Frugaltraveler
Forum Enthusiast
- Messages
- 290
- Reaction score
- 100
By the end of last year I posted a Year Update traveling with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 but when Canon released the new 5D Mark III much improved over the old 5D Mark II, I could not get satisfied with the OM-D’s abilities after a few shots with the 5D Mark III. Keep reading for more on this story.
Most of my work involves shooting from a backpack while skiing, hiking, or mountain biking, primarily outdoor action sport, often in crappy light. The 5D Mark III is simply magic when it comes to low light action shooting.
I have now moved to sell all the Micro four third kit to get the The MAGIC of FULL FRAME Canon 5D Mark III with the following lenses:
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Lens
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens and
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Prime Lens
Here are my reasons behind my move:
That EVF drove me Nuts for framing night shots or sunsets.
The OM-D has a bunch of nested menus that can drive even a calm person crazy, you have to update the firmware by connecting the camera to the Internet with a weird (non standard) USB cable, you can not save the updated firmware to a SD card and then load it from there. If your internet connection crashes during the update, well you may just have to mail the camera in to Olympus for a hard reset. Canon and Nikon let you download your firmware update to an SD or CF card or even just your computer and then you load it to the camera (much smarter)
Olympus lenses: there’s no built-in chromatic aberration correction and on that and most of the Oly zoom lenses you’ll wish you had CA correction. Not even Adobe Lightroom has a Lens library for Olympus or Panasonic micro four third lenses when processing RAW and wanting to adjust for lens correction.
The lack of CRISP SHARP images of birds in flight, cycling photos, even when stopping down at 1/2000s left a LOT to be desired.
The lack of being able having the sensor cleaned by your Local Camera shop or even yourself in the long run is something that worried me, bring any DSLR to your LCS and voila it gets cleaned or do it yourself if you’re handy using Sensor Swabs (takes a bit practice but can be done) Olympus claims a great dust shaker and while that might be GREAT and perhaps better than the Canon’s and Nikon’s that sensor WILL get ONE DAY some piece of dust it can not handle. And having to mail the camera off to a Olympus service center just for THAT? NO THANKS!
No Accessory GPS? Traveling and not knowing where I took a photo, with Canon I use the GP-E2 GPS Receiver and it tags all the images without fuzzing to later upload a gpx file and having date and time correctly aligned.
And then there is the structural problem that was reported on various forums “Olympus is to investigate cracking around the screws of the screen bezel on Olympus OM-D models after some users discovered that their cameras have the fault.”
“There is debate as to whether this is a manufacturing fault where the screws have been over tightened, causing the plastic screen bezel to crack, or whether it is down to the quality of the plastic itself.
Olympus are unsure whether the problem is due to a faulty batch, and is currently looking into the issue.”
Lastly, the OM-D is a expensive toy and not a true tool. Some photographers will ask why spend the money to buy an OM-D when you can get into a Nikon D7000 or Canon 7D for similar money?
There is a LOT of work to be done for companies like Olympys and Panasonic, they are just not THAT perfect.
For now I rather have a bit more bulk and carry my Pro Canon gear in a Clik Elite Venture 30, which is a nice carry on travel backpack, even fits a hydration pack.
The MAGIC of FULL FRAME, there is no substitute. Image Quality, depth of field, Dynamic range are unrivaled with Full Frame.
Most of my work involves shooting from a backpack while skiing, hiking, or mountain biking, primarily outdoor action sport, often in crappy light. The 5D Mark III is simply magic when it comes to low light action shooting.
I have now moved to sell all the Micro four third kit to get the The MAGIC of FULL FRAME Canon 5D Mark III with the following lenses:
Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra Wide Angle Lens
Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens and
Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Prime Lens
Here are my reasons behind my move:
That EVF drove me Nuts for framing night shots or sunsets.
The OM-D has a bunch of nested menus that can drive even a calm person crazy, you have to update the firmware by connecting the camera to the Internet with a weird (non standard) USB cable, you can not save the updated firmware to a SD card and then load it from there. If your internet connection crashes during the update, well you may just have to mail the camera in to Olympus for a hard reset. Canon and Nikon let you download your firmware update to an SD or CF card or even just your computer and then you load it to the camera (much smarter)
Olympus lenses: there’s no built-in chromatic aberration correction and on that and most of the Oly zoom lenses you’ll wish you had CA correction. Not even Adobe Lightroom has a Lens library for Olympus or Panasonic micro four third lenses when processing RAW and wanting to adjust for lens correction.
The lack of CRISP SHARP images of birds in flight, cycling photos, even when stopping down at 1/2000s left a LOT to be desired.
The lack of being able having the sensor cleaned by your Local Camera shop or even yourself in the long run is something that worried me, bring any DSLR to your LCS and voila it gets cleaned or do it yourself if you’re handy using Sensor Swabs (takes a bit practice but can be done) Olympus claims a great dust shaker and while that might be GREAT and perhaps better than the Canon’s and Nikon’s that sensor WILL get ONE DAY some piece of dust it can not handle. And having to mail the camera off to a Olympus service center just for THAT? NO THANKS!
No Accessory GPS? Traveling and not knowing where I took a photo, with Canon I use the GP-E2 GPS Receiver and it tags all the images without fuzzing to later upload a gpx file and having date and time correctly aligned.
And then there is the structural problem that was reported on various forums “Olympus is to investigate cracking around the screws of the screen bezel on Olympus OM-D models after some users discovered that their cameras have the fault.”
“There is debate as to whether this is a manufacturing fault where the screws have been over tightened, causing the plastic screen bezel to crack, or whether it is down to the quality of the plastic itself.
Olympus are unsure whether the problem is due to a faulty batch, and is currently looking into the issue.”
Lastly, the OM-D is a expensive toy and not a true tool. Some photographers will ask why spend the money to buy an OM-D when you can get into a Nikon D7000 or Canon 7D for similar money?
There is a LOT of work to be done for companies like Olympys and Panasonic, they are just not THAT perfect.
For now I rather have a bit more bulk and carry my Pro Canon gear in a Clik Elite Venture 30, which is a nice carry on travel backpack, even fits a hydration pack.
The MAGIC of FULL FRAME, there is no substitute. Image Quality, depth of field, Dynamic range are unrivaled with Full Frame.
Last edited by a moderator:
