Micro 4/3 The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Experience

I may have mentioned it earlier in the thread but the Super Control Panel is touch sensitive (not sure if the E-P3 was the same?). Very cool. Touch the setting you want to change and adjust using the control wheel.
 
Another "like" for the E-M5 shutter. Amongst focal plane curtain shutters it's right up there with the best for me. Certainly not "turn on the fake shutter sound on my G1X so I get some kind of audible warning" quiet, but still very discrete. I'm using it mostly with the PL25 so far; haven't really checked to see if it is more muffled with the 12-50mm.

Totally agree about the shutter sound. Pleasant and discrete.
 
A Dog's Eye View

Having got my EM5 today I feel I should post the obligatory dog/cat photo. As luck would have it, it's been peeing with rain all day. Using the Zuiko 50mm Macro. I waved my Pentax K5 a fond farewell in order to finance the EM5. I figure I'll use it for my upcoming trip to New York and if we don't get along then I'll "re-get" a K5!!! I find that the EM5 is quite small and fiddly even though I'm quite small myself and I'm not sure if this is going to aggravate me, I think it probably will. I have to use my thumb nail to squizz up and down the arrow keys and it sometimes flies right past the setting I want........


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Cute shot and congratulations on the new camera!

Hope it starts to feel a bit less fiddly for you. I am feeling comfortable with it, but now that I think about it, I am not really adjusting anything when I use the viewfinder (still mostly doing focus and recompose for some reason).

I would be glad to hold on to your FA 77mm for you until the K5 is re-got (tm). I have heard that it is important to keep them exercised. :D
 
I think that I've mostly adjusted to smaller bodies and more cramped button layouts now. Even a year ago I would've said that the Canon 50D was my ideal ergonomic camera, but now I'd give that title to the Canon G1X. The E-M5 isn't quite as comfy to hold as that camera and the squishy buttons aren't nearly as pleasant, but I'm not that much of a button pusher or menu surfer anyway. As long as I can hold a camera how I like it and access the main controls without difficulty, then I'm 95% of the way to being comfortable with it.
 
Having got my EM5 today I feel I should post the obligatory dog/cat photo. As luck would have it, it's been peeing with rain all day. Using the Zuiko 50mm Macro. I waved my Pentax K5 a fond farewell in order to finance the EM5. I figure I'll use it for my upcoming trip to New York and if we don't get along then I'll "re-get" a K5!!! I find that the EM5 is quite small and fiddly even though I'm quite small myself and I'm not sure if this is going to aggravate me, I think it probably will. I have to use my thumb nail to squizz up and down the arrow keys and it sometimes flies right past the setting I want........QUOTE]

I look forward to your NY photos with the EM5. I hope to get to NY myself this summer with the XP1 and the NEX7. I find that I am reaching for the NEX7 more often than the XP1, but both are great.
 
Went into Jessops today to kill some time and look at the NEX7 and EM5
Had thought the NEX was probably the one for me until I picked up the Olympus. It just feels so right! My beloved OM4 reborn. The viewfinder is so good it felt like an OVF and if I had the money at the moment I would have bought one there and then.
No amount of pouring over all the stats and reviews can compare with holding the camera to your eye and feeling the urge to go forth and photoply
 
Christina, I don't like the D-pad either. Too small and too squishy.

IMO, Oly could have given more spacing between the buttons by making the LCD smaller. The viewable area of the LCD is about 0.5" smaller on each side of the overall size of the LCD.
 
Let's face it; just about all of the buttons feel squishy. None of them offer a positive "click". The spare real estate around the rear screen does also seem a bit wasteful. Still, I like the fact that the rear panel of buttons are almost on the same plane as the screen when it is retracted into the body. On the Panasonic G/GH bodies the folded screen sits proud of the rear panel and makes the left arrow difficult to press.
 
The buttons and mode dial are a bit soft, but that's certainly due to the weather sealing. That's the kind of thing I notice the first time I use a camera and would never think of it again on my own. On DPR, it's just one of several EM5 'fiascos', but at least they're kidding about it this time.

-Ray
 
It occurred to me today while I was using the E-M5 that maybe the reason why there is so much blank real estate on either side of the OLED screen is because of the sensitivity of the touchscreen. In moving the screen through it's range of motion you tend to place your fingers on the edges of the screen. With the touchscreen activated it only takes the slightest touch to fire the focus and shutter, so the extra space on the edges may be to prevent inadvertent shutter release (sounds like a medical condition).
 
I had a chance to play with the OM-D at the Melbourne PMA Digital Show yesterday. I am so impressed. The speed and accuracy of the AF is phenomenal, and the touchscreen focus and shooting is just amazing. It feels good in the hand, although I would definitely buy the grip, at least. I found that it kind of pulls towards the lens and feels a touch unsecured without the grip. The battery grip is similarly great. It's like shooting a mini-DSLR, but better. And in terms of handling speed and ease I like it a LOT more than the X-Pro 1.

The cameras were mounted with an array of lenses, and the fast primes impressed me a lot. The ingenuity of the manual focus snap-ring on the 12/2 is wonderful. And the focusing feel is very much like a 'real' manual focus lens, just without the minimum and maximum distance stops.

I'd need to test the camera in a lot of shooting conditions for image quality and look, but as far as operability goes, the OM-D is a real pleasure. I was not expecting it to be this good. I have to say that I was impressed with the Nikon J1 as well, but not as much as the OM-D.
 
I guess that's because of the wide angle....I'll have to see if there's anything else out there that will work. Not that it's a huge deal, but since I have a camera that I can shoot in the rain, I wanna shoot with it in the rain. A wet world is a photographic one.
 
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