Oly OM-D E-M5: What's quirky about it?

The only 'quirky' thing about the E-M5 is the involved menu work that is needed to get the camera set up the way you want. It is a very customizable camera, and the menus can be a bit daunting for many.

There is a lot of good info on setting up the camera and navigating the menus, if you take the time to research it. I just got my second E-M5 and setting it up was a breeze -- I just sat down with my primary one and copied all the menu setting to the new one:-)

It is a really great camera, and I'll bet you find your DSLR collecting a lot of dust pretty quickly!

God Bless,

Greg

www.imagismphotos.com

www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com

www.pbase.com/daddyo

If I had to be picky, I'd say the rubber flap over the USB connection is not the best design and the small rubber piece to protect the accessory port is just waiting to be lost…
Besides that, even if the ergonomics are almost spot-on for myself, if you are like me and like to hold the camera with only a wrist strap, when you're holding it for a long time when walking or hiking it may becomes a bit tiresome and/or "cramping". My guess is, the HLD-6 grip would alleviate that problem. (On my wish list until christmas...)
But all this being said, I would not choose another camera over the OMD, it's the one for me, with it I rediscovered the fun of photography.

--
A mind is like a parachute, it works better when open.

Auto-bracketing on the OMD (and all Olympus cams) is goddamn stupid and painful. You can't fire a delayed burst. Despite all the customizability, you can't actually select what functions are in the "multi-function" button, though you can reassign the button itself. The button assignments are highly random, enough that somebody put together a chart of what is and isn't allowed. The MySet custom settings are borderline unusable because of how annoying it is to activate them. And the kit lens' hood is utterly useless. (Both the 14-42 and 12-50.)

I do love the camera though.

Oh no problem, I come from NEX-5N and Fuji X100 and both of these were always "assaulted" by how the menu worked - I never had any problems though, just a matter of learning them and getting used to them, so I'm not so much worried about the OMD, especially when it gives us a lot of options for customizations - I like that.

I almost never use the USB ports on my cameras, I always remove the SD card and put it into my Mac, just easier than finding a cable. I trust the SD card slot cover on the OMD is of decent quality?

As for straps, I liked a hand strap with Fuji X100 and also used it a bit on NEX, but lately I've been using a neck strap with my NEX the most, because I just prefer being able to have both my hands free when I need to, not worrying about banging the camera into something. Also NEX-5N is a really small body so I imagine the "cramping" would actually be as bad, or worse, on NEX-5N than on OMD EM5.

Thanks for your responses!

From my experience renting one for a week for a project:

The AF point behavior is quirky: the points are bigger than you'd often like, and the only way to get them smaller is to use Preview Magnify before autofocusing.

The "dial-a-tone-curve" feature is quirky, but sometimes useful (and you can certainly ignore it, in the vein of Olympus loading their cameras up with optional features that you can use if you like them and ignore if you don't).

The layout of the control dials is a little quirky and nontraditional, but they work just fine.

Continuous tracking AF is quirky, in that it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't and sometimes decides that a chair in the background is VERY interesting.

Overall it's a very easy camera to take good pictures with; in my opinion, like the Four Thirds series has from the beginning, it just does a lot of things right. I have experience with Olympus DSLR's, and it was easy as pie to slap a lens on it and shoot. Coming from the Panasonic sensor era, the color rendition is definitely different, but that's no bad thing; it reminds me more than anything else of looking at Kodachrome slides.

Is it possible to turn off the touch screen in case it gets annoying to have it enabled?

Autofocus is one of the things that bothers me a little bit about NEX-5N and especially Fuji X100, so I was looking at getting the NEX-6 but I just don't see that many improvements in it over the 5N, which is why I decided to look at the OMD EM5 instead, and also because it's weather sealed - I'd love to go out and shoot even when it rains, which it does a lot around here, or even if it snows.

Olympus did claim, when OMD EM5 came out half a year ago or so, that it had the fastest contrast based autofocus available, so I guess speed-wise it should be okay?

