Used Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mirrorless Digital Camera, 16 Megapixel, Image Stabilized, 3" Tilting OLED Display, Full 1080 HD Video, Silver

2014-12-01T19:00:00

I am a previous Olympus PEN user. I once owned an E-PL1 and later an E-PL2. I missed having a built-in viewfinder and didn't really care for the Olympus EVF that plugged into the hot shoe. So, I sold off the Micro 4/3 equipment and went with one of the Big Two brands. That camera ("The world's smallest DSLR") was actually pretty nice, but heavy lenses on a small body kind of defeated the purpose of a small scale camera. After a year or so, I looked at Olympus again. When I saw the OMD-EM5 at a great price, I just had to have it. I added the 12-50mm EZ lens, and the 40-150mm zoom lens. I have been pleasantly surprised at the quality of pictures coming from the EM5. I set up some informal comparison tests between the EM5 and my other camera. The Olympus, with either lens, was sharper and produced truer colors than my other camera. This was the case with both tripod-mounted and handheld shots. The 12-50mm lens is handy, and can do some macro work too. When used on the EM5, I don't have to worry much about taking pictures in less than ideal weather. But what I like the most, especially compared to the other camera, is the green frame you see in the viewfinder that indicates the area of focus. It is really frustrating on other systems to find that little red dot for a focus point. With the EM5, not only can I determine where the camera will focus, but it is especially easy to change the focus point, or even set a focus zone. This is a much better setup for me, and in combination with the EM5's quick focus, I am experiencing fewer out-of-focus shots. I know that many people are somewhat bewildered by the Olympus user interface, but it is easily learned. Many features are simply on/off options. The super control panel allows easy change of settings, as do the main/sub dials. When you combine this with the touch screen, you can really get comfortable with a particular way to set and use the camera. Overall, I am very happy to be back with Olympus. The OMD-EM5 is a great camera, with a solid feel, classic good looks, and excellent picture quality. The only reason I gave four stars is that, at this price point, Wi-Fi should be included. That is not a deal breaker though, with all of the other features and product quality. I would feel comfortable recommending this camera.

Daniel C.

2014-03-03T19:00:00

Lighweight, perfect for travel photography, great quality of photos, fast AF. Buttons are a little small.

Jose A.

2014-01-07T19:00:00

I just got this camera but I am in a group with several people who own it and who their work; I am very excited about learning to use it. The menu system is quite complicated so it will take awhile to master, esp. since it's too cold to go out and do much shooting.

MARGUERITE B.

2013-08-25T21:00:00

I take this camera everywhere, which speaks for its compactness and ruggedness - its built to withstand abuse, and various weather. Its simply fun to use with a reasonable amount of controls accessible. It is great not having to worry about getting it wet(with a weatherproof lens) The 5axis stabilizer is a great innovation, and has allowed me to take handheld night shots at iso 200- I am now more encouraged to casually shoot at night instead of lugging around a tripod. The silent shutter is wonderful for unobtrusive street shooting. It performs well in high ISO, but I rarely need to crank up the ISO because of the 5axis The focus is incredibly fast with contemporary lenses, and the image out of the camera already looks great and requires minimum tweaking. If anything, the battery life is relatively short probably because of the 5axis- but nothing unreasonable. Because its such a fun camera that I want to take with me, my photo activities increased dramatically since acquiring this camera.

kentique

2013-05-16T21:00:00

If you are a techie like me, this is the camera you need to get. This one offers so many little things you can configure and play around, it's so fun. oh and it also takes photos but that's not the point of this review. It takes a good photos but it's not anywhere APS-C or Full Frame quality. But as a techie, I do appreciate that the camera do produce nice looking pictures, just keep in mind that these are nice digitally looking photos, not exactly gives off that genuine film photos look and feel. but hey, it is what it is and as long as it looks good, that's all it matters, right? But like I said, this camera really shines when it comes to "using" the camera. It's just like a gadget toy that you can play around with setups and lens so much. If you are into playing around with cameras and taking photos is secondary, this is the camera for you! I love it!

Leica M.

2013-05-08T21:00:00

Solid, well thought out camera. I travel extensively and this will be at my side.

SCOTT B.

