Asahi (Click here) announced the customizable leather skins for the E-M5. You can see a video that explains everything on youtube (Click here). I don’t know where you can buy that stuff, [shoplink 30892 ebay]haven’t found anything on eBay[/shoplink]. P.S.: Found a new E-M5 grip while searching for stuff on [shoplink 30893 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].
And here are the latest news collected via 43rumors readers mails (Thanks!):
Echenique (Click here) will soon receive his E-M5 and use it for professional dance photography. AF mode by Lepidi (french).
Thomas wrote: “I ordered on March 7th, EM-5 Black body only at Amazon (Click here). Just got a Estimated arrival date: May 16, 2012 – May 19, 2012”
Thierry wrote: “This guy has some great telephotos also shot with an E-M5: http://collinorthner.wordpress.com/. Amazing macro photos a.o. taken with an E-M5 at Pen3 (Click here).”
Per K. wrote: “much positive about the EM5 but look here: http://ranger9.net/2012/tenthings/
It pinpoints the usability a la Oly that is not as good as Pana. I could add you always have to toggle (info button”) to view different informaton on screen/EVF. In total 8 different views… Fast AF is great, but if things happen while you are toggling you miss the shot anyway. The Pana UI is much more stringent and straight forward. But a GX2 with built in EVF and same IQ as EM5 would be something!
BTW: Have you noticed that DPR D800 review analyze of DR uou can compare with the EM5: According to DPR way to measure EM5 har better DR than Nikon D800!!??”
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).
68 Responses
1 st yuhuuuuu
Sure, first one to get the CancerAIDS.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=canceraids
@admin : Could you please delete these ever growing useless comments?
like this one? And yours too
Cherry wood? Well, it looks different. And looks like it will soak up water…
Darn it, I thought I was going to be first…
Meh, too tacky. I prefer the black body, anything else just screams “look at me and my fancy cam!”.
Darker wood might look better. Is there mahogany?
Try the Brown Croc Emboss……..
Looks worse than the Marc Newson Pentax.
Tough feat.
Yeah, ugly as hell
+1 Buttt Fuggly!
Fuugly!
Brown croc emboss, +1 !!!
Anyway is better by leather.
You can buy these here:
http://aki-asahi.com/store/
Well done on the site. I have had my EM-5 for a week and love it (readily available in Australian stores now).
Kevin
I have one of their leather cases on my ep2. its a full body case up to the top cover, not just the bottom half like some of the ones seen here (no style). Top quality leather and stitching.
um….reminds me of the paneling in the basement. I am a carpenter…but..some situations should not be treated with wood! Some of the skins are pretty cool on that page though!
The grip thing….A third-party needs to make a generic grip like the top half of the OLY battery grip, with all of the electronics, etc. and charge a reasonable price..It would sell VERY well.
+1 pn generic grip. The need to get the original two-grip set is a bit turn-off on E-M5. For my hands at least it felt a bit too small and unwieldy without the grip.
I’m sure Really Right Stuff is working on a plate / grip combo for this. You can look on their site at other cameras and see what they’ve come up with. Would also give you a great base plate if you have a tripod head that uses them.
I have been writing here about using a pistol grip type with a 2 stage trigger as the shutter button and having wheels and fn buttons linking to the connection plate underneath. Also an adjustment slide for the pistol grip to move the camera backwards on the grip to balance long lenses.
Good thing is there are 3 types of leatherette to choose from.
To bad there is not a good choice of wood trims.
I plan on buying one and make my own using Asahi as base. 🙂
I saw this little Oly grip in a shop in Paris, nice but it’s only go with the HLD-6 battery grip.
Flat Camel looks nice 🙂
Here’s a better pic of the grip:
http://www.olympus-europa.com/consumer/pen-camera_pen_21693_accessory_gs-4_grip_strap_25598.htm
Looks like you need to use the full grip for it. I suppose it would have to be such; the camera isn’t big enough to use a strap like this otherwise.
I put this kind of grip on all my DLSRs, and it makes carrying heavy lenses much easier. But I don’t think I’ll buy this for my EM5, because I don’t intend to keep the portrait grip on all the time, and these are a usually a pain to thread and de-thread.
Nice but not my style.
Ouch. That reminds me of a crappy bedsit I lived in when I was a student. The walls were vinyl with a fake wood grain. Bleurrgh.
really ugly!
10 things I hate about Olympus EM-5 from ranger 9 mostly is about him want EM-5 to be GH-2…can’t comment any further.
