E-M5 Owner - Comments, Critique, Reviews, and what-nots :-)

[albertri]

Some likes and quirks of OMD after handling for a day.

Likes:
- Hi iso is excellent as claim, 800 on my "aged" EPL1 looks like 3200/6400 easily on OMD, that's 2-3 stops advantage.
- Shutter lag improvements over previous Pen+VF
- OLED screen looks more accurate than on EP3, something which i dislike of the EP3.
- The tilt screen+touch-spot-magnify is very good for manual focus stealth shooting or low angle shooting provided not bright day.
- "Thumbs-up" at right corner is a nice addition to improve ergonomics
- DR looks better, though need to side by side comparison.
- Hi FPS is really a boon and bane...hard to control single shot even when set to continuous L, haha

Quirks/dislikes
- No ISO 50/100, although already know this before buying
- Buttons are small and hard to press/reach. Too bad Oly can't make scroll wheel instead of 4-way buttons
- EVF proximity sensor bit too sensitive especially using LCD screen tilt

Erh, hum sound, can't hear, i must be deaf.

That's all from a 1 day shoot

Welcome to the world of fast frame rate bro must have gentle touch when you set continous shooting mode I had that problem also when I got my other *wink* cam it was crazy sensitive and you end up shooting multiple exposure by accident

 

[esoeij]

I think you have to collect from Oly SG. Why don't you just give SLRR a buzz to ask if they have any news?

Bros, how you guys redeem the MMF-3? I pre-ordered from SLR Revo, they said will call me when it is available to collect.. but until now still no new... :/

 

[vengels]

it is very obvious they are trying to make a profit.

bought OMD em5 body+12-50mm+MMF3 for $1700

they sold the items separately.
body at $1300,12-50mm at $400,MMF3 at $200

Total $1900, profit $200.
some even try to sell the camera body at $1390.

Yah. That's right. Actually a local shop quoted me $1350 body only. Even cheaper than those few days old set.

 

[CrimsonS]

[video=youtube;BRyQU6XCQt0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRyQU6XCQt0&feature=player_embedded[/video]

Digitalrev again....this time testing em5 against xpro1 and nex7.

 

[snip3r]

OM-D E-M5 greater Dynamic Range than the X-Pro 1? Plus 1st quick snaps… | STEVE HUFF PHOTOS

EM5 with >13EV DR

 

[rhema83]

OM-D E-M5 greater Dynamic Range than the X-Pro 1? Plus 1st quick snaps… | STEVE HUFF PHOTOS

EM5 with >13EV DR

I'd take Tech Radar's test results with a big pinch of salt; they are not camera experts in any sense.

Then again, all the E-M5 has to do is to match the APSC competition to be a "winner", cos it is doing more (DR) with less (sensor size). There are also many more native m4/3 lenses than E-mount and X-mount combined.

I am becoming happier with my E-M5 purchase (and entry into the m4/3 system) everyday!

 

[rhema83]

[video=youtube;BRyQU6XCQt0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRyQU6XCQt0&feature=player_embedded[/video]

Digitalrev again....this time testing em5 against xpro1 and nex7.

I've watched the video. Despite the frequent joking, it is actually quite representative of the relative performance of the three cameras. And I love the scene where Lok is shooting with the E-M5 at 9fps and Kai just stared (maybe jizzed in his pants). *click click click click click.... @9fps* O__O "That is a MACHINE!" he said.

 

[Daniel Wee]

Has anyone done any tests to see if changing the settings for sharpness and contrast produce better results? I've seen a few comments suggesting that lowering sharpness and contrast might help. It'd be nice if someone put this to the test.

On a similar vein - what's your preference - keep warm colours or not?

Daniel

 

[Oly5050]

Has anyone done any tests to see if changing the settings for sharpness and contrast produce better results? I've seen a few comments suggesting that lowering sharpness and contrast might help. It'd be nice if someone put this to the test.

On a similar vein - what's your preference - keep warm colours or not?

Daniel

Better results in terms of AF speed or IQ?

For me, I turn NF off.
For the E-M5, I think I prefer to keep warm colours on. For the EPL3 and EP3, I have kept them off.

 

[Daniel Wee]

I was thinking more in terms of IQ.

I was thinking that noise reduction being set to auto only kicks in above certain ISO levels? Because of that, I set the NF to low but I am considering turning it off altogether.

Daniel

 

[Hitman]

Noise reduction set to auto will kick-in if your shutter speed is above 4 seconds, it is not dependent on the ISO.

I set the Noise filter to 'off', as I find the ISO performance of the E-M5 to be very good. I also set the sharpness to -2 to get even cleaner pictures.

