UPDATE: We just got notified by DealsRunner.com that there are two Black E-p5 superkits (with 17mm 1.8 and VF-4) in Stock with a $150 discount at [shoplink 40585 ebay]CameraLand (Click here)[/shoplink]. P.S: DOn’t worry about the one wrong picture you see on top. They say they uploaded the wrong pic for mistake. The seller is super trusted!
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The Olympus E-P5 sensor just got tested at DxOmark (Click here) and as expected it delivers the same kind of performance of all other Olympus 16 megapixel cameras (and same performance as the GH3). The new PEN is certainly a nice camera but the DxO team writes:
“With the market moving towards smaller, highly portable cameras featuring APS-C format sensors, Olympus needs to constantly reassert the advantages of the MFT format.”
I do hope the new GX7 camera will mark a clear new advancement in terms of image quality performance. it certainly delivers a great advancement in terms of features (in body IS, built-in EVF and so on). Meantime the E-P5 ins’t a hotseller according to the Amazon US mirrorless ranking (Click here). Same story for the German ranking and UK ranking.
79 Responses
This camera won’t sell. Why get E-P5 when you can get a OMD? It’s just too obvious and everybody including reviewers know this!
I can bet they’ll be a price drop very soon for this camera, as soon as Panasonic officially releases the GX7.
-Maybe even sooner if it stays low on sale charts.
I think the E-P5 is a nice camera. It is just priced a too high.
It will be a great pick in a few months, when its price drops 20-30%.
Probably around the same time when the GX7 is released.
yeah…the EP-5 will not sell at that price…exactly….you can get a discounted, water resistent body with the same image quality and option for a grip for less money. Also…with all the new cameras to be released in the near future…most people will wait and see what these new generation cameras will have in store…The price will have to drop big-time for this body to sell…
The E-P5 is very nice but it won’t sell well and that has been predicted as soon as the early rumors about its specs appeared. No EVF, same IQ as the nearly 2-year-old EM-5, and a high price. Olympus should have just put all those new features like FP and 1/8000 sec in the new OMD and release it earlier and discontinue the E-Px line with the downturn of the market. It missed its opportunity by not releasing the new OMD earlier, as that would have been a sensation and would have sold like hot cakes, if it had been released instead of the E-P5, with all the new features. Now, the GX7 has stolen the limelight. It’s all about timing.
The price will come down in time but with no EVF, it will only sell in limited numbers. People will buy the E-M5, the GX7 and later the E-M6, if they want to spend this kind of money.
> It missed its opportunity by not releasing the new OMD earlier
I agree, and they didn’t really have a choice, given the organizational mess they are in, did they? The E-Px series needed a follow up at some point, and we would be even more unhappy if the new OMD came with a better sensor and then came the E-P5 with the current sensor. It might have been too much pain to shuffle the product schedule, or accelerate the OMD, so they stuck to it, risking the delay.
Sony can do things like abandoning entire product lines. Olympus can’t. In some ways, I like that about Olympus, and Panasonic, too, dottering around with established lines, building brand and mark loyalty.
Also bear in mind that a lot of us were willing to lose the EVF if the hump could be gone. I remember a lot of comments like that. Besides the fact that the E-M5 has very little room to improve on. (Yes, I know, I know, video quality, WiFi, 1/8000, tethering, lose the hump, too small, too big… still… IQ wise…)
The E-P5 does have some nice upgrades over the E-M5, some of which could probably have been implemented as FW upgrades for that camera (ISO 100, small focus box, easier mysets access) Such updates would boost the value of the E-M5… but I suppose eat into E-P5 sales, and eventually sales of the next OM-D.
At this point, if I needed a second, a used E-M5 would be more tempting than an E-P5 at list. Although I could consider an E-PL5 w 17/1.8 if the price was reasonable 🙂
The fact is, it is selling quite well.
where ?
