Olympus Asia posted a E-5 development story which should be of interest for all current or future E-5 owners: “To find out what makes the E-5 so special and where the E-System is going in the future, we talked extensively with Olympus development staff and with Mitsuaki Iwago, a wildlife photographer and long-time professional Olympus user who has made many helpful suggestions and participated in many fruitful discussions.“
The most interesting new feature is the TruePiC V+ engine: “Since the image sensor of a digital camera consists of regularly arranged pixels, problems such as moire and false colors are inherent in the basic principle of digital technology itself. We came up with various solutions to these problems, and the biggest feature of the new “Fine-Detail Processing” is that it is able to retain the high resolution of the lens image in the final picture, while reducing moire and false colors. We also reviewed the noise reduction algorithm. One of the results of the development of the E-5 is that users can now discover the previously untapped potential of the lenses they already own.“
The Olympus E-5 is in Stock at (Click on store name):
Amazon US
One more news item for Australian readers: I have been told that there will be a new E-5 cashback action soon…
46 Responses
Wow, they talk like politicians. They will continue developing the mirrorless, SLRs are still needed for the time being. That’s the future strategy? More information!
That’s far east Asian style polite talk (not just politicians talk this way). The idea is to keep users not feeling too bad, which is quite central to keeping a relationship (not just customer relationship, but relationship in general). It’s not to focus on E-5 is the last in line for 4/3, but to remind them that E-5 is a very capable camera as long as it is in service. Before my cat died, I kept counting how long I could still spend with him. Shouldn’t I be appreciating the days I had spent with him rather than obsessing when he was going to die? As you see, what is considered as very considerate gesture can be translated as marketing disaster…. It’s a diverse world.
You don’t need more info, the info is already there. You just need to decipher the language. Cultural connotation is not something Google Translate can do…. But they said 4/3 is kept for professional use, while E-4xx, E-5xx and E-6xx will be replaced by PEN system (it’s clearly spelled out in plain English in the last section).
cL, I understand what you mean, but…
“they said 4/3 is kept for professional use, while E-4xx, E-5xx and E-6xx will be replaced by PEN system”
True. But I do not see that as enough. What do they want to do with the 4/3 precisely? I don’t think the cat is the perfect comparison – you have an investment in a system and often it can be your livelihood. (sorry about your cat) Now, do not get me wrong, I like the E-5, I like the micro 4/3, but there are many points that I would like to know how they will be addressed (not only as a photographer, but also as someone interested in marketing, etc.). How will they be able to keep up with the other mirrorless systems, for example? What is their strategy there? Are they going to develop some nice primes for the system? Will there be a weather poof m4/3 body? When are they going to have some better DR?
I don’t want this to come as whining, which it isn’t. It’s just some answers that I would like to know. I think every company selling a long term investment product should give its customers more detail about their future.
Looks like they finaly translated the Japanese page.
E-5 let’s us see like animals see… Yup. Ho hum.
I think they mean it can give you a different “point of view.”
Anyways, after reading the entire interview (four sections), I think Olympus has focused a lot on the innards of the camera, which is not all that easy to be seen from the familiar exterior. One thing they keep stressing about is E-5 unleashes the full potential of the existing 4/3 lenses, because the lenses are in service for 5, 10, or 20 years. So the idea is to protect user’s investment. We live in a disposable society, so we often forget high-end pro gears like E-5 isn’t a throw-away item in two years.
Anyways, a good manner lies in what is not said as much as what is being said; subtlety as oppose to loud and proud. Olympus is very traditional, just as I suspected. What they did to E-5 was to perfect a system, rather than gaining public praise (and Asian company culture is more supportive to such philosophy, as they don’t fire people merely because the effort is not “paid-off”). Though I think if this interview was not conducted, a lot of effort would still be under appreciated (such as what they did to the magnesium body so it could implement movie mode, while still making it dust and drip proof; would a typical user see that?).
