D4 to OMD-EM5

Hi All,

I just wanted to share my experience of EM-5 with you.

I am a Nikon D4 user and have the Nikkor 24-70, 14-24, 70-200 and 105 Micro lenses.  Earlier this year I sold my D3 and had to wait a few months to get the D4.  While awaiting the D4, I was without any other camera.  At the same time, I had found it limiting, cumbersome and even dangerous to take all or most of Nikon gear to trips abroad.  I wanted something light yet capable. Enter the Nikon V1 with the twin lens kit.

I took the V1 to Mallorca (Spain) and Paris earlier this year.  I loved the portability element and was generally very pleased with that camera.  However, I found two areas quite limiting:

- Limited exterior controls as well as the absence of more sophosticated controls

- Dynamic range

I was also not very pleased with its high ISO and kit Lenses' performance (no surprises there though).

Enter OMD-EM5.  I had heard and read so many positive reviews of this camera that I decided to take the plunge (and build a D4 equivalent system).  I wanted to take this system abroad and only use the D4 system on local trips or at home. My OM-D system now comprises of the Pana 12-35, 35-100 and Oly 75 f1.8 as well as the battery grip.  I am hoping to add the Oly FL-600R flash sometime next year.

Though I have not had the change to us the EM-5 extensively, I am so far very please with the camera and all my new lenses.  It is indeed a mini D4.  I love some of its features, such as the live histogram and highlight/shadow overlay.

Below are a sample of recent photos taken with a combination of all 3 lenses.



Other than reliable, fast AF tracking and clean high ISO performance, E-M5 can do a lot for you.

Also, the E-M5 takes forever (compared to a DSLR) to wake up from sleep mode or to be ready to take a photo when you turn it on.  2-3 seconds.  If you need to shoot quickly you will lose shots compared to any DSLR (not just a D4).  Reviews almost never mention this although dpreview and others always made a big deal about it a decade ago with cameras and that is why DSLRs got so fast, but they don't talk much about it with mirrorless.  It is an area that needs a huge improvement.

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Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

ya i'm thinking about turfing my d7000 for one of these (or one like these)...

one of my concerns is low light focusing... since your posted pics show just that.. how did you focus ?.

i have no idea what your lenses look like so i dont know if  there are any markings on the lenses for setting DOF, or hyper focal or whatever.. You are most likely not using auto focus on these... the pan's are faster than the oly's  . right ? big help.

just curious !

Hi Steve,

Firstly, and in my humble opinion, the camera is acceptably fast in its operation.  The low light focusing is also good.  I was using full AF for all these shots.  I have no experience of Oly lenses (apart from the 75 f1.8) but the panas' are very fast in focusing.

Regards

Nice pix. But, YIKES, f/18 on several! Deep into diffraction blur. I can see that you might have wanted to focus both near grass and far trees on a couple (but, did you check hyper focal distance?), but the red clouds just don't need DOF. Something I'm missing? My rule of thumb is f 8 for most, f 11 if needed. More than that is "emergency" territory. I print up to 16 x 20.

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The BoxerMan

It's actually quite good compared with my dslr, all except for focusing precision on the fly, meaning the focus point on a dslr is usually fairly pin-point, but the smallest focus point on an EM5 is still a square that sometimes chooses things you don't aim at. It's an area where m43 still has some work to go, though it sounds like the gh3 has made improvements here.

I found I prefer to turn off the focus assist light, as the lenses work about as well without it, and  I don't spray my subject with a red light, letting them know what's up. If I choose a high enough iso to brighten the scene (pulling down in post if desired) that seems to help low light focusing.

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John Krumm
Juneau, AK

Thanks.

Yes, f/18 for near to far field DOF, though this was more of a test that a habit. I too don't generally go far above f/11.  I was not checking the hyper-focal distance.

The work around I use very effectively is to assign magnify to f2 button and change the size to 14x.  Then every time I hit f2, the focus point becomes tiny and can be placed very accurately.

The issue of Olympus start up time has been debated and discussed to death on the Olympus DSLR forum. While Olympus is not as instantaneous as many of the DSLR's on the market, the lag time is very minimal and the reason for it is very valid.