Japan ?
http://dslrphoto.com/dslr/space.php?do=jranking
USA ?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_hi_3?rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A!493964%2Cn%3A502394%2Cn%3A281052&ie=UTF8&qid=1375150532
UK ?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Cameras-Accessories-Photography-Bundles/b/ref=amb_link_64355965_9?ie=UTF8&node=560836&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=left-1&pf_rd_r=004817Q5KKSBWC8XE4PV&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=415065267&pf_rd_i=560834
Germany ?
http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=sr_hi_3?rh=n%3A562066%2Cn%3A!569604%2Cn%3A571860%2Cn%3A571862&ie=UTF8&qid=1375150692
Nope not selling well anywhere
I would not bet for price dropping soon. Olympus managers are simply not very good at assessing market and setting price right. They have a huge gap between $500 E-PL5 and $1000 E-M5, and what they do? Release $1000 E-P5, which of course is not up to E-M5.
It might sell at $699.
As usual, DXO is sold to APS-C. Seriously, how bad is a score of 72? It’s becoming ridiculous.
Dxo is good for the individual scores. Don’t pay attention to the average score as the average score will vary per individual’s priorities. But it’s still useful on the individual aspects they test.
I agree with Raist3d1. The measurement graphs are even more useful, I think.
“With the market moving towards smaller, highly portable cameras featuring APS-C format sensors, Olympus needs to constantly reassert the advantages of the MFT format.”
The BIG Effing problem with the APS-C mirrorless cameras is the Lack Of Long Primes! Neither Sony NEX or Fuji X has a 90mm (=135mm FF), while Olympus makes a close enough f/1.8 75mm (=150mm FF). When the Panasonic f/2.8 150mm (=300mm FF) that will be another lens that you can’t get with an APS-C mirrorless. End of discussion!
What is so special about 135mm FF-equivalent? IMHO, the most important focal lengths for primes are 24mm (or 28mm), 35mm, 50mm, 85mm (or slightly more, perhaps combined with macro capability). 135mm is a very special thing, especially if it’s not a macro like the Sigma 150/2.8 OS Macro which I love for my D600.
135mm is a classic focal length.
+1,000,000,000
+More!
FF135mm is a very excellent portrait focal length. If you love shallow depth of field, FF135/2.8 will out-shallow the FF85/1.4, but you won’t have to stand as far back as you would with FF180. FF135/2.8 lenses also tend to have much more even performance from center to corner than FF85/1.4, and have less chromatic aberration. FF135 did go out of fashion just as the digital age was taking off, but it will be back.
One of the things i love about Fanboi sites is that you can be attacked for promoting their object of Fanboi-ism.
If I’d posted this on either Sonyalpharumors or Fujirumors, I’d have expected your response.
Most of my paidwork is dome ith either a 85/90mm Tilt-&-Shift or a 135mm. Maybe the best thing to do would be to replace my mirrorless cameras with a Canon 5D3 or a Nikon D800 … nah the best thing to do would be to stay away from 43rumors (consider it done).
Ya, I don’t get why someone would attack you for promoting the FT benefits either. I’m actually a Sony NEX user and love the APSC format as I often use my camera for handheld night street photography and the ability to crank up the ISO without suffering much detail loss and introduced noise is amazing. I will say though, one thing that the FT cameras will always have going for them, and is one aspect I think Olympus and Panasonic should promote to fend off the rising popularity of APSC compacts and ILC systems, is that crop factor you bring up. While the size benefit is now kind of knocked with the introduction of larger sensor system cameras from Sony and Fuji offering new competition that wasn’t there before, the crop factor means that FT cameras are absolutely PERFECT for those photographers into nature like birding or taking your camera out into a national park to snap pictures of bears at safe distances. Especially being weather sealed, the OMD is extremely suited for this market.
Even though Sony and Fuji are really just getting their feet wet and will continue to bring out new lenses for their systems, I highly doubt you will ever find any lens more telephoto than a 200mm for the sake of keeping the overall size minimal. If Sony wants to bring out new telephoto lenses, they’d just assume people requiring that length would be using their A mount cameras and not an NEX since holding a small body with such a large lens attached would be so awkward to hold.