Great news!! Anyway it doesn’t seem to be “in stock” at amazon germany…
cL,
Thank you for your thoughts. I do appreciate subtlety and understatement, which seem to be more inherent in Japanese culture than in our own. Sometimes we are deaf to nuances. Anyway, I like the gestalt of this talk. 4/3 is clearly regarded as a mature system which does not need earth shattering innovation to become almost perfect.
Thanks for the comment, sneye. One of our missions as a photographer is to present a perspective to people. Detail oriented mindset is very important in this regard. No detail is too small (I spent time cleaning up spider web off my macro subject. Sorry spider). A classmate shot a photo of garden hose and faucet, and the way she did it was just amazing. I don’t think it has to be a Japanese culture thing. I think it’s the craftsmanship spirit that’s being required. After Industrial Revolution, people sort of don’t care about that anymore…. Everything is like a box, my work is not important, etc., etc…. Maybe that’s why people want quicker reward and flashier demeanor follows.
And I agree 4/3 is pretty innovative. Do you notice EXIF records the lens information? EXIF would say I used Zuiko 50-200mm in addition to the usual focal length used (that other brands can do, too). Olympus (and Panny) do have an advantage of building the format from ground up, and I think it’s a shame they want to abandon 4/3, the original format m4/3 is derived from. I also updated my Zuiko 50-200mm with a new firmware. I thought that was fun a lens can be updated.
as much as i love the idea of an optical viewfinder , the only thing it is currently doing to high end cameras is make them heavier. In about 10 years screen and battery technology will have advanced signifigantly. To the point where looking through a EVF will seem like looking through a OVF , only with all the information you need right there on the screen including DOF ect.
That or in 10 years cameras will just be integrated into the brain and you can take pictures by blinking
Dear admin, can you give us any details regarding the Australian cash back option? 🙂
looks like it is the promotion for PEN, not E-5 … sigh
https://cashback.olympus.com.au/TandC.aspx
The PEN cash back started Monday last week in Australia & I would doubt any cash back offers would happen for the E5 before 6 months of being on the market.
Cash back yet to be confirmed in AU… but is meant to be a way to reduce australians (me included) buying grey imports from BHvideo, Adorama, and Amazon as the AU $ so strong. Allegedly, it will be anounced when the camera is available here (a perpetual… “in a couple of weeks” from my enquires)
The problem is that the Pens do not replace the E-620; which many purchased, for the smaller size, and use with the higher quality glass. Until Olympus develops high quality glass for the Pens, they are of no value to the “more advanced” enthusiasts. In the meanwhile, Olympus is losing out on a fairly large market by not having an upgraded E-620. That could simply be accomplished by updated software just as Sony is doing for their full framed cameras. Obviously, Sony is supporting their customers while Olympus is not.
They are, at present, of value to advanced users that have advanced 4/3 glass using the adapter & I would suggest next year we will see more of the future developments in mirrorless bodies for the replacements of the E4xx, E5xx & E6xx series of cameras, hopefully with a built in EVF. You also need to remember the rumour of the Panasonic sensor contract coming up for renewal next year, which could mean something different there too.
I am not an E620 owner ( have an e3), but I can really sympathize with you, patrick. I hate the fact that olympus has convinced everyone that the m43rds is compatible with 43rds, therefore it is equivalent. The illusion that the m43rds line is a legitimate replacement for the 620 and 500 series olympus 43rds cameras is silly. I am a converted fan of the e5, and I own a EP2, and although the m43rds is a cool little kit, it IS NOT a reasonable replacement for the 620. I wish that Oly would have found a different name for the m43rds line of cameras, because it leads people to belive that the 2 systems (43rds and m43rds) are more compatible than they really are.
I’m also an E-620 owner, and I would love to see a proper replacement of the camera rather than PEN, which is aimed at a more casual shooting segment. E-620, as small and portable it is, is still capable of mounting larger, more professional-built lenses and use their potential. OVF is important! I don’t know why some people think it’s not. Maybe they don’t shoot under harsh sun or at night (but then why do they keep pressing for high ISO or better DR?)…. I also use LiveView and cannot MF macro without. OVF and LiveView are more complementary than competitive. Both need to be there. If I only need OVF, I would have bought a Sony A850 already (I know… that one is a FF, totally different market…, but PEN is not going to work there, whereas I can stretch E-620’s capability a bit and still get good photos without spending a FF budget).