I’m not even going to bother reading, but will just say this: having owned a GH1 and EP2, I think the ergonomics of the EM5 are superior to either. And I’ve yet to miss a shot because I was stuck in the menu on any camera.
Yeah, don’t bother to read that. I realized I am wasting my time with the passionate Olympus fans because of what psychologists call the “backfire effect”:
“The Misconception: When your beliefs are challenged with facts, you alter your opinions and incorporate the new information into your thinking.
The Truth: When your deepest convictions are challenged by contradictory evidence, your beliefs get stronger.”
[from: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/06/10/the-backfire-effect/%5D
But some of the things I complain about in the post — such as the lag in updating settings when you turn the control dials — conceivably could be fixed by updated firmware. Olympus won’t bother as long as nobody complains, so I thought I’d write something. Still, will do no good with the fanboys shouting down any criticism.
I agreed with some of what you said. So there. 🙂
I appreciated reading your criticisms. I still have a GH-1, which has a lot of the great usability that you enjoy in the GH-2. If and when I upgrade to the E-M5 (hopefully soon) I’m sure I will agree with a lot of what you’ve said. It’s a shame to see an otherwise excellent camera let down in some key areas. Let’s hope Olympus can fix at least some of those problems with a firmware update.
But what do psychologists call it when people dislike something BECAUSE it is popular?
1 thing I love about the Admin’s blog: he allows comments even if he doesnt agree with them.
1 thing I hate about Ranger9’s blog: if you don’t agree with him he disables comments and writes a dramatic strawman summary.
One thing I hate about average consumer fish brains is that they think because something is popular/used lot it must be good.
While history has quite a good opposite examples.
Like smoking cigarettes… and plenty of unhealthy foods of modern time and such.
Or how about radioactivity and especially element radium? When it was first found some quacks made it fashionable miracle cure and invented putting little radium into almost anything.
Lead was long known to be poisonous but still got use even as fuel additive for dousing atmosphere with it and stayed in use for long. (same inventor devised also CFCs)
It was a legitimate question Esa. Some people feel the need to dislike something for the specific reason that others like it. These are the ones who take great pride in the fact that they listen to bands that no one else has ever heard of. Or revel in how edgy they are as 1%’ers. Or who would list the lack of a spring loaded battery door as one of the reasons to “hate” a particular camera.
Those who enjoy their cameras have specific, legitimate, reasons why they do. But there is a real attempt to flippantly dismiss them as “fanboys” or brainwashed or overhyped.
The acclaim that the E-M5 is getting is because it is a great camera. Period. Comparing it to cigarette use or lead or radiation poisoning is staggeringly ridiculous. If the E-M5 isn’t the best m4/3 body currently available, it has got to be one hell of a close race. Any difference in opinion comes down to a matter of personal preference. And how can someone’s personal preference be wrong? If everyone is wrong and they are just enjoying the E-M5 because it is, in your words, “popular/used lot” why don’t you tell us what the right answer is? Save us from the cancer from all the cigarettes we’re smoking and tell us which camera deserves the attention that the E-M5 doesn’t deserve.
Everyone has a particular type of camera that they prefer. Just because you or ranger9 (or anyone) prefers something else, that doesn’t detract in ANY way from the E-M5 being a great camera. And just because someone has a different opinion from you, doesn’t mean they are the sheep that you seem to be suggesting they are.
The thing that really stands out in your comment and ranger9’s blog is how closeminded and dismissive you are of other people’s views. It is a great irony that ranger enjoys his right to comment here on someone else’s blog while at the same time censoring his readers just because they don’t say what he wants them to say.
Did you even read his summary of those banned comments?: ” all of whom were passionately convinced that this superb instrument could not possibly have any faults susceptible of improvement” I mean seriously, have you actually heard anyone talk like that about the E-M5? You try to suggest that us fish brains are guilty of the ad populum fallacy but you can’t see such an obvious strawman?
If you want to see an example of brainwashing, it isn’t that people are saying the E-M5 is a perfect camera.
The example of brainwashing is that people are trying to say that people are saying that the E-M5 is a perfect camera.
> tell us which camera deserves the attention that the E-M5 doesn’t deserve.
You think I worship some particular mirrorless camera over it?
At the moment they’re all at most mediocre and functionally badly compromised instead of rising to challenge of being future’s camera concept taking best functioning parts/features from existing designs and using freedom from analog era limitations to improve ergonomy and functionality when possible.