I do agree though, that Olympus and Panasonic definitely needs to find an angle to stay relevant to continue selling their FT cameras to new audiences, not just the people they already have invested in the system. While the megapixel wars seem to be still going strong, it appears we’re about to see a new war amongst manufacturers promoting larger sensor sizes too, even if APSC sensors aren’t all that much larger than FT. It is after all, still a numbers game, and if you’re new to photography, why wouldn’t you go with a camera with a larger sensor for the same money and similar body size?
pfff.. B.S.
Hey…put the Oly 180mm on your MFT camera …you will find that the lens is so spectacular that will be finding ways to use it!
Before there was 85mm and 180mm for portrait ; there has been 135mm , if i’m not mistaken
Lack of long primes can be easily fixed.
Tiny sensors can’t
If olympus doesn’t get competitively prices cameras with new sensors into the hands of new customers first then they will lose.
With sensor becoming better and better, sensor size is no issue, the real future competition will come from Nikon 1 not APSC. I still believe m43 is the sweet spot (not to small, but small lenses) though I recently envy the Fuji lenses (Olympus, Y U NOT BUILD GOOD ZOOMS!?)
While I totally agree that as sensor tech improves there may be a point when good enough is reached for many people with either mFT or maybe even smaller. However the same advances will also be made in larger sensors and the differences between sensor sizes will remain a constant. In certain key areas notably high ISO we are very far away from what would be to me at least a revolution. Imagine if those ridiculously high ISO setting we have on our current cameras actually delivered quality akin to our current base ISO.
I do not consider even the best current FF high ISO performance {D4?} acceptable at 3200 let alone higher , I am talking about shooting in the murky low light situations that benefit most from high ISO not test shots taken in bright even light. Imagine what a super high ISO with the image quality {noise, DR colour fidelity etc} of current base ISO’s would mean too many shooters such as low light sports, concerts etc.
Why it has to be olympus? Panasonic already has amazing zooms 12-35 and 35-100, why not use them?
you forget the site youre on
Drop the Mic…
I was just working on an article about this. Here is the current draft, not really public, yet:
http://leicaapostate.com/blog.php?file=20130801__Mirrorless_Lens_Range
“With the market moving towards smaller, highly portable cameras featuring APS-C format sensors, Olympus needs to constantly reassert the advantages of the MFT format.”
The BIG Effing problem with the APS-C mirrorless cameras is the Lack Of Long Primes! Neither Sony NEX or Fuji X has a 90mm (=135mm FF), while Olympus makes a close enough f/1.8 75mm (=150mm FF). When the Panasonic f/2.8 150mm (=300mm FF) that will be another lens that you can’t get with an APS-C mirrorless. End of discussion!
WTF??? I hit the submit button once and it gets posted twice.
Sorry, but while the EP5 is a decent, if over-priced camera, the fact that Olympus thinks they can sell a glorified P&S body as a high-end model with no integrated viewfinder, really is a joke. Tastes and requirements and the breadth the of M4/3 user base have changed considerably in the 4 years since the M4/3 system made it’s debut.
Panasonic finally smartened up with the GX7, with mirrorless pressure from Sony, Fuji and even Canon.
Right now, Olympus is way late to the party. Hopefully, they’ll smarten up and release the sort of camera that M4/3 enthusiasts have been hankering and clamoring for for the past 3 years!
Agreed, mr. Ree. Olympus must stuff a viewfinder in the next PEN. Or else the GX7 will kick their arse.
Agreed, mr. Ree. Olympus must stuff a viewfinder in the next PEN. Or else the GX7 will kick their arse.
Way too late? What about EM-5 ?
Hey..don’t forget…Olympus made the best MFT camera to date…whether you like it or not..the OMD has kicked butt…and you can tell just by the way it holds its price!!!!!!! 🙂
They might just surprise everyone…really sood.
Way too late? So laughable!
“Meantime the E-P5 isn’t a hotseller according to the Amazon US mirrorless ranking (Click here). Same story for the German ranking and UK ranking.” Thats because its TOO EXPENSIVE!
