OMD E-M5 MKII impressions

[raist3d]

Several impressions/observations follow in sections. Unlike what I did years ago of getting a camera to test in several ways for specific things with charts and files, I am just going to comment on what I find as I find it relevant to things I want to do with it for several reasons.

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first- quickie impressions as I am about to had out and try some real world scenarios

- camera is solid nice grip for as small as it is a/b level feels like it could break somwtime though

- quietest shutter of any camera with such I have seen so far this one surprised me

- camera operates pretty fast in responsiveness

- aF looks promising for the scenario I have in mind

- no ibis noise I could hear in a normal quiet room unlike the first model in this series

- ibis does seem as crazy as what the previews were saying though to me more of 2-3 solid stops (which is like Beat I have seen for a general ibis)

- ISO 5000 looks pretty reasonable (so far)

- dr is good seems like newer sony sensors (it is a sony sensor right?) that there's more shadow range than highlight - a matter of exposing to the right

All of this may change in some nuances- as I get to play more with the camera.

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ISO 8000 (1/125 F1.8, so like 1/45-1/50 @ f2.8)

Converted from RAW (Iridient), no heavy noise reduction. The JPEG version isn't bad, but the glowing letters "Walgreens" (red middle right) have color artifacts/burn, while the RAW does not.

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Improvement over OMD EM5 1.0 - no banding in shadows. The first model had some banding once you start hitting ISO 12800 (very well controlled) and shadows pushed past that (not horrible like the older Panasonic 4/3rd sensors but it's there). I don't see any banding here.

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Auto - focus

The Autofocus works pretty well and the camera would lock even in pretty low light though it slows down but still reasonably fast for the light it is.

What I noticed though is that pretty much any attempt to follow any objects that are coming towards me/away from me in this light usually resulted in a miss-focus. Need to see how to do the continuous AF - tracking for this model, but a couple of things I tried didn't quite work.

Static or mostly static objects is another story. Or objects that would keep their distance from me to them even if they are moving left/right, up/down.

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Auto focus update - tried setting the proper C-AF. When shooting several shots (5 fps- "low fps") I was able to get some shots in focus at night. This is a tough situation, and I felt the C AF worked in a couple of shots.

When doing single shot acquisition seems like it wouldn't quite work but if you "pump" the shutter while following the object you would increase your chances of getting shots in focus.

- Ricardo

 

[raist3d]

Wanted to update with more impressions -

- Tried a video in a car just as a curiosity in All -i Frame / 77Mbps mode to both check the quality and the IBIS. The IBIS is as crazy as the hype proclaims. You can even see in the video the dirty dash-glass jumping up and down while the road and other cars are pretty darn steady. Wow.

Note: I don't care for video for my work, but nice to see it's there. The quality looks reasonable. I would still expect a GH3 or GH4 to be much better, but if you are mainly a stills guy with occasional video, the new Olympus camera may do.

Fuji Xtrans camera vs this Olympus camera (you know this was coming)
Image quality? Fuji. Hands down. I don't care what SteveHuff says here, I don't think he's giving the Fuji a fair chance. The Fuji has more DR, jumps with more color and "presence" if you will, hard to describe.

The Olympus is pretty good, it's simply the Fuji does better here.

Now, operational speed, and AF, the OMD E-M5 MKII makes my X-E1 look positively archaic. Would love to give the X-T1 a spin in similar situations with one of the newer faster lenses. I have to admit I really love that Fuji look, and it gives me pause for a second, but at the end of the day, I want a smaller ninja style camera for street photography and the Olympus matches that better.

I am surprised how well rounded the Olympus is actually. Very refined since the original E-M5. Really happy to see they took care of the banding even at the highest ISO and push from shadows.

I think if a Fuji that was like an X-E3 with that new F2.0 35mm prime was out today, I would have a hard time deciding. I still like Fuji quite a bit, but the Olympus seems to keep growing on me fast. Years ago this wouldn't be a discussion- I would have destroyed a planet for a camera like this one, it's just that there are so many good options to consider now.

All cameras are really good now.

As for my Nikon 1 J4, I still love the size.. I guess maybe that's what makes me wonder about the Fuji- if I can have the Olympus be as pocketable as a Q/ 1 J4, a part of me feels I may as well go with the slightly bigger Fuji- but truth is the Olympus system will still be smaller and it's very snappy today, not a year from now.

Maybe in 5 years if the Nikon 1 system is still around and their sensor tech has moved forward a lot I would like something like that again.