Ideally I would prefer not to go below APS-C sized sensors (I like shallow depth of field, but hopefully 20mm f1.7 might help me out there?) so I might return to the NEX camp once the NEX-7 successor comes out, but it'll probably be a year from now until dust has settled and the price has climbed down a little bit. And even then there's no guarantee that I'll like the NEX-7 successor, so my gadget-craving has to be satisfied with something new before the end of this year

Oh, and I love the OMD EM5 design!

Auto focus is fast. Getting it to focus where you want isn't always easy. Here I wanted to focus on the sickle bar of my International Harvester mower, but the camera was more interested in the bushes in the background. I gave up and focused manually.



Well... I guess quirkiness is subjective, but it implies that something could be improved but isn't necessarily a deal-breaker. In fact it might just be a matter of learning to work with the design or feature.

I suppose the most obvious quirk is no built-in flash. A small clip-on flash is included, but you have to remove the hot-shoe cover and accessory cover to mount it (which isn't a big deal, but something to be aware of). I received a free Oly FL-300R flash with the E-M5 (early promotional offer), and I use it more often since it can be bounced. I usually use the included flash only as a trigger when I want to fire the FL-300R remotely. Of course one of the big advantages of the E-M5 is that you rarely absolutely need to use a flash since the image quality at high ISO is quite good.

Other quirks? Well some folks don't like the strap lug hardware, but I actually like it. You can always replace your strap though. Then there is the EVF eye-sensor, which is almost always a good thing (automatically switches from LCD to EVF when you put your eye to the EVF), but sometimes it gets triggered by your hand, the strap, or your shirt when you are composing with the LCD (especially when shooting at waist level), but you an easily toggle this auto-switching on and off.

I have owned some wonderful cameras over the years: Canon Powershot S30, Nikon D70, Nikon D200, Panasonic LX2, GF1, and now the E-M5. All of them have had what I would call "quirks" and even downright annoyances. I would say that the D200, GF1 and E-M5 are my favorite cameras, but the E-M5 is the overall winner. It's definitely the best camera I've owned.

I still shoot with both Nikon and m4/3, but the E-M5 has me selling off more of my Nikon lenses. The main reason I was drawn to m4/3 over Sony NEX is the lens selection. Lenses matter more to me than camera bodies, although it's nice when a camera system offers both excellent camera bodies and a comprehensive catalog of lenses that include excellent primes.

Sean

Watch out! The LCD lower bezel cracks. See previous thread on this forum. Mine did less than a month after purchase. Regards

Read all the threads on problems with the OM-D E-M5 that all have their origin in poor production control.

Here the latest thread: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/50330633

So make sure, you can send it back, if it shows any issues.

Peter.

Minor things I find annoying, none of them deal breakers:

1. I find that when using face detection I keep wanting to switch it on and off depending on whether faces are detected or not.  Focus seems unpredictable if the face turns away, etc.

2. I wish I could set the IBIS to always be on for video.  This is one advantage of a lens based, or at least switch based system.  If I am doing sports shots I might be taking advantage of panning with the subject and have IS off (as I might be switching between horizontal and vertical shots).  Then when I switch to do a video I want IS on.

3. Mysets are something I find confusing.  Unlike a command dial custom set, once you've loaded it, you've loaded it so you need to make sure you have a defaults one to go back to.  Or maybe I'm missing something.

4. It annoys me that I can't easily playback images in the viewfinder.  If I am playing back images on the rear screen and bring it to my eye (or accidentially put something in front of the viewfinder sensor) it takes me out of playback and into shooting mode again.

5. I wish it had one smaller size of AF like on the new PENs.  I miss this from my GH2.  Sometimes the AF box is just to big.  You can setup a button to magnify, and it works well, but you can't keep in on that box and you waste a custom button to do it.

6. The super control panel has way too much information on it.  There are things like the color space that should be hidden in menus, and things like bracketing that should be there instead.  Also, the layout has different size 'blocks' so when you move around it it move unpredictably.  Using the touch screen to select works well, though, but I don't now why they don't let you select using the touch screen once you pick and option to change.

Things that I find surprisingly good about it, that aren't obvious from the spec sheet:

1. No dust on the sensor, ever!  I use primes and change lenses a lot...

2. Viewfinder.  It is smaller than the Panasonic or Sony's, but it doesn't have the flickr of the Panasonic (color smearing) when you move your eyes.  Very comfortable to use.