You’ll get same sensor performance in E-PL5 packet so why should I pay premium for E-P5?
ps: I can buy the VF-4 separetly if Iäm not satisfied with VF-2 or 3
The EP-5 could have been a game changer with an integrated EVF, it’s a great classic design camera, but the optional EVF is just too bulky and pricey to boot. It would have been perfect for those who object to the ‘hump’ on the OM-D, which I don’t mind at all. People always think I’m shooting film, which is fun when I tell them it’s digital. Response… Cool!
“People always think I’m shooting film…”
I get the same thing when I shoot with my GH2 (graphics blacked out) and Voigtländer lenses.
You might be right, that the E-P5 could be a game changer with an EVF and it is a huge mistake not to include one. However, think about what such a camera would do to the sales of future OMD models, their image making flagship and their most successful and new camera. It does not make sense to ruin the OMD line that way.
Trying to make a few more dollars with an E-P5 does not make sense. It is squished too tight between the E-M5 and the E-PL5. It has no reason to exist any more, this E-Px line. Olympus should just update the E-PL5 and the E-M5 cameras with their latest features, which will give them a better chance to survive in this shrinking market, than to stick with the E-Px line.
Maybe the EP line can exist as the “rangefinder” styled line as many people have grasped onto the design of the Sony and Fuji rangefinder inspired lines. Even with an integrated viewfinder, the OMD can exist as the DSLR style with weather sealing. Compared to other cameras and stiffer competition these days versus when it first came out, to me, the weather sealing aspect is still very much a selling point. Not too many CSC on the market that can promote a weather sealed body 🙂
That logic has never held much ground, what does it matter which Olympus model is more successful ? all that money ends up in Olympus pocket either way. Both OMD and E-P5 are closely priced but the E-P5 is hugely handicapped by its lack of EVF, if it had been different there wouldn’t be much damage to the OMD as it has clear advantages besides the EVF, and in the worst case scenario the next OMD model would surely be far more attractive in features (hybrid AF and/or mount, weather sealing, etc) than a simple E-P5 with built-in EVF. So no, there was no excuse to avoid a buil-in EVF in the E-P5, much less at its launch price.
Even with a build-in VF the Ep-5 is still too expensive with the asking price for $1,499 with 17/1.8 or $1,299 body only. It still needs to lower down to GX-7 or NEX6 price level to be competitive. Too bad the current ep-5 didnt comes with a integrated VF and still sell at $1,299 body only.
See my comment about “game changer” below.
That’s funny.
Reminds me, when I had the Leica R8, I used to look at the back of the body to check how many frames were left. People thought I was shooting digital. One person even said they didn’t know Leica had a digital. 🙂
“With the market moving towards smaller, highly portable cameras featuring APS-C format sensors, Olympus needs to constantly reassert the advantages of the MFT format.”
LOL.
This silly people constantly forget about the lenses.
As technology advances, sensors would be getting smaller – and lenses would be getting smaller too. Case in point: mobile phones.
If I were out for a new camera there is **NO** way I would get the E-P5 when the larger sensor Fuji X-E1 is out there for $625
+1 unless EP5 have some features that most mirroless cams dont have (weather sealed, mag alloy construction, build in high res EVF better than others, flexible raw up to 3 stops), its super expensive
Even at that price, fuji doesn’t have enough lenses yet, no UWA yet and their macro magnification is a lot less than m43, not to mention many other lenses in m43. e-p5 is just premium new toy, a good one sure. But there are many other m43 bodies available, why you need one of most expensive one if you don’t have the money?
For the ones who are complaining about the EP-5 being expensive, that link admin gave us shows the superkit for 1300 USD/980 euros. Sell the 17mm lens and VF-4 finder and you get alot of money back.
if thats 980eur for kit in EU eshop I will buy it without doubt …hopefully gx7 will put pressure and the ep5 drops soon in EU too
How many people do you think are willing to go to the trouble to do that?