CL, if you can handle the cost and weight, the E5 feels like a super sturdy, extra sharp 620 on steroids. It’s was a great upgrade for me, but I have a lot of the larger lenses (12-60, 50-200, 7-14) so it made sense. The IS is a big improvement with the long lenses.
Agree with cL, E-6xx series is much more mature than any current PEN line and its size is just fine. I even like E-4xx series for low cost ultimate camera loaded with everything what photographer needs. Filmmaker may finds it a lacking of HD capabilities, so E-650 would be welcomed for everyone. PENs are ok, but Olympus plays it like: it’s something new so pay for it. By contrast I think E-6xx cameras are better overall performers. The E-5 with E-6xx successor will be enough to suite everyone tastes. There is no doubt that mirrorless cameras are replace DSLRs one day, but argue that PENs are replacing them right now is too soon to say.
I would like to think that Olympus is reluctant to come out with a new e-xxx model because they are working on a micro 4/3 body that will be able to compete with it favorably. This will probably be a significant step up from their current PEN lineup in term of build and performance.
First of all, thank you for responding and collaborate on the idea.
@ Jonathan. I think they’re reluctant to put a new E-xxx out because it’s not making a lot of money. PEN in comparison, is more cookie cutter, and it generates a lot of money without having to dump a lot of investment into it (we call that milk cow in marketing).
@ Michael. It’s easier to slap a HD video function into a camera and try to sell it as new. I think that’s what Canon is doing. I can almost imagine what Olympus’s response is…, “It’s not a function people will use often.” It’ll gives people some incentive for buying a new camera. After years spent in business school, my conclusion of consumer behavior comes down to “Most people already made up their mind, all you need to do is push a little.” And Olympus is not very good at understanding consumers’ often fluffy behavior (and they’re doing very good with medical microscope business, because that sort of sales is less compulsive).
Yes, E-6xx series is the best one in term of performance per cost. I do a lot of research before I buy my camera and Olympus is my pick. I also owned Panny G1 for a couple of days. EVF is absolutely stunning when there is light, but not usable under low light. Anyways, I agree with you, Olympus should at least keep E-5 and an E-620 successor, but given Olympus thinks the future is in mirrorless, and probably has limited resource, so what they did make sense financially (honestly, you need at least two lines of camera bodies to spread the R&D cost for lenses, and that’s why they also stopped the lens development), but it just doesn’t make us end-users too happy.
@ John Krumm. Thanks for the suggestion. I’m not a pro, though a very serious amateur, so I don’t have the budget for E-5. If it comes down in price within my budge (or I found a high-paying job), I’d sure to grab it, if I can overcome the hand grip…. I tried E-30 and found it’s already too big for me (my hands are small-ish). Since I now mostly shot on a tripod rather than handheld, maybe it’s easier to transition now…. I also have 50-200mm. 🙂 I get compliments even from strangers a lot! Absolutely happy investment. 🙂 My photos never embarrass me even compared with ones shot with Nikon D300 (and I consider that the hand down best APS-C camera out there).
I don’t know about the markets in US and EU, but I’ve noticed a drastic attitude change towards E-5 i Taiwan. Those complaints surfaced before release are actually gone now (on different forums), instead people are unboxing, showing off pictures taken by E-5.
Olympus Australia have FINALLY included a price for the E5 on the AU website… RRP: $2199
Close to the grey import which, after freight and tax, comes in around AUD $2,038….
Sambob, Olympus Australia have had the price listed for at least a week now, but Camera Store in South Aust, (on line) are advertising it for $1825 & I believe that is not a grey import. They seem to be nice people to deal with too.
Correction, the price is even better at $1819 at Camera Store
http://www.camerastore.com.au/Olympus+E+5+Body+Only_6449_details.htm
Hello, I’m a longtime Canon user. These toys have their pros and cons. Even since the E1 I’m looking to get in the Olympus system as my main camera system or as a second one. Waited a long time for the E3 and now for the E5. I’m sure it will be very, very fine camera’s coupled with some fine Zuiko class. But Olympus didn’t understand it again and made the same fault again!
