I really tried hard to not write any E-M5 news today but there are some news I absolutely have to report 🙂
Admiringlight (Click here) compared the dynamic range (in RAW) between the OM-D and the Gh-2. He writes: “the E-M5 has significantly better dynamic range than the GH2 (or any other m4/3 cam I’ve ever used) in both the shadows and the highlights (though the difference in everyday use is bigger in the highlights). In my experience with the E-M5 so far, it’s been very difficult to clip highlights at all…you really have to almost try to do it.” Good news! Let’s see what DxOmark will tell us soon about the E-m5!
Also Digitalcamerareview (Click here) posted the full E-M5 review and gets the “Editor’s choice” mark: “The E-M5 doesn’t start as quickly as a DSLR and doesn’t offer continuous autofocus at its high-speed continuous shooting rate, so while you probably won’t see anybody from Sports Illustrated shooting one on the sidelines, just about anybody else will probably find there is not much this newest little Olympus can’t do.”
User reviews
Seeing all these positive reviews posted lately I checked the user reviews on Amazon if there is something negative to report. But I had no luck (LOL) and the 12 review on Amazon US (Click here) are almost all 5 stars. So I crossed the ocean over to Amazon Germany (Click here) were I found one “One star” review that really doesn’t count. The reviewer basically says the Nikon D40 is a better value…maybe a Nikon employee wrote it 🙂
And here are some messages and links sent to me by readers:
Silver + 12-50 E-M5 pre-order just shipped from B&H (Click here) STOP Black E-M5 body only available in stock in Sweden www.cyberphoto.se STOP $100 discount on that E-M5 on [shoplink 30855 ebay]eBay DE (Click here)[/shoplink] STOP Shooters report at Imaging Resource (Click here) STOP Studio samples at Photographyreview (Click here) STOP Image samples by Clausen (Click here) STOP Customizing the E-M5 by Ramon (in spanish).
Now please send Panasonic send me some GH3 rumor if you don’t want that all 43rumors switch over to Olympus 😉
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E-M5 (Pre)order links (Click on store name): Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.
Bestseller list. Check the list (changes hourly!):
USA: E-M5 on position 11/12/13 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 7 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 2/9 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 3/4 (Click here).
39 Responses
Lol, “dynamic range in the highlights”. That’s an oxymoron I keep reading everywhere. In digital there is no such thing. When a pixel is saturated it just clips the value and there is no way to recover that information.
What happens is that the E-M5 jpgs are overexposed by the firmware almost 1EV. So if you trust your LCD/EVF then yes, when using the RAW you’ve got one extra EV of information in the highlights. But you also get more noise overall.
Whether that’s good or not is up to the user. Personally I don’t like it.
Just use ISO 100 if you don’t want this behavior
You over simplify. While it is true that when a pixel saturates, it clips and there is no more information, a sensor with great dynamic range will hold more information in the highlights than the untouched image on your screen might imply. Take a RAW file into lightroom that has what looked like clipped highlights, and reduce the exposure. As you do that, you will see what is actually clipped, and chances are it will be less than what you thought.
Any other camera doing the same trick Olympus is doing here (and most brands do) will perform more or less the same regarding highlights. The real advantage of a sensor with great dynamic range is in the ability of brightening the shadows without introducing too much noise.
What you see on the E-M5 LCD is a jpg with gamma applied and almost 1 stop overexposed. If you can obtain more information using the RAW file it’s because it’s almost 1 stop less exposed than what the camera is telling you. And if you can’t obtain the same from the GH2 RAW files it’s because Panasonic, unlike Olympus, decided to more or less match the jpg and the RAW exposure.
When the ADC says that a given pixel value is 4095 you are sold. There is no magic in RAW files. That extra info you are able to recover in Lightroom was always there. It’s not on the jpg because it was wasted during the firmware overexposure.
Any good reviewer should know that. In this particularly comparison, both jpgs have the same exposure but the Olympus RAW file is really overexposed two stops while the Pana is three. There is no E-M5 miracle there. The better “highlight recovery” has a simple reason: Oly file is less exposed.
Hey Luis – the RAW EXIF data is showing that the Oly is actually exposing by 1/2 stop more than the GH2 (ISO 200 vs ISO160), both 1/125 f5.6.
The GH2 according to DxOMark is spot on with their ISO ratings compared with their standardized ISO 12232 derived ‘nominal’ ISO. It is conceivable that Oly is fudging their ISO ratings, but not by 1 1/2 stops.
That would also not explain why the shadow pictures also show more recoverable shadow tones & details, as those shots are also exposed at ISO 200 on the EM-5 and ISO 160 on the GH2, with the same shutter speed and aperture.
I agree his testing methodology seems a little odd, not sure why he didn’t push one set of shots up and down in exposure, instead choosing two different exposures. But unless I’m missing something, the conclusions he’s coming at seem pretty reasonable.
And that’s coming from a Panny fanboy 🙂 The EM-5 is the first Oly to really interest me though…. wish it had multi-aspect like the GH2.