2013-03-11T21:00:00

Highly recommended. The camera is smaller than you would imagine and evokes the classic design of many older film cameras. You can carry the camera and multiple m43 lenses for the weight of one DSLR. Construction is good and sturdy. The display and viewfinder are both excellent. The features and picture quality exceeds some of the lower and mid end APS-C DSLRs. JPEGs out of camera are wonderful as-is in most cases and sometimes better than what you could easily obtain by shooting RAW and post-processing. A lot more detail can be recovered from RAW due to the wonderful Sony sensor. ISO 1600 is excellent with very little noise. I have a mental block going to ISO 3200 due to earlier cameras, but that is also very usable. I have done 16x20" prints with this camera. The built-in image stabilization is truly remarkable. A few reviews have mentioned the humming noise it makes. It hasn't been an issue for me and its not a distraction in a quiet room. The latest 1.6 firmware also reduced it to some extent. I consider this a non-issue, especially since I have been able to consistently get sharp, hand held shots at 1/10 to 1/5 secs. This also makes working with manual legacy lenses very easy. You do need to set up the focus assist to help and have to dial in the focal length of the legacy lens for the stabilization to work. Its nice to be able to work with fast legacy primes. Video output is very capable, but this is primarily a stills camera. You won't get the manual video controls available in the panasonic GH2 or GH3. A word about the lenses. Get a good prime to go with it. The 14-42 and 12-50 kit lenses are good, but not exceptional and won't bring out the capabilities of this camera. Heck, you can get some wonderful results with a legacy $50 prime. Okay, so now the bad news. The olympus menu system gives you a large number of controls with which to customize the camera behavior. Some default choices are bewildering, so if you are unfamiliar with this menu system, you will need to spend some time upfront setting up things the way you like. Like for example, enabling the super control panel that gives you a one button access to commonly used controls. Its disabled by default in favor of a dumbed down menu and you need to go menu diving to enable it. And then you can have both options enabled at the same time, in different ways for the viewfinder and the LCD, which can make things truly confusing. If you are a noob, get someone to set it up for you, so you can get more out of the camera. If you are an enthusiast geek, you will drool over the options and still go crazy. The camera has a touch screen OLED display and you can control some things by touch. Touch to focus and click are fun and useful in some situations. But I also get the feeling that the user interface has not been optimized for touch. You still have to revert back to the physical dials for some things. Many more controls could be optimized for touch than currently available. I truly love this camera, so I also have no hesitation is also writing my gripes about it in the hope that someone at Olympus will read them and help improve it with a firmware upgrade. - The menu system needs to be rationalized without loss of features. - Enable HDR shooting like in the newer E-PL5. - Tethered shooting like its possible with Canon or Nikon. Please, this is a capable camera, don't castrate it in firmware. This is essential for studio shoots or advanced photography. - Focus peaking for use with manual lenses a la Sony. And one final word to Olympus - Please release some good mid range zooms to support this baby. There are some wonderful primes but the midrange zoom choices are currently very limited in comparison to Canikon or expensive. This is an ideal enthusiast / semi-pro / pro level camera, but the discerning masses buy zooms not primes. This camera gets a lot of things right and so I am going to rate this camera 5* even though I see areas for improvement. Every camera has compromises and its no different for comparable offerings from Canon/Nikon/Sony/etc.

NIRANJAN V.

2013-02-10T19:00:00

If your looking for a great camera that's compact, lightweight and take beautiful shots this is a good one. My other camera's are now collecting dust.

Dennis

2013-02-04T19:00:00

Olympus quality overall is a higher than the panasonic gh3. Image quality is arguably better than the gh3 despite having the same sensor.

SERGIO A.

2013-01-10T19:00:00

Ahh.. i guess i'll go into background of myself... Got into photography using a canon xsi, the t1i, wanted something more rugged and "professional" after a few years.. moved to the canon 60D.. liked the quality, love the size.. liked the look.. didnt like the weight. after a while it really got to u.. and then the big size you loved of it, (w/ grip) got to you, so I stopped using the grip.. and the camera got annoying to lug around... decided to make a full switch to m4/3.. got a epl-1 .. liked it alot. but after using a dslr.. its hard to admit it was a big downgrade. then i started to buy 4/3 (dslr) lenses for the epl-1 to improve the picture quality.. that worked well.. then missed a viewfinder.. bought a vf2.. liked it but hated how it was $$$ and it didnt lock on.. then the OMD comes out.. solved my problems. loved the size, the look , you can NOT deny looks awesome. the construction is very good, and feels like a small brick. the built in EVF is great too, and the screen on the back is nice and big. I use my olympus 4/3 14-54 mkii lens w/ the olympus mmf-3 to completely weather seal the camera and combo. this is the camera i've been waiting for and im glad i finally got it. picture quality is great. using my 14-54, or even the m4/3 14-42. i recently started experiementing w/ a 28mm 3.5 OM lens. and i love that combo and look. Image stablization on this camera is great, and u really notice it in shooting videos. its a great camera, alittle pricy, but you are really only going to get this if you know what you want and like the style.

wyluncustoms

2012-10-07T21:00:00

My EM-5 died after three and a half months of use. It developed horizontal purple bands in the EVF and LCD that were also present on photographs (?bad sensor). Hopefully this will be resolved by Olympus, but I had to use a backup camera on a recent vacation when this camera failed. Doubly sad because I have purchased multiple lenses for the camera, most recently the excellent 75 mm 1.8.

