The graph on top shows you the E-M5II accessory world. There is really a lot Olympus announced today! So first lets’ start with the update preorder list and then let’s follow with a in deep review analysis. I kindly remind you that if you want to support my work on 43rumors you can preorder the new stuff through those links. i will get a small commission and you don’t pay 1 single cent more 🙂
E-M5II in Black or Silver at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus. In Europe at Jessops, WexUK, Namencolor.
14-150mm II lens at Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
FL-LM3 Flash at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus ECG-2 External Metal Grip at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus HLD-6P Battery Grip at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
HLD-8g at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
E-P16 eyecup at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
HLD-8G and HLD-6P kit at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Full leather case at Amazon, Adorama and GetOlympus.
Olympus PT-EP13 Underwater Housing at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus Stylus Tough TG-860 at Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
E-M5II in depth review analysis:
Those are some of the most interesting feedback from the reviewers:
TheCameraStoreTV:
– Sensor is update. 1 stop better low light performance compared to the E-m1 (43rumors note: No other reviewer noticed such an improvement. Take the statement with a grain of salt!).
– 40 Megapixel high resolution mode works with the electronic shutter to make very fast multiple shots.
– Has in best in camera stabilization we have seen.
Robin Wong:
– Feels even more solid than the original E-M5
– Mechanical shutter sound is somewhat more refined, and silent, in comparison to the E-M1 or E-M10
– The improvements to the 5-Axis Image Stabilization was evident, and a huge welcome, especially when it comes to video recording.
Dpreview:
– The Mark II’s construction is some of the best we’ve encountered outside the pro DSLR sphere: an improvement over the original OM-D.
– High resolution mode: Because the first four steps ensure the Olympus is sampling all colors at all pixel positions (in addition to then repeating the process for an offset position), it means super-fine detail doesn’t result in false color. In addition, it also ensures that the camera’s color resolution is as high as its luminance resolution (something we’ve only seen before with Sigma’s Foveon technology). This becomes clearly visible in the final crops, where despite the two image’s similar pixel counts, the Olympus image is able to much more accurately render the color resolution targets.
DSLRmagazine (Spanish):
– Coming months a specific Adobe plugin should come to be able to process the 63 megabyte RAW files created by the Multishot feature (they have a full Mutlishot test with the 40MP JPEG files).
58 Responses
unbelieveble!
Is the SEMA-1 mic system compatible?
probably not (no add on socket) but why bother ? the grip is better option for video anyway.
SEMA-1 is small and obtrusive. Easy on/off.
The current 3.5mm pics and big and ugly.
I briefly examined some samples and IMO the IQ does seem improved over what I remember from the EM-5. For example, noise pattern seems different and more pleasing. I may be wrong. What do you think?
Wow. The 40M resolution is significantly better than the 36M Nikon 810. Time to sell my Sigma DP2 and upgrade my EM-5 to EM-5II.
Yes, but remember that the subject needs to be static and you need a tripod. So in many cases the D810 is a better choice if you need the resolution.
We ALL know that… It has been the thing for next month and so on. Even Olympus informs it and every camera review does and in future every camera sales person says so.
The problem is now that E-M5 II delivers higher resolution for product photography, portraits and even depending environment for landscape, because 35mm fans can’t stop thinking that they can’t beat higher resolution and lower noise levels.
My use case was using the Sigma DP2 for static subjects so this should be fine for me.
But:
…
Just compare the raws in the hair: huge difference. Sadly, I cannot post that unless I am registered. It looks like Olympus got another fail.
Just received this message from Adorama 🙁
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience. Unfortunately, one or more of the items in your order #XXX is not in stock, see details below. We’ll ship your order as soon as possible. If you want to cancel your order, let us know and you won’t be charged.”
Sorry my ignorance, what’s that dot sight?
http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/dot-sight1.jpg
I’m guessing it is something like an add-on
rangefinder … ????
The red dot is an image at infinity (or close to infinity), so that you can use the window to spot your subject and roughly align your camera before using the viewfinder to frame the shot. Imagine using a 300mm lens and the viewfinder to try and find a bird in the sky… The same kind of optics are used in assault rifles for easier aiming.
Bah, I knew the FL-LM3 was too good to be true. Not usable with other (older) models. Extra pin in the hot shoe (power).
