I don't know why people think a camera with IP53 weather sealing can be produced to the size of a GX9. Maybe it could be done for NASA, but then how much would that cost at retail.
no need for NASA. the OM5 is IP53 rated and is about the same size as the GX9
costs around $1k
It would be interesting to talk to the designers and engineers of the OM5.
It was designed by old Olympus as the EM5 mk3. The OM5 is 100% the exact same body, down to the single gram the same weight. All that is different is a few chips on the motherboard to upgrade it from Truepic8 to Truepic9, the color of one knob, and of course the firmware with useful new features.
Camera that is a combination of magnesium-alloy and polycarbonate.
To my knowledge, there is not one single gram magnesium in the OM5 body. It is an all plastic design, constructed exactly like the EM10 line. With a few extra design features to make it look and feel somewhat more premium.
I stand corrected. Thank you for catching this. B&H has it wrong in the Q&A.
Looking further OM System uses the name "nylon" construction.
"Nylon" is a trade mark of the family of Aramid plastics. To get a feel for it, good quality cable ties are made of Nylon, or the brake fluid reservoir in your car. It is a flexible very strong and very durable material, much more expensive than the weaker and more brittle Polycarbonate (in cars the ashtray and bumpers and headlights may be made of this material). And no, there is no Nylon in an OM5.
The OM5 is made of the same plastic as OM10 series cameras: PCGF10 and PCGF20. That is granules of PolyCarbonate with 10 or 20% glass fibre reinforcement (present as fine powder), that is suitable for injection molding. It is a very low cost plastic, there are about $2 worth of it in an OM5.
Looks like we're getting caught up in words now and OM System mistakenly used a trademarked name on their websites.
Uh no. Aramid plastic, with or without the trade name Nylon, is widely known for its high price and vastly superior properties. Consumers know that products made of it always command a high price.
If OM really used it for the OM5 in their website (I have never read it), that would be a gross misrepresentation.
Another possibility is that they use a tiny Nylon tape, 0.02 g in weight, as a bearing surface somewhere in the IBIS mechanism. But who would want to mention that???
Actually, I think it looks the description in my screen shot is so poorly written that when I read it again and see "Olympus Street Case a constant companion", you have to wonder what are they talking about? Now it reads like a description of a nylon camera case. Open the link and it takes me to this:
https://explore.omsystem.com/ie/en/om-5
But, maybe the description is related to an accessory?
The Nylon Necktrap!
Bingo!!!
Out of curiosity, where did you find the reference to PCGF10 & PCGF20? Thanks!
It's molded into each part on the inside. Presumably it is a legal requirement in many countries, to ease plastic recycling after the useful life of the plastic product expires. Even though the single parts are so small that nobody is going to recycle the bits a camera is made of. But on car parts it makes a lot of sense.
This is the baseplate of the EM5.3 and the OM5, they are identical. You can read the material it is made of if you zoom in right above the rectangular opening.
The self adhesive foam strips around the baseplate and all openings is what makes the difference between a weathersealed camera and one that is not. The EM5.3 was rated IPX1, the OM5 was suddenly rated IP53. Same parts, same body, same seals. OM must have changed their interpretation of the IP testing standard
. Some people passionately believe a higher rating is better, even if IP rating is hardly applicable to ILC cameras. Some other camera makers like Panasonic do not publish such IP ratings, because they know it's just marketing snake oil in the context of ILCX cameras.