WHY OLYMPUS are the E3 and now E5 not have higher frames rates a second. Also I don’t read many about this point in the forums around! Make these camera’s with at least 8 frames a second. Better would be 10 frames a second. The sensor and so the mirror are smaller as the bigger sensor Canon en Nikon sports camera’s. The will sell like candy with higher frames rates. Weatherproof body and lenses. Great for outdoor nature and sports photography. Although with 5 frames you will get keepers, it is not enough for some sports.
I just was blew of my chair when I first read the E5 information on the internet. I’m not a troll. Camera’s are just ‘toys’ to make great images of get a livin’ out of it(as I do). But I like the Olympus toys, but just do not understand Olympus policy. Greetings from the Netherlands, Ronald
So it’s a short story then.
LOL!
And surely the “Manager of Olympus Imaging’s SLR planning department” (mr. Akira Watanabe) can’t be a full-time position?
But seriously, this article offers an interesting insight into a completely different mentality, the type that our hype-driven word can hardly understand. True to themselves, Olympus have always been different, in face of everybody else.
Now gotta go drink some more North Korean beer (http://shutterfinger.typepad.com/shutterfinger/2010/10/what-your-choice-of-camera-says-about-you.html)
@cl
Pros are the people that need more camera changes, is not rare for them to shoot 70000 a year, or even more if they shoot bursts.
And for me replacing a E620 with a pen is not an option, replacing it with an E5 also it isn´t, too big, I shoot urban in low light often.
The article talks about the inside of the camera because it´s obvious that the outside is equal, don´t forget that the E5 is having the same noise performance as the E30, but they have removed the AA filter to have more sharpness room for being able of applying a more aggressive noise cleaning filter, it´s not bad if moire is contained but this camera development is 85% software.
I mean, an article in Olympus website can´t be anything more than biased marketing, what do expect them to say, that this camera is a lazy improvement?
So far I’ve shot about 2,000+ photos this year. Yes, I’m a serious amateur…. You’d be surprised how many pros prefer to use a camera they’re familiar with. Leica’s camera bodies are pretty much remain the same style. I think that is the reason Olympus stick with the E-3. It’s not just Olympus does that, Nikon’s high ends are pretty constant in style also. Photographers typically are actually quite resistant to changes as a group…. Lots of people are still using Canon 40D and lots of Nikon D80 users too, though D90 is about two years old already.
Don’t ever put down other people’s work, Juavel. I remember in my previous job, people thought I was doing nothing, when I was cleaning up the mess they left behind, so the entire team isn’t slowed down. They’re not work I can ever take credit for, because you don’t EVER tell your bosses they are the weakest link. You just quietly clean their mess up so other people aren’t affected by it.
I think that’s what they did to E-5 too. Lots of people are tinkering with the features and that takes time. Like most R&D work, some projects take years to figure out a way to do something better, though the result may seem deceivingly simple (trust me, the most well-thoughout ideas are intuitive to use, rather than headline turning flashy). It’s not lazy work. It’s a long lost art called craftmanship….
BTW, I´ve heard that the E5 is much slower to write on memory cards than the E30 and the E5 due to processing.
The E-5 is not in stock on Amazon Germany.
Local stores get them with some priority over online shops it seems and also at a cheaper price to sell. Some online stores sell it at 1999 Euro, which seems to be the intended price with selected retailers (Olympus partners) selling it at 1699 Euro. That is what a salesman at one of those Olympus retailers told me.
…. wondering when someone will release a firmware-hack allowing 1080p 24fps video from the E-5 …
… or better yet; When will Olympus release the update?
That would be a nice feature to have. If it is technically possible that Olympus should definitely upgrade the E5 to 1080 24fps. It would make E5 even more attractive.
