E-M10 review: still an excellent camera

In February 2015 I posted about the E-M10 + ECG-1 grip that I bought in January 2015:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55214783

The E-M10 also fixes several of the things I dislike about my E-M5. These are some of the major pluses and minuses compared to the E-M5:

Pluses:

• 0 second anti-shock setting (EFCS)
• MySets can be assigned to mode dial
• built-in flash (for a quick pop of outdoor fill flash)
• slightly smaller with a lower EVF housing for a more sleek, smoother top
• rear buttons have better feel and are slightly larger
• buttons just above the LCD are better placed and easier to press
• higher resolution rear LCD

Minuses:

• 3-axis IBIS
• smaller battery with less capacity and a different charger
• not weather sealed

After using the E-M10 for awhile I am quite happy with it. It really does come across as a more refined E-M5 with many of the annoying things fixed or modified. It is well made. I use my left eye to the EVF and these days wear eyeglasses so keep that in mind with regards to some of my comments regarding ergonomics.

• Front and rear control wheels are a bit higher which makes them easier to get at.
• Front control wheel is a bit more forward and that makes it easier to use especially with the ECG-1 grip installed.
• Rear buttons are larger.
• Shutter button is larger.
• Buttons have much better tactile feel. The E-M5 buttons are mushy and sometimes you have to press them more than once to get them to work.
• The Fn1 and Play buttons are much easier to access and press. The thick E-M5 LCD and the location of those buttons made them very poor.
• EVF hump is not as tall and the hotshoe doesn't stick out much. The E-M5 hotshoe sticks out and has sharper edges. It would sometimes get caught on my clothes when I was quickly trying to get a shot.
• Built-in flash so don't have the tiny accessory E-M5 flash that resulted in 3 small plastic parts to take off, juggle, and keep track of in order to use. Also, very slow to get it installed or uninstalled because of all the parts. It would seem to me that the Olympus engineer who came up with that monstrosity did it while sitting in a quiet office, in a chair, with the camera on his desk. He obviously never tried to actually use it while standing on the street in a hot, humid, crowded, windy, raining place such as Saigon and trying to get the flash out of a pocket or camera bag and installed while also trying to not drop other things, keep your hat from flying off in the wind, not get jostled by people, and so on.
• Shutter sound is even quieter than the already quiet E-M5. I am using the 0-second AS setting (EFCS) so I don't know if that has something to do with it.
• With the better E-M10 control wheel positions (higher than the E-M5) the ECG-1 grip improves things a lot. Only cost $44. I had tried the HLD-6 grip that costs $300 on the E-M5 in 2012 and didn't like it. The top part was all I was interested in, but with the lower E-M5 control wheels, the front control wheel a bit further back, and the design of the HLD-6 I found that it was hard for my index finger to get at the rear control wheel while using the grip. I have to use my index finger instead of my thumb because I use my left eye and the E-M5 is so cramped up on that side. Never had to do that with any SLRs/DSLRs over the years. With the E-M10 and ECG-1 though there are no problems.
• Eyecup is slightly better shaped to keep extraneous light out.
• The tripod socket is centered under the lens, but the E-M5 is offset. I don't care about this, but some people prefer a centered tripod socket.
• The E-M10 BLS-5 battery charger is a bit smaller than the E-M5 BLN-1 charger. Also, the cord that came with my E-M10 charger is 1/3 the length of the long E-M5 cord. I am happy about this. I always carry an extension cord with 3 outlets on it when I travel so I don't need nor want a long, unwieldy charger cord. The E-M10 cord is shorter and less to deal with.
• My 3rd party batteries use the Olympus BLS-5 charger, but the 3rd party batteries for my E-M5 needed their own, separate charger. Very happy about this!
• From all that I have read the only difference between the E-M10 3-axis IBIS and the E-M5 5-axis IBIS is that for close-ups the 5-axis is a bit better. In my use of the E-M10 so far it seems to be about as effective as the E-M5. For handheld close-ups and macros then the E-M5, I suppose, is a bit better if you are using slow shutter speeds. I don't take many handheld close-ups using slow shutter speeds so this seems like a non-issue to me.
• The E-M10 has the new, faster, more powerful TruePic VII processor and the E-M5 has the older TruePic VI processor. I don't know how that relates to performance aspects of the E-M10, but a faster, more powerful processor is almost always better.
• The E-M10 is not rated as weather-sealed, but the E-M5 is. My thoughts about weather-sealing after 45+ years of using SLRs/DSLRs is that I have never had any weather related problems with any of my cameras so this isn't a big deal to me. The E-M5 was the first I have ever owned that claims to be weather-sealed. None of my lenses are though. My experience is that in most cases having weather-sealed cameras and lenses are not of much use for my photography anyway because the biggest problem with shooting in the rain is keeping the front element clean. I use a lens hood and UV filter, but unless there is no wind and you keep the lens always pointed downward you are still often going to get drops on the front of the lens. So, if you only shoot in the rain when there is no wind and you only point the camera downward then weather-sealing may be very helpful. When in the rain I just make a reasonable attempt to keep the camera and lens dry, but don't get anal retentive about it. When water gets on it then I try to wipe it off as soon as I can. Same for the front filter. Never had any problem. I do realize that some people on the forum feel that if they ever take the camera out of their living room then everything needs to be weather-sealed, just in case.
• The E-M10 wake-up from sleep mode seems a bit faster than the E-M5.