JOEL C.

2012-05-30T21:00:00

Once I'd fully charged its battery and switched my E-M5 on for the first time, yes, I did notice the slight whirring noise it makes. With my face pressed up against the camera and my eye in the viewfinder, it sounds a bit like the hum of a filter pump in a fish tank -- right away, it reminded me of some Nikon lenses I've used with image stabilization built into the lens that sounded very similar. And I grinned. I figured Olympus put more serious image stabilization into the sensor (although that's not to knock the IS systems they've put into the PEN series cameras, which work very well). I was right. The image stabilization in the E-M5 is excellent, and in use seems to be about a stop or sometimes even two stops more effective than the IS in my E-P2. I'm not worried about the low humming/whirring noise the camera makes when switched on; it's just part of how the camera functions and doesn't get in the way. No one notices it, and neither will you after a short time. It's really only audible when you're right up next to it, and you can't hear it even a foot or more away hanging around your neck. I have now shot two professional gigs with the camera that had moments of absolute silence, and that sound was completely unnoticeable. More significantly, I'll move on to a sound the camera makes that I find quite perfect: its shutter. The shutter noise is a tidy little "plunk" sound that's very quiet and sounds muffled and refined, not at all like many cameras I've used or shot next to that have a metallic, cacophonous clacking noise that can be extremely disruptive. The shutter is also extremely fast and smooth -- its high-speed burst, if that's your thing, is impressive and lightning-fast at about 10 frames per second with the right memory card, far more than you'll need for about 99% of real-world shooting. Since the shutter noise is so low and understated, even a burst of shots is minimally obtrusive. Let me say this: This little camera takes the Micro 4/3 package to professional grade, and in only a short few weeks of use it's grown on me quite a bit and become my preference. I was a very early adopter of the E-P2 when it came out two and a half years ago, and I was amazed with what that little unit could do in the right hands. Yet, when the E-P3 came out, I hesitated and stayed on the fence. It seemed like an upgrade, but not enough of one to warrant rushing out to purchase. Now, along comes the E-M5, which Olympus billed as "The beginning of the new." And it might just be worth that very lofty introduction -- I feel like nearly every complaint I had with the E-P2 has been addressed, though there really weren't all that many. You have good weather sealing, making the camera more "pro" and protected against rain, the occasional splashes that can happen in various situations, dust, etc. You have the option of an excellent battery grip, which for me greatly improves the handling and ergonomics of the camera while providing a second battery that will let you shoot all day long for an extended engagement. You have a great viewfinder that doesn't occupy the use of the hotshoe/accessory port, so you're free to pop on a flash, the stereo microphone (great for shooting movies, by the way), and other accessories. Among the most useful additions are the multiple dials on the top right portion of the camera, which among other things can allow you to spin exposure compensation up or down three stops easily and quickly to adjust for various situations (heavy backlight with no fill flash is one example). And since it's an electronic viewfinder, you can see the final exposure before you even snap the shot, which is a major advantage over a mirror-and-prism optical viewfinder on a DSLR. The flip-up LCD screen can be very handy for overhead or waist-level shooting. But I think the one most noticeable change from my E-P2 to the E-M5 is high ISO performance. People often test different ISO settings in good light, but the true test for high ISOs is in rendering dark areas and shadows in low or next-to-no light. That was the limit of my venerable little E-P2: I can shoot it with very fast lenses and no flash in pubs and bar rooms, poorly-lit indoor situations, and so on, but I can really only push it to about ISO 800 before the shadow and dark areas start getting too noisy. With a fast enough lens, that will get you pretty far, but if there's much motion/fast movement, you still won't have enough shutter speed to stop it without blur unless you use a flash (not an option in many situations, and not my preference if possible). One quick note: I purchased the E-M5 with the 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ lens, simply because of its splash-proof design to match the camera and I expected the equivalent of a 24-100mm lens in 35mm format would be a handy lens. The lens is nearly completely silent in zooming/focusing and sports a handy additional button you can assign a function to, and yes, it looks to be extremely sharp -- but then it had better be sharp by apertures as slow as f6.3 on the long end. It's a useful lens for movie shooting and situations like when it's drizzling out or you're shooting people splashing around in a pool in daylight, for example, or shooting with a flash, but for me it's really too slow to use in many situations and will only be used occasionally. I just shot the E-M5 hand-held well after sunset at ISO 6400 with a very fast lens -- there was almost no light at all, since it was in a wooded and already shaded area. And the photos I got out of it straight up blew me away. This thing's results at ISO 3200 and 6400 shot hand-held in near-total darkness look like it's not nightfall at all but afternoon; I was even able to shoot people blur-free and actually BETTER than the E-P2 can do at ISO 800 in terms of noise visible in shadow and dark/black areas. Yes indeed, this sweet little unit is a keeper. So that's my experience, having thrown myself like an idiot into a few very high-pressure, must-do situations with minimal time to adapt to using the camera. It has performed admirably. I'm finding a lot of smart customizable functions, too, digging through the menus and assigning functions I use most to the additional buttons. I haven't yet gotten the FL-600r flash, which is smaller and made to balance better on the E-M5, and the FL-50r feels a bit too heavy and large to mount on the hotshoe. But I did use the FL-50r on a bracket with the camera, and the results from that setup were stunning. I've noticed a few things that could use improvement. First, the battery life is very good so far in my experience, but there are only three indicator bars displayed: Full (3 bars), two-thirds (2 bars), and one-third (flashing red at you). That could benefit from, say, four or five indicator bars to provide a finer, more accurate readout. Also, I'm one of the people who will probably always use this camera with the full HLD-6 battery grip for improved handling (especially with larger lenses) and extended shooting capability, but the padded, soft rubber areas on the grip mark and scuff up easily. No big deal, but at some point I could see having to (i.e., wanting to) replace them. I also don't like the rubber "bend away" cover for the HDMI/USB ports on the left of the camera -- it feels like it could get loose after a lot of use, so I prefer the hard plastic cover over the SD card and almost always just remove the card to transfer files. It's also something of a nuisance that the E-M5 battery is larger and different than that of the PEN series cameras, just because I had to buy a new round of batteries (gripe, moan. I'll live). That's about all I can say for now! I've grown accustomed to this camera much faster than it usually takes to get used to a completely new unit, and I'm very impressed with what it can do, even after just a short time. While I still love the feel and overall simplicity of my E-P2 and prefer it for certain situations, the E-M5 in many ways is a substantial leap in performance and has very quickly become my new standard, go-to camera. (I'm already pressing some wrong buttons on the E-P2 when switching between the two cameras because of some more intuitive control placements on the E-M5.) I'm only surprised the E-M5 price point is really as affordable as it is -- I think it offers extraordinary "bang for the buck" when you see what it can do. It's the first time in quite a while where I actually feel like a new camera alone has added substantially to my creative "firepower." Is this little thing truly "the beginning of the new?" Well, for this user, yep... it sure feels that way.