Right there with you bro, such a shame, it looked perfect for my gx7…
Yes, I was hoping it had its own power so it could be used with other mFT cameras. With the product name I was expecting it to be dedicated to the new camera. It does look better and more useful than the previous included flashes.
I think the Olympus employees haven’t been fooling around much while working on this, unless fooling around is a good business strategy.
what about the OM-D E-M1 firmware update???
Sorry, but what? You do realize these don’t ship until later this month, right?
Love the specs, except for the reported shorter battery life. My #1 complaint about my EM5 is the short battery life, and now it seems this is going to be even worse. This probably won’t stop me from getting one though, if that’s the only real flaw, I can live with it.
New accessories don’t get much love, but the EE-1 Dot Sight might be a super useful tool for shooting birds, planes and other fast moving subjects. And it’s compatible with any camera that has a hot-shoe. I’m not in a hurry to update my camera, but this is something I’d definitely like to have.
At $129 ?
Well…it’s 2015…do you think it would actually cost $10 ?????
Its an accessory for an expensive camera?????????
Sounds reasonable to me.
Yeah, why not. I saw some cheaper ones on Amazon, for $40 and $70. They look like DIY adaptations of regular $25 sights. They were huge and didn’t really fit the camera.
On the other hand, Olympus is more compact, collapsible, weather-proof and looks to be of better quality overall. And all that for extra $60. Not exactly a great deal, but not as bad as some make it sound (unless there’s something similar to it on the market, that does not look like something I could clobber together in my garage).
And this might be really helpful in getting the shot. And that’s the important part here.
Admin, WHAT ADOBE PLUGIN ??? You mention it in the headline, than no info at all.
adobe plugin to edit the 60 something mp raw shots…
Glad I am first in line 😀
FL-LM3 Flash doesn’t work with em5 mark I ?
No.
Interesting that the ECG-2 grip is actually made by Olympus. No wonder it looked well made in the earlier thread.
I like the “stippled” look to the black areas of the camera. It is a pretty handsome kit especially with the half grip…. Nice job Olympus!
E-M1 is dead…. Long live the E-M5 II!
I would say as well that E-M1 is dead. 6.5 -> 9 fps for high continues shooting mode? HAH! 2.5 frames is of course nice addition, but really, just the framerate and from 2.2 -> 3.0?
The best thing is, using a C-AF is now using just the PDAF, and not hybrid where PDAF is used to move focus to close and then finalize the focus with CDAF. Now we can really get PDAF speeds for continues shooting that improves focusing on subjects that have variable speed (slow/fast acceleration, steady movement and then rapid sudden deceleration).
If E-M1 doesn’t get the 25fps and 50fps mode for video, it will continue to be useless for every other country than USA and Japan. Lights continue flicker and it is just unacceptable.
Not useless to me…I only shoot stills. Go buy a video camera..keep that crap out of my kit!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!
If you shoot only stills, you would benefit more with E-M5 II from its more accurate IBIS (improved gyros). If you don’t need video, you don’t win much with E-M1 either.
While shooting video is very low in my priority list, I still need 25fps to get usable from that amount. E-M1 quality is great and fits to my purposes more than fine. But the 50Hz electricity flickering is the killer. Like today, low light shooting and I was forced to stop capturing video when streetlights turned on, cause they caused heavy flickering on whole scenery while they were behind me.
Out of curiosity, I downloaded the three ISO 200 pics from dpreview (EM5II hi res, EM5II normal res, D810) and checked them at the same size, ie the low res full size.
The Nikon resolves more detail, no surprises there.
The hi res pic has less noise than the low res pic (of course), but a little more blur (wtf?). This is weird and begs the inevitable questions: how reliable is this test? Is this hi res really useful?
I think we need a really solid, experienced reviewer to run that function through its paces. No rush job. I want to know more, too. The initial reports everywhere about the hi-rez function are mostly incomplete, not comprehensive and some are down right lame. We need someone with some real photographic ability to run it thru its paces.
It will come… I am in no hurry to preorder this camera…I have an E-M1….so..I need more info.
I have E-M1 but I believe that Olympus deserve a well made tests, where a good product photographer and good landscape photographer starts polishing their skills and offer great samples.
