To those with both EM5-II and EM1

One big downside for me to get out of the way is the grip, if I were judging purely on the ergonomics of that, I would keep the EM-1, which suited my hands much better and just seemed a better bit of design and construction

Yeah - in that it IS a grip - I felt liberated by it after the EM5 Mk1 and 10 with the 14-140 on - does the RH lug still stick into the hand when using the MkII like the Mk1 and EM10 ? ..

- battery life is not so good either but not sufficiently degraded as to be a problem for me

Well, the EM1 is crap on that score .. LOL . I liked the way the EM10 recycled old EPL and EP batteries , kinda hoped the Em5-II would have carried that on .

- the IBIS does seem to work better, particularly when shooting close macro work hand-held (my usual mode of working)

Does it - I wondered if the reports on this were merely the Traditional DP-Review Forums Hyperbole coming into play .

- although it is supposed to be "the same" sensor as that in the EM-5, I believe that something has been improved (maybe in the in-camera processing?) as I get less noise as the ISO increases to 1600 and the images have a cleaner more open look (subjective assessment + comments from club member who have seen images from all three of my EM's 5, 1 and now 5 mk2) Its certainly less noisy than my copy of the EM-1

What about RAW ? . to be honest my EM1 isn`t much diff to the EM5 Mk1 and EM10 at high ISOs - I only use JPG for Product work

- I think that focus is faster than the 5 and on a par / maybe a tad faster than the 1

It`s the tendency for Olys to sometimes miss on bright sunny scenes by a bit and rear focus that I`m hoping they`ve cured in the 5-II - though they`ve done it since the EP1 so hoping a bit much I guess .. Panasonics simply do not do this (though they simply do not have EFCS either bar the compromised GM cams hence why I moved to an Oly)

- for my studio / still life work the Hi Res 40mp mode is a real benefit

I do hate Tripods with a passion so doubt I`d use it much but I can imagine with the 12-40 set to F4 the results are out of this world.

- although I make only limited use of it the on-board flash is a real improvement with swivel and bounce potential and, I get the impression, a wider focal width (not made enough use for objective comment here)

I can`t imagine me using it for anything other than as a commander on an OMD BUT it WILL work on my GM5 after a small mod so that`s another big bonus for me - thanks

Thanks for your input Brian .......