Olympus E-M5 Review - Imaging Resource

Overview

by Shawn Barnett, Mike Tomkins, and Zig Weidelich
Hands-on Preview: 02/07/2012
Full Review: 06/15/2012

Note: Firmware version 2.0 released January 2014 adds an extended "Low" ISO 100 setting, as well as a Small AF Target option. Those enhancements are not reflected in this review. Click here for more details.

Raising the excitement around its Micro Four Thirds cameras, Olympus added a new branch to the line with the OM-D E-M5. Once again, Olympus resurrected both the name and appearance of a successful camera line from the company's past to appeal to the sense of nostalgia we're seeing return to the digital camera space. The new digital camera upgrades the sensor to 16 megapixels and includes a built-in electronic viewfinder, both firsts for an Olympus-badged MFT camera. Available in both black and silver starting April 2012, the new camera is also somewhat pricey, starting at US$1,000 body-only, US$1,100 with a standard 14-42mm lens, and US$1,300 with the unique 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ lens pictured at right.

If you've already read this part of the review, be sure to check out our Field Test below, where I used the Olympus E-M5 on a trip to Whistler, Canada.

Though the viewfinder housing is shaped like a pentaprism, there is no pentaprism underneath. Many might cry foul over this choice, but it makes sense. Rather than make their camera look like a modern, smooth molded plastic camera, they pulled from their own past, returning to an easily recognizable form. But I can't deny that a flood of analytical thoughts and emotions washed over me when I first set eyes on the OM-D E-M5. Was I impressed or put off? Did they hit the right notes? Is it too similar or not similar enough to the old OM line? Am I over-analyzing and under-appreciating because I'm afraid I'm a little too fond of bringing back the old camera forms?

In the interests of full disclosure, I have always been an OM fan, and have enjoyed long relationships with several OM cameras over the years. I still own an OM-1, though I haven't loaded film into it for a decade. I was sad when the OM line finally ceased in 2002. They were solid, reliable little SLRs with great optics and a refined personality. The return of the name, if not the mount, is enough to stir a complex of positive and negative emotions in any former fan.

The main question I had: Is it worthy of the OM name, or is it just window dressing? After spending more time with the E-M5, all I can think is, worthy or not, it just makes sense. If Olympus is to make an EVF Micro Four Thirds camera, it should look like their last SLR, not some odd modern interpretation of a Pen with a bump on top.

Names. What doesn't make sense is the camera's name. OM-D E-M5 is absurdly circumspect. They want to pay homage to the OM line while pointing out that it's digital, hence the D. Like we didn't know. Yet they want to keep pointing out that it's electronic like the other cameras in the line, hence the E in E-M5. I'd have preferred OM-5 or even OM-5D. We know it's electronic, and we know it's digital--I think we got it--so OM-5 would have been simpler, more evocative of the past they're so keen to recapture.

Look and feel. When I first saw the camera it looked a little strange, rather like a bootleg knock-off version of an OM camera. It more closely resembles one of the consumer OM models, like the OM-10, rather than the more pro versions of the camera, thanks to its wider pentaprism peak. Naturally, being an EVF camera, there is no pentaprism inside, so I'm sure some purists will cry foul. But for all their rangefinder aesthetic, the Pens, and even the Fujifilm X100 aren't rangefinders either, so purists should get over it. What the OM-D design can be called is reflective. Reflective of the long Olympus heritage, just as much as the bi-level top deck on the Pens, Canon G-series, and Nikon P-series as well. It's Design, and it's not always functional, but it does function to distinguish a camera, and they've done that very well.

At first it seems a little bit of a pygmy version of the original OM cameras. It's shorter, slimmer, and narrower. It has a slight grip on the front, one with sufficient width, if not depth, for my fingers to get a good purchase. It's bolstered on the back by a large, tacky, hard-rubber ramp that serves as a thumbgrip. It's quite nice; warm and smooth, yet grippy.

Even the left side of the camera's front has a good rubber grip, helpful while shooting overhead or looking at pictures after capture. The black version has a modern grip surface, while the silver version, shown above, has a faux-leather texture. A lens release button has the same shape and location as the Pen cameras, while the original OM system had the release button on the lens itself. The red lens mount alignment dot is still in the same position as the old OM cameras. An AF-assist lamp peeks out above the lens release button. The OM-D line also uses D-rings for the camera strap.

Note also how the sensor seems to hang down in this front shot. It's not centered top to bottom. But when you power on the Olympus E-M5, the sensor rises and centers just fine, and you can hear the IS system working. See the Image Stabilization section below for more, including a short movie demonstrating the new IS system's extreme freedom of movement.

The weather-sealed 12-50mm lens covers a range from 24-100mm equivalent, and includes a unique zoom mechanism. In the position shown above the mechanism is a momentary switch zooming the lens electronically with a twist of about 3mm left or right. I far prefer this to a single toggle on the left of the lens, as is found on Panasonic's X-series lenses. It is more intuitive, but not as fast as a mechanical zoom. Pull back on the zoom ring and it becomes a mechanical zoom control. Excellent. It's so cool that Olympus is designing interesting lenses with controls for real photographers. The motorized zoom is thus primarily for smooth zooming while shooting video. The only disadvantage is that the push/pull ring is easy to change accidentally.

The left side of the EVF housing has a Mode dial, while the right side has two unique dials. In Manual mode, the Rear dial adjusts shutter speed while the front adjusts aperture. In the center of the front dial we find the Shutter release button. The Shutter release button is spongy through the half-press, then firms up significantly for the final break. Just right of that is the new Curves button. Using the two dials on the top deck, you can adjust the onscreen curve for Shadows and Highlights and see the results in the onscreen preview. Just behind that is the Movie Record button.

While there's much similar to the Pens on the E-M5, the rear controls owe a little more to the Olympus E-5 professional digital SLR. Most Pen cameras to date have had a rear dial surrounding the four-way navigator, but the E-M5 has only the five buttons. Below that is the power switch, which is located where it is on the E-3 and E-5.

The OLED monitor tilts vertically, up 90 degrees, and down 45 degrees. It's the EVF that's even more fun, sporting 1.44 million dots. It's similar to the VF-2 accessory finder, but with a different optical formula, according to Olympus, that allows for better visibility, with a 1.15x magnification and 18mm eyepoint relief. I found it fairly easy to frame images with my eyeglasses on, but the corners were still vignetted unless I pushed my glasses in against my eye socket. That makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better without the circular mask you can see quite clearly in the shot above. This got even more comfortable to do when shooting in vertical mode, as there's more room for your nose in that orientation. I could see being quite comfortable shooting the E-M5 with its optional vertical grip.

Controls. By far our favorite controls are the two dials on the top. The front dial, made of plastic, is a little looser than the rear dial, which seems to be metal. On a camera with an OM designation, it's nice to see some effort to offer mechanical control. OM users are accustomed to adjusting both shutter speed and aperture via the ring around the lens mount and the ring on the lens itself, respectively. Given that the Micro Four Thirds system is already established without mechanical aperture controls on the lenses, this digital/analog pairing of two equivalent dials keeps to the spirit of the OM system in the digital age. Most competing professional designs have a dial front and back to control these two basic exposure functions, while most amateur SLRs, like the Rebel, have only one dial with a button to shift between the two exposure parameters. This simple difference marks the OM-D E-M5 as a camera designed for enthusiasts and pros.

Optics. As mentioned earlier, the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ lens is the main kit lens for the OM-D E-M5. Sliding the zoom ring forward puts the lens in motorized zoom mode, ideal for smooth zooming in movies. Speed is variable based on how far you turn the zoom ring left or right. Pull the zoom ring rearward, toward the camera, and it becomes a mechanical zoom. Manual focusing is fly-by-wire only. An MSC design, the lens focuses quickly and quietly. Announced in December 2011, the 24-100mm-equivalent lens has multiple sealing rings to make it as waterproof as Olympus's Four Thirds SHG (Super High Grade) lenses, and is individually priced at $499.99.

Good as it is, the shame is its length, making the camera quite a bit less pocketable. However, the OM-D E-M5 is also able to use any of the 26 lenses available for the Micro Four Thirds mount (not including the Panasonic 3D lens), with more coming from manufacturers like Sigma. There are also nine mount adapters that open up a wide world of options to use lenses from Pentax, Leica, Voigtländer, and even Olympus's own Four Thirds lenses. A new Four Thirds adapter, called the MF-3 is dust and splashproof to match the E-M5 body and the Four Thirds High Grade and Super High Grade lenses.

Sensor and processor. At the heart of the Olympus E-M5 lies a new 16.1-megapixel Live MOS image sensor, whose output is handled by a TruePic VI image processor, the same as in the E-P3. The E-M5's imager has a 4:3 aspect ratio, and allows capture of still images at a maximum resolution of 4,608 x 3,456 pixels. RAW images are 12-bit and stored using lossless compression.

The new image sensor is said to offer not only higher resolution than those of earlier Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras, but also offers both higher dynamic range and lower noise. Total pixel count of the new Live MOS chip is 16.9 megapixels.

Sensitivity. Sensitivity ranges from a base of ISO 200 equivalent to a maximum of ISO 25,600 equivalent, controlled automatically, or manually in 1/3 or 1 EV steps. (By default, the maximum sensitivity in Auto mode is capped at a more modest ISO 1,600 equivalent, however.)

Performance. The Olympus E-M5 is capable of full-resolution, continuous shooting at up to an impressive nine frames per second, although there's a proviso. To achieve this rate, focus must be locked from the first frame.

If autofocus is enabled between shots, the rate falls to 4.2 frames per second, or still further to 3.5 frames per second if image stabilization is enabled.

Focusing. The Olympus E-M5 improves on the already-swift autofocusing system of its Pen sibling, the E-P3. As in that camera, it still uses contrast detection autofocusing, branded as "Frequency Acceleration Sensor Technology," or "FAST" AF for short. Olympus again claims its new system offers the world's fastest autofocusing, so long as you're shooting with the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ lens.

Compared to the E-P3, they've achieved the improvement in speed by doubling the sensor readout speed again, with this now able to reach as high as a stunning 240 frames per second. There's a catch, though -- achieving this speed means that the E-P3 can't read out as many pixel locations as at lower rates, and so the 240Hz refresh comes at the expense of contrast detection resolution (and hence, autofocus accuracy). For this reason, the E-M5 only uses the 240Hz rate for continuous autofocus, and falls back to a slightly slower--but more accurate--120Hz rate during single autofocus operation. Olympus also notes that the increase in refresh rate for continuous AF allows better subject tracking performance.

Although the E-M5 uses contrast detection, it still has fixed autofocus point locations, just like the E-P3. The E-M5's AF system provides 35 point focusing, with the points arranged in a 7 x 5 array that covers most of the image frame, with the exception of the extreme edges. Focus point selection modes include All Target (35-area), Group Target (9-area), and Single Target. In magnified frame AF mode, it's possible to zoom in to either 5x, 7x, 10x, or 14x, and this allows much finer-grained point positioning, with over 800 different focus point locations possible.

Face detection is supported (up to 8 faces), as well as Eye detection with options for Nearer-eye priority, Right-eye priority, or Left-eye priority. An AF illuminator is also provided to assist in low-light conditions. Focus servo modes include Single AF (S-AF), Continuous AF (C-AF), Manual Focus (MF), S-AF + MF, and AF tracking (C-AF + TR).

Dust reduction. The E-M5 retains Olympus' patented Supersonic Wave Filter dust reduction system, which operates courtesy of a piezoelectric element, vibrating the filter glass overlying the sensor. This shakes dust and other particles free, and they're then captured on an adhesive membrane beneath the imager. We've subjectively found piezoelectric systems like these to be significantly more effective than those using lower-frequency motion from a sensor-shift assembly.

Display. On the rear panel of the Olympus E-M5 is a 3.0-inch, 3:2 aspect Organic LED screen with an electrostatic capacitance touchpanel overlay, the same unit as featured in the E-P3. The E-M5 has an advantage, though, in that it features an articulated mechanism, allowing it to be tilted upwards by around 80 degrees for shooting from the waist or low to the ground, and tilted downwards as much as 50 degrees for over-the-head shooting.

The Olympus E-M5's OLED panel has a total resolution of 614,000 dots, equating to approximately 205,000 pixels, with each pixel comprising separate red, green, and blue dots. The display has a wide 176-degree angle of view, and offers two operating modes--vivid and natural color--as well as a five-step brightness adjustment, and a seven-step color adjustment.

Viewfinder. One of the defining features of the Olympus E-M5 is its built-in viewfinder. It's quite similar to the VF-2 electronic viewfinder accessory for past PEN-series models, but we understand that it's a new optical design. Resolution is 1,440,000 dots, equating to approximately 480,000 pixels. That's an SVGA array of 800 x 600 pixels, with each pixel comprised of separate red, green, and blue dots.

The E-M5's viewfinder, like that of the VF-2 accessory, has a 100% field of view, and 1.15x magnification. Eyepoint is 18mm, and the viewfinder's refresh rate is 120Hz. There's a diopter adjustment dial to the left of the eyepiece with a range of -4 to +2m^-1, and the eyecup is removable. An infrared eye sensor is provided for automatic switching between the electronic viewfinder and OLED monitor.

Level gauge. To help ensure level horizons and avoid converging verticals, the Olympus E-M5 includes a dual-axis electronic level gauge. This indicates both front-to-back pitch and side-to-side roll on the live view feed, ensuring your framing is straight and even.

Shutter. The E-M5 provides shutter speeds ranging from 60 - 1/4,000 seconds, as well as a bulb mode that can be configured to allow exposures from one to 30 minutes, in eight steps. The shutter mechanism is tested to 100,000 cycles.

X-sync is available at 1/250 second or less, when using the bundled FL-LM2 flash strobe. Other flash strobes sync at 1/200 second or below, except for the FL-50R flash strobe, which is limited to a maximum of 1/180 second. Super FP flash is possible from 1/125 to 1/4,000 second.

Exposure. The Olympus E-M5 offers a wide range of exposure modes, including iAuto, Program (with Program Shift), Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority, Manual, Bulb, Time, Scene Select, Art Filter, Underwater Wide, and Underwater Macro. Scene modes options are generous, with no less than 23 different choices: Portrait, e-Portrait, Landscape, Landscape + Portrait, Sport, Night, Night + Portrait, Children, High Key, Low Key, DIS mode, Macro, Nature Macro, Candle, Sunset, Documents, Panorama, Fireworks, Beach & Snow, Fisheye Conv., Wide Conv., Macro Conv., and 3D.

Exposures are determined using a 324-area multi pattern metering system, which also provides center-weighted and spot metering modes. The metering system has a working range of EV 0 to 20 (17mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 100). Exposures can be tweaked with +/- 3.0 EV of exposure compensation in 1/3, 1/2, or 1 EV steps, and an AE Lock function is available to hold a metered exposure. In addition, the E-M5 provides a handy 2, 3, 5, or 7 frame exposure bracketing function, with a gap between frames of 0.3, 0.7, or 1 EV (with the exception of the 7-frame mode, which is limited to a maximum of 0.7 EV steps). Like recent PEN-series models, the Olympus E-M5 also allows users to fine-tune the metering system to suit their own tastes, courtesy of an additive +/-1 EV adjustment in 1/6 EV steps.

Image stabilization. The new image stabilization mechanism is dramatically different from the past design. The old design moved in only two planes, and was a much larger mechanism, but this new design floats inside the camera, and can compensate along five axes. It compensates for yaw, pitch, vertical motion, horizontal motion, and roll, and Olympus says it's capable of up to 5 stops of correction. Click image at right to load video.

If it is very quiet, you can hear the IS motor running, keeping the sensor aloft inside the camera.

White balance. As well as Auto, two Custom positions, and Kelvin, there are a selection of seven preset modes. White balance presets include Sunny, Shade, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Underwater, and Flash. White balance can be adjusted in a 15-step range on both blue / amber and magenta / green axes, and bracketed for three frames in two, four, or six-step increments on the same axes.

Curves. Another interesting feature is available with a press of the Curves button. Using the two dials on the top deck, you can then adjust the curve for Shadows and Highlights and see the results in the onscreen preview.

Histogram. The histogram shows a scale in white with the values over the whole image area, and a green histogram appears inside the white values, showing the values just inside the selected autofocus point.

Creative. Like the company's PEN-series models, the Olympus E-M5 includes a generous selection of pre-capture Art Filter functions, and all of these are applicable not only for still images, but movie capture as well, although they may affect frame rate. Art Filters include Pop Art, Soft Focus, Pale & Light Color, Light Tone, Grainy Film, Pin Hole, Diorama, Cross Process, Gentle Sepia, Dramatic Tone, and Key Line. This last option is new, and offers an effect not dissimilar to a paint-by-numbers painting. There are also new sub-options for the cross process and dramatic tone filters, the first allowing a choice of red or green tone, and the second being a choice of color or black-and-white.

Additionally, there are five post capture Art Filter Effects, including Soft Focus, Pin-hole, White Edge, Frame, and Star Light filters. An Art Filter Bracketing function helps users to see the effect of different filters by saving multiple copies of each individual shot, with different filters applied. Further catering to creative types, the E-M5 also offers an in-camera, two-frame Multiple Exposure function, a selection of different aspect ratios (4:3 native, 3:2, 16:9, 1:1, and 3:4), and an in-camera editing function.

Another new feature--and this one strikes us as particularly clever--is the new Live Bulb / Live Time function. This lets you preview the exposure as it is being developed, during long-exposure shooting. The effect isn't real-time, but rather happens at preset intervals, and there's a finite number of intervals that can't be exceeded (so for example, at ISO 200 you could have 25 intervals, which with a 0.5 second count per interval would allow a maximum of a 12.5 second exposure). You can either trigger the exposure with one press of a remote release, and finish it with a second press, or you can have the exposure run only for as long as the release is held. If you judge that your desired exposure has been achieved, this means you can stop the exposure almost immediately, rather than having to guess when to finish the exposure, and maybe waste the shot to under- or over-exposure.

3D imaging. Olympus has included its multi-shot 3D Photo mode in the E-M5, allowing in-camera creation of 3D images in the industry-standard Multi Picture Object (.MPO) format. MPO files contain multiple JPEG still images with slightly differing perspective, and can be viewed on some 3D-capable high-def displays. To capture a 3D image with the Olympus E-M5, you hold down the shutter button and slowly pan across the scene, until the camera automatically takes a second image with slightly differing perspective.

Video. As is now pretty-much obligatory for an interchangeable-lens camera, the Olympus E-M5 also provides for high definition video capture. Recording is possible at resolutions up to 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (commonly known as Full HD, or 1,080i), with a rate of 60 interlaced fields per second from 30 frames per second sensor output. Like earlier models, videos are still saved using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, however they are now saved in a MOV container and in the same location as still images, meaning that if you like to copy data manually, you won't need to dig through folders trying to remember where the videos are saved. Two bit rates are available: either 20 Mbps, or 17 Mbps, and the maximum recording time is about 22 minutes for the former, or 29 minutes for the latter. At 1,280 x 720 pixels, HD videos can be saved in either MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format with a rate of 60 interlaced fields per second at 13 Mbps or 10 Mbps, or in Motion JPEG AVI format at 30 frames per second. Finally, 640 x 480 pixel (VGA standard definition) video is saved as Motion JPEG AVIs at 30 frames per second. The maximum file size for MOV clips is 4GB, while AVI files are limited to 2GB. At all resolutions, videos include 16-bit, 48kHz stereo linear PCM audio.

Like the PEN-series, the Olympus E-M5 offers a full set of exposure modes during movie recording: Program AE, Aperture-priority AE, Shutter-priority AE, and Manual exposure are all supported, as well as Art Filter. Note that in Shutter-priority and Manual modes, shutter speed is limited to less than 1/30s. AE Lock is also supported.

Compared to the PEN-series cameras, the Olympus E-M5 has better movie processing, and much lower levels of rolling shutter. (This has been achieved simply by increasing the readout speed, although we don't have any precise numbers to relate for this change.) We're also told to expect fewer jaggies along straight edges.

A perhaps more significant improvement over the PEN-series (at least on paper) is sensor-shift image stabilization is now supported when recording movies. This should result in much more effective video stabilization compared to the digital IS system utilized by the latest PENs.

Another difference is the new Movie Echo function. This allows you to momentarily freeze the image during video capture, after which the frozen image will "fade away" into the continuing video feed. Two modes are available: One Shot Echo (which only freezes a single frame), and Multi Echo (which continues to freeze frames at set intervals.)

See the Olympus E-M5 Video page for more details and sample clips, as well as samples in the Field Test below.

Environmental sealing. The Olympus E-M5's magnesium alloy body is said to be both dustproof and splashproof to the same standards as the Olympus E-5 SLR. (Note that it's splashproof, not waterproof; it's not intended to withstand submersion.)

It's not just the E-M5 body that's sealed, though; there's a fully-sealed ecosystem available to the E-M5 user, and all of it said to be sealed to this same high standard. That includes the bundled FL-LM2 flash strobe, the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50mm f3.5-6.3 EZ zoom lens, the HLD-6 Power Battery Grip, and even a new MMF-3 Four Thirds mount adapter, allowing use of sealed Four Thirds-mount lenses.

Connectivity. The Olympus E-M5 offers quite a range of connectivity options, including USB 2.0 High Speed data, Type-D Micro HDMI high definition video output, NTSC / PAL selectable standard definition output, and Olympus' proprietary Accessory Port 2, which allows use of hot-shoe mounted accessories including the VF-2 and VF-3 viewfinder accessories (replicating the camera's own viewfinder, but allowing VF angle adjustment), the SEMA-1 external microphone adapter, MAL-1 Macro Arm Light, and PP-1 PenPal bluetooth adapter. The Olympus RM-UC1 cabled USB remote release is also compatible.

Storage. The Olympus E-M5 is compatible with Secure Digital cards, including both higher-capacity SDHC and SDXC card types, with support for higher-speed UHS-I types. The Olympus E-M5 also supports WiFi enabled Eye-Fi Secure Digital cards, for wireless transfer direct from the camera body, although note that endless mode is not supported. At least a Class 6 card is recommended for movie shooting.

Power. The Olympus E-M5 draws power from a proprietary BLN-1 lithium-ion battery pack. Battery life is CIPA rated at 360 shots per charge using either the EVF or OLED display, with image stabilization active, though we don't know if the bundled flash is included in that rating. Courtesy of the optional HLD-6 Power Battery Grip, it's also possible to add a second battery pack of the same type, effectively doubling shooting times.


Flash. A small flip-up flash accessory (model FL-LM2) is included with the Olympus E-M5, not unlike the ones that come with the E-PL3 and E-PM1, only a little larger. It derives its power from the AP2 port, thus requiring no batteries of its own. The bundled FL-LM2 flash has a GN of 10(m) at ISO 200 or 7 at ISO 100, and is capable of acting as a commander for wireless multi-flash photography with compatible slaves, supporting up to 4 groups (including itself) and 4 channels.	AP2 port. A small rubber door covers the Accessory Port 2, which appears behind and below the hot shoe. The port allows use of accessory devices like the MAL-1 Macro Arm Light and the PP-1 PENpal Bluetooth Communication Device. It even works with the VF-2 and VF-3 electronic viewfinders, which seems redundant, but could be useful for low-angle work.

External Flash. The flash hot shoe also works with other Olympus system flashes, like the FL-36R or the new FL-600R, which has the same guide number as the FL-36, but is slightly smaller and includes an LED movie light. It also uses 4 AA batteries for a quick recharge.	Battery grip. The HLD-6 Battery Grip is also dust and splash proof, with duplicated front and rear control dials and both function buttons on the back. You can even use the battery grip without the battery, serving as only a grip.

OM-D E-M5 Comparisons

Olympus E-M5 versus OM-1

Comparing the OM-D to the OM-1 MD cosmetically is almost a little unfair. The OM-1 was introduced back in 1971, when cameras had metal casings, machined metal dials, and leather grips. A lot has changed in forty years. Now the front panels are rubber, and there's a mix of metal and plastic parts and dials.

The Mode dial takes up the position of the film rewind dial, and the rear control dial sits where the old ASA dial lived. The 90mm-equivalent lens on the E-M5 at left is pretty short compared to the 50mm on the OM-1.

Of course, the OM-1 had an optical viewfinder and no buttons on the back to make room for the film door, while the E-M5 has a large articulating monitor for instant development of images right inside the camera. It has been 40 years, after all.

Olympus E-M5 versus Panasonic G3

These two were photographed right next to each other, though the contrast between the angles and curves makes even me wonder, and I took the pictures. Both have a decent grip, AF-assist lamps, and lens release buttons in similar places, but the E-M5 has one more control dial and no pop-up flash (though an accessory flash is included).

Both record stereo audio, and have fully functional hot shoes, but the G3 does not include an accessory port. The G3's camera strap attaches without D-rings, however, which is a quieter option for movies. Both cameras also tilt up somewhat from the table thanks to their optical viewfinders, but the G3 tilts up more. I held the camera to follow the plane of the E-M5's monitor to show the difference.

While both displays articulate, the G3's has a wider range of motion, while the E-M5 just tilts up and down. Rear controls are similar.

Olympus E-M5 versus Olympus E-PM1

Though they're both pretty small, the Olympus E-M5 is larger than the Pen Mini (E-PM1), shown here with Richard Franiec's aftermarket grip. Both have the newer 14-42mm kit lens mounted. The Pen Mini weighs so little that it tilts forward under the weight of the identical lens, while the E-M5 stands tall.

As mentioned earlier, the E-M5 tilts up a bit from the table thanks to the protruding electronic viewfinder. There's not even a Mode dial on the Pen Mini, while the E-M5 has three dials on the top deck.

The E-M5 is still surprisingly small, though at least the Pen Mini can keep its name, being just a little smaller.

Olympus E-M5 versus Canon T3i

Just to drive home how small the Olympus E-M5 is, we've added this comparison to the Canon Rebel T3i, that company's current smallest interchangeable lens camera with an articulating LCD. The T3i is a little larger than past Rebels, but not by much.

Remember how long the 12-50mm lens looked long and large on the E-M5? Now it's not so long by comparison.

The T3i's side-hinged LCD is more versatile than the E-M5's tilting OLED, but that's not a big issue. The T3i, of course has an optical viewfinder.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Field Test

by Shawn Barnett

As a camera fan, I can enjoy almost any competent camera, be it a simple pocket digital camera or a complex professional SLR. But something happened when I first used the Olympus OM-D E-M5. I could tell it was different. As a fan of the Olympus Pens, I've accepted quite a few limitations, including a somewhat thick body shape (on the E-P3) and a unique control system that wasn't always quick to adjust. I never missed the optical viewfinder, so the EVF of the OM-D isn't as important to me as it likely is to others, but they're still nice as a fall-back when conditions are bright, like in the snow.

So when Olympus invited a group of tech journalists to Whistler, BC, Canada to shoot the Telus Ski and Snowboard Competition, I was more excited about seeing a fully shootable Olympus E-M5 than I was about seeing the event, or even snowboarding myself. The camera left an impression on me. Of course having a beautiful place to explore and photograph always makes reviewing a camera more fun.

System. Though it would turn out that the event wasn't exactly ideal to demonstrate a few of the camera's excellent features, many other features did shine, like the E-M5's compact design, its water-resistance, its low light performance, and its membership in a fairly complete system of lenses and accessories.

Olympus set us up with not only an E-M5 with the 12-50mm kit lens and a battery grip, they also outfitted us with an impressive kit of lenses--primes and zooms--all fitting into a small, handy shoulder bag that accompanied most of us everywhere. A fairly complete Micro Four Thirds system is indeed compact.

Grip. My initial preview of the Olympus E-M5 didn't include the battery grip, but now that I've tried it, I strongly recommend this $300 accessory. I generally like to buy a battery grip with my cameras when they're available. Not just for the extra battery capacity, but also for the vertical grip, since more than 50% of my shots on average are vertical.

The OM-D E-M5 is so tiny, though, that the grip doesn't make the combination ungainly; instead it's just right for one with medium to small hands. As I find with my Rebel grip combination, the camera is easier to hold and shoot thanks to the grip, and the extra battery capacity is always welcome. Unlike the Rebel, though, the Olympus E-M5 is very small, light yet solid, and feels professional in your hand.

That the Olympus E-M5's controls are duplicated for the battery grip is both good and bad. Good, of course, because you get better camera control when shooting vertical images, but bad when you accidentally activate focus, aperture, and EV controls, even firing the camera without meaning to, when your palm touches the extra controls. You can turn off the Olympus E-M5's extra controls with a Lock switch on the battery grip, but then it's a pain when you need vertical in a hurry and have to search for the switch.

