A first walk out with an E-P5. Some photos and thoughts

I finally joined eBay a few weeks back, and this is my first eBay bargain. Before I begin, I'd like to re-state a view I've expressed here before: When Olympus launched this camera, their asking price was absurd. Noting about owning and using this camera has changed this view. I thought the all three OMDs were great value, from the beginning. The pricing of the E-PX line seems a little odd to me.

A little modern architecture, ©2014 Jason Hindle

I bought the E-P5 body only, and this weekend I've been using it with the 45mm f1.8 (my favourite lens that really shouldn't be my favourite lens, because I'm generally a wide person).

FIRST IMPRESSIONS - THE UNBOXING

No, there are no photos or videos of the unboxing. I'm not that sad. Suffice to say, the packaging is Olympus trying it's very best to be the poor man's Leica. This is fine; Fuji are playing the same game (rather more successfully, I think). On taking it out of the box for the first time, the body has a reassuring heft; far heavier than my E-PL1 or E-PM2. The Leica comparison stops around the point you get to the cheap and nasty feeling battery door . Other than this, holding the E-P5 mostly feels like you're holding a quality camera.

BUTTONS AND DIALS

Feel more or less well placed for my relatively small hands. I missed the back dial a couple of times, whilst out shooting for the first time, but I suspect this is a matter of familiarisation.

INTUITIVE AS EVER - NOT

Every time I use a modern Olympus camera, for the first time, it's a struggle to get little things like SCP working, without using Google (or searching this forum)

OUT AND ABOUT FOR THE FIRST TIME

It seemed appropriate to use the 45mm f1.8, for the first time out with this camera. My relationship with this lens is unusual. I stick it on, fret about how I'll not get any photos, because it's too long, and then take too many photos. So here goes.

Hulme Arch, ©2014 Jason Hindle

The nice thing about the 45m is I find that I can short the things I normally shoot, as long as I can stand back far enough. Anything longer would perhaps not be so useful for me. For architecture type shots, the camera focused quickly and flawlessly.

Hulme Arch 2, ©2014 Jason Hindle

Central Library, ©2014 Jason Hindle

Crowds watching Pride 2014 go by, ©2014 Jason Hindle

As I took that one, the whole crowd was singing My My My Delilah, at the tops of their voices.

Where I had a spot of bother was people shots. The camera has some face recognition thing going on and, if you don't understand it (I don't fully), it can mislead you into focusing where it isn't actually focussing. Still, I got some usable shots.

Pride 2014, ©2014 Jason Hindle

Pride 2014, ©2014 Jason Hindle

I suspect once I better understand the face recognition features (there seems to be a number of Face Priority Modes), they may well be useful in hectic, fast moving crowd situations.

So, I ended my photo walk by heading into the city centre. Once I'm in the 45mm way of thinking, it's quite hard to stop.

Walking to Piccadilly, 2014 Jason Hindle

Here, I stumbled upon Pro Gaza/Palestine demonstation, at the Queen Vic statue in Piccadilly Gardens (this seems have become Manchester's Speakers Corner). Once again, the technology running amok, and my lack of understand of it, reduced the number of keepers.

Speaking for Gaza, ©2014 Jason Hindle

THOUGHTS ON IMAGING

Ern, there's not a great deal to say. If you own an OMD-EM1/5/10 or Pen E-PL5 or Pen E-PM2, this is pretty much what you get. The camera comes with the nice bonus of twin dials, a digital level (which I only learned how to use last night - so thanks Olympus for not making things obvious) and 1/8000 for shooting wide open in bright conditions. It also comes with WiFi (I am looking forward to playing with that).

The full set of photos I published, from my first outing, can be found here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jason_hindle/sets/72157646723586526/

I'll not give the camera an overall rating, yet, as I've still got WiFi and flaw to test.

IMAGE STABILISATION

I've only done a few crappy test shots, at home, but my initial impression of this camera's IBIS?  It's the daddy!

I installed the Olympus Image Share app to my Google Nexus 5, last night, and quickly located the appropriate setting on the camera.  Scanning QR code (available via Menu -> Playback menu, and pairing was painless.  Points to note:

• The main use for this is going to be fast image sharing
• Photo journalists with deadlines will love this (though I expect Sansung's Galaxy NX will be far more seamless)
• Remote Control is very simple, but also limited
• The app warns you that Remote Control is limited to Intelligent Auto*
• If you're on a limited data plan, bear in mind it disables your home wireless network (at least on Android, you need to explicitly make the phone reconnect).

