Excellent Results with A Little Extra Effort

I know I am late to the party here and I expect Olympus to introduce an upgrade fairly soon. But, I did buy it in today's market and it will probably remain a viable choice for a while. I was attracted to getting a new mirrorless system like the Fuji XT-1 but decided that I was just replacing my existing compact and not my current DSLR. A mirrorless system will have to wait for now. Since I was replacing my compact, the xz-2 seemed to be a top choice along with the Fuji X-20. I was about to buy the Fuji when I tried it and found the ovf not to my taste at all. I lived without a viewfinder on my previous compacts so found the absence in the Olympus not an issue. I liked the size and weight and I found a sale (after the longstanding sale price had jumped back up).

In practice, I have come to like it more and more and now use it in a variety of situation. Initially, I was disappointed. I found many of my early images soft and noisy. But, after making some adjustments (using +ev when possible), I found better results. Unfortunately, part of the better results required shooting raw. The jpeg, which I have taken along with the raws, have usually not been close. Since I was expecting a good jpeg performance, this is where the camera loses a star. Instead, I have found a great increase in the results after making some pretty easy adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw. Shooting in A mode, the histogram is often somewhat centered and the images seem flat so adding contrast is required: increasing blacks and brightness. Once the basic pp is done, the images are often more than satisfactory. So, the camera gets the other stars. Here are a few images from the last few weeks:

None of these were shot with any special presets--just A mode.  Another aspect of the camera that can be frustrating is its slow max speed (1/2000).  I find I have to close down the aperture on sunny days pretty often just to prevent massive blowouts.  No grade change, though, since the results make me pretty forgiving.  I also did not get it for low light performance or sports.  For travel, walkabouts, nature, and such it is a nice camera.  I even used it with my dslr (D90 with a telephoto) so I wouldn't have to change lenses.  It did pretty well.

Thanks for reading and looking!