On the top deck, the battery grip adds yet another EV dial that you can accidentally turn to change the exposure. It's great when you want it, a bit of a pain when you don't. I'd prefer to keep the dials, but have them activate with a button before accepting input; at least the ability to make it an option in software to work one way or the other. I love these dials when shooting in Manual mode, though, because the front dial switches to Aperture while the rear takes up Shutter speed; and the onscreen display previews exposure so you know just what you'll get when you press the shutter button.

If you don't feel like you need the extra battery or vertical grip, you can still keep the main grip attached, as the battery grip comes in two pieces. You can set which battery is depleted first, and the camera warns you when the first is about to die. So long as the second battery is present, you needn't worry, as the Olympus E-M5 switches automatically. The battery grip holds only one battery, and the other stays in the camera's main battery compartment. That means you have to remove the grip to remove and charge the main battery. My choice in general would be to leave the main battery as backup, buy a third battery, and keep rotating those in the grip, charging the main battery only monthly.

Lens. I confess to being surprised by the Olympus E-M5's high-quality kit lens. Far from trying to be a smaller, compressible lens, as found on the Pens and latest Panasonic G-series MFT cameras, the 12-50mm lens is more analogous to the Canon 24-105mm lens on a 5D-series camera. With the 2x multiplication (or crop) factor, the 12-50mm is equivalent to a 24-100mm lens on a 35mm camera. Sure it's longer and heavier than a standard budget kit lens, but it's also of higher quality and includes a neat trick or two.

The first trick is the Olympus E-M5's dual-mode zoom ring. Clicked rearward, the ring enables a manual, mechanical zoom mechanism. Clicked forward, away from the camera, the ring becomes a momentary toggle for the electronic zoom function. Cool as it is, the mechanism often shifted to one when I wanted the other style of zoom, and knowing where you are in the zoom range is difficult--that is, unless you look at the tiny numbers in the upper right corner of the rear OLED display or electronic viewfinder, which shows the focal length for most zoom lenses.

When in mechanical mode, zooming comes with a rough feel of electronic motors being turned against their will. At the ends of the zoom range, you meet resistance, but can still turn the ring by applying more pressure. In electronic zoom mode, there appear to be three levels of available zoom speed; turning only slightly moves slowly, turning more aggressively moves more quickly. Zoom is relatively quiet and starts slowly even when you turn aggressively, ramping up as it goes.

The left side of the lens has two buttons. One is called the L-Fn button, the other the Macro button. The L-Fn button is set to AF-Stop by default, but it can also be reset to perform other functions, like ISO, Depth-of-field preview, or my favorite, One Touch White Balance. Just press the button and the shutter simultaneously to capture and set the white balance to one of two preset positions. A very photographer-centric feature.

High speed. I've spent a lot of time shooting the Olympus E-M5 at its highest speed, trying to capture a good sequence image. The best has to be the sequence I got at the snowboard jump event in Whistler. As I mentioned, these really weren't the best conditions to demonstrate the E-M5's capabilities, but at nine-frames-per-second, the camera can't track focus, which was the major problem we had capturing the jumps. The situation was made more difficult because the jumping didn't start until after sundown, and the light got gradually worse and worse, insufficient for the 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 lens required to get close enough from where we stood. It all worked well enough, though; just not as well as it could have been had we been closer, with better light.

Still, it's pretty remarkable that it worked as well as it did, and the Olympus E-M5's low-light performance was pretty good considering, allowing a fast shutter speed and decent image stabilization as well. Most shots were not made at the full 600mm equivalent, but it's pretty remarkable to hold the equivalent of a 600mm lens in such a small, handheld package, and get even one shot, let alone a dozen at nine-frames-per-second.

This same lens, by the way, allowed me to capture an eagle landing to clean up on a kill that was likely left by other animals. Don't click on the image if you don't like gruesome and prefer to think of bald eagles soaring and looking majestic (hey, they gotta eat). Even at 600mm equivalent, I was too far from the bird for a well-cropped image, so I took advantage of the E-M5's 16-megapixel sensor and cropped the image, rotating it somewhat and adjusting levels for this shot you see here. You'll also see the original image in the gallery to see just how much I had to adjust and crop, even with the 600mm equivalent lens (with the ice melting on the lake, this was as close as I dared get--not bad for a quick snapshot).

Stabilization. I had to explore a little bit to find it, but you can set the E-M5 to display a stabilized image when you half-press the shutter button, a reassuring feature I enjoy on a few of my optically stabilized Canon lenses.

Olympus' new image stabilization is incredibly cool, because as you can see in the video above, the sensor itself is suspended in a plane, allowed to move along many axes, even rotational. When you turn off the camera, the sensor falls toward gravity, about a millimeter or two, then rises to the center when you power on the camera again. You can also hear the "engine" working to keep the sensor suspended while the camera is on. In a very quiet room, this can get noticeable, but I don't think it's a deal breaker. The image stabilization is so impressive, you'll come to appreciate the sound as reassurance of the camera's capabilities.

Low light. Wandering around Whistler Village I found plenty of low light situations to demonstrate the E-M5's capabilities, both its high ISO settings and its image stabilization. For snapshots, I only let it go up to ISO 1,600. The E-M5's image stabilization let me get quality handheld shots at 1/20-1/25 second, as seen in the three vertical shots below. I also captured a shot of our hotel at 12,800, and another in a bar, both of which are mottled at 100% onscreen, but otherwise quite usable as small prints. The bar shot looks great printed at 8x10.

Snow. The Olympus E-M5 costs a little more than most compact system cameras, but there are quite a few really good reasons for that, and one of them is waterproofing. Like the company's SLRs, the Olympus E-M5 is sealed against splashes and rain (though it's not submersible). It can also handle snow and cold, not to mention humidity. To prove it, I shoved the gripless Olympus E-M5 with the 12-50mm lens in my jacket pocket, strapped on a snowboard, and hit the slopes on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. Lest you think that snow isn't all that dangerous to a camera, I get pretty steamed up when I snowboard (sweaty), so being in my pocket wasn't exactly the driest place to store the E-M5.

With the battery grip off, of course, it fit pretty well: a quality SLR-like camera with an EVF, and articulating screen, a gaggle of modes and settings, video capability, and a 24-100mm equivalent lens. I'd have needed a backpack to bring along a 5D Mark II, or even a Rebel T3i.

What wasn't ideal for the venue was the OM-D E-M5's small buttons and switches, because it was glove-wearing weather. Many of the buttons would challenge big-handed folks, so it was limiting to say the least. I was able to work the front and rear dials and the shutter button with the gloves on, and even switch modes with the Mode dial, but the tiny buttons were more difficult. I also kept hitting the curves button more often than the Movie Record button with gloves on, something that also happens without gloves.

Even when it was sunny all around, I didn't have much trouble framing images on the E-M5's bright display, so I only used the EVF on occasion. Both were fine. I kept running afoul of the proximity sensor, though, too often turning on the EVF when I was just trying to frame a shot using the rear OLED display. Again, this happens even back home without a lot of snow gear, so I might be inclined to turn off the sensor in the long run. It switches a little slowly for me, much like the Fujifilm X-Pro1 did, so I'm not so hot on it.

The Olympus E-M5 did better in my jacket pocket while snowboarding than it did hanging from my Bos Strap while riding a snowmobile. If I had it to do again, I'd have kept it in the sling bag. Though I wanted to shoot a few shots of other snowmobilers, the camera took too much of a jostling while we bounced along on the trail, taking random pictures, at one point even the vertical grip's battery door came loose, dropping the battery on the snow. I recovered that battery because it happened when my snowmobile's brakes went out at the top of a high hill. Nice. Naturally I didn't go down that hill, letting our more experienced guide handle that adventure, and managed to recover the battery. I also lost the eyecup, which actually seems to be fastened on reasonably well.

All that adds up to no fault on the camera's part, in my opinion; nor was it the Bos Strap's fault. It was all my fault for combining strap and camera on a snowmobile, when I should have kept it in its bag. I recount the story here for your edification. But the good news is that the Olympus OM-D E-M5 weathered my decisions just fine, and came out unscathed in both cases.

Capturing shots like these snow-capped peaks made me rather nostalgic for the old Olympus ads back in the 1970s or 80s, one of which showed a photo from the top of K2, taken with an OM-1. This was nowhere near that high, nor that cold, but it sure was beautiful, and the E-M5 brought it home despite my steamy jacket. I'm not saying other cameras wouldn't have done the same, of course, but having the Olympus E-M5 assured a little better quality from a camera quite small in size.

Curves. Fast access to tone curve adjustment is a new feature on the Olympus E-M5 that's worth a quick look. I don't think I've seen it so cleanly integrated into any camera up to this point, and with all the interest in automatic adjustment of tone curves to improve apparent dynamic range, it's good to see a manual implementation of the concept.

Movies. Movie mode seems improved over the recent Pens, with less extreme rolling shutter artifacts. I was able to capture some amazing rides up Whistler's long lifts, videos I plan to review when I need a moment of cool, heavenly bliss this coming summer here in Atlanta. A few rides were worth remembering.

I also dared to shoot a video while trying to keep my snowmobile moving. The camera did fairly well considering. It's a little wobbly, but pretty well controlled and stabilized for a left-handed attempt.

Shooting video while driving a snowmobile isn't easy, but the E-M5 made it look a little more stable than you'd expect. (33.8MB MOV file.)

Riding the Peak-to-Peak gondola from Whistler to Blackcomb mountain while my comrades chat about other similarly impressive engineering feats. (28.8MB MOV file.)

Following a skier as I ride down a lift. Note the wind noise, low exposure, and trouble with focus at the end. (23.1MB MOV file.)

Telemark ski instruction. (18.9MB MOV file.)

Overall performance in video was indeed improved, but a few problems remain. On wide, landscape shots, focus tended to wobble in and out constantly, creating a sickening effect after a bit. Focus was quiet, though, and fairly fast for contrast-detect. As I followed skiers, focus often got lost, even with bright clothing. Still, there was a lot of motion, including the lift chair, the skier, and my panning to keep up with them.

Creative modes. Like other recent Olympus offerings, the OM-D E-M5 is replete with modes designed to help your creative vision while shooting. After setting up a tripod to get a consistent set of images using all of these available Art filters, as I usually do, I got to the last setting called Art Bracket. With just one click, the camera captured one image and ran it through all 11 Art filters, saving each as a separate image, as you see below, and added six Picture modes as well. The camera named each as it showed each effect was applying and saving. Suppose I should have thought of that first. You can modify the Art Bracket setting to save just a few, or all of them.

Affinity. The word Love has already been used by too many other reviewers in reference to the Olympus E-M5, understandably so. I choose other words, not just to be different, but to be more specific. Indeed, I demonstrated my affinity to the E-M5 for weeks, through my refusal to turn the sweet little camera over to the lab for testing. But in order to finish the review, I had to let it go for a time.

The Olympus E-M5 is a very fine camera, one that serves my love of photography with form and features that are addictive. It very well fits my need to photograph, so my affinity for the Olympus OM-D E-M5 seems quite natural. Olympus' established and growing array of lenses are not just small, but of excellent quality, meaning a superb photography kit can fit into a small bag that's easy to bring along, not a monstrous, back-breaking burden. Olympus has realized the goal of a quality compact system camera that's capable of great photography, just like the original and enduring OM system of the last century.

Olympus E-M5 Image Quality

The crops below compare the Olympus E-M5 to the Olympus E-P3, Canon 7D, Fuji X-Pro1, Nikon D7000, and Panasonic G3.

Most decent cameras produce very good results at base ISO, but the E-M5 is interesting enough we wanted to show how it did at ISO 200 compared to similar cameras at their base ISO. We also like to see what they can do at ISO 1,600 and 3,200, and finally we'll compare high-contrast detail at base ISO, 3,200, and 6,400.

Note that these images are best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction. Each camera was shot with one of our very sharp reference prime lenses.

Olympus E-M5 versus Olympus E-P3 at Base ISO




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 200	Olympus E-P3 at ISO 200
It's logical to pit the E-M5 against the E-P3, Olympus' flagship Pen, and the E-M5 does quite well. It's 16 megapixels versus 12, so there's an obvious size difference to the elements, but the E-M5's increased resolution does not seem to carry a penalty in terms of increased noise. The E-M5 captures greater detail in the mosaic image and in the pink swatch.

Olympus E-M5 versus Canon 7D at Base ISO




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 200	Canon 7D at ISO 100
It's a pleasant surprise to see how the Olympus E-M5 does against the 18-megapixel Canon 7D, now dating back to 2009. It seems the E-M5 has caught up. Despite about the same level of sharpening, the E-M5 has greater contrast and sharper detail overall, including better detail in the pink swatch. The 7D's rendering of the red leaf swatch shows a bit more contrast and color, it's just a different interpretation of our most difficult target.

Olympus E-M5 versus Fuji X-Pro1 at Base ISO




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 200	Fuji X-Pro1 at ISO 200
As impressed as we were with the X-Pro1's image quality, the E-M5 does better in some ways. The X-Pro1 has a more even approach element-to-element, but and more muted contrast overall in its JPEGs, but detail is a little bit sharper in the Olympus E-M5. I see more sharpening halos in the Mas Portel label, but the end result is quite good. And though the red leaf swatch has more accurate detail in the X-Pro1 image, the E-M5 gets considerably more detail from the pink swatch.

Olympus E-M5 versus Nikon D7000 at Base ISO




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 200	Nikon D7000 at ISO 100
Again, the Nikon D7000 takes a more even approach to the overall image, but the Olympus E-M5 image still pops with more detail and better sharpness.

Olympus E-M5 versus Panasonic G3 at Base ISO




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 200	Panasonic G3 at ISO 160
Here the G3 has one advantage in the red leaf swatch, turning in the best representation of the red leaf swatch, but the Olympus E-M5 turns out better color and delivers more detail and sharpness overall.

How images look at 1,600 is also of importance.

Olympus E-M5 versus Olympus E-P3 at ISO 1,600




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 1,600	Olympus E-P3 at ISO 1,600
Looking at ISO 1,600 it's easy to see the family resemblance between the E-M5 and E-P3, but the E-M5 noticeably outperforms its smaller, less expensive sibling, again with less noise and greater detail overall.

