Alex Mustard reviews Olympus OM-D E-M5

by Alex Mustard Friday, June 1st, 2012

2. OLYMPUS OM-D E-M5 CAMERA AND SPECS

Like me, you may well know a M43 bore. Mine’s called Dan and I’ve regularly had to hear his arguments for the M43 format over the last few years: “DLSR matching performance and image quality in much smaller package”. I like his theory and not just for travel. Such small cameras make for housings small enough to be held like cameras, rather than via handles. They are also great for squeezing into tight spots, pushing through the water when chasing big animals and maneuvering close to the seabed when shooting critters on the bottom.

The diminutive E-M5 and housing.

Dan has also demonstrated it pretty convincingly in practice too, with a certain D. Bolt winning the 2011 British Underwater Photography Championship, his M43 Olympus PEN topping a field of more than 50 experienced shooters, including some big names, most using Nikon or Canon SLRs.

My buddy Peter Rowlands is convinced by M43 too, he sold his Nikon D700 and has been happily using a M43 Panasonic GH2 for the last year. And since the E-M5 moves the Micro Four Thirds game on significantly from Dan’s and Peter’s cameras. Surely SLR shooters can no longer put our head’s in the sand over this format?

You really see how small the E-M5 is when you park it next to a SLR, in this case Nigel Wade’s D300, who was along to review the camera for UK’s Diver Magazine. But you may be surprised to learn that I believe that it is the smaller camera than delivers superior image quality.

The Olympus OM-D E-M5 is a serious camera for a serious investment, costing $1000 USD (or €1100 Euros) for only the body, which for comparison is most of the way to a Nikon D7000 or Canon 60D. Not that you get a lot of bulk for your money! The E-M5 is diminutive compared to even small SLRs, but in terms of specifications it packs a comparable punch.

The headline specs include 16MP sensor, 5-axis in body image stabilization, upto 9 frames per second in manual focus (or 4 with continuous AF), full HD video, LCD electronic viewfinder and ISO range of 200-25600. Other useful features for underwater photography include flash synch to 1/250th and Olympus’s excellent pro-level weather sealing, which might just save this camera, when others could perish from a moderate housing leak.

Usefully (and rare in this type of camera) the E-M5 has twin control dials (for aperture and shutterspeed) and lots of direct control buttons will always make a big difference to the speed and ease with which important settings can be changed through a housing. Having to go through menus always slows and frustrates the photographic process. Furthermore, the camera controls offer extensive customizability, allowing you to move important and regularly used controls to where they are most easily reached.

The AF zones cover most of the picture, ideal for off-centre subject positioning, such as the eye of this scorpionfish.

M43 sensors are smaller than DX/APS-C (about a crop factor of 2 from full frame/FX/135, rather than 1.5 for DX/APS-C), but as sensor technology continues to improve the penalty of smaller pixels is not as clear as it once was (as the Nikon D800, among others has proved). With smaller sensors, lenses need less glass to deliver the same quality, perhaps the main failing is with shallow depth of field shots, but this is unlikely to be a concern for underwater shooters.

On land some portrait photographers criticize M43 format for a lack of super shallow depth of field. This is unlikely to concern underwater photographers. In any case, very shallow depth of field is possible (even at standard macro magnifications) by opening up the aperture all the way. Both images E-M5 + 45mm lens + 2 x S2000 strobes. ISO 200, top 1/250th @ f/22, bottom 1/250th @ f/2.8.

With two manufacturers behind it the M43 lens selection covers the important focal lengths with quality options. For underwater use highlights include 8mm fisheye, 9-18mm or 7-14mm wide rectilinear, 14-42mm for mid range and 35mm and 45mm macro lenses (60mm macro coming soon). Multiply by 2 to get approximate 35mm/full frame equivalents.

M43 offers plenty of lens options, which are small and light for travel, but optically good. These Atlantic bluefin tuna were shot at 9mm (18mm full frame equivalent) with the 9-18mm.