Anyway, just thinking a bit out loud. I think it's time to accept that if I want small and still ONE camera for street and paid work, the OMD EM5 MKII seems to be as good as I said I wanted.

- Ricardo

 

[k-hawinkler]

Wanted to update with more impressions -

- Tried a video in a car just as a curiosity in All -i Frame / 77Mbps mode to both check the quality and the IBIS. The IBIS is as crazy as the hype proclaims. You can even see in the video the dirty dash-glass jumping up and down while the road and other cars are pretty darn steady. Wow.

Note: I don't care for video for my work, but nice to see it's there. The quality looks reasonable. I would still expect a GH3 or GH4 to be much better, but if you are mainly a stills guy with occasional video, the new Olympus camera may do.

Fuji Xtrans camera vs this Olympus camera (you know this was coming)
Image quality? Fuji. Hands down. I don't care what SteveHuff says here, I don't think he's giving the Fuji a fair chance. The Fuji has more DR, jumps with more color and "presence" if you will, hard to describe.

The Olympus is pretty good, it's simply the Fuji does better here.

Now, operational speed, and AF, the OMD E-M5 MKII makes my X-E1 look positively archaic. Would love to give the X-T1 a spin in similar situations with one of the newer faster lenses. I have to admit I really love that Fuji look, and it gives me pause for a second, but at the end of the day, I want a smaller ninja style camera for street photography and the Olympus matches that better.

I am surprised how well rounded the Olympus is actually. Very refined since the original E-M5. Really happy to see they took care of the banding even at the highest ISO and push from shadows.

I think if a Fuji that was like an X-E3 with that new F2.0 35mm prime was out today, I would have a hard time deciding. I still like Fuji quite a bit, but the Olympus seems to keep growing on me fast. Years ago this wouldn't be a discussion- I would have destroyed a planet for a camera like this one, it's just that there are so many good options to consider now.

All cameras are really good now.

As for my Nikon 1 J4, I still love the size.. I guess maybe that's what makes me wonder about the Fuji- if I can have the Olympus be as pocketable as a Q/ 1 J4, a part of me feels I may as well go with the slightly bigger Fuji- but truth is the Olympus system will still be smaller and it's very snappy today, not a year from now.

Maybe in 5 years if the Nikon 1 system is still around and their sensor tech has moved forward a lot I would like something like that again.

Anyway, just thinking a bit out loud. I think it's time to accept that if I want small and still ONE camera for street and paid work, the OMD EM5 MKII seems to be as good as I said I wanted.

- Ricardo

I haven't tried the video yet.
The E-M5 II has grown on me as well.
It's a jewel, very well thought out, including its user interface, and delivers excellent image quality.
I find it complementay to my FF cameras, but not as a replacement for them.
Hopefully the announced Olympus 300/4 is available soon.

 

[raist3d]

I have to say though Olympus has tried to improve the UI, it's still over complicated/over designed. I still think they need to further simplify how they deal with it.

- Ricardo

 

[jonoslack]

K-H, Ricardo
I hate you :banghead::angry:

I really thought I was going to escape this one, but the combination of the Irident stuff, the electronic shutter You Two and the size has defeated me.

I've kind of come to the conclusion that for full frame I'd really rather stick to my Leica M camera . . . and that for mirrorless I might as well take advantage of the real advantages of size µ43 offers.

So my lovely (and rather beaten up) E-M1 now has a new friend.

WEX (my local pusher) will have it ready to pick up at 1.

 

[k-hawinkler]

Jono,

Great move on your part.
I know you will really appreciate the refinements over the E-M5 and E-M1.
Of course, I will use the E-M5, E-M1, and E-M5 II alongside each other.
For me personally that's an excellent educational tool to appreciate the technological advancements.

I agree with you on Iridient. It's a most welcome addition to our tool box.

 

[raist3d]

In all honesty, unless you want smaller, I think the EM1 should be your camera as you bought it. It also has slightly better IQ than this one from a few comparisons I have seen (Olympus has always put a tiny bit higher IQ in the top tier since 4/3rds days so not surprised).

Anyway, the EM1 is not for me because I want smaller. In fact, the OMD EM5 MKII is big enough it made me pause for a second since I am so attuned to the Nikon 1 J4 now, but I could shoot anything with this camera, and i don't dare to shoot some paid work with a Nikon 1... so....

As I am sure you already know what you see here is not the image quality of the OMD EM5 MKII as much as what I do as a photographer. I have many shots with my Pentax Q after all.