Rob
There is a difference between “highlights” and “blown-out highlights”
Not much of a surprise as the GH2 is nearly two years old. Glad to hear things are improving from Olympus’ camp. I can only expect the upcoming GH3 will push the envelope even further. How much longer do we have to wait again?… September?
And then 1 year for availability.
meh.. Panasonic has a pretty standard distribution chain. You’ll be able to get one without rebate after 4-6 months.
Used the E-M5 during one week Irish vacations. Sunny day (yes !) and some snapshot with bad lightning conditions. Using Lightroom beta to recover highlights from raw files … really (really) enthousiast !
http://www.virtualgallery.be/divers/201205Irlande/
Your photo are so beautiful! Thanks for sharing!!
@Yeos – nice photos!
Not everyone shares the same experience regarding dynamic range GH2 vs. EM5. And at least for video, the dynamic range of the EM5 clearly falls behind, see e.g.:
http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/61411#Comment_61411
Video involves heck lot more processing of sensor data to get that final 1920×1080 frame and it isn’t exactly state secret that GH2 really shines in video shooting while Olympus is doing not so good job.
Can someone just shoot a gray-scale chart with both cameras and see if one has more EV range than the other.
Thanks.
+100
That is simple. This is something that is objective. ..Not subjective. Purely scientific. I have no idea why all these people are going on and on…pontificating this and that. Silliness.
Just look at the DPReview of the E-M5 for a controlled comparison. You’ll see it has more DR than the GH2.
I was fairly unmoved by the E-M5 until I read this: http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/invitation-to-coffee-that-will-almost.html
that was a really good review…+1.
I just shot with two cameras last night ,.. GX1 >< E-M5 with two lens 7-14mm panny and 12mm oly and used the same FL 12 @f4 ,..
E-M5 is clearly win especially at shadow area ,..it has more detail
You can take a look at the DPR D800 review and dynamic range analyse: Select the EM5 as comparison. This camera has, according to DPR, slightly better DR than D800!
Fuji has done something with chroma noice and detail – And Olympus has really done something with DR! And we have more new cameras coming up to Photokina.
Many excellent cameras to choose from……
try looking at a raw file download any raw file and unless you are blind you will see that the d800 image quality is a mille better than the e-m5. i find it hard to fathom how so mnay people buy into these nonsense claiims when acr now supports both cameras. The truth is the em5 is barely better than the gh2/gx1 under half a stop when exposed properly so
I think this is at least partially a result of the general tendency of the EM5 to over-expose images. Much less people are, at least on first sight, concerned about blown out highlight areas than will notice the “more details in the shadows” effect caused by the over-exposure.
I guess we will see other manufacturers follow this trend and produce “brighter” and “warmer” pictures by default 😉
try looking at a raw file download any raw file and then see how much better the d800 is these claims are utter nonsense
I think you are doing an apples vs oranges comparison. E-M5 doesn’t have an ‘off’ setting, so you are comparing true raw dynamic range for D800 to a modified dynamic range for E-M5. Select, say, ADL Normal for D800 and then the D800 has higher DR.
To anyone in the Netherlands, the silver version is now in stock at cameranu.nl both with kit lens and without. (No I don’t work for them)
Once again we see the amusing tendency of people to question the validity of a review or test which gives a result they don’t like. It’s like the Internet is a holy book and we are religious fanatics. We take the reviews we like as gospel, and the ones we don’t as heracy.
But the Truth is, when the angels have printed our photos, nobody can tell the damn difference. Lighten up guys for Gods sake.
Yes. I know. I’m going to Hell.
Good idea (I mean, to relax just a bit. Not going to hell. Though I’m going there too).
actually I would like to hear a negative review on the product as I would like to know the downsides to the camera other then ”Its small!!!” or ”Its expensive!!”
Right know you can not even order the Flash 600R at amazon.com ! But nice to see, that it really exists! 🙂 🙁
Agree with admin… c’mon Panasonic, give us some rumors 🙂
+divide by zero
Base iso of OMD is not 200, its probably near to iso130 and certainly less sensitive than the GH2 is at 160, so the GH2 is more over-exposed than the OMD for starters, same shutter/ap? Re the shadows, I dont know, there more noise in GH2 and OMD looks better, and the GH2 should have better exposure re the shadows? Anyway, lets see some real histo’s to see what’s going on? this is just a very basic test.
You have a point. The test should have been made in M-Mode in base ISO with locked aperture and SS. Even so, the results are amazing to say the least… 🙂
I’d say there is at least one EV stop gain on the OM-D at the extremes, perhaps even more at the highlights. If this is a Panasonic sensor, it’s nothing that we’ve seen before, but I’m betting more on the likes of a tailored Sony sensor.
Still waiting in Switzerland for my E-M5 that I’ve ordered at the 22nd February 🙁 By the way: С ДНЕМ ПОБЕДЫ! 🙂
The tests were performed in M mode with the same aperture and shutter speed at base ISO. 🙂
The lighting is different, so one more trash test.
Cameranu.nl only has black body in stock, not the silver. Same with many if not all shops…