Juavel it is slower if you use slow cards. If you use fast cards it is not. From memory use 166x is what is recommended. With these you are getting excellent buffer results
With the price of the CF card nowadays, any serious photographer is better off using a 400x CF card or faster. I know E-5 also features the more popular SD memory, but I can’t imagine any serious person would use such a slow standard…. Class 10 SD is only 10MB per sec…. 400x CF is 60mb per sec…. UDMA standard allows 133MB per sec, and most newer Olympus cameras, my E-620 included, uses UDMA interface. Olympus is just not very good at promoting its camera’s features…. But whatever the competitors have, Olympus has it too (maybe not Sony’s sweeping panorama, but pretty much everything else).
43 photo can the Topaz program change it to that format?
I think, with Michael Reichmann, that 4/3 for DSLR an “evolutionary dead end” is.
The big question is, what so happen by E-xx line?
well, this is very good news
but, the thing I find odd is this.
Pro line: E-5. Yep
E-4xx/5xx/6xx series to be replaced by the PEN … whatever?
Where is the E-30 line. I think there could be loads of room for a continuation of the E-30, update to E-31 (but please keep video off it!)
Now, the E-4/5/6xx series that goes to the PEN. Perhaps this is something we are missing, we need a ‘Panasonic G2’ line from Olympus. A mini E-600 series styled like a G2?
The number in the next data is the picture count until the writing speed slows down.
Transcend 133x – 8 Gb
– E3….14
– E30…12
– E5…. 9
Transcend 266x – 8 Gb
– E3….14
– E30…13
– E5…. 9
Transcend Udma 400x – 16 Gb
– E3….15
– E30…15
– E5…. 9
Sandisk Ultra 200x – 16 Gb
– E3….16
– E30…16
– E5…. 9
Having that data and seeing that the E5 decays always after the ninth picture, it´s obvious that the bottleneck is the PROCESSING, it makes no difference if you use a 133x memory card or a 1000000000000000000x.
You can’t leave video off it because that is expected on all DSLRs by most of the public now.
Explained in other way, if you have a bicycle it doesn´t mater if you ride on a bad road or in a highway, you will be moving at the same speed, it doesn´t matter if the highway is having 2, 3, 4 or 5 lines and no speed limit, the bike is limiting you.
If you have a Ferrari, you will travel way faster in the highway.
And in this case the E5 is a bicycle, a 133x card is faster than it´s buffer output.
I saw your data. What’s a file size of an E-3 (10MP) vs an E-5 (12MP)? What’s the mode when the test was done. Are they shot JPEG only, RAW only, JPEG+RAW? Are settings tested are more or less the same?
By the way, you have conducted a test on which frame it stops, not a direct test on the processing speed. Testing the buffer is not the same as processing speed. If you have the fastest CPU in the world, but the buffer is 2k, it’s still going to be very slow. A test of the output does not test the CPU speed. Your hypothesis may be correct, or maybe it’s the file size is bigger as I suggest (or other factors), but you need a second, more direct experiment before reaching to the conclusion. Indirect proof is weaker than direct proof. What you have proved was CF’s speed is not the factor. Which weird enough, I notice a drastic speed improvement between 80x and 266x CF used on my E-620, but your test suggests 266x and 400x has no edge over any of the three models tested…. 133x CF is extremely slow. A modern CPU that has a processing speed slower than 133x CF is very unlikely.
Keep in mind the photos must be processed before it can get recorded.
The cameras are E3, E30 and E5 in RAW.
Tested with three bodies and 4 cards.
“A modern CPU that has a processing speed slower than 133x CF is very unlikely.”,
How much does it take for Photoshop to run a noise reduction filter in a 3Ghz quad core?, remember that the files are 40Mb, they need to be de interlaced from bayer matrix, noise filtered and lossless compressed at least.
Being a new camera I suppose the memory buffer to be larger and faster or at least equal than previous modes, what changed is that now a noise pre-filtering is applied to all sensor output, even if you have the NR off.
I don´t need to know the exact cause, looks like is the new processing but I can be perfectry wrong, what is crystal clear is that the E5 worsens the burst performance compared to its brothers.
typo, where I said “than previous modes” I was meaning “than previous models”.