The 1.5 year old NEX-7 (w/kit lens) with only a $100 discount ($1,250) is outselling the E-P5 ($1,450) on Amazon. E-P5 is an excellent camera, but I doubt it will do much better than the E-P3, which was a big fail.
ehm that was a link for the OMD kit sorry
no its a EP5 with a pic of the OMD
…
Not sure, that m4/3 has anything to prove. It is by far the most build up system with lenses ranging from 14 to 600mm @35mm equiv. No other mirrorless system is currently able to accomplish that. Additionally, the m4/3 lenses are mostly significantly smaller and better than their APS-C mirrorless counterparts. And m4/3 has the most diverse body concepts for one mount. In comparison NEX has a boring line for very similar bodies with quite an idiotic usage concept. The focal length range is still limited, AF quite behind m4/3. IQ not really better. Fuji X still has a too small lens system and its camera bodies and lenses are quite bulky in comparison. Their view finder cannot match the m4/3 EVFs and the AF performance is still not excellent. Samsung NX lacks reputation and its lens line up is still small.
m4/3 seems to repeat the problems of 4/3 though: poor, ineffective marketing. m4/3 has fallen into the trap, not responding adequately to the shallow DOF hype. To many people equal shallow DOF with image quality, which is plain wrong. In my experience, image much more often suffer from lack of DOF.
Olympus and Panasonic should have responded with promoting the advantages of more DOF, but probably they think that buyers don’t understand this anyway.
Instead, m4/3 vendors advertise with features every competitor has: WiFi, NFC, every year a super faster AF. But they don’t promote the diversity of body concepts, the smallness and completeness of the lens line up. They continue to put superfluous functionality on their program wheels (Art Filter, Scene Mode), instead of utilizing the space for some more practical stuff like Custom Modes (listening Olympus?), access to bracketing, and other stuff the advanced user needs.
The technical quality of m4/3 is not the problem, it is to get the appropriate messages to the buying community.
Keep in mind that Sony and Fuji especially are still very new to the scene of mirrorless camera models. The FT system, while much more built up in lenses and accessories, had longer to propagate. With Sony bent on becoming a major force in the photography world, doing whatever it takes to take a bite out of the massive market share Canon and Nikon control, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the NEX lens line double within the next couple of years. Add to that, third party vendors like SIgma and now Zeiss are continuously adding to the E mount lineup. Then Fuji, seeing great success with their X body lineup would not want to slow that pace down and would therefore need to keep new lenses and bodies coming to keep the high consumer interest in their cameras.
I’m an NEX user myself and absolutely love it, but there is no doubt the FT sensor format will have the benefit of deeper depth of field and the crop factor larger than an APSC, making the cameras naturally suited to landscape and nature photography, or architectural, or street too. Olympus and Panasonic need to emphasize some of these innate benefits that consumers will never see with an APSC model from the competition any day. I personally don’t ever need a focal length longer than 85mm, but for those that need the telephoto distance in a small package, the FT system is the way to go hands down.
Well spoken, comrade. But I would go further. The world needs only one camera system: MFT. World domination is inevitable. Soon MFT will be in every ten cent store and corner delicatessen.
The price is too high, I tried the camera at the local store and they told me they would get the omd, body only for 750 as a starting point would be appropriate.
Does anyone actually stl care about nikonmark…eerrr I mean dxomark?
it is amusing to see the long sad tradition of users of small sensor cameras bemoaning the technical review sites not unsurprising conclusions that in essence a good larger sensor will always do better than a good smaller sensor. Just for you a little reminder of the gap between what you think is good in little sensor land and how things improve as sensor size goes up.
http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Cameras/Compare-Camera-Sensors/Compare-cameras-side-by-side/(appareil1)/865|0/(brand)/Nikon/(appareil2)/793|0/(brand2)/Olympus/(appareil3)/814|0/(brand3)/Nikon
We bemoan the rather subjective ovetall scores and the conclusions based on them as those often don’t represent real world results. The underlying data is however quite interesting.
E-P5 is beautiful,solid and so fast…i just love watch mine.
If price one E-P5 so is problem, look on E-PL5 or GF6,
but point by E-P5 is detail, detail and detail.