The camera feels very strong and capable of a demanding workload. We even dropped one on the floor (accidentally) with no ill effects!! We generally changed batteries after each dive because we didn’t know how long to expect them to last, but they would comfortably do two dives. We didn’t try more dives because we didn’t want to risk wasting limited review time with flat batteries. The only problem I had with the camera was at the end of my final dive of the trip, when the camera locked up in a menu mode. As I had only a few breaths left, I surfaced, popped out the battery and it was fine.

And finally, I should explain that mouthful of a name: OM-D E-45. The OM tells us that its retro looks ape the classic Olympus OM system of 35mm SLRs (D is for digital). It is a handsome camera, but I never felt the original OMs were ergonomic masterpieces that somehow out perform modern cameras (as an aside I still have an original OM-10 and a housing). Lenses are not interchangeable with the old OMs. So the OM link is best though of like VW or BMW reinventing the beetle or mini. Olympus will be hoping the OM-D is their Mini. Anyway, the looks of the body and its ergonomics need not concern us too much – as we will be judging its performance inside the housing.

Introduction.
Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera and specs.
The Olympus housing and underwater handling.
Image quality: ISO, resolution, dynamic range.
Lens performance, autofocus & stabiliser.
Conclusion.

Hi, Just a question I have an olympus omd em5 but when I want to use mode M the exposition adjust itself, I can adjust speed and focus but no the exposition. Is it possible to change this problem?