According to the Imaging Resource review of the E-M5, start up to first shot is 1.1 Sec. (my personal experience is about the same) -- this is a far cry from "2-3 seconds"

Most people turn on their cameras prior to raising it to their eye -- my experience is that the E-M5 is read to go by the time I need to shoot.

The reason for the lag time is that Olympus, and correctly so in many users opinions, opts to cycle the sensor dust reduction system at start up, rather than at camera shut down like most DSLR maker choose to do. To me and a lot of others, it make much more sense to do it at start up, because that is right before you start capturing images, and after any lens changes that might allow dust to settle on the sensor. People can debate this all they want, but the proof is in the pudding -- the Olympus dust reduction system has shown itself to be the most effective on the market ever since Olympus first invented the system.

I have been using Olympus DSLR's and mirrorless cameras for some years now, and have yet to lose and important shot due to slow start up time.

God Bless,

Greg

www.imagismphotos.com

www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com

www.pbase.com/daddyo

Reza

These images are excellent, great exposure technique. I would like to which lens plus general data to each image though...

I received many mails of both Canon and Nikon owners who switched completely or in pro cases added the E-M5 as alternative or backup.....

In customer view a small camera cannot do what a large and heavy camera body can..... Personally I keep a 7D on hand but my main setup I trust today are the E-M5....

The better you get to know it the better images become.....

Siegfried

--

Community of Photographers
www.photographyisfun.ch

I'm glad you pointed out the 14X magnify target. I have my E-M5 set up to toggle to that using the 'Record' Button -- it works very effectively.

Also, just for the record, one day I sat and computed the number of available focus points using the 14X Magnify target -- the total number is 1,075 focus points. There's no DSLR that comes close to that.:-)

God Bless,

Greg

www.imagismphotos.com

www.mccroskery.zenfolio.com

www.pbase.com/daddyo

...at this trolling thing, Dave

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shinndigg
www.pbase.com/shinndigg

This is the m4/3 forum, not the Olympus DSLR forum so I haven't seen it "discussed to death" here.  I did bring it up here several months ago, but only one person replied.  The lag for wake up and power on is not very minimal though.  It is much longer than any of the various DSLRs I have used over the years.  For example, my old Canon 30D circa 2006 was 0.1 seconds according to Imaging Resource so more than an order of magnitude faster than the E-M5.  In this regard the E-M5 is a digicam and if Olympus wants to have a reasonably high performance camera then they need to do something about this.

I haven't taken a stopwatch to it, but the delay is interminable.

It depends on what you shoot.  I checked your websites and see why you have no problems with a long delay.

I had guessed that the sensor cleaning was happening at power on (but what about wake up from sleep mode?).  Some cameras give you a choice of power on or power off for this.  If this explains the long delay when powering on then it would be good for Olympus to give the choice to change it to power off time.  But, does it do a sensor cleaning when waking up from sleep mode also?  That doesn't make much sense and makes the wake up very slow.

I checked your websites and see what you shoot.  Yes, a 1.1 or even 11 second delay would rarely make any difference for what you shoot.  I do a lot of street photography though where instant reaction to quickly changing situations is more the rule than the exception.

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Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

Don't take it the wrong way, but why do you shut down the camera when you do street photography? I basically leave it on. It powers on by half-pressing the shutter and voila. THe effect on battery life is minimal (IMHO). Am I missing something?

I'll just say that I tried powering on just now and was able to take my first photograph in less than a second after I flipped the power switch. I've never had to wait 2-3 seconds, so not really sure where that's coming from. I agree, it's measurably slower than a DSLR, but shorter than a second, in my informal tests.

tex

f11 on FF or m4/3. f11 on the OM-D will be in diffraction zone (=f22 on FF for DOF).

JP

Hello I just wanted to mention I like you composition, choice of subject matter and use of the shades in the backgrounds. Very pleasing images. Thank you for sharing. I think I would also feel more secure in rougher areas here in the Tacoma area with a black EM5 setup than a DSLR and huge lenses.

Please go back and read my post.  It takes a long time to wake up from sleep mode.

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Henry Richardson
http://www.bakubo.com

Sleep mode to shutter activation time - less than a second. I tried just now with two different lenses, just to make sure it wasn't lens specific. Is your firmware up-to-date?

tex