Olympus E-M5 versus Canon 7D at ISO 1,600




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 1,600	Canon 7D at ISO 1,600
The difference here is incredible. What looked pretty good three years ago it looking pretty poor now. (It's important to note that the subsequent Canons using the same basic sensor look better now, like the 60D and T3i.) We prefer the E-M5's rendering in all aspects.

Olympus E-M5 versus Fuji X-Pro1 at ISO 1,600




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 1,600	Fuji X-Pro1 at ISO 1,600
The X-Pro1's more even approach starts to show fruit here at ISO 1,600, while the E-M5's digital processing starts to affect the look of some detail, like the grout lines in the mosaic label, the edge of the bottle, and the transitions between the red leaf swatch and the other swatch above it, which seem to meld together. Overall image pop is still stronger on the E-M5 and will likely produce a strong print.

Olympus E-M5 versus Nikon D7000 at ISO 1,600




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 1,600	Nikon D7000 at ISO 1,600
The Nikon D7000 shows softer detail overall, but would probably sharpen a little better in Photoshop, while the E-M5 loses more detail in the red swatch. The Nikon D7000's shadows, though, are a little noisier.

Olympus E-M5 versus Panasonic G3 at ISO 1,600




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 1,600	Panasonic G3 at ISO 1,600
At ISO 1,600, advantage E-M5. More detail and more accurate color make for a truer image, while the G3's color has faded and shifted toward green.

Today's ISO 3,200 is yesterday's ISO 1,600 (well, almost), so below are the same crops at ISO 3,200.

Olympus E-M5 versus Olympus E-P3 at ISO 3,200




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 3,200	Olympus E-P3 at ISO 3,200
ISO 3,200 images speak volumes on what Olympus has done to improve their sensor and processor technology, even while increasing the resolution. The E-M5's shadow areas are smoother, detail in the mosaic swatch is quite a bit stronger, color is better, and hints of threads are still visible in the pink swatch.

Olympus E-M5 versus Canon 7D at ISO 3,200




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 3,200	Canon 7D at ISO 3,200
Canon takes a decidedly more aggressive approach to noise suppression, which results in more blur than we see from the E-M5, except in the red leaf swatch, where neither does well. Overall, I prefer the E-M5's images over the 7D's.

Olympus E-M5 versus Fuji X-Pro1 at ISO 3,200




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 3,200	Fuji X-Pro1 at ISO 3,200
Fuji's X-Pro1 continues its even-handed approach to varying image elements, though contrast lower, while the E-M5 seems to be working harder to maintain color, detail, sharpness, and contrast. The X-Pro1 does much better with the red leaf swatch.

Olympus E-M5 versus Nikon D7000 at ISO 3,200




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 3,200	Nikon D7000 at ISO 3,200
By comparison, the E-M5's results look a bit surreal, with soft areas here and sharp areas there, while the Nikon D7000 still strikes that more even approach. Nikon's approach leaves behind a little more noise. Still, with its much smaller sensor, the Olympus E-M5 does very well.

Olympus E-M5 versus Panasonic G3 at ISO 3,200




Olympus E-M5 at ISO 3,200	Panasonic G3 at ISO 3,200
The E-M5 still holds up better than the G3, with better color and detail. Both are considerably better than their predecessors, also worth noting.

Detail: Olympus E-M5 vs. E-P3, Canon 7D, Fuji X-Pro1, Nikon D7000, and Panasonic G3




Olympus E-M5 ISO 200 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Olympus E-P3 ISO 200 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Canon 7D ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Fuji X-Pro1 ISO 200 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Nikon D7000 ISO 100 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400	Panasonic G3 ISO 160 ISO 3,200 ISO 6,400
Detail comparison. High-contrast details are often sharper as ISO rises, so they're worth a look as well. Astonishingly, it's the two 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds cameras that seem to turn out the best high-contrast detail at both ISO 3,200 and 6,400: the E-M5 and G3. The aspect ratio is different between the MFT and APS-C cameras, so the given element is larger on the MFT cameras. Reds are a little truer on the Canon, Fujifilm, and D7000, while they get closer to black on the E-M5, E-P3, and G3 at the higher ISOs. Overall, though, the Olympus E-M5 is looking pretty good.

Olympus E-M5 Print Quality

Excellent 24 x 36 inch prints at ISO 200; ISO 1,600 shots make great 16 x 20 inch prints; highest setting of 25,600 makes a good 4 x 6.

ISO 200 images look terrific at 24 x 36 inches, with sharp detail and rich colors.

ISO 400 shots look quite good and crisp at 20 x 30 inches.

ISO 800 images look good at 20 x 30 inches, though some softness appears in low-contrast colors and slight luminance noise is visible in shadows.

ISO 1,600 images are a bit too soft in some areas for printing at 20 x 30 inches, but 16 x 20 inch prints look just fine.

ISO 3,200 images have some fine detail that prints well at 16 x 20, but other elements are soft, so we prefer prints at 13 x 19. Most reds look decent, but our difficult red leaf swatch is quite blurry, a common outcome that we'll just stipulate from here on up the ISO range.

ISO 6,400 prints have enough detail for good 8 x 10 inch prints.

ISO 12,800 images are too rough at 8 x 10, but look better at 5 x 7. Colors flatten just a little here, particularly greens, but most colors look pretty good.

ISO 25,600 are better at 4 x 6.

Overall, the Olympus E-M5 outperforms its Pen predecessors and produces excellent printed images across the ISO spectrum.

In the Box

Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera
Accessory flash
Body cap
12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ or 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens (if purchased as a kit)
Front lens cap
Rear lens cap
Camera strap
Lithium-ion battery
Battery charger
USB cable
AV cable
CD-ROM
Manual
Warranty card

Recommended Accessories

Extra battery pack for extended outings
HLD-6G battery grip
Fast, large capacity SDHC/SDXC memory card. These days, 8GB is a good tradeoff between cost and capacity, but if you plan to capture many movie clips or RAW files, consider larger.
Camera case

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Conclusion

Pro:	Con:
Appealing body design Smaller camera is easy to hold and quite small Battery grip makes the E-M5 feel like a tiny professional camera EVF works well Tilting OLED touchpanel display Water resistant body Advanced in-body image stabilization Excellent overall image quality Very good high ISO performance, rivals APS-C models Very good dynamic range, the best Micro Four Thirds model we've tested Accurate color that doesn't appear dull 12-50mm kit lens goes wider and longer than most Unique push pull ring on 12-50mm lens is great for video and stills Very good macro performance from kit lens Shading compensation Lots of features and customization options Unique, easily accessed curves control Swift autofocus Fast burst modes Extensive Creative modes Quick buffer clearing with a fast card Good battery life (though not as good as SLRs with optical viewfinder) Decent video performance Very crisp video, particularly in Full HD H.264 recording Virtually zero rolling shutter artifacts IS doesn't aggravate rolling shutter artifacts as with recent Pen models Excellent print quality	Odd power switch location Exposure compensation dial changes easily, can't be turned off Small buttons EVF proximity sensor sometimes activates unexpectedly High chromatic aberration from 12-50mm kit lens at wide-angle No in-camera chromatic aberration suppression Some soft corners from 12-50mm kit lens 12-50mm kit lens is quite slow at the tele end (f/6.3) Auto white balance too warm indoors No built-in flash Bundled external flash is surprisingly weak IS system makes a constant sound whether it's active or not, which might be an issue in very quiet settings Bad compression artifacts in full HD H.264 video with rapidly-moving subjects (compression artifacts largely disappear in 720p HD mode clips, though) Poor at after-dark videos, not enough sensitivity to shoot street scenes with even slight zooming of the lens

Pro:

Con:

Appealing body design
Smaller camera is easy to hold and quite small
Battery grip makes the E-M5 feel like a tiny professional camera
EVF works well
Tilting OLED touchpanel display
Water resistant body
Advanced in-body image stabilization
Excellent overall image quality
Very good high ISO performance, rivals APS-C models
Very good dynamic range, the best Micro Four Thirds model we've tested
Accurate color that doesn't appear dull
12-50mm kit lens goes wider and longer than most
Unique push pull ring on 12-50mm lens is great for video and stills
Very good macro performance from kit lens
Shading compensation
Lots of features and customization options
Unique, easily accessed curves control
Swift autofocus
Fast burst modes
Extensive Creative modes
Quick buffer clearing with a fast card
Good battery life (though not as good as SLRs with optical viewfinder)
Decent video performance
Very crisp video, particularly in Full HD H.264 recording
Virtually zero rolling shutter artifacts
IS doesn't aggravate rolling shutter artifacts as with recent Pen models
Excellent print quality

Odd power switch location
Exposure compensation dial changes easily, can't be turned off
Small buttons
EVF proximity sensor sometimes activates unexpectedly
High chromatic aberration from 12-50mm kit lens at wide-angle
No in-camera chromatic aberration suppression
Some soft corners from 12-50mm kit lens
12-50mm kit lens is quite slow at the tele end (f/6.3)
Auto white balance too warm indoors
No built-in flash
Bundled external flash is surprisingly weak
IS system makes a constant sound whether it's active or not, which might be an issue in very quiet settings
Bad compression artifacts in full HD H.264 video with rapidly-moving subjects (compression artifacts largely disappear in 720p HD mode clips, though)
Poor at after-dark videos, not enough sensitivity to shoot street scenes with even slight zooming of the lens

Olympus' new Micro Four Thirds flagship has made quite an impression. Not just enthusiasts, but pro photographers are taking the OM-D E-M5 and the platform's latest optics quite a bit more seriously. Our time with the OM-D E-M5 was pure fun. There was quite a bit to discover in the new design, and it all just worked better than before. As a big fan of the Pen cameras, the main author of this story was quite bowled over by how much more the E-M5 appealed to him.

Just holding the camera tells you there's something different about the E-M5. It's solid with or without the grip, and it has a more professional feel than most cameras in the category. Indeed, its sealed body is pretty robust, as our rugged use proved. Most appreciated is the E-M5's clear bias toward pro photographers. Olympus doesn't leave consumers out, with plenty of automatic modes to handle common situations and fun modes to make more interesting photos, but touches like the two top control dials for easier Manual exposure adjustment. The front EV dial can be a bit problematic, though, especially for novices who might not know why all their images are either over or underexposed.

The OM-D E-M5's rear OLED display tilts up and down for composition from more unique angles, but the design also includes an electronic viewfinder with a more conventional LCD inside for more careful, stable composition, as well as work in bright conditions.

Some of the controls were a little small for large hands, and also for gloved hands, so for some the OM-D E-M5 might be a little small. But overall the E-M5's controls are well-placed and easy to use. The 12-50mm kit lens is a little long for a kit lens, but its utility is comparable to a 24-105mm on a Canon 5D Mark II, in a much smaller package. Optical quality is also quite good, save for moderate chromatic aberration in the corners at wide angle.

Resolution and image quality was the most pleasant surprise with the OM-D E-M5, the best we've seen from a Micro Four Thirds camera. Even color was more accurate than we see from most SLRs, and high ISO images are much better than we've come to expect from Micro Four Thirds, rivaling APS-C SLRs. Printed image quality yields excellent 24 x 36-inch prints at ISO 200, good 20 x 30s to ISO 800, and even ISO 25,600 prints are good for a 4 x 6.

As we finalize this review, it's notable how many photographers are choosing the Olympus OM-D E-M5 as their new camera of choice. Its versatility is hard to deny: a small interchangeable lens digital camera with both an EVF and tilting OLED display that can autofocus incredibly fast, take crisp images across a wide ISO range, at up to nine frames per second, with an impressive built-in image stabilization system. It got our attention to be sure, and will remain one of our favorite digital cameras for some time to come, making it an obvious Dave's Pick.

Optics

Kit Lens Test Results

Zoom
A wider-than-average zoom range for a kit lens, with good performance.

The Olympus E-M5 is available bundled with an Olympus M.ZUIKO 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ Micro Four Thirds lens. The kit lens possesses an optical zoom ratio of about 4.2x, for a 35mm equivalent focal range of 24-100mm. Results were very good at 12mm, with strong detail and good contrast across the frame, though some softness and chromatic aberration can be seen in the corners. Sharpness and contrast was excellent across the frame at medium focal length of 27mm, with little chromatic aberration. Results were good at 50mm focal length, just slightly soft, but again with much lower levels of chromatic aberration. Overall, above average performance here for a kit lens. See below for comments on macro performance, geometric distortion, etc.

Macro
A small minium area, with very good detail. Flash exposure is dim.

As with zoom performance, the Olympus E-M5's macro performance will depend entirely on the lens in use. However, with the 12-50mm kit lens set to 43mm, the Olympus E-M5 captured a small minimum area for a kit lens, measuring only 1.40 x 1.05 inches (36 x 27 millimeters). Details were quite good, just a touch soft across the frame at f/8, and there's very little additional softening in the extreme corners. (Most lenses have some softening in the corners at macro distances, but the Olympus E-M5's kit lens has much less than most.) The bundled flash throttled down a bit too much at this close distance, resulting in a underexposed image.

Geometric Distortion
Low geometric distortion with the 12-50mm kit lens in JPEGs, much higher distortion in uncorrected RAW files.

In-Camera JPEG: Barrel distortion at 12mm is 0.3 percent

In-Camera JPEG: Distortion at 50mm is practically nonexistent

Uncorrected RAW: Barrel distortion at 12mm is 2.4 percent

Uncorrected RAW: Pincushion distortion at 50mm is 0.4 percent

When shooting JPEGs, the Olympus E-M5's 12-50mm kit lens produced about 0.3 percent barrel distortion at wide-angle, which much lower than average and only slightly noticeable in some of its images. At the telephoto end, there was almost no visible distortion, only about one pixel of barrel distortion. This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide-angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto).

To see how much correction is taking place in the camera, we converted RAW files from the above shots with dcraw, which does not correct for distortion. As you can see, at wide-angle, the barrel distortion is very high at about 2.4%, while pincushion distortion at telephoto is a low 0.4%. We expect to see high distortion at wide-angle from smaller interchangeable lenses though, so it's nothing to be too concerned about unless you are using a RAW converter which does not understand the embedded "opcodes" to perform distortion corrections automatically. Most RAW converters these days are capable of applying distortion correction automatically, as specified by the manufacturer. There is however going to be some loss of resolution in the corners as a result of such correction, because pixels in the corners of the frame are being "stretched" to correct for the distortion. Obviously, a lens that doesn't require such correction that is also sharp in the corners to begin with would be preferable, but relaxing constraints on barrel and pincushion distortion likely brings other benefits in the lens design, such as cost, size and weight.