3. Auto ISO makes use of a minimum shutter speed that is configurable.  Love it!

The problem you are referring to is an exception, not the rule. I believe it is primarily the result of how one uses the flip out LCD.

I've had my first E-M5 for about nine months and have used it for both personal and professional shoots and to date have had zero issues. I just bought my second.

I would agree that there have been enough issues reported regarding the cracking problem that Oly need to beef up the design.

Sorry you had the problem.

God Bless,

Greg

www.imagismphotos.com

www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com

www.pbase.com/daddyo

I don't see the focus target size as an issue. I have E-M5 set to switch to the 14X size focus target by simply pressing the 'Record' button -- bingo, a very small target area that can be position in any of 1,075 spots in the viewfinder -- and it remains the target size until I press the 'OK' button or turn the camera off.

I think that is a big plus, not a quirk.

God Bless,

Greg

www.imagismphotos.com

www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com

www.pbase.com/daddyo

I don't think there is anything particularly quirky about the camera, but the evolution of the system has been rather quirky.  (Same is true for Nex and Fuji, however;  difference is with more mature DSLR lineups.)

Both Panasonic and Olympus are still refining the types of camera lines they want to have, so models come and go each year and don't always represent the same targeted marketing group (e.g. GF1 - enthusiastic camera;  GF2, GF3, GF5 - p&s upgrader camera).

The lenses have appeared in random makes, models, colors, materials, build quality, optical quality, prices, etc.  Lenses have been optically redesigned or re-released with mere cosmetic changes.  There are lenses that repeat similar focal lengths (14-42, 14-45, 14-42PZ; 14-42mkI, 14-42mkII, 14-42mkIIR; 45-200, 40-175, 45-150).

Don't get me wrong, you can build a nice line up of good lenses easy enough - but the issuance of lenses is without a public roadmap and seems rather random.  We never know what we are getting and it is hard to plan for the future. Luckily, they just keep coming and there are plenty of choices to match various needs.

--
Roberto M.

Yes. Well... the touch-screen part always works, but you can disable the feature that allows you to either focus by touch or focus+take a photo by touch. With those features disabled, the way I usually have mine set up, the only time touching the screen does anything for me is when I'm in the Super Control Panel (and even there I usually use the arrow buttons and control wheels to change settings because I find it faster).

It is super-fast with every lens i have except for the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake (but that lens was also slower to focus on my GF1). With the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 and 12-50mm (and also the Panasonic 14-45mm) it is super fast and responsive. On par with my Nikon D200 using an AF-S 17-55mm f/2.8, if not better. AF-C tracking is not a strength of m4/3 cameras, but it seem  better in the E-M5 than in my older GF1.

The 25mm f/1.4 will help you achieve shallower DOF since it's slightly longer and faster. Shallow DOF with lots of background blur is definitely possible with longer primes like the 45mm f/1.8 and 75mm f/1.8 (as well as with slower zooms in the 100-300mm range), but if you want more blur for normal and wide angle lenses then full frame definitely has an advantage. I shoot both m4/3 and APS-C, but personally I don't think APS-C has much advantage over m4/3 in this department. My 35mm f/2 prime on my Nikon D200 doesn't blur the background all that much, but of course longer primes will.

Sean

Sold!! Not even NEX-5N allows that (and I don't think 6 and 7 do either).

Thank you for that. I was kinda already planning on getting that lens since I love how small it is, but if it means slow autofocus then I think I'll look elsewhere. Or at least research it even more.

Is this the $500 Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm f1.4 ASPH lens, you are referring to?

Having used my OMD for about 6 months now, it's really down on the quirky list.  For me, quirkiness is mostly being unfamiliar with the camera's functions and also one's photographic goals  (the more I want to shoot everything, the more every camera becomes more quirky).  Now that my goals are more concise I can focus only on the functions that I need (the fewer the better, for me anyway).  So the OMD is brilliant becos I'm more sure of what I want/need with it and realize there is no perfect camera.

When you switch to "14x size focus target", do you still see the live highlights/shadows blinking?

Thx