 

[Daniel Wee]

Does that -2 sharpness setting compromise overall sharpness?

You're right about the shutter speed - I wasn't thinking right.

Daniel

 

[Hitman]

For me, I shoot jpeg, so I prefer to sharpen in post-processing.

You can do a test on your own, set the camera on a tripod, and take the shot with sharpness at 0 and at -2, and see if you'll agree with me.

 

[vainqueur]

For me, I shoot jpeg, so I prefer to sharpen in post-processing.

You can do a test on your own, set the camera on a tripod, and take the shot with sharpness at 0 and at -2, and see if you'll agree with me.

Me too. I do JPEG mostly and post processing using are noise reduction and sharpening because I usually turned NF off. Prefer to keep the details than the NF taking it away due to NF. I only just took my EM5, so, don't know how is the noise performance on it. Perhaps I don't even need to remove the noise in PP, haha.

 

[Oly5050]

Me too. I do JPEG mostly and post processing using are noise reduction and sharpening because I usually turned NF off. Prefer to keep the details than the NF taking it away due to NF. I only just took my EM5, so, don't know how is the noise performance on it. Perhaps I don't even need to remove the noise in PP, haha.

You are one of the few. Most people were ranting about how noisy the 4/3 cameras were. But I preferred the noise rather than detail loss. Now, its good we are in a situation, where we are talking about turning NF off.

 

[vainqueur]

You are one of the few. Most people were ranting about how noisy the 4/3 cameras were. But I preferred the noise rather than detail loss. Now, its good we are in a situation, where we are talking about turning NF off.

I think we shouldn't need to worry with the NF on EM5, what I am really interested to know is how is the NR performance because I take a lot of night shots, hopefully got chance to take some night shots this weekend.

Anyone who have taken such shots maybe can share your feedback too?

 

[Daniel Wee]

Well, I got down to some quick and dirty testing because I wanted to know what some of these settings did. The run down, so far, is this:-

1. Sharpness 0 (default) - some pretty strong sharpening artefacts, visible halo and so on. I'd say almost over-sharped look since this applies throughout the photo.

2. Sharpness -2 - definitely more natural but you lose some of the "pop".

I'm staying with Sharpness -1 as a temporary compromise until I can make up my mind.

3. Contrast -1 - not really that noticeable in my test conditions. May be more noticeable outdoors.

Leaving it at Contrast 0 (default) for the moment.

4. Keep warm colours - didn't seem to make a different either ways in my test. Will need to re-visit this a bit more later on.

I did some NF tests and didn't like the apparent smudging that becomes visible at higher ISOs. Admittedly I was pixel peeping but that's the whole point of this test - finding the optimal settings. For now NF stays off but NR is on Auto.

Daniel

 

[hyperFocal]

Same here. First thing i did was to set sharpness to the lowest (-2). NF to off, NR to auto. Colour adjustments are left at default. Prefer to do the adjustments in PP as it provides more fine control, but most of the time, the OOC jpegs are pretty damn good already.

"Keep warm colours" is quite apparent when shot in fluorescent lighting. When off, the shots will look colder, slightly more greenish.

 

[wonglp]

I think we shouldn't need to worry with the NF on EM5, what I am really interested to know is how is the NR performance because I take a lot of night shots, hopefully got chance to take some night shots this weekend.

Anyone who have taken such shots maybe can share your feedback too?

Not sure if this helps. Just did a sunrise shoot this morning, if only the weather not so cloudy. I turned off NF, and on NR as previously on other Pen, hot pixels gets in the way rather fast, personally, prefer to have noise reduction on just in case it kills my long exposure shot. Vivid color mode. Sharpness is set to +1 for all, as 9-18 is good but not that sharp a lens. Maybe when I have a little more time, i can check out how sharpness differs on the RAW file using oly viewer 2.

Did about 20 shots of 20sec, 5 shots of 60secs. No hot pixels, so it good news

Here's a shot to share from this morning. C&C welcome.

9mm, F11, iso 200, 60s. NF off, Sharpness +1, NR on. PP from Aperture on curves, levels, etc. GND hard edge + ND filter (3 stops).

 

[rhema83]

Same here. First thing i did was to set sharpness to the lowest (-2). NF to off, NR to auto. Colour adjustments are left at default. Prefer to do the adjustments in PP as it provides more fine control, but most of the time, the OOC jpegs are pretty damn good already.

"Keep warm colours" is quite apparent when shot in fluorescent lighting. When off, the shots will look colder, slightly more greenish.

Am I right to say that only NR affects the RAW files, while everything else such as NF, colour, sharpness, contrast are applied as post-processing (either onboard or in Oly Viewer) to JPEG only?