Olympus E-P5 Performance

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Olympus E-P5 Performance

Timing and Performance

Very good performance overall for a compact system camera.

Startup/Shutdown
Power on to first shot	~0.9 second	Time it takes to turn on and capture a shot.
Shutdown	~0.4 second	How long it takes camera to turn off before you can remove the memory card.
Buffer clearing time	5 seconds after 16 large/super fine JPEGs*	Worst case buffer clearing time. -- This is the delay after a set of shots before you can remove the card.
	6 seconds after 18 RAW files*
	10 seconds after 15 RAW + LSF JPEG files*
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity and noise reduction settings can also affect cycle times and burst mode performance.

Startup time including taking a shot was quite fast for a CSC, at under a second. With a fast 95MB/s UHS-I SDHC card, the E-P5's buffer clearing times were excellent given the generous buffers.

Mode Switching
Play to Record, first shot	~0.5 second	Time until first shot is captured.
Record to Play	~2.2 seconds	Time to display a large/super fine JPEG file immediately after capture.
Display recorded image	~0.5 second	Time to display a large/superfine JPEG file already on the memory card.

Mode switching was quite fast, except for Record to Play which was slow.

Shutter Response (Lag Time)
Full Autofocus, Single-area AF mode	0.196 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting. (All AF timing performed with 17mm f/1.8 kit lens.)
Full Autofocus, Multi-area AF mode	0.231 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting.
Full Autofocus, Single-area AF mode Auto Flash Enabled	0.318 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, TTL Auto flash enabled.
Continuous AF	0.144 second	This mode usually shows no speed increase with our static subject; we have no way to measure performance with moving subjects.
Manual Focus	0.098 second	For most cameras, shutter lag is less in manual focus than autofocus, but usually not as fast as when the camera is "prefocused".
Prefocused Release Lag-time = Normal	0.054 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.
Prefocused Release Lag-time = Short	0.052 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.

The Olympus E-P5's full-autofocus shutter lag in single-area AF mode (center AF position) was only 0.196 second with the 17mm f/1.8 kit lens. That's faster than most consumer DSLRs these days, and faster than many prosumer DSLRs are well. In 35-point "All Targets" AF mode, this time increased slightly to 0.231 second, which is still very fast, especially for a contrast-detection system. Full autofocus shutter lag increased to 0.318 second with the flash enabled, which includes an additional delay for the preflash metering. Continuous AF mode resulted in a shutter lag of only 0.144 second with a static subject.

When manually focused, the E-P5's lag time was 0.098 second, which is pretty fast. The E-P5's prefocused lag time of 0.054 second was quite fast. An option to reduce shutter lag (likely by enabling an electronic first curtain) shaved 0.002 second from our default mode prefocused shutter lag result. That's much less than Olympus' claim of a 20% reduction, though not far from the 0.049 second shutter lag the company claims for this mode.

To minimize the effect of different lens' focusing speed, we test AF-active shutter lag with the lens already set to the correct focal distance.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode Large/Super Fine JPEG	0.51 second	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 4 seconds to clear*.
Single Shot mode RAW	0.46 second	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 2 seconds to clear*.
Single Shot mode RAW + LSF JPEG	0.52 second	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 9 seconds to clear*.
Early shutter penalty?	No	Some cameras don't snap another shot if you release and press the shutter too quickly in Single Shot mode, making "No" the preferred answer.
Continuous H Mode Large/Super Fine JPEG	0.10 second (9.93 frames per second); 16 frames total; 5 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 16 shots, then slows to an average of about 0.25s or 3.94 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous H Mode RAW	0.10 second (9.88 frames per second); 18 frames total; 6 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 18 shots, then slows to an average of about 0.37s or 2.73 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous H Mode RAW + LSF JPEG	0.10 second (9.93 frames per second); 15 frames total; 10 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 15 shots, then slows to an average of about 0.63s or 1.60 fps when buffer is full.
Flash Recycling	3.4 seconds	Flash at maximum output.
*Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC card. Slower cards will produce correspondingly slower clearing times. Slow cards may also limit length of bursts in continuous mode. ISO sensitivity and noise reduction settings can also affect cycle times and burst mode performance.

Single-shot cycle times were quite good for a CSC, at about 0.5 seconds per shot no matter the type of file.

Continuous H mode performance was excellent, at around 9.9 frames per second with any file type. This actually exceeds Olympus' spec of 9.0 fps, though we must point out that I.S. must be disabled, and focus and exposure are fixed at the first frame of a burst in this mode. There is also a L mode rated at up to 5.0 fps. (We didn't test that mode.)

Buffer depths were quite good, at 16 frames for large/super fine JPEGs, 18 for RAW files, and 15 frames for RAW+JPEGs. Note that our test target for this was designed to be difficult to compress, so JPEG burst lengths should be longer with typical subjects. Buffer clearing was also quite good, ranging from 5 seconds after a max-length burst of JPEGs, to 10 seconds after a burst or RAW+JPEG frames.

Flash recycle time was good with built-in flash, at 3.4 seconds after a full power discharge.

Download Speed
Windows Computer, USB 2.0	9,266 KBytes/sec	Typical Values: Less than 600=USB 1.1; 600-769=USB 2.0 Low; Above 770=USB 2.0 High

Download speeds were fairly fast, quick enough that you probably won't feel the need for a separate card reader. (Note that this test was performed with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec UHS-I SDHC card: Slower cards would likely show slower transfer times.)

Bottom line, the Olympus E-P5's performance is generally very good for a CSC, and faster on almost all fronts compared to the E-P3, especially cycle times and burst modes.

Battery

Battery Life
Slightly below average battery life for a CSC.

Operating Mode	Number of Shots
Still Capture, (CIPA standard)	330

The Olympus E-P5 uses a custom rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and charger. The rated 330 shots per charge is a bit below average for a compact system camera, and well below the capacity of most DSLRs with their optical viewfinders. We recommend getting a second battery for your E-P5 if you plan any extended outings.

The table above shows the number of shots the camera is capable of (on a fully-charged rechargeable battery), based on CIPA battery-life and/or manufacturer standard test conditions.

(Interested readers can find an English translation of the CIPA DC-002 standards document here. (180K PDF document))