Example the dpreview tests had something bad in them as they had (have?) soft corners like using a bad objective and some tests have been out of focus with other cameras too.
They say they’re going to redo the studio test photos for the full review.
This camera looks great but right now I can’t see beyond the fact that not one of these video features are being added to my two E-M1’s. Many of these feature could and should be added with a firmware update. Olympus is purposely not doing that to get sales of this camera. I jumped into the whole m43 this year with both feet. I have almost every Olympus lens and three bodies. Now I am wishing I didn’t do it if this is how Olympus treats people that buy their flagship camera.
Did Panasonic provide firmware for the GH3 to turn it into a GH4?
I have an E-M1 too. I suspect it’s a matter of hardware limitations.
All what I wish is 25fps and MAYBE a 50fps. Nothing else required for me. Codec is great for my purposes, but just that I don’t live in USA or Japan so I can’t enjoy from 60Hz flight flickering.
But so far, I can’t really recommend to any friend buying the E-M1 no more. But I can recommend E-M5 II if the screen isn’t the deal breaker.
Rumored coming PDAF only and 9fps with C-AF just makes E-M1 more of a mirrorless sports camera. Good update for existing E-M1 users, but not really benefitical for new shooters.
It’s extremely unlikely that hardware limitation is the matter. It is a matter of new business and driving new sales for em5 mii. It makes no sense for Olympus to add better video capability to EM1 when that product is targeted towards photographers and folks who want video but have EM1 would have no choice but buy em5 mii.
Your argument is totally invalid. GH3 doesn’t have hardware capable of shooting 4k and higher bitrate of GH4. Though EM1 can support better codec if Olympus adds it.
On the side note, GH3 video is very capable for 1080 video. It will beat em5 mii with video features except not having IBIS for video which Panasonic doesn’t care since their lenses have IS.
The 25/50/60 fps to E-M1 (or at least 25/50) would not cripple E-M5 II at all. As you get better video from E-M5 II anyways.
I can change the exposure while videoing on an iPhone. I seriously dought they can’t give that fuctionality. The E-M5 II and the E-M1 have the same processor so its not that the camera does not have the boursepower. i am not asking for the new sensor shift or for every video feature but the fact that my two “flagship” cameras can’t have exposure compensation while videoing is bull. I am also not asking for them to add these features to my daughters E-M10. Olympus is leaving these features out to purposely drive sales. I will spend the extra and start the move to Panasonic in the next few months. Shame because I love the Olympus cameras but the Olympus business practices is to much to take.
The 40 MP food shots by Robin Wong look great, but they do have some weird artifacts/lines, especially in the pork/lettuce shot… What’s causing this? Can they be avoided?
I see the diagonal hatching in varying degrees on samples… I wonder if it’s a flickering light source thing, or otherwise tiny changes in luminosity across time. It’s weird because it seems to appear in localized areas in e.g. urban landscapes.
Safe to say that this camera hit all my targets. Of course, I wouldn’t mind a better sensor with better DR, but that was probably last on my wishlist. The better 5 STOPS IBIS, faster Shutter, inclusion of E-shutter, swivel screen, and finally better AF (top on my list) are all there. The added video capabilities and high resolution shooting mode are icing on the cake, and I don’t know whether I will use it. Don’t remember when was the last time I wanted more resolution, and I crop my images.
500px.com/yatbond
I was worried about the AF being the same. After browsing thru the Olympus Japanese website, http://olympus-imaging.jp/product/dslr/em5mk2/feature6.html, never go to Japaneae’s international website for information), I found the information below. I am happy.
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FAST AF / high-speed performance that has evolved
FAST AF that has evolved
World’s shortest * shooting time lag
That shooting time lag from pressing the shutter button to start shooting is short, is an important condition you do not miss the moment you want to take. New FAST AF system Olympus, driving speed faster sensors, improvement of the AF algorithm, by the MSC lens for high-speed driving, as compared to E-M5, shooting time lag is reduced 45%. I realized the world’s shortest * shooting time lag.
In interchangeable lens camera of February 5, 2015 the current pre-release, the telephoto end of the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-40mm F2.8 PRO, single AF target (center 1 point), when IS OFF, comparison by CIPA standard, Olympus examined
Widely shooting screen, finely covered, focusing 81 points FAST AF instantly
The AF target to finely cover a wide range of screen allows you to focus instantly to a smaller subject of any position in the area. The focus, touch AF shutter is quite useful. Simply touch to your favorite place while watching the monitor, you can capture the accurate and intuitive subject.