Posted by sandrine on 2016-04-06 18:32:01 Scubysnaps: Alex is used to life at the top of the food chain but my take was that the OM-D is as fast as could be reasonably expected. Few of the Gozitan dives with it were undertaken with the fast MSC lenses - like any SLR folk we wanted to try the extremes. Mostly we used the Panasonic 8mm fisheye and 45mm macro. Excellent optically but not famously fast. The D90 is one of the few Nikons I've used much so this isn't completely without a point of reference :) Like the Olympus SLRs I use a lot of the performance depends on the lens. I didn't find the D90 remarkably fast but the only ultrasonic lens I tried was the Sigma 150mm macro. Using the OMD since with the 12-50 and 14-42 I'd say it was very fast but that's not to say it works in quite the same way as an SLR. I know I can place the AF target on my E420 on the eye of a mysid or rhinophore of a nudi but the OM-D has a focus box that looks for image detail within 'video' bounded by the box and has no qualms at all in flitting from foreground to background in no time flat in a way that few SLRs can. I'd suggest that it doesn't offer/suffer from the limited/precise scope of SLR AF and that can be a strength and weakness. To make the most of it you need to plant the AF area well. I've been driven around the countryside shooting oncoming cars with it (which it'll do in SAF or CAF as well as being able to track objects around the whole screen) from an intial lock. So there's potential there for it to do great things but I've yet to try to pick a single fish out of a shoal. I think the water would need to be very clear and my reflexes superhuman! Only dives will tell how all the configurations work out but I was mightily impressed by the combination of the 12-50mm in macro mode and an Inon 165 - the most rapid macro setup I've tried. When the 60mm lens arrives it will be quite an interesting comparison.
Posted by ReallyMadRob on 2012-07-29 14:15:38 Thanks for the review Alex, and Pete for arranging it, unsure about the auto focus abilities on fast subjects, what would they be like compared to my D90?
Posted by Scubysnaps on 2012-07-19 08:56:11 Just wanted to add a thank you to all those who have commented and shared knowledge, opinions and information. Greatly improves the amount of information available here to others.
Posted by Alex Mustard on 2012-06-12 07:37:53 To clarify the port question: (as far as possible) The port is (I'm 99.9% sure) an RDX port - so there's a choice there to start with. There's an adapter - which we had out in Gozo - to allow threaded Olympus ports to be fitted. The housing comes with a standard flat port which is functionally the same as that one the first 2 Pen housings and 'suits' the 14-42mm and 9-18mm lenses. They don't say but it's a good fit of the 12-50mm as well and I'm just working on a zoom ring for that. I'd be surprised if an adapter back to Pen ports doesn't appear quite soon :-) I'm still not sure what would account for the 'pre flash delay', I didn't suffer it but we were mixing and matching strobes and modes at a furious rate :-) I wanted to factory reset the bodies before we started but time didn't allow that. I can say that I dived with it in Cornwall yesterday using the 12-50mm in macro mode along side a single RC protocol TTL strobe and suffered no such delay. Rob P.S. The strobe problems mentioned were down to a duff batch of brand new AA rechargeables - undone by the best of intentions. So it was a shame we weren't able to demo the Oly strobes fondness for macro.
Posted by ReallyMadRob on 2012-06-12 04:45:48 How disappointing the PEN lens ports don't fit out of the box. And I just bought one hoping to use it in the future for the E-M5.
Posted by Jak Crow on 2012-06-12 03:32:05 Dynamic range on the E-M5 far exceeds that available on APS-C DSLRs like the Canon 7D. In a single image, one can pull large amounts of detail from both the highlights and shadows. For an example see: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1041&message=41718774 A raw image can be downloaded for those interested in investigating the DR themselves.
Posted by coroander on 2012-06-11 00:47:58 Alex, thanks for the acknowledgement.It was a pleasure having you and the rest of the gang aboard. Hope to see you again sometime
Posted by Ocean Dreams on 2012-06-05 07:23:36 @ Klaus - thanks for the suggestion on the shooting delay with TTL. We've discussed it a bit more in the forum and what we want to reduce is the delay for a pre-focused shot while still using TTL. Your suggestion might be the answer. Discussion here: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46536&st=31 Alex
Posted by Alex Mustard on 2012-06-03 04:25:34 It's a super camera and it's lesser siblings are pretty good too, That shot of the cuttlefish, as Alex has pointed out was taken on the Pen Mini, the E-PM1, what Alex didn't say was that he took it within the first 20 minutes of picking up the camera for the 1st time. He is a fantastic photographer too. Thanks for coming out Alex. :)
Posted by PeeBee on 2012-06-03 01:48:44 Alex, you mentioned "One big frustration with the flash system is TTL lag. The E-M5 does not have shutter lag, but when used in TTL mode there is a pre-flash lag before the photo is taken. On manual flash there is no noticeable delay." Might it be that you had "Anti-Shock" activated in the release options? In case it is set to ½sec in the E-menu, the E-M5 will first pre-flash, wait half a second, then fire the main flash. In manual mode there is no pre-flash, so the ½sec delay is not so evident.
Posted by KlausCR on 2012-06-02 17:57:58 Thanks again for directing this review towards DSLR shooters as well as compact and M43 shooters. I have been shooting the E-M5 out of the water since it arrived and no longer look at the image quality as being from a small sensor and just as a great image machine. This system has great glass for U/W use and new quality lenses like the just announced Panasonic 12-35 F/2.8 X keep coming. Phil Rudin
Posted by Phil Rudin on 2012-06-02 11:09:56 I went on this trip with an open mind having never shot with a M43 camera before, to say I'm impressed with these little cameras is an understatement, Alex has done them the justice they deserve in this review. Nice job Doctore!!
Posted by Nige Wade on 2012-06-02 05:50:59 I can't give you a 100% answer on the ports - as I no longer have the housing in front of me. But my best guess is no. We weren't able to use the mini-domes we had (which I guess were PEN fit). The dome we used was an Olympus one - and was old - presumably from an older Oly SLR housing - but fitted. I suspect that someone will make a port adaptor given the number of PEN users who will fancy upgrading to this camera. Sterling, thanks. I look forward to hearing what you think. I was very impressed. But didn't want to write a review totally gushing with praise because I was writing for current SLR users and felt it important to comment on both the areas it is ahead of an SLR and behind.
Posted by Alex Mustard on 2012-06-02 02:29:42 Alex, Could you answer if the PT-EP08 housing will accept the same ports from the prior PEN housings or third party ports (Zen, Athena, Precision) already in production or did Olympus use another style port connection as rumored? Thank you for the great review
Posted by devildiver on 2012-06-01 17:57:48 Awesome review, Alex. Thanks for posting. I am really excited about this camera. It's good to hear that the performance lives up to its promise. I look forward to shooting it soon. Thanks for the in-depth first look.
Posted by Sterling Zumbrunn on 2012-06-01 15:39:27