And also spec so; 1/8000sec, ISO 100, very good screen, very fast focus, auto IS and Focus Peaking.
And now so Panasonic come by GX7 is the not an way go round M43 more. 😉
iso 100 is not true iso 100 but just firmware trick (overexpose by 1L then put -1 IL on raw)so a bit useless if you shoot RAW…1/8000 is very nice !
Yes i think we loost DR too, like so when we use E-5 on ISO 100, but i also feel better control anyway.
epl-5 is not expensive and same results for people think ep-5 is pricey. guys, ep-5 just released, just wait for gx7 release, price will dropping.
as with nearly all mFT the price will crash not drop it is not an if rather a when.
The camera just won’t sell, so it’s bad news for Olympus.
Admin, you sound like you work for Panasonic. Try to remain objective cause it seems like you keep trying to dig olympus while pushing the gx7.
If anything, no, screw that, this is a PRO-OLYMPUS site!
You must be new here… Just scroll back a few pages, BEFORE the actual pic of the GX7.. You’ll find the Panasonic hate you crave. But hey, facts are facts, The E-P5 has a joke of a price. Honestly, there are TOO many other cameras in all sensor sizes worth more value than this camera. Heck, throw in a couple more hundred and get a full frame Canon 6D!
And the way Olympus rolls, I have no doubt that Panasonic didn’t keep the best sensors away from Olympus, Olympus didn’t want to pay for them, so they milked the 12MP sensors instead, until the masses started complaining!
And guess what? They’re gonna milk this sony sensor TOO!
I don’t think Admin is guilty of that, at least not since I’ve been around here. But more importantly, is the deal with Olympus. I have yet to see anyone in their current hierarchy display anything that resembles intelligence, so this over priced deal on the EP5, comes as no surprise to me. Just saying.
My take on this is that the top pen camera (EP3/EP5) has now become a sort of sacrificial camera model in their lineup. Its a low volume camera, so positioned to make the EPL/EPM pens and OMD lines look like value for money. Look at the high price of the EP3 throughout it’s model run – only just recently the price has dropped dramatically. Once you threw the VF2 into the shopping cart along with the EP3, you may as well have bought the EM5 – most of us did. Maybe Olympus had a higher profit margin on the EM5 than the higher pens?? Produce a low quantity and sell at a higher price. Rinse and repeat.
Problem with this is that Olympus does not exist in a vacuum. The NEX6 EX1 and now the GX7 are serious alternatives and for one main reason – THE BL**DY EVF.
SO…where are the people that yell fire sale when pana has a discount? why arent they yelling fire sale at olympus too?
150$ off and it barely started shipping??
Wheres Ben? dCap? Bite me? Hojk? Yup? the usual arsenal of anonymous fantards?
Who said E-P5 doesn’t sell well?
Just checked Amazon.com for NEW m4/3 models, G6 is 1st, GF6 is 2nd, E-P5 Black Kit is 3rd, E-PL5 is 4th, another E-PL5 kit is 5th, and E-P5 Silver Kit is 6th. 7th to 10th are all E-M5.
All this jabber about sensor size is boring. All those ‘fantastic’ APS-C cameras that are going to ‘kill’ MFT are stupidly crippled in other, much more relevant ways. The EOS M is an utter joke which can barely compete with fixed-lens cameras at firesale prices. Fixed lens solutions are just toys for enthusiasts. NEX has a dearth of lenses (and their size negates the camera’s advantage in compactness), Fuji and NEX are way behind on autofocus capabilities. Olympus cameras are so close to APS-C in still image quality the difference is irrelevant, while Panasonic kills every competitor on video capabilities (other than some Canon DSLRs) and value.
Fact is, MFT cameras outfeature APS-C mirrorless (they have no answer to Oly 5-axis IBIS or Panasonic video) and don’t have their crippling faults – Sony and Fuji AF means they aren’t viable alternatives to DSLRs. Micro Four thirds is the only complete solution for a professional looking for a portable companion to their DSLR equipment, or an actual replacement.