SLR lovers never had it this good. The entire camera scene seems to have exploded in the past 3-4 years and getting your hands on a "mean" machine is no longer as difficult as it used to be. For about 50k one can buy a camera-lens combo that’ll rival that of a "Pro" in terms of its capabilities on 99% occasions. So the debate on which or what kinda camera to buy is now dictated by a new paradigm. Hitherto unheard of parameters have found their place in the "decision making matrix" and one of the most important of these is the "image vs. portability" consideration.
The Olympus OMD E-M5, the subject of this review is a camera that has caught the fancy of even Pros with its performance despite its small size. The E-M5, until recently was the flagship of the micro-four thirds(m43 in short) system, a format characterised by its portability and image quality rivaling that of a DSLR. The camera weighs just 400 odd grams and with most m43 lenses tips the scales around 600 gms or lower. So you could carry 4 high quality primes all day long with the camera, the total weight of equipment being just 1 kg! Unthinkable isnt it?
The Spec Sheet - 16MP sensor, weather-sealed body, ’5-axis’ image stabilization, ISO upto 25600, 1.44M dot electronic viewfinder, 9fps shooting, Twin control dials, 3" OLED touchscreen articulate touchscreen display, Flash sync speed up to 1/250th sec, the usual DSLR controls and the’game changing’ weight of 425 g(including batteries)!
Choice of Lenses - The m43 system has come a long way since its inception 6-7 years ago. Today some of the most hot selling lenses like the Panny 20mm f1.7, Olympus 12mm f2 and Olympus 45mm f1.8 belong to the m43 stable. With the Panny 7-14mm f4, Olympus f17mm 1.8, Leica 25mm f1.4, Leica 45mm f2.8, Oly 60mm f2.8, Oly 75mm f1.8, Panny 35-100mm f2.8 and the recently released Oly 12-40mm f2.8, m43 lenses have just about everything covered except a fast telephoto. Which is surprising since this in all likelinhood will be their major USP in future. Something like an Oly 250mm f4 would really swing the balance towards m43.
The Glass - When it comes to quality of glass, Olympus is rather high up there. Remember glass quality determines the colors and tones like nothing else does. While the Canikons score heavily on other parameters, especially the autofocus capabilities of their SLRs, they really take the consumer for a ride in this department by restricting their quality glass for their high-end premium/luxury lenses. Based on my experience of having used there brands, the’best glass’ lineup looks something like this for consumer lenses(say a 50mm f1.8):-
Leica(notwithstanding the fact that Leicas are not meant to be’consumer’ grade:-P) > Pentax > Olympus > Canon > Nikon > Tokina > Panasonic > Tamron > Sigma
=IBIS(In Body Image Stabilisation)= - This has to be seen to be believed. It E-M5 5-axis IBIS absolutely tears all other vibration compensation systems into shreds. The Panny 100-300mm, one of my most used lenses lately, has Optical Stabilisation(supposed to be better than in-camera stabilisation especially for telephoto) but the E-M5 IBIS is so good that I dont use the lens-based OS at all. This feature makes it very easy to hand-hold the camera even with slow lenses and still get tack sharp pictures. Even in low light.
Image Quality - Most of DSLRs produced today will give you great images in good light. I daresay you may find it difficult to separate the best from the entry level ones except when things start to get difficult(read low light, twilight, fog, low contrast, etc). Being the "smallest of large sensors", the high-ISO performance of the E-M5 comes as a pleasant surprise when you realise that low light shooting is pretty darned good and almost matches that of APS flagships like the Nikon D7000/Canon 7D. I have shot mostly tele with the E-M5, so I’m yet to capitalise on its potential. Here are a couple of galleries featuring E-M5 snaps:-
https://mouthshut.com/gallery/myphoto.php?user=sydbarett&catname=Shillong
https://mouthshut.com/gallery/myphoto.php?user=sydbarett&catname=Kaziranga
As expected, full frames are another story. The other good thing about the E-M5 image is the Olympus JPEG engine which really gives great colours and skin tones compared to in-camera jpegs of Canikons. So most of the time you’ll find yourself not bothering yourself with processing RAWs.