Chromatic Aberration and Corner Sharpness
Pronounced chromatic aberration in the corners at wide-angle; much lower levels at full telephoto. Some mild to moderate corner softening.

Aperture: maximum

12mm @ f/3.5: Upper right C.A.: High Softness: Soft	12mm @ f/3.5: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp

50mm @ f/6.3: Upper left C.A.: Moderately low Softness: Soft	50mm @ f/6.3: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: A hint soft

Chromatic Aberration. Chromatic aberration with the E-M5's 12-50mm kit lens was quite high and quite noticeable in the corners at wide-angle (12mm) when wide-open (maximum aperture), while the center showed very low levels. At full telephoto (50mm), C.A. was much lower, and not nearly as noticeable. In both cases, the color fringing gradually reduces in brightness and width as it approaches the center of the image, where it is practically nonexistent.

The Olympus E-M5 does not appear to be reducing C.A. in its JPEGs, as uncorrected RAW files have similar amounts.

Corner Softness. The Olympus E-M5's 12-50mm kit lens produced some soft corners at full wide angle, though the center was very sharp. Left corners were fairly sharp, but right corners were soft, indicating some decentering. At full telephoto, the opposite (left) corners were soft while corners in the right-hand side were fairly shape, though the center was not quite as sharp as wide-angle. There's also some mild vignetting (corner shading) at wide-angle when wide-open, as indicated by the darker corner crop compared to the center.

Aperture: f/8

12mm @ f/8: Upper right C.A.: High Softness: Soft	12mm @ f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Sharp

50mm @ f/8: Upper left C.A.: Low Softness: Slightly soft	50mm @ f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Fairly sharp

Chromatic Aberration. With the aperture stopped down to f/8, chromatic aberration was still high, similar to wide-open.

Corner Softness. Corner sharpness improved slightly at wide-angle when stopped-down to f/8, but right-hand corners were still soft. Vignetting also improved to the point of being negligible. Corner performance improved at full telephoto with better contrast and sharpness, but were still a bit soft. The center was fairly sharp at f/8, though again not quite as sharp as wide-angle.

Shading Compensation
The Olympus E-M5 features optional Shading Compensation to reduce vignetting in JPEG images.


Shading Compensation: (12mm @ f/3.5)	Off	On

Mouse over the links above to compare thumbnails, and click on the links to load the full resolution images.

As you can see, the Olympus E-M5's Shading Compensation reduces corner shading with the 12-50mm kit lens, so it's a useful feature at wide-angle when shooting wide-open. There's little corner shading to correct at telephoto.

Shading Compensation is off by default, and is not available with all lenses. It may also produce more visible noise in the periphery at higher ISOs.

Olympus E-M5 Viewfinder

Viewfinder Test Results

Accuracy
Very good accuracy from the EVF and OLED monitor.

The Olympus E-M5's electronic viewfinder and OLED monitor proved quite accurate in record mode, both showing about 101% coverage with our Olympus Zuiko Digital 50mm f/2.0 low distortion prime. Very good results here.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Olympus OM-D E-M5 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Accurate saturation and very good hue accuracy.


ISO Sensitivity
200	400	800	1600
3200	6400	12800	25600
In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Mouse over the links to compare ISOs, and click on the links for a larger version.

Saturation. The Olympus E-M5 pushes reds a fair bit, but most other colors are pretty close to bang on in terms of saturation. Default saturation is 106.1% (6.1% oversaturated), which is lower than average; that is, it's more accurate than most. Saturation remains fairly stable across the ISO range, except at the highest ISOs, where it falls off. You can always adjust saturation, or select a different picture mode to adjust color to your tastes. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than what's found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. Here, when white balance was adjusted to match lighting, the Olympus E-M5 did reasonably well, producing fairly natural-looking Caucasian skin tones that were on the pinkish side. Darker skin tones show more warmth, but were still realistic. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Olympus E-M5 did push orange toward yellow, light greens toward yellow, and cyan toward blue, but all shifts were relatively minor. (The cyan to blue shift is very common among the digital cameras we test; we think it's a deliberate choice by camera engineers to produce better-looking sky colors, though the E-M5 shifts less than most.) Overall hue accuracy was very good with a Delta-C color error of only 3.91, much better than average. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Saturation Adjustment
The Olympus E-M5 lets you adjust the image saturation, contrast, and sharpness in five steps each. As can be seen below, the saturation adjustment was quite effective, covers a useful range, and does a good job of not impacting contrast.

Saturation Adjustment Examples

-2	0	+2

The table above shows results with the default as well as the two extreme saturation settings. Click on any thumbnail above, then click again to see the full-sized image.

See full set of test images with explanations See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Very warm cast with Auto White Balance, and cool with 2,600K setting, but good color with the Incandescent and Manual settings. Average exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance was very warm and orange using the Auto white balance setting. Results with the Incandescent setting were quite good and just a touch warmer than the Manual setting, which was the most accurate. The 2,600 Kelvin setting was quite cool with a blue-green tint. The Olympus E-M5 required an average amount of positive exposure compensation here, at +0.3 EV. (Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.)

Outdoors, daylight
Natural looking colors, with about average exposure accuracy.

Outdoors, the Olympus E-M5 performed well, with good color though exposure was a little dim at default settings. We preferred the skintones with the Manual white balance setting in our "Sunlit" Portrait shot, but Auto wasn't far off the mark, though both were on the pinkish side. The Olympus E-M5 required an average amount of positive exposure compensation (+0.7 EV) to keep facial tones reasonably bright. Default contrast was a bit high, but despite the bright appearance there were only a few blown highlights in the mannequin's shirt and flowers, which is much better than average. The Far-field shot was slightly underexposed at default settings, but had no blown highlights, though there were some deep shadows. Noise in all but the deepest shadows was however surprisingly low for a Micro Four Thirds camera.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
Very high resolution, ~2,200 lines of strong detail in JPEGs, up to about 2,300 lines from processed RAW files.

Strong detail to ~2,200 lines horizontal Camera JPEG

Strong detail to ~2,200 lines vertical Camera JPEG

Strong detail to ~2,300 lines horizontal ACR processed ORF

Strong detail to ~2,300 lines vertical ACR processed ORF

In camera JPEGs our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 2,200 lines per picture height in both the horizontal and vertical direction before aliasing artifacts started interfering with the pattern. Complete extinction of the pattern didn't occur until about 3,200 to 3,400 lines, though. Adobe Camera Raw was able to extract a bit more resolution, to about 2,300 lines in both directions, though color moire was much more apparent than camera JPEGs. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Very good sharpness overall, though some edge-enhancement artifacts on high-contrast subjects are visible. Mild noise suppression visible in the shadows.

Good definition of high-contrast elements with some visible sharpening artifacts.

Subtle detail: Hair Noise suppression tends to blur detail in areas of subtle contrast.

Sharpness. The Olympus E-M5 captures sharp images overall, though edge enhancement artifacts such as sharpening halos are visible on high-contrast subjects such as around the thicker branches and pine cones in the crop above left. Still, better than average results here. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows some fairly mild noise suppression artifacts in the darkest areas of the model's hair, smudging individual strands together, though quite a few strands remain visible. Overall, detail is very good for a Micro Four Thirds model. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Olympus E-M5 produces sharp, detailed in-camera JPEGs, though with visible sharpening artifacts at default settings. As is almost always the case, though, more detail can be obtained from carefully processing RAW files than can be seen in the in-camera JPEGs. Take a look below, to see what we mean:


Camera JPEG (SuperFine)	RAW via Olympus [ib] (Defaults)	RAW via ACR (Sharpened in Photoshop)

In the table above, mousing over a link at the bottom will load the corresponding crop in the area above, and clicking on the link will load the full resolution image. The super fine camera JPEG and Olympus [ib] conversion used default settings, while Adobe Camera Raw conversion was sharpened in Photoshop using unsharp mask of 300% with a radius of 0.3.

As you can see, the Olympus [ib] conversion resulted in an image very similar to the in-camera JPEG in terms of detail, color and contrast. The Adobe Camera Raw (version 6.7) conversion however shows improved fine detail compared to the in-camera SuperFine JPEG and Olympus software conversion at default settings (especially noticeable in the pine needles), though it does show a bit more noise as is usually the case. Nevertheless, the E-M5 rewards RAW shooters with excellent detail when using a good quality RAW converter. By comparing full resolution images, you can also see that we were able to recover the clipped highlight detail in the clouds above the crop area using Adobe Camera Raw, another advantage of shooting RAW.

ISO & Noise Performance
Very good noise versus detail up to ISO 1,600.

Default High ISO Noise Reduction

ISO 200	ISO 400	ISO 800

ISO 1,600	ISO 3,200	ISO 6,400

ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600

The Olympus E-M5's images are quite clean and detailed at ISOs 200 though 800, though some minor chroma noise is visible in the shadows. At ISO 1,600, we see some minor detail loss due to stronger noise and noise reduction efforts, as well as more visible chroma noise in the shadows, but detail is still very strong. At ISO 3,200, additional blurring occurs reducing fine detail, though chroma noise is better controlled. ISO 6,400 shows a lot more luminance noise, as well as another decrease in fine detail and also a reduction in saturation. ISO 12,800 is very noisy, with strong yellow blotching in the shadows. The mannequin's hair color also shifted toward yellow. At ISO 25,600, noise and noise reduction were very strong smudging out almost all fine detail, and a lot of blue, purple, and yellow chroma noise was present as well.

Overall, though, high ISO noise performance is the best we've seen from a Micro Four Thirds model thus far, and competes well with the best APS-C models. As always, see the Print Quality section below for maximum recommended print sizes at each ISO.

A note about focus for this shot: We shoot this image at f/4, using one of three very sharp reference lenses (70mm Sigma f/2.8 macro for most cameras, 60mm f/2.8 Nikkor macro for Nikon bodies without a drive motor, and Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/2.0 for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds bodies). To insure that the hair detail we use for making critical judgements about camera noise processing and detail rendering is in sharp focus at the relatively wide aperture we're shooting at, the focus target at the center of the scene is on a movable stand. This lets us compensate for front- or back-focus by different camera bodies, even those that lack micro-focus adjustments. This does mean, though, that the focus target itself may appear soft or slightly out of focus for bodies that front- or back-focused with the reference lens. If you click to view the full-size image for one of these shots and notice that the focus target is fuzzy, you don't need to email and tell us about it; we already know it. :-) The focus target position will simply have been adjusted to insure that the rest of the scene is focused properly.

Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range and low light tests
High resolution with very good dynamic range. Good low-light performance as well.

Sunlight. The Olympus E-M5 did very well with this difficult shot, requiring the average amount of exposure compensation (+0.7 EV) to keep the mannequin's face reasonably bright in this harsh lighting. As mentioned previously, despite the bright appearance of the mannequin's shirt, dynamic range was surprisingly good, with very few highlights blown and very good detail in the shadows as well. Performance here was well above average compared to most Micro Four Thirds models.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here. In actual shooting conditions, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown here; it's better to shoot in open shade whenever possible.)

Dynamic Range Analysis
A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data "saturates" at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier "useful" in there: While it's tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)

What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work.

JPEG. The graph at right (click for a larger version) was generated using Imatest's dynamic range analysis for an in-camera Olympus E-M5 JPEG file with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110). At the base ISO of 200 (the optimal ISO) and with default settings, the graph shows 11.4 f-stops of total dynamic range, with 8.82 f-stops at the "High" Quality level. Roll-off at the highlight end of the curve was gradual, but for shadows it wasn't quite as well-behaved, which could lead to some visible gradation in very deep shadows. Still, these are are excellent results for a Micro Four Thirds sensor, rivaling many APS-C models. Compared to the Sony NEX-5N which uses one of the company's more recent 16-megapixel APS-C sensors, the E-M5 actually scored higher at all quality levels, though much of that has to do with differences in JPEG processing. Note though that this measurement has a margin of error of about 1/3 f-stop, so differences of less than 0.33 can be ignored.

RAW. The graph at right is from the same Stouffer 4110 stepchart image captured as a RAW (.ORF) file, processed with Adobe Camera Raw using the Auto setting, then tweaked from there. As can be seen, the score at the highest quality level increased slightly from 8.82 to 9.19 f-stops, which is almost insignificant, though total dynamic range increased over 3/4 f-stop from 11.4 to 12.2. Again, these results are much better than average for a Micro Four Thirds sensor, and almost as good as the best APS-C sensors. The Sony NEX-5N for example scored 9.95 f-stops at the highest quality level, with 12.3 f-stops total dynamic range. It's also worth noting here is that ACR's default noise reduction settings reduced overall noise somewhat (see the plot in the lower left-hand corner) relative to the levels in the in-camera JPEG, which would tend to boost the dynamic range numbers for the higher quality thresholds.

Contrast Adjustment
The camera's contrast adjustment was some help in handling the harsh lighting in our "Sunlit" Portrait and Far-field shots.

Minimum Contrast

Contrast set to lowest, +0.7 EV	Contrast set to lowest, Auto Exposure

At its lowest contrast setting, the Olympus E-M5 did a better job of revealing shadow detail, while maintaining fairly natural-looking skin tones. There were few blown highlights to begin with in both these shots so the decreased contrast setting left most highlights alone, but it did bring out more shadow and darker midtone detail.

"Sunlit" Portrait Contrast Adjustment Examples

-2	0	+2

The shots above show the results of the minimum, default and maximum contrast settings. While you can see the extremes, it's pretty hard to evaluate small differences in contrast on small thumbnails like these, click on any thumbnail to go to the full-size image. As you can see, the E-M5's contrast setting is quite effective and didn't impact saturation much, which is a good thing.

Outdoor Portrait Gradation Comparison
	Gradation Normal (Default) Low Key Auto High Key

Gradation
Similar to dynamic range optimization systems from other manufacturers, the Olympus E-M5's Gradation setting applies local contrast adjustments in an attempt to preserve shadow detail and prevent highlight clipping with the Auto setting. Above are examples of the Normal (default), Low Key, Auto, and High Key settings applied to our "Sunlit" Portrait shot. Mouse over the links to load the associated thumbnail and histogram, and click on the links to visit the full resolution image.

