose a problem for those shooting video – For stills, this is fine apart from situations where you need to be very silent.
• - 9fps. This camera is very very fast and responsive.
• - Olympus f/1.8 lenses for this format are far more affordable, lighter and smaller as compared to equivalent lenses on other systems.
• - You can adjust curves in camera. I don’t think this is a very useful feature, but its fun for when you have the camera, but no computer and are curious to see how a particular image might look after some adjustments.
• - Art Filters include Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale & Light Color, Light Tone, Grainy Film, Pin Hole, Diorama, Cross Process, Gentle Sepia, Dramatic Tone, and Key Line.
• - Long exposure buffs will love this camera. The LCD shows you a preview of the exposure while the shutter stays open. No need to guess the exposure when holding down the shutter/remote in bulb mode.
• - The O-MD doesn’t have a built in flash, but an accessory flash can be hooked on to the hotshoe.
• - Weather sealing is very good. Didn’t face any issues shooting in mild rain.