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OM-D E-M5 Mark II Pre-Order

ptomsu

Workshop Member
I know the EM-1 doesn't have one, but I was never able to fully corroborate the EM-5 doesn't have one. Do you have a link that proves the E-M5 does not have an AA filter?

The look on the shots I am seeing of the EM5 MKII seems like it has one.

Now, why would Olympus go from EM-1 with no AA to EM5 MKII with one? Simple- it can be part of a way to draw the line between the two tiers. It's like with the old 4/3rds - even though the e-620/e-420 used a "similar sensor to" the high end E's, the higher tier always had an extra something.

Basically, if it has no AA filter, why is it nowhere on the specs or marketing materials? I certainly could have missed something.

- Ricardo
Ricardo,

unfortunately I do not have a link proving that the EM5 has no AA filter. But what I read in the past about the EM5 made me believe that it does not. And I never found the EM5 files crippled by an AA filter - meaning that I do not see any difference between the EM1 and the EM5 I own.

Sorry if I cannot be of more help

Peter
 

raist3d

Well-known member
So here you go, from Imaging-Resource review on the E-M1, the E-M5 *did* have an AA filter:

"Olympus says that it has also improved noise performance of the sensor versus that in the E-M5, and removed the optical low-pass filter for better per-pixel sharpness. Like any OLPF-free camera -- and they're becoming increasingly common -- that's going to increase the risk of moiré patterning, false color, and other such artifacts, however."

It's cited as one improvement of the E-M1 over the E-M5. So it's quite possible at this tier Olympus may want to keep that in to both separate the high end and this tier, and to avoid issues with customers who may not know how to deal with color moire when it shows up.

- Ricardo
 

raist3d

Well-known member
Thanks for the reply. It looks like the EM-5 MKII has one. Still trying to double check. Thanks again.

- Ricardo
 

Annna T

Active member
Pekka Potka a photographer from Finland was able to use the new E-M5II for a few hours.
He has some interesting remarks/review in his blog. In particular, he made a few comparisons between the Hires mode and the D810 using test charts and he also analyzed the effect of movements at different shutter speeds (using a clockwatch), still testing the Hires mode. I think it is worth reading.


Pekka Potka remarks on the E-M5II
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
If the EM5II really has an AA filter it becomes finally less interesting to me.

So please - if you figure out, let us know.

Many thanks

Peter
 

raist3d

Well-known member
Pekka Potka a photographer from Finland was able to use the new E-M5II for a few hours.
He has some interesting remarks/review in his blog. In particular, he made a few comparisons between the Hires mode and the D810 using test harts and he also tested the effect of movements at different shutter speeds (using a clockwatch) when using the Hires mode. I think it is worth reading.


Pekka Potka remarks on the E-M5II
Thanks for the link Anna. I checked this out. This mode doesn't do much for me, but those who are studio photographers/product photographers can sure make something great out of it.

- Ricardo
 

raist3d

Well-known member
So I was able to get a response from one of the guys that worked with Olympus making one of the promotional videos on the E-m5 MKII, that the E-M5 MKII has no AA filter. He told me it's one of the first things he asked them when he started to work with them. :)

He's been very generous and shared some raw files, I am going to examine those closely.

Here's his reply with the thread at dpreview.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55248294

- Ricardo
 

raist3d

Well-known member
After examining some raw files, I can find a few (3-4) that have more of the detail I was looking for. I am getting closer to preorder with the F1.8 25mm prime (one of my very favorite focal lengths- 50mm) and if it work, start selling everything else.

Not jumping just yet but almost :)

- Ricardo
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
So I was able to get a response from one of the guys that worked with Olympus making one of the promotional videos on the E-m5 MKII, that the E-M5 MKII has no AA filter. He told me it's one of the first things he asked them when he started to work with them. :)

He's been very generous and shared some raw files, I am going to examine those closely.

Here's his reply with the thread at dpreview.

Re: Does the E-5 MKII sensor have or does not have an AA filter?: Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

- Ricardo
Ricardo,

excellent news!

Peter
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
After examining some raw files, I can find a few (3-4) that have more of the detail I was looking for. I am getting closer to preorder with the F1.8 25mm prime (one of my very favorite focal lengths- 50mm) and if it work, start selling everything else.

Not jumping just yet but almost :)

- Ricardo
Looks good! I am actually close to order one too ....

How fast things can change :D
 

k-hawinkler

Well-known member
Does anybody know when the OM-D E-M5 Mark II is supposed to ship?

BTW, if one orders the EE-1 Dot Sight from Olympus it says will ship in March.
However Amazon says it will ship in April. Olympus charges tax, Amazon doesn't in my state.
 

Annna T

Active member
There is an interesting review of Thom Hogan at SansMirror

It includes a rant on the bad habit of Olympus engineers to rearrange buttons with each new models. You can read between the lines that he would have preferred to get the new HIRES trick in an E-M1 Mk 2. While with the E-M5mk2 the change between the two bodies (E-M1<>E-M5II) isn't smooth if you want to use both in the same shooting or alternatively.

Personnally, I'm happy that they offered in this new tricks and other improvements (electronic shutter and better EVF) in the E-M5 shape because that body fits my hands better and I don't care for PDAF.

