Robin Wong (Click here) finalized his long and very discussed Olympus E-M5 review. No matter how much you like Robin work, you should give him a nice credit for doing a job that none of the big websites has done! In short what he liked about the E-M5 is the image quality, the 5 axis IS and the handling. But he also listed some smaller issues. Interestingly the viewfinder gets foggy when shooting in rainy conditions, 3D tracking misses a lot of focus points and the electronic viewfinder still is not on par with the “real light” experience of the optical viewfinder.
Meantime Damian MCGilliCuddy had to return the [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] to Olympus but he now keeps shooting some nude portraits with the [shoplink 18844]Olympus E-PL2[/shoplink] (Click here to see his pictures here). Those are nice shots taken with the supertiny [shoplink 14798]17mm f/2.8[/shoplink] and the super good and cheap priced [shoplink 23577]45mm f/1.8[/shoplink] lens. Amazing what you can do with these two little cheap lenses!
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E-M5 preorders (Click on the names of the stores to see the product page):
Black E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, Redcoon Germany, and Amazon Japan.
Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and J&R.
Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Redcoon Deutschland, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.
70 Responses
amazing what you can do with a brain and two eyes
LOL 🙂
And good taste.
Haha, nice!
ssssssssssssshhhhhhh…. Damian MCGilliCuddy mentions he is going to have another secret meeting with Olympus soon, perhaps they are going to lend him a newer camera model than the OMD E-M5 for testing??? 😉
Could it be a new Pen with the 5 axis IS?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How would this fit into a PEN? It’s too large. I guess it will take 12-24 months for this to make it small enough to fit it in an PEN.
Why? Without the viewfinder the e-m5 body is about the same size as the pen – as far as I can see on the pictures and videos.
Damian, not David.
“the viewfinder gets foggy when shooting in rainy conditions”
WHAT THE HELL. The last thing should happen to a weather sealed camera!
By the way, still haven’t got the answer for my former question:
The viewfinder from G3 suffers of rainbow effect, though greatly diminuated since the reading frequency became 3×120 Hz.
Otherwise the quality would be net superior to the one from E-M5, as there are no gaps between pixels and the magnification competes with best FF viewfinders (70%), isn’t it?
I mean is somebody who had the opportunity to compare the viewfinders? I’m rather curious about his/her opinion.
From what I read somewhere, might have been a comment on here, the weather sealing was not fully applied to the review units or something like that.
Let hope so that the production unit has better weather sealing. It is serious, as sudden temperature always happen and condensation is a big issue to wildlife and nature photography. If condensation could get into the viewfinder, dust could pile up inside and how do you clean it up without taking it apart??
I think all kamera Olympus give out to early test, will be return to Olympus for wider quality check, so production problem will be adjust early.
actually they should apply a special coating to prevent the optics gettin fogged fom the inside.Outside i always apply a thin layer of dishwasher soap on the eyesideof the viewer to prevent fogging in cold weather. ButI guess it can be blamed on the early production version.
Even it’s weathersealed, it doesn’t mean it’s vacuum. I suspect the condensation is just a result of sudden change of temperature. Not worrying to me in the least.
Yes, if you change lens in wet and damp air for example.
If its sealed what’s in can’t get out.
Is it the last thing that should happen? I agree, its annoying, and it would be much better if it was fixed, but this not that of an uncommon problem, even on completly watertight cams you can dive with. I don’t think it means that the camera isn’t sealed properly.
Have you ever peaked thru an ff viewfinder? Please do that
Have you ever wondered what happens when you remove the lens from a weather-sealed camera?
That’s right, you let air in, together with any moisture it might contain.
To not be susceptible to condensation, the viewfinder optics would need to be a hermetically sealed sub-assembly filled with dry nitrogen.
Wow, viewfinder get foggy?? I guess I will not buy the E-M5 and hold on to my E-3.
> But he also listed some smaller issues.
Finally: a camera from Olympus worth criticizing.
Good sign. 😉
Admin, I’m torn between wanting the E-M5 and waiting for what Panasonic do next, but I’m much more interested in a G5 than a GH3. Seems a G5 will be cheaper than the Olympus but with as good/better image quality?
Any rumours on when such a camera might exist?
The G5 is due for May/June!
Meaning on sell in December? 🙂
Meaning available in number in 2013 😉
Admin – In your earlier rumor concerning a G5 said it looked different and your comment was it would have a different shape? Any more information received or confirmation concerning a different shape say rangefinder style or picture for the G5?
As expected a G5 would come 1 yr from G3 or about May and GF5 one year after the GF3 or about July? We already have a picture of the GF5 to indicate it has hotshoe but nothing on the G5?
I can’t say I agree with him on the EVF comments. He’s saying that the OVF affords him the ability to see what the live process is, and to know exactly what he’ll get before he takes a picture. In reality, quite the opposite is true – it’s the EVF that affords you all that since it’s direct output from the sensor. What the lens sees through the OVF is irrelevant to what the sensor ends up recording, which is why I love using EVFs. Using OVFs is guesswork.
Other than that, nice review.
+1
Previsualization, an increasingly lost art.
Adams called “visualization.” ;-).
And even Adams used Polaroids to take test exposures, and did huge numbers of test prins. Visualization is having an idea of what you want the final image to be, but the process is anything but purely mental. I’m sure that Adams would have embraced EVF’s, and, of course, Photoshop.
I watched a video with Adams other day. He was talking about how exciting the results from digital scanning is, and he thinks the future of digital will be very exciting. He was a total (pre)visionary.
