Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II (Silver) w/ M. Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens

Well, I own both this camera and the E-M1, and for different reasons. I dont see any other reviews comparing the two so I will try my hand at it. The bottom line up front: Ive owned the E-M1 for a year now and I love it as a daily shooting camera in the field because of superior ergonomics. The E-M5 mkii makes a great tripod and studio camera and can be useful for other specific shooting situations with its various features. Ergonomics: Simply put, the ergonomics of the E-M5 mkii are quite a bit behind the E-M1. The grip is insubstantial and if youre going to put the M.Zuiko Pro 40-150mm f/2.8 lens on the E-M5 mkii you NEED the battery grip. Its not even an option. Expect to pay an extra $200 over the base price for the grip. That being said, with the extended grip, ergonomic differences between the two cameras vanish almost entirely. Almost. My only other gripe is that the E-M5 mkii only has a single front programmable button vs the E-M1s two. This might not be a big deal for you, but for me, I like having my magnification and focus peaking right up there where I can access it quickly on the E-M1. On the E-M5 mkii I have to use the AEL/AFL (Fn1) button for peaking instead. I prefer the shutter button on the E-M5 mkii which has a solid half-press to focus and then a full press that bottoms out quickly for shutter release. The E-M1 has a floating switch that activates somewhere in the middle for autofocus and then releases the shutter very shortly after that. Its easy to accidentally snap a picture when you just wanted to lock focus on the E-M1. Functionality: I couldnt tell any specific differences between the EVFs, visually. The IBIS on the E-M5 mkii beats out the E-M1 by a hair with the lenses I use (mostly Noktons.) Manual focusing is pretty easy with both bodies, but I find that the focus peaking on the E-M5 mkii shows a lot more "noise" in the scene that is very distracting vs the E-M1 which tends to really just highlight whats in focus and nothing else. Continuous autofocus on both bodies is useless. Dont bother with it. Thats not why you want these cameras. S-AF speed varies with the lens, the fastest being the M.Zuiko Pro 12-40mm f/2.8 and the slowest being the 60mm Macro f/2.8 but the lenses generally perform equally on each body with the same lighting conditions. Anti-shock shutter and electronic shutter on the E-M5 mkii make this body a superior street camera (anti-shock is super quiet, electronic is actually silent) but beware rolling shutter while using the electronic shutter. The buffers on both cameras run out very quickly, however the E-M5 mkii will recover faster than the E-M1 with the new SDXC UHS-II cards (worth it if youre shooting multiple bursts or high-res shots.) The battery meter on the E-M5 mkii tends to be full until its not full vs the E-M1 which will actually show gradual battery discharge state. Image Quality: In normal shooting, I cant say theres a huge difference between the two. Noise quality seems the same, and I tested this doing astrophotography at ISO 2000 with both cameras on the same night shooting the same subject (Milky Way.) The E-M5 mkiis high res shot makes an insane difference, however. If you shoot still lifes or do macros or any other sort of controlled studio work I highly recommend it. It is even easy to configure high res shots with flash sync. Lightroom tends to claim your high res files are not actually photos, but Im sure this will be addressed eventually. Any subject movement will create very noticeable artifacts at 1:1 viewing. Nitpicks: The eyecup on the E-M5 mkii is just... awful. It falls off. Constantly. And you cant buy a replacement from getolympus yet! I already lost mine after 2-ish months. No such issue on the E-M1. The paint finish on the black E-M1 scratches off and flakes everywhere. Its not especially bothersome to me, but it might be to others. Conclusion: I like the OM-D system a lot. :) At the end of the day, either body gets the job done and thats all I care about. I have been using the E-M5 mkii as my primary studio body and the E-M1 as a backup and field body. If I plan to shoot candids or street I would consider taking the E-M5 mkii because of the various (quiet) shutter options.

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This is a beautiful and fun to use camera. If you’re looking for a fun walking around camera this is a great option. If you’re the kind of person who likes to chat about camera gear, this guy is a great conversation starter. Pretty much every time I’ve taken this out I’ve had people come and ask me about it since it looks so unique compared to offerings from Nikon & Canon that people are more used to seeing. The 16MP does feel kind of low resolution compared to 20+ MP cameras, but this is a massive step up from smart phones in most situations, especially in lower light situations when paired with the awesomely small fast MTF prime lenses. I’ve been mostly using it with the Panasonic 25 & 42.5 f/1.7 primes. For video it’s alright, Auto focus and sound quality leave a lot to be desired, but in the right circumstances it can get the job done. As for size, this is a small camera. If this was going to be your #1 camera that you use all the time you’ll probably want to use the extra grips. Personally I think those take away from the styling of the body, and since I’ve been using it pretty casually I’ve used it as is. I find using the touch screen rather than the view finder and the traditional Shutter buttons to give more consistent results with hitting focus. Bottom line is this is a fun camera. If you want something small and fun to use especially if you already have MTF lenses, this is a great option. It is of course worth keeping in mind that this is an older camera and will likely have a new version released before too much longer.