As you can see, the Low Key setting applies Gradation for making subjects darker (in the thumbnail and histogram above, you can see that the camera shifted levels to the left, darkening the image dramatically), while the High Key setting does the opposite for brighter subjects (shifting levels to the right so that lighter tones are blown, but darker ones are opened up). The Auto setting did a good job at toning down highlights and bringing up darker midtones without making the image too flat-looking or washed-out.

Face Detection

Off at 0 EV, Aperture Priority, f/8	On at 0 EV Aperture Priority, f/8	Full Auto

Face Detection
Like most Point & Shoot cameras these days (and many DSLRs in Live View mode), the Olympus E-M5 has the ability to detect faces, and adjust exposure and focus accordingly. As you can see from the examples above, it works well. In Aperture Priority at f/8 and ISO set to 200, the camera did the best it could by reducing shutter speed from 1/100s to 1/60s. This helped with exposure while keeping shutter speed high enough to avoid typical motion blur. In full Auto mode, the camera opened aperture to f/2 for more light and better isolation from the background, used Auto Gradation for lower contrast to produce a much brighter, more evenly exposed image while still using a fast shutter speed of 1/1250s. Again, surprisingly few highlights were blown even though the image is quite bright. An excellent performance under very difficult lighting such as this.

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 200	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	15 s f2.8	15 s f2.8
ISO 400	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	8 s f2.8
ISO 800	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	4 s f2.8
ISO 1600	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	2 s f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	1 s f2.8
ISO 6400	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8
ISO 12800	1/60 s f2.8	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8
ISO 25600	1/125 s f2.8	1/60 s f2.8	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8

Low Light. The Olympus E-M5 performed well in low lighting, capturing bright exposures at our lowest light level at all ISOs (this is partly because ISO doesn't go below 200). As is often the case, the E-M5's metering system struggled a bit with getting the exposure right at the lowest levels though, so we used manual exposure for these shots. Noise was well controlled up to ISO 1,600, though there's some chroma noise noticeable in darker shadows. There are a few bright pixels visible here and there at lower ISOs. (The E-M5 does offer pixel mapping, so hot/dead pixels can be mapped out without a trip to a service center.) White balance was quite neutral using the Auto setting, just very slightly cool at most ISOs. Some very minor horizontal banding can be seen at the highest ISOs and lowest light levels, but nothing to be concerned about.

The camera's autofocus system was able to focus on our subject down to below the 1/16 foot-candle light level unassisted with an f/2.8 lens, which is excellent for a camera using contrast-detect autofocus, and in total darkness with the aid of its focus assist lamp.

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Thanks to their phase-detect AF systems, digital SLRs tend to do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects. The E-M5 uses contrast-detect autofocus, as is found in most point & shoot cameras, so its low-light focusing ability is less than that of most SLRs with phase-detect systems. That said, though, the larger, more sensitive pixels of the E-M5's sensor do better under dim lighting than do the tiny pixels of most point & shoots, (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

Output Quality

Print Quality

Excellent 24 x 36 inch prints at ISO 200; ISO 1,600 shots make great 16 x 20 inch prints; highest setting of 25,600 makes a good 4 x 6.

ISO 200 images look terrific at 24 x 36 inches, with sharp detail and rich colors.

ISO 400 shots look quite good and crisp at 20 x 30 inches.

ISO 800 images look good at 20 x 30 inches, though some softness appears in low-contrast colors and slight luminance noise is visible in shadows.

ISO 1,600 images are a bit too soft in some areas for printing at 20 x 30 inches, but 16 x 20 inch prints look just fine.

ISO 6,400 prints have enough detail for good 8 x 10 inch prints.

ISO 12,800 images are too rough at 8 x 10, but look better at 5 x 7. Colors flatten just a little here, particularly greens, but most colors look pretty good.

ISO 25,600 are better at 4 x 6.

Overall, the Olympus E-M5 outperforms its Pen predecessors and produces excellent printed images across the ISO spectrum.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 Mark II studio printer, and the Canon Pixma MP610 here in the office. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II review for details on that model.)

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Olympus OM-D E-M5 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Olympus OM-D E-M5 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Timing and Performance

Generally good to excellent speed for a compact system camera.

Startup/Shutdown
Power on to first shot	~1.1 seconds		Time it takes to turn on and capture a shot.
Shutdown	~0.2 second		How long it takes camera to turn off before you can remove the memory card.
Buffer Clearing
Card speed rating	45MB/s	95MB/s	Sandisk Extreme Pro UHS-I SDHC cards
Buffer clearing time	19 seconds after 15 LSF JPEGs	5 seconds after 17 LSF JPEGs	Worst case buffer clearing time. -- This is the delay after a set of shots before you can remove the card.
	21 seconds after 15 RAW files	7 seconds after 16 RAW files
	22 seconds after 14 RAW+ LSF JPEG files	13 seconds after 15 RAW+ LSF JPEG files
Note: 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 was slower than most SLRs, but good for a compact system camera. Shutdown was very fast. Buffer clearing times were on the slow side with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 45MB/s UHS-I SDHC card, but pretty fast with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s card, so we recommend getting the fastest UHS-I card you can afford.

Mode Switching
Play to Record, first shot	~0.7 second	Time until first shot is captured.
Record to Play	~0.9 second	Time to display a Large Super Fine JPEG file immediately after capture.
Display recorded image	~0.5 second	Time to display a Large Super Fine JPEG file already on the memory card.

Mode switching was reasonably fast.

Shutter Response (Lag Time)
Full Autofocus, Center AF mode 12-50mm kit lens	0.277 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, at medium focal length.
Full Autofocus, Multi-area AF mode 12-50mm kit lens	0.175 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, at medium focal length.
Full Autofocus, Multi-area AF mode 14-42mm II R kit lens	0.246 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, at medium focal length.
Full Autofocus, Center AF mode Auto Flash Enabled 12-50mm kit lens	0.438 second	Time from fully pressing shutter button to image capture, with the lens already at the proper focal distance setting, Auto flash enabled.
Continuous AF 12-50mm kit lens	0.158 second	This mode usually shows no speed increase with our static subject; we have no way to measure performance with moving subjects.
Manual Focus 12-50mm kit lens	0.102 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 12-50mm kit lens	0.056 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button.
Prefocused Auto Flash Enabled 12-50mm kit lens	0.190 second	Time to capture, after half-pressing and holding shutter button, Auto flash enabled.

The Olympus E-M5's full-autofocus shutter lag in single-area AF mode (center AF position) was 0.277 second with the 12-50mm kit lens. In 35-point "All Targets" AF mode, lag decreased to only 0.175 second which is faster than most SLRs and very swift for a contrast-detection system indeed. We also tested with a 14-42mm II R kit lens, and got 0.246 second in All Targets mode, a little faster than the E-P3's 0.267 second with the same lens. Enabling the flash increased shutter lag to 0.438 second, still reasonably fast. Continuous AF mode resulted in a shutter lag of 0.158 second. Release Priority is enabled by default in Continuous AF mode though, so the camera may not have achieved focus for each iteration. When manually focused, the E-M5's shutter lag time was a fast 0.102 second, though we've seen faster. The E-M5's prefocused lag time of 0.056 second was however very quick, faster than most SLRs. Enabling the flash increased prefocused lag to 0.190 second, but that's expected (preflash metering) and still quite fast.

Cycle Time (shot to shot)
Single Shot mode LSF JPEG	0.52 second	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 11 seconds to clear*.
Single Shot mode RAW	0.51 second	Time per shot, averaged over 20 shots, 11 seconds to clear*.
Single Shot mode RAW + LSF JPEG	0.56 second	Time per shot, averaged over 19 shots, 15 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 LSF JPEG	45MB/s card: 0.11 second (9.09 frames per second); 15 frames total; 19 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over 15 shots, then slows to an average of about 0.75s or 1.33 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous H Mode LSF JPEG	95MB/s card: 0.11 second (8.94 frames per second); 17 frames total; 5 seconds to clear	Time per shot, averaged over 17 shots, then slows to an average of about 0.40s or 2.53 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous H Mode RAW	45MB/s card: 0.11 second (9.09 frames per second); 15 frames total; 21 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 15 frames, then slows to an average of about 0.83s or 1.20 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous H Mode RAW	95MB/s card: 0.11 second (8.98 frames per second); 16 frames total; 7 seconds to clear	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 16 frames, then slows to an average of about 0.52s or 1.94 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous H Mode RAW + LSF JPEG	45MB/s card: 0.11 second (9.09 frames per second); 14 frames total; 22 seconds to clear*	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 14 frames, then slows to 1.57s or 0.64 fps when buffer is full.
Continuous H Mode RAW + LSF JPEG	95MB/s card: 0.11 second (8.97 frames per second); 15 frames total; 13 seconds to clear	Time per shot, averaged over buffer length of 15 frames, then slows to 0.89s or 1.13 fps when buffer is full.
Flash Recycling	4.3 second	Flash at maximum output.
* Note: Buffer clearing times measured with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 45MB/sec 8GB 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 very good for a CSC, ranging from 0.51 second for RAW to 0.56 second for RAW+LSF JPEG files. Continuous high ("Sequential H") mode was quite fast, at about 9 frames/second no matter the file type, though the camera locks focus, exposure and white balance at the first frame of a burst, and Live View is disabled. A slower "Sequential L" mode is available with tracking AF and Live View, with up to 4 fps performance according to Olympus.

Buffer depths were good though not exceptional, at 15 frames for Large Super Fine JPEGs, 15 for RAW and 14 for RAW + LSF JPEGs with our 45MB/s card. Note that our test target for this was designed to be difficult to compress, so JPEG burst lengths may be longer with typical subjects. With a 95MB/s card, buffer clearing improved significantly, though buffer depths only increased slightly. With the faster card, buffer clearing improved to 5 seconds after 17 LSF JPEG images, 7 seconds after 16 RAW and 13 seconds after 15 RAW + LSF JPEGs.

Flash recycling after full power discharge averaged 4.3 seconds with the bundled FL-LM2 flash. That's a bit slow by SLR standards but not too bad, however it's a pretty weak flash.

Download Speed
Windows Computer, USB 2.0	8,786 KBytes/sec	Typical Values: Less than 600=USB 1.1; 600-769=USB 2.0 Low; Above 770=USB 2.0 High

USB 2.0 download speeds were reasonably fast. (Note that this test was performed with a SanDisk Extreme Pro 45MB/sec 8GB UHS-I SDHC card: Slower cards would likely show slower transfer times.)

Bottom line, the Olympus E-M5's performance was very good for its class. Autofocus and shot-to-shot performance was competitive with SLRs, while burst speed was faster than most SLRs. Buffer clearing was a little sluggish with our 45MB/s card as mentioned, but pretty fast with our new 95MB/s card.

Battery

Battery Life
Above average battery life for a CSC, but much less than most SLRs.

Operating Mode	Number of Shots
Still Capture, IS On, EVF or OLED (CIPA standard)	Approx. 360

The Olympus E-M5 uses a custom BLN-1 rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, and comes with both a single battery and charger. The CIPA battery life rating of 360 shots on a charge (with Image Stabilization active) is above average for a CSC, however the E-M5 doesn't have a built-in flash which is normally enabled for 50% of shots during CIPA testing, and we don't know if the bundled flash was used to arrive at that number.

Battery life isn't nearly as good as most SLRs when using their optical viewfinders, but you can presumably double battery life with the optional HLD-6 Power Battery Grip with a second battery is installed, making the E-M5's battery performance more competitive with SLRs. In any case, we recommend getting a second battery for your E-M5 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))

Video

Check out the links below for more sample images, videos and image quality analysis:

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Optics page (Crops from images shot with the camera's kit lens, if sold as a kit)
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Sample Images page (Index to all standard test shots, with explanations)
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Thumbnails page (Thumbnails of all shots, including RAWs, with EXIF data)
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Gallery page (Regular photos taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M5)

High-definition video capture is a must-have feature in the latest generation of interchangeable-lens cameras, and essentially all the major manufacturers now provide some form of video capture in their compact system cameras. The Olympus E-M5's video feature set is quite closely related to that of the recent PEN E-P3, with the most significant difference being its built-in electronic viewfinder which can be used alongside the external microphone accessory (an either/or proposition on the PENs). Also new is a wind noise reduction filter, something that will doubtless prove handy for consumers and some enthusiasts who rely on in-camera audio.

As the flagship Olympus Micro Four Thirds camera, the Olympus M5 includes some more advanced features such as full manual exposure control and optional external microphone support, along with consumer-friendly options such as full-time autofocus and pre-capture video filters. Although it does lack fine-grained audio levels control, built-in microphone connectivity, and the fine-grained control over framerates that are sometimes found on competing models, most non-professional videographers likely won't notice the absence of these features.

Olympus E-M5 Basic Video Specs

1,920 x 1,080 (Full HD / 1080i), 1,280 x 720 (720p), and 640 x 480 (VGA) recording
AVCHD compression at Full HD and 720p resolutions, or MotionJPEG compression at 720p or below
MOV file format for AVCHD, AVI for MotionJPEG
59.94 interlaced fields per second at Full HD, 59.94 frames per second for AVCHD 720p, or 30 frames per second for Motion JPEG
Autofocus functions during movie recording, includes tracking function, and is essentially silent with MSC-badged lenses
Optional face detection autofocus available, and can even detect and prioritize a specific (left or right) eye on which to focus
Manual focus and single autofocus operations also available
Auto, shutter/aperture-priority or full manual exposure, set before recording
EV adjustment is available in all except Manual exposure mode, set prior to (but not during) recording
Sensor-shift image stabilization available, with optional modes that allow vertical or horizontal panning
Stereo audio recording via built-in microphones or standard external mics via an optional, hotshoe-mounted accessory connector
"Art Filters" can be applied to video, but most adversely affect framerate, sometimes drastically
Video recorded with Diorama filter plays back at ~15x normal speed, and has audio disabled
Digital tele-converter function adds 2x digital zoom
Still image capture is possible during video recording, but splits the video into separate files, with a 4+ second gap between files
Still + Video mode snaps still image at the end of video recording

Olympus E-M5 Video: Image Size, Frame Rate, and Encoding

The Olympus E-M5 records at three different video resolutions in two compression formats, with each combination having a fixed frame rate. In AVCHD format, which is available only for high-definition videos, there are two possible frame rates and two compression levels. Full HD (1080i; 1,920 x 1,080 pixel) videos are recorded at 59.94 interlaced fields per second, and 720p (1,280 x 720 pixel) videos are recorded at 59.94 progressive-scan frames per second. For each, a choice of Fine or Normal compression is availableIn MotionJPEG format, which is available for 720p or VGA (640 x 480 pixel) resolution, the frame rate is fixed at approximately 30 frames per second. Regardless of the compression and frame rate, the actual data is clocked off the image sensor at 30 frames per second, and some art filters reduce the captured frame rate significantly.