Good to see Iridient 3.0 level up a bit. I was always concerned for their noise reduction. It's better now but it is also very dependent like all raw converters on which camera you use. For the Nikon 1 J4 is still not so hot.

Anyhow, enjoy, it's a tiny speed demon.


- Ricardo

 

[scott kirkpatrick]

:ROTFL:

K-H, Ricardo
I hate you :banghead::angry:

I really thought I was going to escape this one, but the combination of the Irident stuff, the electronic shutter You Two and the size has defeated me.

I've kind of come to the conclusion that for full frame I'd really rather stick to my Leica M camera . . . and that for mirrorless I might as well take advantage of the real advantages of size µ43 offers.

So my lovely (and rather beaten up) E-M1 now has a new friend.

WEX (my local pusher) will have it ready to pick up at 1.

Now how did I know this was coming? :ROTFL: I think it was the appearance of Iridient that pushed Jono over the edge.

I've been trying to get the improved autofocus in Firmware 3.1 for my E-M1 to turn me back into a basketball shooter, something I haven't done for about six years. The 3.1 magic hasn't been powerful enough to work that miracle so far, but I'll keep trying. There are some successful basketball shots with either an M5Vii or an M-1 on Imaging-Resource, but you note that they had great light (exposures at 1/1000) and shot a practice session with only four players.

So I took the M set at ISO1600 last night to a crowded, underlit set of Purim "experiences" in which you walk through a series of running scenes filled with actors in crazy costumes. It worked pretty well; some results are over in the Leica forum. This would also have been a great test for the M1 or M5Vii using ISO 3200 with the new firmware, but I wasn't brave enough to go through a second time.

scott

 

[jonoslack]

:ROTFL:

Now how did I know this was coming? :ROTFL: I think it was the appearance of Iridient that pushed Jono over the edge.

Hi Scott - it was.

Picked it up - it seems lovely (but I haven't used it yet)

 

[k-hawinkler]

The high res PS plugin works like a charm.
One needs to enter the camera serial number to download the plugin.

 

[jonoslack]

Well, this said first impressions
Having had the E-M5 (passed on to Sim in China) and having the E-M1, I was expecting this to seem a little less sturdy, but on the contrary, it seems to be built like the proverbial brick s**t house - metal dials. I love it that you can just turn the LCD around and forget about it. The finish generally is entirely likeable and feels much sturdier than the E-M5

Much too early to tell about the ergonomics, but they seem to be fine.

I haven't played with any of the esoterics yet, but the shutter is really delightfully quiet (significantly quieter than the E-M1) - Probably the quietest focal plane shutter I've ever had in a camera.

What's not to like?

. . . and just for once I was patient enough to wait until heading home to get the first shot . . . here it is

Norfoik Sunset
E-M5ii 12-40​

 

[k-hawinkler]

Like I said that camera is a little jewel!
Resistance is futile!

 

[Knorp]

Like I said that camera is a little jewel!
Resistance is futile!

Definitely not going to crack ... :grin:

 

[k-hawinkler]

Definitely not going to crack ... :grin:

Hi Bart, then you better don't try it in a store!

 

[jonoslack]

Definitely not going to crack ... :grin:

K-H is right Bart - keep away from stores - especially don't look at the silver one (actually I chose the black, but that's just a reflection of my black heart).

Resistance is Futile

Selling my A7ii - wannabuy?

 

[k-hawinkler]

K-H is right Bart - keep away from stores - especially don't look at the silver one (actually I chose the black, but that's just a reflection of my black heart).

Resistance is Futile

Selling my A7ii - wannabuy?

Oh, BTW, I got a silver E-M5 II, keeping in tradition with my E-M5.
My E-M1 is black.

 

[Knorp]

More typing than shooting ...

 

[Vivek]

More typing than shooting ...

Your new signature with the is interesting.

(FWIW, Bart is a very affable man in real life and has good sense of humor too, it may not come through online.)

 

[mmbma]

i skipped the EM 1 for this and i'm now a happy owner of the mark ii

I tried the live composite feature last night. very impressive. the file was not some gimmicky JPEG but it was recorded in RAW and almost no noise!

 

[Godfrey]

I really thought I was going to escape this one, but the combination of the Irident stuff, the electronic shutter You Two and the size has defeated me.

I've kind of come to the conclusion that for full frame I'd really rather stick to my Leica M camera . . . and that for mirrorless I might as well take advantage of the real advantages of size µ43 offers.

Yup ..

G