Autofocus - the E-M5 boasts of the world’s fastest autofocus system when used in AF-Single mode. And when you use the camera the claims appear real too. However the focusing in AF-Continuous or AF-continuous tracking isnt as good which means its difficult to photograph rapidly moving objects like birds in flight. But this isnt serious criticism when you realise its much the same with other DSLR systems too except that they may fare a shade better here because of using Phase detection.
Video - the E-M5, like most of its m43 brethren has great Video capabilities(much better than the current crop of APS DSLRs), thanks in part to the lenses which are optimised for video as also the capability to achieve continuous focus. This has a major implication as you will doubtless be aware if you have tried shooting video at tourist spots. For reasons best known to them, handycams are exorbitantly charged compared to cameras in most places(say 100 bucks compared to 20 or 500 compared to 50). So a camera that shoots good video will save you big bucks!
Innovation - One of the major reasons I started looking upto Olympus since last decade was their relatively fast-but-affordable four-third zooms like the 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 or better still the pro-grade 12-60mm f/2.8-4.0. In fact they were the first to come up with a f2 normal zoom - the divine Olympus 14-35mm f/2.0 before Sigma equalled the feat with their 18-35mm f1.8 last year. Offering in-built body stabilisation in all their cameras is a huge bonus, especially if its as good as the 5-axis IBIS in E-M5. In short, if I have to pay a premium to camera companies, I’d rather pay it to Pentax/Olympus who actually try and introduce innovations while the Canikons shamelessly continue milking the gullible public dry.
Availability - Olympus unlike Pentax, officially retails their cameras in India so theoretically you could buy any of their cameras/lenses "with warranty" easily. But practically this doesnt happen since the pricing is plain horrendous with most of their gear retailing at double the prices prevailing in international markets. So they dont even get started in the "interchageable lens" market in India. This has a tendency to put off prospective buyers who get scared of low resale values. However I would stick my neck out to say that the four-thirds system is here to stay and might slowly usurp sales from the regular Nikon/Canon DSLR market in the country as Oly/Panasonic gear begins to get sold at Marked-to-market prices(the E-M5 12-50mm kit is retailing for 65k on ebay India which is almost equal to$900 odd in the international markets thanks to the fall in Rupee). In terms of the portability to performance ratio the EM-5 is almost impossible to beat except by its own kith and kin released in future.
The Limitations - There are 3 or 4 major limitations of the m43 system. One is the Depth Of Field. For those interested in serious portrait photography(where background blur or "bokeh" is lustily sought after), the E-M5 will never be able to compete with its APS/full frame format rivals because of technical limitation of a smaller sized sensor. But again this translates into a benefit for landscape shooters since they will be able to get in more light with larger apertures(better hand-holdability at lower ISOs) and yet have a large portion of the frame’in focus’! Secondly, in low contrast situations, especially with telephoto lenses, autofocus suffers a bit due to lack of phase detection capabilities(this has been taken care of in the newly released E-M1). Thirdly, since the viewfinder is electronic, the in-and-out blurring as the camera hunts for autofocus, not only feels a bit odd but leads to a lag in shutter release and autofocus peaking, often resulting in out of focus images under trying conditions. Fourthly, one of the demerits of small size of E-M5 is its grip and this becomes amply clear when the missing "rounded" grip makes it a bit slippery especially for large palms like mine. Lastly the E-M5 menus can be a bit confusing. The controls are all present but they’ll some time finding.
The E-M5 is really a most compelling gadget. Of course the performance is fantastic. But more than the performance, its the’Form factor’ that you’ll love. Its a camera which will make you take more photos than you ever thought you could.
Simply because its so light that you’ll likely carry it wherever you go!