Thread: The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Experience

I got this camera just a week before I went on my New York trip last week and trusted that having had an EP2 and 3 it wouldn't prove too difficult to use once set up. I've got to say that it played second fiddle to the Fuji X Pro1 but that's another story! I took three lenses, the Panasonic 14mm, Panasonic Leica 25mm 1.4 and the Oly 45mm 1.8. I kept the 14mm on the camera almost all the time and it didn't disappoint. I was really pleased with the images quality and the focus speed. I found the PL 25mm far too bulky on this sort of trip. I don't think it balances particularly well and makes the camera very front heavy. You should factor in that I'm a small female and I like one handed shooting when I'm on a sightseeing mission :) I did find that the squishy, small buttons were maddening. I kept whizzing past the settings I wanted and having to go back again. The small delay in the viewfinder wake up was also a bit disconcerting. When raising the camera to the eye to be met with blackness made me think I'd left the lens cap on momentarily. The problem with using different systems at the same time is that you never get to know one camera inside out. I think if this was my only system then I'd soon get used to it's foibles. None of these things would make me sell it anyway. I really like it's compact size and the Oly 45mm lens is a delight to use. I did wonder if I would keep the EM5 once I got back from my trip but I'm very happy with it. Looking forward to the new Oly 75mm lens too.

Can't wait to see more Christina - I used the same two cameras in NYC and I used the EM5 mostly for street work and for longer or wider focal lengths, and the X-Pro for everything else, plus plenty of street shooting before I had the EM5. I never had an issue with the 25mm on the EM5, but since I'd probably never choose it over the Fuji 35 for that basic focal length and for very low light, I ended up selling it as soon as I got home. I don't need two lenses in a focal length I don't use very much anyway. And the Fuji is just that much better in low light at f1.4. Both are wonderful cameras with different strengths. I ended up shooting mostly with the 18mm on the X-Pro and the 12mm on the EM5 - just a wide angle sort of guy I guess...

Let us know when you get a whole set of photos up somewhere - I look forward to seeing them..

-Ray

This is one of those "wrong" photos that I just like anyway!

I'm so jealous of all of you with the OMD

Lessened the clarity a little more and added a vignette.




I think I prefer this lens to the PL25.

Love the soft focusing here and the vibrant yellow of your cab shot above.

Great photos!

Love the window shot, Christilou!

hmm ... I finally handled one of these little beasts today (LCE Bristol), only for a few minutes but it's how a camera looks and handles that matters most to me (on the basis that none of them are "bad" these days in terms of IQ) ... I've been very sceptical about this camera because not one photo I saw of it made me want to pick one up (I think it's ugly and lumpy) ... but, hey ... I was pleasantly surprised about how well it handles, even though it's smaller than my E-P2, and it suits my hands ... well, if my existing camera didn't still outshine my photographic abilities (and I had a grand going spare ) I'd consider it.

But it still didn't provoke the same batsqueak of desire that the E-P2 did when I first picked it up