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Going into Micro Four Thirds, I wasnt entirely convinced that the camera could be as good as larger DSLRs. I saw that the sensors were small and grimaced when I thought of low-light performance. When I got the camera, I was blown away by how it was able to take such nice photos in all conditions. While performance above ISO 1600 is poor, it is able to get nice shots on my constant f2.8 PRO series lenses. I would recommend this to an enthusiast looking to upgrade their photography to a new level. I was able to purchase my camera used, and it gave me amazing value and still wonderful camera, showing a good durability. All in all, great value!

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I got this mainly for 2 things... The stabilizer and that I needed a second body for my M43 setup. When youre someone who does video and stills like me, you have to choose your body carefully. You typically either go with Panasonic who typically doesn’t have body stabilization but has amazing video support an performance, and their glass is typically more expensive or… you go with Olympus who has cheap beautiful Glass and bodies with image stabilization but with lackluster video quality and support. In the past I had chosen to buy Panasonic bodies and Olympus Glass and used gimbals and tripods to stabilize my shots… I just couldn’t pass on the fast cheap glass that Olympus was offering but I couldn’t give up the video quality that Panasonic had. I was stuck in-between the two. Then came the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. So first the things that I love… -The image stabilization… I’ve been able to get sharp clear shots at shutter speeds of 1/4 of a second handheld, when anything below 1/60 of a second on my GH3 was pretty much unusable handheld. -The build quality is really nice. I love the metal dials and body. It feels like a tank. -Sometimes you really can’t grasp the size of something until you put your hands on it but this camera is really small. I really like that, I travel a bit so it’s always nice to be able to save room when you can. This does come with some drawbacks but I’ll talk about that in a bit. -40mp mode is really cool even though I won’t ever have a real use for it but for still life and product shots this is a game changer for some. -The fully articulating LCD touch screen is one of the reasons I hadn’t touched a Oly before. I’m really glad to see it here. -The improved all around video support and performance. Oly is finally serious about video. -included attachable flash. For the longest time I’ve always said that the onboard flashes of cameras nowadays are horrible. It’s nice they didn’t waste space on the camera. -Focus Peaking… it’s one of the best I’ve used and much needed -Weatherproofing… lot of cameras have it these days but it’s still nice they included it. Now for the things I don’t like… -While the video support and performance is much improved there isn’t any 4k support. This camera would have turned some serious heads when the gh3 came out but now in 2015 it’s lagging a little behind in that area. -The size is a great thing for space but it lends itself to some handling issues. Sometimes I don’t feel like I have a good grip on it even though it feels pretty comfortable in the hands. It also leads to my next issue… -battery life… it’s really not all that great… I really wish they had put in a bigger battery. From what Olympus has said, this will last about 310 shots, 40 or so down from the original E-M5 Mark I. The Panasonic lasts for twice as long. -no onboard audio out jack for monitoring your audio while recording. You have to buy the battery pack (279 USD because you can’t buy it separately from the camera grip right now) -menus… They aren’t as intuitive as they could be and I find myself having to take more steps to get to things that on other cameras would be only a few steps. Granted, I love all the customization. Things that would like on the next version… -4k…please -USB Charging through the camera… it would be nice to have one less charger on long trips… anything to save space. -Ability to take high res shots of people and handheld. Olympus has already said they are working on this… lets hope they keep their promise. -simpler menus but still full featured -higher flash sync speed, I doubt they could do anything with a leaf shutter but I can wish! In conclusion… For the price and minor gripes… this camera is probably one of the best M43 cameras on the market. It looks nice and feels solid. Pros and hobbyists will love the performance (minus the battery life), and if you’re a product photographer or looking to get into product photography…This will be a great way to get into the industry with high res shots. People starting out with photography will need to be a little weary of the menus, it doesn’t hold your hand. If you take the time to learn the menus and their function this could be a camera that grows with you.

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