Unless audio capture is disabled, movies include PCM stereo audio. Olympus states only that the audio sampling rate of AVCHD videos is 48kHz, though video players further report a 16-bit sampling rate, and a bit rate of 1,536 Kbps.

The table below shows the specs for various video recording options.

Olympus E-M5 Video Options
AVCHD Format (H.264, .MOV files)
Resolution	Aspect Ratio	Frame Rate	Average Bit Rate
1,920 x 1,080	16:9	59.94 fields per second (interlaced)	20 Mbps
1,920 x 1,080	16:9	59.94 fields per second (interlaced)	17 Mbps
1,280 x 720	16:9	59.94 frames per second (progressive)	13 Mbps
1,280 x 720	16:9	59.94 frames per second (progressive)	10 Mbps
M-JPEG Format (MotionJPEG, .AVI files)
Resolution	Aspect Ratio	Frame Rate	Compression Ratio
1,280 x 720	16:9	30 frames per second (progressive)	1/12
640 x 480	4:3	30 frames per second (progressive)	1/8

As noted above, the Olympus E-M5 offers two video recording formats, although unless you're recording at 720p resolution, the choice of format is made for you. The E-M5's Full HD video is recorded using the newer AVCHD compression format, which is based upon H.264 compression. At VGA resolution, the E-M5 uses the older, less efficient (but easier to decode) MotionJPEG compression type. At 720p resolution, you can choose between the two formats.

Continuous movie recording is limited to approximately 29 minutes regardless of file format, and maximum movie file size is 2GB. Olympus recommends use of at least a Class 6 Secure Digital card to avoid issues with write speeds during video capture.

Here are some examples of video shot with our sample of the Olympus E-M5:

Olympus E-M5: Video Samples

1,920 x 1,080 AVCHD, Interlaced, 60 fields per second Download Original

1,280 x 720 AVCHD, Progressive, 60 frames per second Download Original

1,280 x 720 Motion JPEG, Progressive, 30 frames per second Download Original

640 x 480 Motion JPEG, Progressive, 30 frames per second Download Original

1,920 x 1,080 AVCHD, Interlaced, 60 fields per second Download Original

1,280 x 720 AVCHD, Progressive, 60 frames per second Download Original

1,280 x 720 Motion JPEG, Progressive, 30 frames per second Download Original

640 x 480 Motion JPEG, Progressive, 30 frames per second Download Original

Olympus E-M5 Video-Mode Focusing

For a consumer audience used to camcorders that can autofocus during video capture (and who don't necessarily have the time and patience to learn to pull focus manually), full-time autofocus is a pretty critical feature. For a couple of years now, Olympus' PEN-series compact system cameras have offered better-than-average autofocus capabilities when coupled with the company's 'Movie & Still Compatible' (MSC)-badged lenses, which provide fast, near-silent focus drive, thanks to a reduction in the mass of elements that must be moved during AF operation.

For its first digital OM camera, Olympus has further improved the E-M5's autofocusing speed, but the improvements are specific to still imaging. For video, you don't really want fast AF, which would merely distract your viewer. Instead, smooth focus with minimal hunting is important, and although it can take a little while to detect that your subject has moved by itself, the E-M5 will likely please most consumers in this area.

Just as in the earlier PEN E-P3 model, Olympus has missed one trick with the M5's video-mode AF, however. Although the camera has a touch-screen panel, this is disabled during video recording, which to our mind is where Touch AF is at its most useful. In competing cameras, a touch screen can make it a very simple matter to indicate to the camera that you wish to shift the point of focus from one subject to another, with relatively little handling noise and shake caused by a gentle touch on the screen. Unfortunately, this isn't possible with the E-M5. Instead your options are limited to either setting an autofocus point before capture starts with the camera's physical controls, and then keeping your subject under that focus point, or using tracking autofocus to follow a particular subject around the frame.

One function of the E-M5's video focusing that's pretty unusual is the ability to have the camera not only prioritize faces when recognized in a scene, but actually to prioritize focusing on their eyes. You can either let the camera select which eye automatically, or manually select either the left or right eye for focusing.

Olympus E-M5 Video Exposure Control

Olympus E-M5: Aperture Control / Depth-of-Field

1,280 x 720 AVCHD, Progressive, 60 frames per second, f/5.1 Download Original

1,280 x 720 AVCHD, Progressive, 60 frames per second, f/22 Download Original

Some video-capable cameras still offer only fully automatic exposure in movie mode, but the Olympus E-M5 gives you a choice of either Programmed, Aperture-priority, Shutter-priority or Manual exposure modes, set before capture starts (but not during capture). As well as allowing direct control of the shutter speed and aperture as appropriate to the exposure mode, the ISO sensitivity which the camera will use can also be directly controlled, but only in Manual exposure mode. In Programmed and Priority modes, +/- 3.0EV of exposure compensation is available, in 1/3 EV steps.

There are, of course, some provisos. The ISO sensitivity range is reduced to ISO 200 to 3,200 equivalents during video capture, and Auto ISO isn't available in Manual mode. The slowest available shutter speed is 1/30 second. It's also worth noting that while Program Shift is available for still imaging, it isn't applicable to video capture.

White balance settings also carry over to video mode, as do the tone/color aspects of the camera's various scene modes.

It's not strictly an exposure control feature, but this seems as good a place as any to mention the Olympus E-M5's Movie + Still recording mode. Selected via the Movie page of the Custom menu, this option snaps a still image at the end of each movie clip: When you press the Movie button the second time, to stop movie recording, the shutter actuates, and the camera captures a full-resolution still frame. We suppose this is could be useful at times, but in our own movies, the action is usually over by the time we're ending a clip, so that's perhaps not the ideal place to capture a still frame. Still, there are times when we'd like to have a high-resolution still image of a video subject available, and this option is much quicker than having to switch back out of Movie mode to capture one.

Perhaps more useful, though, is the ability to capture a still by fully pressing the Shutter button during recording. This does interrupt video capture for around four seconds or more, and the video is spanned across multiple files. The delay between video capture stopping and the still being captured is a good couple of seconds, even when using manual focus, so you'll need to anticipate the crucial moment if your subject isn't static, but it's still likely of more real-world use than the Movie + Still function.

Olympus E-M5 In-Camera Image Adjustment for Movies

Olympus has for some time now made a big deal of their Art Filters in marketing their DSLRs. We know people that like these effects a lot, but confess that we've personally never found them very compelling. With the E-M5, Olympus has again carried the full set of Art Filters over into Movie Mode, so those users who are into such things can take advantage of the same effects in their videos. While a handful of modes--Pop Art, Pale&Light Color, and Light Tone--don't adversely affect the frame rate even at Full HD resolution, most modes have a noticeable impact, and some will cause a drastic reduction in the rate, indicating that the E-M5 doesn't have the processing power to handle the filter in real-time alongside encoding.

The Diorama filter still stands alone as a special case, unique from all other video art filters. While the rest have no effect on audio capture, Diorama videos are recorded without audio. That's because they play back at a much faster frame rate than their capture rate, causing the action to appear greatly accelerated.

Olympus E-M5 Movie-Mode Image Stabilization

Olympus E-M5: Video Image Stabilization

1,280 x 720 Motion JPEG, Progressive, 30 frames per second Download Original

Where the PEN E-P3 before it disabled its mechanical image stabilization system in favor of purely digital stabilization for video capture, the Olympus OM-D E-M5 instead relies on its sensor shift-type image stabilization system. That's good news, because the P3's digital stabilization was prone to a bizarre, double-axis jello effect that we found much more objectionable than the shake it was supposed to be correcting for. Remembering the earlier model's quirky stabilization, we made sure to test that of the E-M5, and as you can see in the sample above it didn't induce any such effect. (The remaining jello effect you can see is rolling shutter, which is common in interchangeable-lens camera video, and analyzed in its own section further down the page. The video does jerk as you reach the maximum correction possible from the stabilization system, but we saw no sign of exaggerated rolling shutter effects as in the P3.)

The Olympus E-M5's in-body image stabilization system is unusual in being able to correct for motion on five axes. It compensates for yaw, pitch, vertical motion, horizontal motion, and roll, and Olympus says it's capable of up to 5 stops of correction.

The M5's image stabilization system essentially allows any lens attached to it effectively becomes an image-stabilized model. (Note, though, that when using a lens that has its own image stabilization, you have to choose either the camera's IS or that in the lens; they won't work together.) All three IS modes the E-M5 offers are also available while recording movies. The available modes are Off, IS 1 (stabilizer on in both axes), IS 2 (horizontal panning), and IS 3 (vertical panning). As in still-capture mode, you can also set the focal length of the lens explicitly, from 8-1,000mm, for use with non-Micro Four Thirds/Four Thirds system lenses that don't communicate their focal length to the camera.

Olympus E-M5 Video: Audio Recording

Audio recording in movies is optional with the Olympus E-M5. Audio can be turned on or off in the Movie page of the Custom menu, or via the Live Menu, accessible by pressing the OK button on the camera's rear panel. Audio is recorded as 16-bit , 48kHz, 1,536 Kbps stereo PCM. The stereo recording is done either via two microphones, and unlike many cameras that offer almost no separation by placing both ports side-by-side and facing in the same direction, the M5 places them on opposite sides of the viewfinder hump. We don't have an objective way to test this, but it seems that this placement could provide a better stereo effect.

Alternatively, a standard 3.5mm stereo microphone can be attached via a SEMA-1 adapter that connects to the accessory port.

Audio recorded with the camera's internal mic sounded clear, but we do no tests to measure frequency response or sensitivity, so can't comment quantitatively. While we did notice was an audible hiss in audio tracks recorded with the in-camera mic in relatively quiet environments, it seemed rather less noticeable than we're accustomed to on competing models.

Autofocus drive on both available kit lenses--the 14-42mm and 12-50mm--was effectively silent, in that its operation couldn't be heard on the audio track, even with no background noise. The unusual zoom mechanism of the 12-50mm lens is ideal for video capture, offering a choice of both manual zoom if you want direct, rapid control and a near-silent power zoom function if you want to keep noise and camera shake to a minimum. The power zoom function is selected by pushing the zoom ring forwards, which produces an audible clunk, so you won't want to switch between manual and power zoom during capture. When active, power zoom is controlled by slightly turning the (now spring-loaded) zoom ring in either direction, and you can vary from a very slow zoom to a reasonably swift one, although nowhere near the speed possible with manual zoom.

Unlike many of its competitors, the Olympus E-M5 doesn't provide for manual audio level control, although to say that it isn't fine grained would be understating things. There's a choice of three levels: Low, Standard, or High. There's also a wind noise reduction function and you can disable audio capture altogether, too.

Olympus E-M5 Movie Recording / Playback User Interface

Although the Olympus E-M5 has a separate Movie mode accessed via a separate position on the camera's Mode dial, there's a dedicated Movie record button on the top panel. This allows movie capture even when set to one of the still image exposure modes, although confusingly, the exposure mode will be ignored and the movie will be recorded with Program autoexposure, unless you're using the Movie mode position. (You also can't be sure of framing until capture starts unless using the Movie mode on the dial, since no display overlay shows crops for movie capture.)

In Movie mode, you can set the camera to use priority or manual exposure, using an option hidden in the Movie Custom menu or Live Menu. It's not terribly intuitive, but it works. Note though that in movie mode, the same option used to select the exposure mode also selects the art filter modes, and hence it isn't possible to combine art filters with priority or manual exposure.

Since there's a dedicated Movie record button, the Shutter button doesn't start or stop video recording even when in Movie mode: instead, it captures a still image. The separate buttons do make it quicker to jump from capturing stills to movies and vice versa, since you needn't necessarily move the Mode dial unless you need more control over the resulting image or movie than is possible in the current mode. The Movie record button, however, is quite close to the camera's rear, and this coupled with its relatively deep throw and strong spring action compared to the still-image shutter button makes it quite difficult to press without jostling the camera. Indeed, we found ourselves routinely starting video capture early, in anticipation of losing the first couple of seconds of video to steadying the camera.

Setting adjustments in movie mode are mostly made via a Live Menu, which appears down the right side of the LCD when you press the OK button on the camera's back, although a handful of options are placed in a separate page of the Custom menu. Options on the Live Menu for video recording are:

Movie Live Menu Options:
Top-Level Selection	Second-Level	Notes
IS Mode	- Off - IS1 (Normal IS) - IS2 (Horizontal panning) - IS3 (Vertical Panning)	Press 'Info' button to set focal length manually
Exposure Mode	- Program Auto - Aperture Priority - Shutter Priority - Manual - Pop Art - Soft Focus - Pale & Light Color - Light Tone - Grainy Film - Pin Hole - Diorama - Cross Process - Gentle Sepia - Dramatic Tone - Key Line	Unhelpfully, the various art filters are simply named Art 1, Art 2, etc., in this menu, with no indication as to which is which. You're better off choosing through the Live menu, where names are shown.
White Balance	- Auto - Sunny - Shadow - Cloudy - Incandescent - Fluorescent - Underwater - Flash - Custom 1 - Custom 2 - Kelvin (2,000 - 14,000K)
Drive Mode	- Single - 12 second self-timer - 2 second self-timer
Focus	- Single - Continuous - Manual - Single plus manual focus - Continuous + Tracking
ISO	- Auto - 200 - 250 - 320 - 400 - 500 - 640 - 800 - 1000 - 1250 - 1600 - 2000 - 2500 - 3200	Options other than Auto only available with Manual exposure. Auto not available for Manual exposure.
Recording Quality	- Full HD F (1,920 x 1,080, AVCHD, Fine) - Full HD N (1,920 x 1,080, AVCHD, Normal) - HD F (1,280 x 720, AVCHD, Fine) - HD N (1,280 x 720, AVCHD, Normal) - HD (1,280 x 720, Motion JPEG) - SD (640 x 480, Motion JPEG)
Face Priority	- Face Priority Off - Face Priority On - Face & Eye Priority On - Face & R. Eye Priority On - Face & L. Eye Priority On
Movie Audio	- Off - On

Rolling Shutter Artifacts ("Jello Effect")

Olympus E-M5: Rolling Shutter Artifacts

1,920 x 1,080 AVCHD, Interlaced, 60 fields per second Download Original

1,280 x 720 AVCHD, Progressive, 60 frames per second Download Original

1,280 x 720 Motion JPEG, Progressive, 30 frames per second Download Original

640 x 480 Motion JPEG, Progressive, 30 frames per second Download Original

Essentially every video capable digital SLR/CSC currently on the market exhibits some level of motion-related distortion called rolling shutter artifacts. These are caused because the image data is captured and then read off the chip sequentially by rows, rather than each frame's data being captured all at once. In the case of the Olympus E-M5, this means that image data for the last row of a given frame is captured and read out as much as 1/30th second after the data for the top row was captured. The effect on moving objects is like that of a focal plane shutter in an SLR, but more pronounced, because the video frame is read out much more slowly than the slit of a focal plane shutter moves across the sensor.