* I shoot in A, M and S (in thst order of priority); I don't have the foggiest what Intelligent Auto is.  I'll try and establish how useful it is.  For example, if I can still shoot in raw, and remotely control a flash, I'd say it has it's uses, especially in a studio setting.

Now, Olympus Imagae Share is available for iPhone, iPad and Android.  If you have the E-P5, EM-10 or EM-1, and a compatible device, I recommend giving it a try.  At worst it's going to be a bit of harmless, nerdy fun. At best you may find you have a use for it.

tinternaut wrote:

The app warns you that Remote Control is limited to Intelligent Auto*

Olympus firmware update 1.5 removes that limitation.  Once it's installed, you can operate the camera in all shooting modes.  It also provides a fix for the (overstated) shutter shock issue.  You can check the level of your firmware in the Setup Menu (the wrench symbol).

The firmware upgrade was hair raising as usual, for Olympus, but thankfully much faster than last time (my internet connection has gone from 4mbps to 80mbps in the space of two years).  The remote functionality is now improved to the point of looking genuinely useful.  I can see myself using this at night, with a tripod - no more fiddling with a torch and camera controls.

tinternaut wrote:

When Olympus launched this camera, their asking price was absurd.

Hi Jason, Excellent review and terrific photos. I love reviews with photos. A year ago it was the E-P5 that I was on the point to buy when Sony announced A7, and at time for the same price I went for full-frame. Today decent used E-P5s can be bought on ebay for 500 euros, a much more reasonable price. This comment of mine is the second part of a series started with http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/54273372

I bought the E-P5 body only, and this weekend I've been using it with the 45mm f1.8 (my favourite lens that really shouldn't be my favourite lens, because I'm generally a wide person)

My legacy Olympus PEN F 38mm/f1.8 is just a little wider. The 38mm worked quite fine with the movie tele-converter (MTC) function, which along with IBIS are the main reason I am evaluating E-P5 after one year I first had it in my hands.

Once you have touched and used a Made in Japan, pure metal and glass PEN F lens, all other metalized plastic lens look terribly cheesy.

My other lens for the E-P5 is the shockingly great Olympus PEN F 150mm/f4. These are the only two PEN F lenses that are really reasonably priced: the others are unreasonably expensive, but hold their price like gold.

The PEN F 150mm is a perfect match to the E-P5.

cheap and nasty feeling battery door . Other than this, holding the E-P5 mostly feels like you're holding a quality camera.

After I read your review, I had a look at the door, and you are totally right. Unbelievable, that a reputable camera maker uses such an inferior part in a premium price camera. I agree the body feels like a quality camera. I have the Fujifilm X-A1, too, and it holds quite well against the E-P5, though.

The E-P5 is even smaller than the smallest Fujifilm X ILC, the X-A1. The great feature of the legacy PEN F lenses is that they are really small and can be used on both m43 as well as APS-C mirrorless cameras.

The EVF of the E-P5 is removable.

my initial impression of this camera's IBIS?

I am terribly impressed with the video IBIS implementation: I think just these two features, video IBIS and movie tele-converter, make the 500-euro price reasonable.

http://youtu.be/3IgIb8MCWRQ

http://youtu.be/xhQhjjKpP-M

These two videos are purely technology experiments. I can see a huge potential in these functions. Am I going to buy an E-P5? Definitely not before Christmas. I am a 100% manual focus shooter, and since I used the brilliant focus peaking (FP) implementation in A7, I'd love to have decent FP in my cameras. Unfortunately, the FP in E-P5 is not very impressive: the EVF/LCD slows down to a near unusable level for (even slowly) moving targets. For a number of static subject the FP in E-P5 is very useful, though. FP does not work in movie mode either, and not in magnified view in still image modes. I wonder, if Olympus is going to add better FP in its forthcoming models.

Have you, Jason, tried the V4 EVF? I found it terrific, nearly as excellent as the EVF on the A7. What I loved is that the EVF is tilting upwards, a brilliant feature for videographers.

A terrific mini video-rig: IBIS, tilting touch screen, tilting high quality EVF, 1080/30p, small form factor, magnified view, movie tele-converter, focus peaking (not in movie mode, though)

A number of reviewers were not happy with the video quality, but I am not that picky: I am actually very happy with the 1080/30p video image quality of the E-P5, even the tele-converter mode delivered useful footage.

This shot was taken from a fast moving train with a legacy manual focus 150mm lens.

All the best and have fun, Miki