That girl isn’t wearing any clothes!!!
@Charlie
I think she is wearing shoes 😉
Please! That brought back some ugly memories from a vacation in a Mediterranean city some years back: I was exploring some back street, when I suddenly saw a man with a briefcase, but wait — there was something strange! And then I realized he was wearing shoes, only.
Even better!
she ‘s wearing a jacket ,but she using @ biggest aperture -wide open ,.lol
I guess that to shoot nude pictures of a dressed person, one would need an x-ray camera. But he just used an E-PL2. 🙂
Or work for the American TSA. ;-(.
Bazinga!!
Maybe she use perfume and it can you not look. 😛
it is great. keep on showing us more.
The foggy EVF issue could be explained by condensation on the lens’ front element. I’ve seen this before in weather sealed cameras. Nothing to do with the finder.
Yes, it happens to me when shooting in humid forests in the chilean south. Just condensation on the exposed viewfinder window. It also happens when you inadvertently breath over the viewfinder window, specially on chilly days.
You guys seriously consider the possibility that Wong can’t tell the difference between external and internal fogging?
I would assume this is internal fogging and considering to not sell my E-3 and 43 accessories now. This is a real turn off for me to buy E-M5. This is serious to my type of photography which I hard almost killed my E-510 screen once in the rain.
Not a problem, E-7 coming soon say Robin Wong!
If the E7 is really coming (and I hope it is) I think Olympus would keep very quiet as I would have thought they want people to migrate from four thirds. Anyhow if the condensation problem is in the first batch of OM-Ds I’ll tell you all about it!
+1
he did also say that no fogging was seen on the rear screen, so that rules out fogging on the lens itself
I enjoyed Robin’s review of the OM–D. Regarding the fogging he encountered with the EVF, it seems I remember he was shooting under shelter but none the less in the rain using non-weather sealed primes. In conditions like that fogging would be understandable.
Viewfinder can fog in wet conditions. And in other news, it turns out that bears are catholic and the Pope s**ts in the woods.
Anybody who says that their E1/3/5 does not suffer the same in some cases probably doesn’t need a weathersealed camera.
Still, I suppose this Deal Breaking Showstopper has gone viral by now. Ho hum.
I don’t think a E-1/3/5 viewfinder would fog internally. It never happens to me which I frequently take photos under heavy rain and during the wet weather. if it fog internally, that means that dust and such will get trapped at the surface of the viewfinder. So, how will you clean it up?
Condensation occurs due to warm air being in contact with a colder surface. It does not matter if that surface is inside a sealed casing or not. The presence of air is the culprit. The fogging is water that coms from the air.
Even weather-sealed cameras and lenses are not hermetically sealed and may fog up. A not sealed camera or lens may actually dry out quicker, once the air temperature has equalized (acclimatization).
There are three methods of preventing fogging:
1. Remove air (have a vacuum or a gas filling) from an enclosed space.
2. Heat the surfaces that tend to fog (heated car window, window defroster in a car, heated mirrors)).
3. Treat the surface that should not fog with a special (nowadays often nano-)coating (like anti-fog glasses and shaving mirrors).
Glass and plastic, being poor conductors of heat, are very prone to fogging. The sensor in a digital camera is probably relatively fog-resistant, because it gets nice and warm during use.
Allowing slow acclimatization is the best preventative when expecting condensation issues.
good to see someone actually using the 17mm 2.8 instead of bashing it.
It worst is price and slow focus, but a nice litle lens for use in street.
To me actually the lens [17mm f2.8] has very nice rendering color ,but unfortunately not so popular as the Lumix 20mm f1.7 especially when people begin to compare the aperture and sharpness,..
The first german review
http://www.chip.de/artikel/Olympus-OM-D_E-M5-Systemkamera-ueber-1.000-Euro-Test_54946190.html
Stopt watching THE vid after twenty seconds. Its so obvious sponcered by olympus. Still waiting for à real review. I almost feel sorry for wong and people who think he is not on THE payrol bij oly.
If he is realy on the payrol of olympus, it is not clever from him to say that the viewfinder gets foggy and to describe the other dislikes;-)
@Adriaantie: of course, Robin is an enthusiast who is useful for Olympus. There is nothing wrong in that. Everyone realizes that. And we also look forward to other reviews. That does not mean that we distrust Robin. Your claims, on the other hand… unless you have *proof* about your claim that Robin is secretly paid by Olympus for his blogging (and thus lying about his independense), such statements are just laughable.
Go some where else to suck your thumb. We have all grown out of that.
I think you also need to consider his background before making conclusions. Unlike Europeans, many Asian culture made them a good sales in nature. I have friends talked like a missionary just to convince me to take bus instead of driving!
Well, the B&W shots look a bit muddy to me. Need to get those whites white. I wonder if they are a conversion, or in camera jpegs.
Regeneration will help your eyesight.
http://www.mu-43.com/f92/comparison-olympus-e-m5-panasonic-g3-raw-files-same-sensor-not-22600/
I guess the sensor is the same.
Admin, any idea if they will make the prime lenses weather sealed? I ordered the 12mm and soon the 45mm, but I’m afraid they will reintroduce them as weather sealed.
I doubt it because the 75mm won’t be weather sealed, but I just want to find more info on this. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
I wish they’d release a weather sealed version of the 45mm in black…
I have someone follow me around with an umbrella in the rain.
😀 I don’t have that privilege. It would be cheaper for me to pay for a high level zoom (F2.8 please) with weather sealing.