Few of those Ranger9’s negatives points can be applied to many other cameras so they aren’t particularly E-M5 bashing.
Quite a few others are consequence of cramming everything into smallest possible size, something which is religiously worshipped by many in here without acknowledging associated disadvantages.
And then there’s that retro part of imitating design limitations of World War 2 era tech.
Sure E-M5 has some very convincing points which make me want it like really well working IBIS and finally modern sensor which is major step forward for 4/3 but mostly because of design choises caused limitations it’s far from what high end mirrorless camera could be, just like all other mirrorless cameras.
but what about the strap lugs…. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Ouch…my little hand…oh my!
Wow. Those insect macros and wildlife shots are absolutely beautiful. Stunning.
yeah…that insect shot is FREAKY!!!!!
SCARY UGLY….. screams: cheap , home depot veneer .. WHY NOT TOP GRADE EBONY…..clueless
Holy mother… Those macro shots using long macro lenses are really really good!!
http://aki-asahi.com/store/
+1
Some of those skins are truly disgusting. I quite like the navy colour ones though.
That grip strap is not new admin, I’ve seen it many times, it’s only for use with the battery grip though and seems quite chunky. I got myself a brown leather Olympus pen wrist strap for mine, looks fab.
I thought you said is was “cool”?
Wood and fake leather? Yucko! At least make the wood grain horizontal.
Gimme diamond plate or Gila Monster skin for a better grip without the extra hardware! 😉
http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium/gila-monster-attack-donnie-barnett.jpg
Hand-wrapped real Carbon Fiber wrap! Update the retro.
Ranger 9’s experience seems to be somewhat lacking?? If the E-M5 is similar to the PEN E-P3, an AF/MF toggle can be assigned to a Fn button, and the MF an be set up such that magnification kicks in instantly when moving the focus ring, and automatically drops back to no magnification upon stopping this movement. No need to push two buttons — at least on the PEN.
He was talking about legacy lenses.
Ah.
and cycling through the live views with the INFO button can be restricted to only those views you actually want/use.
there are a lot of defensive GH2 owners out there. don’t know why…
I also wondered about this, also DPR became very toxic with defensive GH2 owners since the E-M5 was announced.
What by use leather of one Chameleon. 😀
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KMT1FLzEn9I
Soooooo cheesy
That’s how the stuff looked like in some Eastern Europe Countries when they tried to play “rustic”. Disgusting.
I need one plated like a Swiss Army Knife.
Greetings, McGiver
The colour of the wood does not look good, it is too light and makes E-M5 looks like a pencil. Turning Pen into a pencil. How’s that? 😉
If the colour of the wood is darker/reddish and it is a black E-M5, it might look better. Sort of a Colt Peacemaker with a rosewood grip.
Hmm either these are low quality and a bad fit, or he just stuck them on there very quickly to take the example photos.
I wonder how well such a thing will hold, and how clean it can be taken off as well !
Jeez, that looks shite…
The omd looks more and more like a toy camera with matching performance.
You are just jealous because you can’t play Barbi Dress-up with your camera.
Don’t feed the troll 😉
Hows the box Brownie, have you made it work yet?
Reminds me of those cheesy wood veneer kits sold in the J. C. Whitney car parts catalog of my youth. Uglify your MG or TR6! Hang Abarth pipes and go fast!
Burk !
They have succeeded in making the omd even Uglier! What a waste..
One of my co-workers has an iphone 4 with a full-length lenticular sticker of some cartoon planets stuck to it. He’d probably like this too.
DEEP PINK LIZARD EMBOSS!!! PUAHAHAHAHA
To be honest if this camera cost 200$ I’d go straight ahead and change the leatherette… but for a 1000$ camera, I don’t see why anyone would want to put on a sticker and make it look like a cheap toy. (although a hipster girl walking around with a silver-pink OMD would be quite a cool sight…)
Its a special covering made for Kai from Digital Rev to go with his pink paint job on the Leica.
You are all missing the point. This sort of thing bodes well for the popularity of the camera. This technology was originally developed for Leica M cameras that were in service for so long the coverings started falling off. That they are applying it to a newly shipping camera makes it all the more interesting as folks can customize it to suit their tastes.
I agree that some of the choices are stomach churning, but people only have to let companies like Asahi know what interests them and I am sure they will deliver.
BTW, the wood covering has to have the grain vertical or else you would have to steam it in order for it to take the shape of the camera body.