olympus om-d: first first-hand thoughts Ed: Pics!

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

wow! just got mine in chrome with the 12-50mm (24-100mm) weatherproof zoom. i was truly on pins and needles waiting for this one, and out of the box it didnt disappoint.

its bigger than the ep2--higher because of the 'prism' and meaningfully thicker (not as 'jacket-pocketable') because of the 'prism' and articulating screen. it feels just a tad less solid than the ep2, which was a brick (in a good way), but definitely more substantial than the x100. very pretty, but somehow not as 'classy' as the PEN series. with the thumb rest, it feels very good in my hands. the two dials and two programmable buttons on the top plate near the shutter make eye on subject adjustments a breeze. really, having 4 adjustable gizmos right by the shutter makes a big difference. i'm not off the bat crazy about the shutter itself--it protrudes while most of my others do not. it feels a little flimsy compared to the ep2, but it is responsive. the evf is awesome, very clear and i believe 1.15 magnification.

the lens is nothing to write home about, but it does allow for a truly WA 24mm FOV. zooming to 100 will make it a pretty utilitarian street lens. somehow the 'whole' pictures look pretty good. its only when you zoom in that you kinda say 'thats a little muddy'. then you zoom out and say, 'hmm, thats not so bad'. it is what it is. i got it for the great FOV range for street work.

the autofocus is 'holy crap fast'. honestly instantaneous. one really cool feature, especially for street shooting, is that you can touch any point on the articulating screen and the camera instantly focuses on that point and shoots! in a freaking nanosecond its over! and because the screen articulates, no one will ever know you took their picture! i used it only on my dog, but she moves around and i never missed focus. exposure, like the ep2, seems 1/3-2/3 bright, at least for me. white balance, colors exceed the ep2, which tended to very warm as light decreased, and didnt handle artificial light so well.

good light/color IQ is maybe not such a big improvement over the ep2, though i only used two lenses and didnt take a whole lot of pictures, but i wasnt stunned by any dramatic difference when shooting in good light, except there is a noticeable dynamic range improvement. need to do more before i make a definitive judgement. now to be sure, i was happy with the IQ, happy with the extra DR, but i guess i was hoping for more of an 'aha!' moment than ive gotten so far. having said that, the b&w files are somehow much better to my eye than the ep2, though again, i have a very small sampling.

in low light/high iso, look out! this is when you know why you bought this camera! i used three lenses, zeiss cine tevidon 25/1.4, panny 20/1.7 and summicron-c 40/2, and each of them shot great up to iso 3200! 'aha! aha! aha!' the ep2 couldnt do 800! noise is very well controlled, and theres still a fair amount of detail, much more than i was expecting. i have to try to compare it to the high iso leader, the x100, but i think its going to compare pretty favorably. white balance was spot on in the same artificial light that confounded the ep2, x100 and even my 5d. colors were again spot on, not the typical olly warm. no blotches, just a tiny bit of CA only seen with my zeiss cine lens, and only then when zooming in 100%. great great great.

well, thats it for now. many features yet to explore, more lenses to try out, more of a sampling to aquire. right now, i'm pretty happy.
tony

kuuan · Expire: 2014-12-26

wow, sounds great Tony, congrats!
many here will be eagerly waiting to see your first samples, and please show as some pics of your new beauty too Wink

GrahamNR17 · Expire: 2012-09-06

You sound one happy man Cool

The camera sounds wonderful Very Happy

WolverineX · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 6:07 am Post subject:

e-m5 should be in the stores in my country some time next week, too much time to wait if you ask me Smile

i can't wait anymore

i got 16gb SD two days ago, 5 adapters for manual lenses are ordered from the ebay and on their way... only thing that is missing is the camera

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

congrats, lucky you, waiting to see the samples!

Nordentro · Expire: 2015-01-29

Wow, thank you for a quick review! Samples please:)

The first OM-Ds arrived in Norway some days ago. I do not know when I get mine, but probably in a week or so Wink

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Many thanks for such a detailed "first impressions"!
From your report it seems it was what many of us were waiting...

Look forward to your samples.

Regards.
Jes.

std · Joined: 09 Feb 2010 Posts: 1827 Location: Bulgaria

Congrats Tony Smile

It's good to hear that the new camera made progress since E-P2 for the warm colors and WB in low light. Also resolution of the sensor looks better those are definitely good news for Olympus. How do you find the new viewfinder compared to VF-2?

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

thanks guys! yeah, getting the omd is helping me through my ep2 withdrawal! Laughing

stefan, the vf is really great, better than the very good olly external vf-more magnification and more clarity. also omd has a choice of 4 focus zooms, up to 14x! if you cant manually focus with the omd, you need to trade your camera in for a guide dog!

i only have test shots, but here are some. first is zeiss tevidon at iso2500, then panny 20 and summicron 40 both at 3200, all very very low artificial light and no PP. lastly a couple from the kit zoom. even though it was cloudy, you can see the extra DR in the landscape. last one taken by touching the articulated screen in spot you want focus; cam instantly focuses and snaps!
tony

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Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Wow!... Impressive ISO performance...

Regards.
Jes.

GrahamNR17 · Expire: 2012-09-06

Oh man, that camera's full of awesomeness Shocked

ramcewan · Joined: 02 Mar 2012 Posts: 198 Location: New England, USA

damn now I am going to have to clean my keyboard from the droool

The touch to focus shoot thing sounds outstanding. It was one of the few features that I thought Panasonic had on Olympus, I did not realize that the new screen was touch driven.

I assume it is a capacitive screen as opposed to resistive?

Capacitive is what smartphones and tablets use - it allows the screen to be a hard surface but sense your finger based on the change in capacitance resultant from your touch.

resistive is the kind where you have to actually press and/or use a stylus.

I did not realize the OM-D had a touch screen... oh man now I really want it bad

eggboy · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:52 pm Post subject:

yinyangbt · Expire: 2012-12-27

Well done ,Tony ! Congratultions to you and Olympus for the new camera Laughing

Good results ,mainly high ISO

WolverineX · Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2012 7:18 pm Post subject:

ramcewan · Joined: 02 Mar 2012 Posts: 198 Location: New England, USA

Olivier · Expire: 2015-08-06

Wow !

Very nice photos !
Congratulations Tony and thanks a lot for this little review. Smile

Just noticed it's the chrome kit !
Could you post a picture of your new friend cam ?