AARON M.

2012-05-14T21:00:00

I find it very easy and fast to use with out being overly complicated. Just like the EP 1 and 2 it is very intuitive. To me at least I find the cintrols well laid out dispite what I've read in other online reviews. The auto focus seems quick and low light performance has been very good even for hand held shots. The image stabilization impresses me because it allow me to shoot with slower shutters speeds even with a 3.5~5.6 Zoom lense. It's like my canon with an IS lense attached only the IS is built in. So far in my short time of owning this camera (silver one) I have been very impressed with the performance, feature set and build. I must say the same for my EP's as well. I love the styling and so far I have had nothing but good luck with the brand so Kudos! Olympus and thanks for being one of my beloved cameras to the digital age the OM line!

ShutterBug19

2012-05-03T21:00:00

This is not a review. I am only commenting here to alert potential buyers of this odd mechanical trait which Olympus has confirmed: "Thank you for contacting Olympus Technical Support. You are hearing the new 5 axis Image Stabilization system. It uses a type of Magnetic field to keep the sensor assembly suspended so you will even hear it if the IS system is disabled." In addition to reading many other users report of same issue, I spoke to Olympus and they say that at this time they have no plans to correct this. I'm going to keep the camera as the noise doesn't bother me, but I imagine that it could bother some people and that Olympus may correct it in a future production run.

stormrider