Testing an Olympus OM-D EM1 Mark II

[Jaded]

Well, Olympus send me emails saying that I can test their equipment and there is a dealer 5 miles away that offers the service. So why not?

Background - I'm a Nikon Full Frame user, with some good lenses. Which are astonishingly sharp, but also quite heavy. The low light capability of the D750 is outstanding - ISO 5000 is not bad at all. Also, I like Full Frame because the lenses do what they did when I started photography in 35mm. If I pick up a 50mm lens, it does what I expect. I used to use Olympus - an OM1 and I've had a XZ-1 compact for about 6 years now.

I like the look of the OMD series and wanted to see what it can do.

Initial thoughts:

- It is compact and very easy in the hand.
- Heavier than it looks (but the lower spec 5 and 10 models might be lighter)
- It takes a while to turn on compared with the D750, so I missed a few shots
- The general shot quality is very good, as is the auto focus and the metering
- The viewfinder is a bit slow compared with optical. In general use probably not a problem, but I like to do gig photography and also cover conferences. a virtually instant response to capture the - performer's eyes actually open is important!
- Definitely would be a more manageable kit both in terms of size and weight
- Low light performance is good, on a par with my D7100 crop sensor, rather than the outstanding D750
- The stabilisation is amazing. I have several shots at half a second handheld, that are pin sharp.
- There is a 50M pixel shot option that moves the sensor around to more than double the pixel count - this also is astounding.
- The touch screen is very good
- Shots per second also astonishing.
- Accuracy of the focussing generally spot on

So, so far, I like it but it wouldn't replace the work horse. It is too much in the middle between the D750 and a compact camera. And waaaay too pricey. If I had a lot of money and didn't need the FF and low light performance, it would be a no brainer.

So, as I can borrow other equipment, my next loan will be a Pen - the one with the same sensor as this camera.

[onerousdeporte]

Now I do find that interesting.

Loved my old OM10 with manual adaptor.

[Ham]

Interesting stuff - what lens(es) did they let you loose with?

[Jaded]

It's the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm F2.8 Pro, which is very good indeed.

Here's the Test and Wow link

https://wow.olympus.eu

[Jaded]

Another observation:

- battery life is not good, as fas as I am concerned. It is a very big battery, taking up some 25-30% of the space in the camera body. I was out today on full charge, in the cold this morning covering a Half Marathon, then this afternoon, in the gloom testing the low light performance. Some 350 shots or so. I’m used to getting up to 4 times that out of my D750. It’s probably something I’d just get used to...

[Woofage]

Poor battery life is par for the course for mirrorless (have you seen Digital Rev's video review of, I think, the Sony?).

But you can carry, say, 2 or 3 spares and your kit will still be loads more portable than any traditional DSLR.

Do you have any examples of low light shots? No small sensor will get close to FF results but it seems the latest bodies are getting very good now.

[Jaded]

I was about to post some comparisons with the D750 then I realised that the OM-D ones were jpegs (as Apple have decided not to update Aperture with the latest RAW importer  )

I will put a few up later. Plus some PEN-F photos 

[Gattopardo]

I am quite jealous.

But then I don't do any photography any more

[rafletcher]

Re the "open eyes" situation, could the pro-capture feature solve that?

[Jaded]

Yes, I think it would! A shame I can’t test it, as the camera went back. And it’s not a feature on the self-gift I now have!