Specify a pin point AF area of about 70 times “super spot AF”
An enlarged display a live view screen, expanding live view to support the focus is, can be up to 14 times the display. Super spot AF is a function of only the central part of the live view image that has been enlarged to AF point, you can focus in AF area of up to about 70 times. By also powerful image stabilization when enlarged display, because the viewfinder image is stable, it is useful to elaborate focusing during macro photography and telephoto shots.
Focus peaking where you can specify the color and intensity
Focus peaking is I was in addition to the white / black correspond to the red / yellow. ON / OFF of peaking in the Fn button, because the further settings such as color and strength at the INFO button is available on the live view, it is possible to use both quickly depending on the situation. Also I can use the focus peaking when shooting movies.
Weak: the width of the depth is narrow
Standard
Strength: the width of the depth is wide
Eye priority C-AF to continue to focus on the pupil
Automatically determine the size of the face to focus on the pupil, the pupil priority AF evolution to perform more accurate focusing. I was to enable the pupil priority AF even in C-AF mode by improvement of iris detection processing speed. When combined with “e portrait” mode to the pupil priority AF and skin correction, you can enjoy a beautiful portrait photography.
Comfortable high-speed performance
Improved continuous shooting performance
About 5 frames / sec of AF tracking RAW card full continuous shooting
Performance of C-AF tracking continuous shooting is improved to about 5 frames / sec. In combination with the group AF, while focusing follows the subject in the area, can be continuous shooting of about 5 frames / sec. In addition, RAW continuous shooting is now available up to one full card capacity *. In continuous shooting, or dropped the number of shots, but I can be taken without or stopped shooting.
Toshiba UHS-II SD card when using.
AF fixed continuous shooting of about 10 frames / sec.
AF fixed continuous shooting to achieve high-speed continuous shooting of up to about 10 frames / sec is possible. It is possible to capture the moment, such as flapping of birds. (Focus, exposure is fixed at the first frame)
Various shutter mode can be selectively used in accordance with the scene
Fast mechanical shutter of the best 1/8000 seconds
A high-speed mechanical shutter of 1/8000 seconds, which is often used in high-end single-lens is equipped to E-M5 Mark II. Release time lag has been achieved 0.044 seconds of the fastest class in mechanical shutter. Not only is suitable for shooting fast-moving subject, you can enjoy from the open the large diameter lens without a bright day Above all ND filter.
Low vibration mode is continuous shooting possible in which to reduce the shutter shock
To reduce the shutter shock, can now low vibration mode continuous shooting at (first curtain electronic shutter) (continuous shooting L). To switch to the mechanical shutter automatically when more than 1/320 seconds out easily, such as exposure unevenness.
Because it is displayed If you set ON in the menu to drive mode, you can easily switch to even during shooting.
Silent shooting mode suitable for sound is not put out environment
When Silent shooting mode (electronic shutter), because electronic sound, such as AF in addition to the shutter sound is all OFF, to help shooting in sound is not put out environment. Can be selected from the shutter speed from 1/16000 seconds to 60 seconds, continuous shooting is also possible.
Interesting, most previews have stated the (c)af hasn’t improved from e-m5? Anyone got more info on this, it’s a bit of dealbreaker for me…
Then get E-M1. Rumored it will get PDAF only focusing for C-AF instead the hybrid (first focus close with PDAF and finalize the focus with CDAF).
Looks like the c-AF has also improved!
http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2015/02/07/home-from-bermuda-and-i-brought-the-e-m5ii-with-me/
I am in…. Maybe not be as good as EM1 on cAF but if it can track a dolphin, then it can track a kid. Then it is good enough for me! Pre-ordering!
Hopefully these new improvements will actually be proven true from actual users using the camera. If it a bid advancement I would expect more official me ton of these improvements.
So I’m confused, what camera is their flagship model -I thought it was the E-M1???
Nope, It is E-M5 II now. E-M1 is dead body that is usable but not worth of money to buy unless you really need the 9FPS for continues shooting and PDAF C-AF but video is not important at all.