For a camera that scans video frames vertically (as all do that we're aware of), rolling shutter artifacts will be most noticeable for subjects that are moving rapidly side to side, or when the camera itself is being panned horizontally. Verticals in the scene will appear tilted to the right or left, depending on the direction of camera motion. As an example, consider the case of a camera being panned from left to right, with a flagpole or other vertical object in the middle of the scene when recording for a particular frame begins: If the top of the object was centered horizontally when the first line of the video frame is acquired, by the time the last line of the frame has been captured, the bottom of the object will have shifted to somewhere left of center: As a result, the vertical object would appear to be leaning to the right.

The E-M5's rolling shutter artifacts are really minimal in all video modes, and it offers among the best performance we've seen in this area. We also checked at both very fast and relatively slow shutter speeds, and found no dependency of rolling shutter behavior on shutter speed.

Computer Requirements for Viewing HD Video

A typical computer these days has little trouble dealing with still images, but high-definition video can be another matter. Depending on the file format involved, it can take a pretty beefy computer to handle HD-resolution video playback without stuttering or dropping frames. The AVCHD image compression used by the Olympus E-M5 is one of the more compute-intensive formats, and its high maximum resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels resolution means there's a lot of data in each frame to deal with. The net result is that you'll need a reasonably recent computer to play the E-M5's Full HD video files smoothly, and will want a pretty powerful machine for Full HD video editing. When recording at 720p resolution or below, you can opt for Motion JPEG compression, though, which is one of the less compute-intensive formats and should prove easier to edit (albeit less efficient to store.)

You can of course view your movies on a high definition TV via the HDMI output, or a standard-def TV via the combined USB / Video output.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Video: Summary

Shooting in the daytime, the Olypus E-M5 is capable of providing quite clean and detailed video, with excellent detail in areas of subtle contrast. This is shown nicely in the bushy grasses at the beginning of our Full HD day video, which shows excellent detail where a lot of cameras dissolve to mush. Unfortunately, we saw some odd, sharp-edged and quite strong compression artifacts in the face of rapid motion, as in the 1:1 crop of IR wonder-dog Charlotte shown below, from about the six second point in the same video.

OM-D E-M5 Video image 1

Of course, that's a still frame, and the effect isn't quite so visible in a moving video. The situation is also better in the 720p AVCHD mode, and isn't visible at all in Motion JPEG-compressed files.

A bit more disappointing was the M5's night video performance. The results were quite dark, even at the maximum sensitivity of ISO 3,200 equivalent, and even though the noise levels would suggest that there was room to raise the sensitivity higher if the camera allowed it. Of course, we could have shot at full wide angle for a brighter aperture, but we routinely shoot in this manner to provide a fair basis of comparison to other cameras' videos.

The bottom line, though, was that the E-M5 offered pretty decent video performance, with very crisp video, especially in AVCHD / Full HD capture, and with minimal rolling shutter. That, coupled with the advantages of Olympus' near-silent focus and power zoom functions and manual exposure capabilities will make it an interesting camera for many enthusiast videographers.

Flash

Olympus E-M5 Flash

OM-D E-M5 Flash image 1

Although the Olympus E-M5 lacks any internal flash strobe, it provides for external flash strobes courtesy of a hot shoe--but note that it is shared with the accessory port, so use of flash or accessories is an either / or proposition.

The E-M5 comes bundled with an accessory flash (FL-LM2) which has a guide number of 10 meters at ISO 200 equivalent (that works out to about 7m at ISO 100), with coverage specified at 14mm (28mm in 35mm format).

Flash modes include Auto, Fill-in, Red-eye Reduction, Slow Synchronization (1st curtain), Slow Synchronization (1st curtain)/Red-eye Reduction, Slow Synchronization (2nd curtain), Manual (Full, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, 1/64), and Off.

The E-M5's hot shoe is compatible with the FL-50/FL-50R, FL-36/FL-36R, FL-20, FL-14, FL-300R and FL-600R strobes. Flash sync is possible up to 1/250 second depending on the flash, and the E-M5 also allows Super FP flash up to 1/4,000 second, if supported by the attached flash. Flash exposure compensation is available within a range of +/- 3.0 EV, in 1/3, 1/2 or 1 EV steps which can be optionally added to exposure compensation. Finally, the E-M5 supports four-channel wireless flash with the bundled strobe acting as a master, and off-camera flash strobes configured in up to 4 groups.

Bundled Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
A weak flash despite being external, with narrow coverage.

Normal Flash, ISO 200, 1/60s +2 (+0.7 EV)

Slow-Sync Flash, ISO 200, 1/6s +3 (+1.0 EV)

Coverage and Exposure. Flash coverage was quite uneven at wide-angle (12mm), but much more uniform (albeit very dim) at full telephoto (50mm). In our Indoor Portrait flash test, the Olympus E-M5 underexposed our subject despite using an external flash and a higher-than-average base ISO of 200. +0.7 EV flash compensation produced the brightest exposure (+1.0 EV was actually slightly dimmer), though it was still dim. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode produced much better results at +1.0 EV aided by the slower 1/6 second shutter speed, though with a stronger orange cast from the ambient room lighting.

Flash Range: Wide Angle
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 200

Flash Range: Telephoto
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200	1/60 sec f6.3 ISO 200

ISO 200 Range. Flash exposure started out dim at 6 feet at wide-angle, then became dimmer as distance increased. At telephoto, flash exposures were even dimmer at 6 feet than they were at wide-angle, and gradually became dimmer as distance increased. Poor results here especially considering base ISO is 200. You can always use a more powerful external flash, though.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Wide Angle	Telephoto
9.4 feet ISO 200	5.2 feet ISO 200

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Olympus E-M5's bundled flash has a Guide Number (GN) of 10 meters at ISO 200. That works out to about 9.4 feet at f/3.5 at wide-angle, and 5.2 feet at f/6.3 at telephoto, the maximum apertures of the 12-50mm kit lens. In the shots above, the E-M5 did not perform as Olympus says it will, producing dim exposures at the rated distances. Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100 (when supported), to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

High ISO Noise Reduction

Olympus E-M5 High ISO Noise Reduction

The Olympus E-M5 offers four settings for noise reduction, or "Noise Filter" as the company calls it: "Off", "Low", "Standard" and "High". The user manual doesn't state at which ISO noise reduction kicks in, so we've started with the base ISO of 200 here to find out.

See for yourself how the Olympus E-M5's various noise reduction settings work under daylight-balanced lighting. Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

Noise Reduction Settings Comparison Daylight-balanced illumination
	Off	Low	Standard	High
I S O 2 0 0


	Off	Low	Standard	High
I S O 4 0 0


	Off	Low	Standard	High
I S O 8 0 0


	Off	Low	Standard	High
I S O 1 6 0 0


	Off	Low	Standard	High
I S O 3 2 0 0


	Off	Low	Standard	High
I S O 6 4 0 0


	Off	Low	Standard	High
I S O 1 2 8 0 0


	Off	Low	Standard	High
I S O 2 5 6 0 0

As you can see, the Olympus E-M5 applies noise reduction already at ISO 200, the base ISO. The E-M5's four noise reduction settings allow you quite a bit of flexibility in choosing how you want to make the trade-off between subject detail and noise levels in your JPEGs. The "Off" setting does not eliminate noise processing altogether, but it leaves the most fine/subtle subject detail, however shooting RAW will of course give you maximum detail and control.

RAW Files

Olympus E-M5 RAW Comparison

We used to convert RAW files used for comparison crops with dcraw (an excellent freeware RAW converter), as we could count on dcraw not to apply any noise reduction, sharpening or other corrections. Unfortunately, dcraw's author has not been providing timely updates lately, so we have switched to using Adobe Camera Raw with its noise reduction and sharpening options set to zero. We've found conversions made with recent versions of ACR to be almost identical to dcraw when dcraw's demosaicing option is set to match ACR's method, so we're pretty sure ACR isn't applying any noise reduction "under the hood."

See crops below to compare the Olympus E-M5's (12-bit) RAW image quality to its sibling, as well as a few recent, premium compact system cameras.

RAW Comparison with Olympus E-P3, Panasonic G3, and Samsung NX200 RAW files converted with ACR, no NR, no sharpening Daylight-balanced illumination
Olympus E-M5	Olympus E-P3	Panasonic G3 ISO 160	Samsung NX200 ISO 100
	N/A, ISO 100 not supported.
N/A, ISO 100 not supported.

Olympus E-M5 ISO 200	Olympus E-P3 ISO 200	Panasonic G3 ISO 200	Samsung NX200 ISO 200



Olympus E-M5 ISO 400	Olympus E-P3 ISO 400	Panasonic G3 ISO 400	Samsung NX200 ISO 400



Olympus E-M5 ISO 800	Olympus E-P3 ISO 800	Panasonic G3 ISO 800	Samsung NX200 ISO 800



Olympus E-M5 ISO 1,600	Olympus E-P3 ISO 1,600	Panasonic G3 ISO 1,600	Samsung NX200 ISO 1,600



Olympus E-M5 ISO 3,200	Olympus E-P3 ISO 3,200	Panasonic G3 ISO 3,200	Samsung NX200 ISO 3,200



Olympus E-M5 ISO 6,400	Olympus E-P3 ISO 6,400	Panasonic G3 ISO 6,400	Samsung NX200 ISO 6,400



Olympus E-M5 ISO 12,800	Olympus E-P3 ISO 12,800	Panasonic G3	Samsung NX200 ISO 12,800
		N/A, ISO 12,800 not supported.


Olympus E-M5 ISO 25,600	Olympus E-P3	Panasonic G3	Samsung NX200
	N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.	N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.	N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.

As you can see, the Olympus E-M5 does very well against this group, producing RAW files with the lowest noise. The improvement over the 12-megapixel E-P3 is striking at higher ISOs, despite the E-M5's smaller photosites. The E-M5 also does better than the 16-megapixel Panasonic G3 and the 20-megapixel Samsung NX200. Excellent performance, though contrast in the red leaf swatch is a little low.

Here's a comparison with some premium APS-C models.

RAW Comparison with Canon 7D, Fuji X-Pro1 and Nikon D7000 RAW files converted with ACR, no NR, no sharpening Daylight-balanced illumination
Olympus E-M5	Canon 7D ISO 100	Fuji X-Pro1	Nikon D7000 ISO 100
		N/A, ISO 100 not supported.
N/A, ISO 100 not supported.

Olympus E-M5 ISO 200	Canon 7D ISO 200	Fuji X-Pro1 ISO 200	Nikon D7000 ISO 200



Olympus E-M5 ISO 400	Canon 7D ISO 400	Fuji X-Pro1 ISO 400	Nikon D7000 ISO 400



Olympus E-M5 ISO 800	Canon 7D ISO 800	Fuji X-Pro1 ISO 800	Nikon D7000 ISO 800



Olympus E-M5 ISO 1,600	Canon 7D ISO 1,600	Fuji X-Pro1 ISO 1,600	Nikon D7000 ISO 1,600



Olympus E-M5 ISO 3,200	Canon 7D ISO 3,200	Fuji X-Pro1 ISO 3,200	Nikon D7000 ISO 3,200



Olympus E-M5 ISO 6,400	Canon 7D ISO 6,400	Fuji X-Pro1 ISO 6,400	Nikon D7000 ISO 6,400



Olympus E-M5 ISO 12,800	Canon 7D ISO 12,800	Fuji X-Pro1	Nikon D7000 ISO 12,800
		N/A, ISO 12,800 not supported.


Olympus E-M5 ISO 25,600	Canon 7D	Fuji X-Pro1	Nikon D7000 ISO 25,600
	N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.	N/A, ISO 25,600 not supported.

The Fuji X-Pro1 Adobe Camera Raw conversions are by far the cleanest here, but they look as if some filtering has been applied, spreading out chroma noise and attenuating luminance noise while reducing acuity in the process. We're not sure if this is a deliberate attempt at noise reduction (something we don't like to see in RAW files), or just a by-product of the interpolation algorithm needed to demosaic the X-Pro1's unique 6x6 filter array.

The Olympus E-M5 compares favorably to the cameras using conventional sensors, producing noise levels that are pretty much on par with the 16-megapixel Nikon D7000 and slightly better than the 18-megapixel Canon 7D. That's a remarkable achievement considering the E-M5's pixel pitch is significantly smaller than both, at about 3.7µm versus 4.7µm for the D7000 and 4.2µm for the 7D.

Pricing and availability

Body-only pricing for the Olympus E-M5 starts around US$1,000, with availability from April 2012. Two body colors are available: black and silver. In addition to the body-only kit, there are also two kits including lenses. The black version of the E-M5 body and M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II R lens costs about US$1,100. Alternatively, a black version of the M.ZUIKO Digital ED 12-50mm f3.5-6.3 EZ lens is available with either the black or silver E-M5 body, for US$1,300.

Full model name	Olympus OM-D E-M5
Resolution	16.1 Megapixels
Sensor size	224.9mm2 (17.30mm x 13.00mm)
Kit lens	Olympus M.Zuiko 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 EZ Digital ED
Viewfinder	EVF; 1.44M-dot, 1.15x magnification, 18mm eyepoint, -4 to +2 diopter, eye sensor
Native ISO	200 - 25600
Shutter	1/4000 - 60 sec
Dimensions	4.8 x 3.5 x 1.7 in. (122 x 89 x 43 mm)
Weight	23.0 oz (652 g) includes batteries, kit lens
Available	2012-04-15

OM-D E-M5 at a glance

Pros

Cons

In this review

Our standard studio scenes, every ISO