To sum up, I am quite happy with the E-M10.

Since February 2015 I later also got an E-M10 II, PEN-F, E-M1 II, and Panasonic GX7 II (GX85).

You may also like to read through this interesting thread concerning weather-sealed camera gear:

Weather-sealed gear and lens front element

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63420694

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63422882

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63423066

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63423956

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63428008

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63626927

Fuji X-T3: Street photography in the rain

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63700719

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64006266

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/64120956

Notice this photo of a rain-covered Fuji X100V with water drops all over the lens:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63626511

Tx for the "review", the EM10 even by todays standards, can still deliver and is a great travel camera. That is why I have no compelling reasons to upgrade after 7 years  (didn't say I am not tempted though) as a landscape/street/travel camera, and for $200 used can't beat the price.

same here. m10 is a bargain.

Great review and comparison .

As said , the BIG pluses :

0 second anti shock , better buttons , built in flash

I wish my old Em5 had a zero second antishock , instead I have to reckon with a 1/8 that I have never found obvious . On the "positive" ( ? ) side 1 the Em5 demands thus to be shot like a regular Dslr , close to your eye and holding still , no quick snap-shots possible as with the Em10 , and 2 the built quality makes the Em10 feel like a toy in comparison , but otherwise the little Em10 is a much more pleasurable camera to use

I have used my Em10 for some years now and it's close to impossible to miss a shot, especially with  a good small prime like 17 or 20 mm . Now I have the PL15 glued on it .

I tried version 2 and wasn't that convinced except for the E shutter and better EVF , and it had  that dreaded LCD screen black out when pulled out so I returned it to the seller who swore naturally that he had never seen the problem .

The Em10 is a great camera that embodies what is best about m4/3

Nice review.   In your opinion,  how does it compare to the Pen-F for use as a travel camera?

All removed now. Says a lot.

Marie

Sums it up nicely

Interesting, like you I did not like the mk2, mainly due to top dials which I found stiff and awkward, maybe just used to the original. I did not find the evf upgrade noticeably better. The e-m10 will do me for as long as it lasts.

My first Olympus MFT camera was a PL-1.

I still own it, and if you use it in daylight at ISO 200 I can’t tell any difference in image quality compared with my OMD M5 II.

But when I got an OMD M10, that was the first Olympus MFT camera that was:

1. Affordable

2. With EVF and pop up flash

3. With really great IBIS

4. Blazing fast

5. Two wheels on top

6. Zero second anti shock

7. 16mp sensor

9. Takes the Pen series BL 50 battery

10. Looks like the thousand dollar M5

The M10.2 and M10.3 are exactly the same gadget with more toys to play with, and the M10.4 adds a 20mp sensor, but the M10 started the base OMD series cameras which are very capable of shooting in low light, with higher ISOs, and have the same basic operation and controls as the M5, or even M1, for that matter.

Any OMD M10 is not just a good starter camera, it’s really the only camera anybody needs to shoot MFT.

motormatic wrote:

Just got an E-M5 III two months ago after six years with the E-M10.

Yes, the E-M5 III is better in many ways, which is why I bought it, but that doesn't make the E-M10 any less of a great camera. Plus it's paid for. Time will tell how often I take it off the shelf going forward, but I have no plans to let it go for now.

I'm in the same situation right now. A guy is selling a mint EM5 III with the 14-150 lens for 750. Do you think it's worth it? Honestly, the only reason I'd buy that is for shooting motorsports and having that range on the lens would make my job easy.

Thing is, I can buy that lens for around 400; now yea, it seems like a no-brainer to get that body/lens combo, but... I dunno. I already have the E-M10 and the 40-150 and I can get great pictures with it now and just swap lenses to the wide angle.

WFlac_Vest wrote:

motormatic wrote:

Just got an E-M5 III two months ago after six years with the E-M10.

Yes, the E-M5 III is better in many ways, which is why I bought it, but that doesn't make the E-M10 any less of a great camera. Plus it's paid for. Time will tell how often I take it off the shelf going forward, but I have no plans to let it go for now.

I'm in the same situation right now. A guy is selling a mint EM5 III with the 14-150 lens for 750. Do you think it's worth it? Honestly, the only reason I'd buy that is for shooting motorsports and having that range on the lens would make my job easy.

Thing is, I can buy that lens for around 400; now yea, it seems like a no-brainer to get that body/lens combo, but... I dunno. I already have the E-M10 and the 40-150 and I can get great pictures with it now and just swap lenses to the wide angle.

IMO, E-M5 III AF might not be so great for shooting motor sports. Better move up to E-M1 II If your budget allows.

Good luck.