But he has a point when it comes to rearranging the buttons. I'm not sure about the positioning of the AEL/AFL button for instance... Although the rest seems more ergonomic than the previous model. Anyway, each time a new body is issued some changes are clear improvements, but other less so. Given the number of iterations of their different models, they should have found a set of basic configurations for each model line and hold onto them.

In the same line of thoughts previous flashes won't be compatible without the EP2 multiport.

So what do you think of the Sansmirror review ?
 
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turtle

New member
I think any smearing is due to the display of JPEGs, which always look pretty awful when uploaded onto the web, usually at a diminished quality setting.

I am pretty sure this camera has no AA filter.

Looks like a great little camera, but launch price in UK is high at £899. Anyone know what the Mk I was priced at launch? The new one has new features, but so did the Sony A7II, which is the same price as the old one, just about.
 

bavanor

Member
HI Raist,

Sorry for the long pause in response. At imaging resources here for em5 vs em5II and here for em1 vs em5II you can see they call out that the em5II has no anti alias filter. And that the em1 does not have an anti aliasing filter either.

Aaron
 

Annna T

Active member
I think any smearing is due to the display of JPEGs, which always look pretty awful when uploaded onto the web, usually at a diminished quality setting.

I am pretty sure this camera has no AA filter.

Looks like a great little camera, but launch price in UK is high at £899. Anyone know what the Mk I was priced at launch? The new one has new features, but so did the Sony A7II, which is the same price as the old one, just about.
Here is a link to the announcement of the E-am5 @DPreview back in February 2012. You will find the Olympus press release and the prices indicated in that release, plus under it, a few "street prices" added by DPreview.

The launch price of the E-M5 II seems about 10% higher. However it is a little early to know what the real street price of the E-M5 II will be.


Price of the E-M5 I indicated by DPreview in the announcement :

Estimated Street Price in the US :
$999.99 (Body only, available in Black and Silver)
$1,299.99 (Black or Silver body with black M.ZUIKO Digital ED 12-50 mm f3.5-6.3 EZ lens)
$1,099.99 (Black body with black M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42 mm f3.5-5.6 II R lens)

And a little lower concerning Europe :

MSRP EU: € 1099 (Body only) UK: £1149.99 EU: € 1299 (with M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-50mm 1:3.5-6.3) (there is no UK price indicated for body only)
NB : Don't forget that EU prices always include the VAT of around 20%, while US prices never include it.
 

Knorp

Well-known member
And a little lower concerning Europe :

MSRP EU: € 1099 (Body only) UK: £1149.99 EU: € 1299 (with M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-50mm 1:3.5-6.3) (there is no UK price indicated for body only)
NB : Don't forget that EU prices always include the VAT of around 20%, while US prices never include it.
My dealer also advertises this kit: € 1799 - EM5-mkII with M.Zuiko 12-40 Pro
 

scho

Well-known member
Well, this camera looks real nice but I want to play with some raws on sharp lenses. There's nothing particularly wrong, but I have really become more and more sensitive to the effects of an anti- alias filter now that I have been using AA-less cameras for a while and as hard as I try to look for detail, there is this "micro smear" that seems to kill some details. It's been always there on AA cameras in general.

So the question it, at least for night shots, at what point the necessity to do more noise reduction on a smaller sensor matches this one with the AA filter.

Ah well, will wait for more raws.

- Ricardo

PS: Iridient can open the RAW files of this camera. It's not officially supported but the current unofficial support is actually pretty decent color/exposure wise, so we can start seeing some raw files. It certainly does not support the high-res mode.
RPP can also open and process high res ORF files (64 MP) and the one I tried from ImagingResource look very impressive when output as a 16 bit tiff to LR.
 

raist3d

Well-known member
There is an interesting review of Thom Hogan at SansMirror

It includes a rant on the bad habit of Olympus engineers to rearrange buttons with each new models. You can read between the lines that he would have preferred to get the new HIRES trick in an E-M1 Mk 2. While with the E-M5mk2 the change between the two bodies (E-M1<>E-M5II) isn't smooth if you want to use both in the same shooting or alternatively.
Personally, I'm happy that they offered in this new tricks and other improvements (electronic shutter and better EVF) in the E-M5 shape because that body fits my hands better and I don't care for PDAF.

I would care for PDAF unless the contrast AF is so fast that I don't care (I don't do tracking AF, so I am ok with that too).

Silent Shutter is *the* feature that is making me look at the camera, as a camera with this feature set *and* silent shutter is what I see works for what I normally do.

So what do you think of the Sansmirror review ?
Well, his is not a review, he doesn't have the camera yet. I think he points out valid things on the controls and most importantly, menus- but some of the changes they did now AFAIk were because users wanted it differently. Though I would say Olympus has been around for long enough that they should have figured this out by now. I will never understand when they first did the E1 (great) and later the E-3/E-5 interfaces which were over complicated messes, imho.

Putting the super control panel up is great. It's like they were ashamed of it for a while and tried to go after a Canon interface - that never made sense to me. I find the super control panel great- just improve on its metaphor. Make it a super duper great super control panel. :)

- Ricardo
 
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