Olympus OM-D EM-5 (Mirrorless)

[Pea-n-Me]

Oohhhh, can you post a picture or two of the OMD with the 4/3 lens on it. I am dying to know what it looks like

I dont have the OMD - I just wish I did! I do have a PEN, though, and I will try to get some pics of it with the 4/3 lenses on it. (It was too hot today, though!!)

Congratulations on your purchase!! You and pugrpooh will have to let us know how you like it. What are your plans for your E3?

 

[Renysmom]

Don't forget to pre-order your Panasonic 12-35!

I ordered the Panny 45-200.. I have the Oly 12-60 so I think I am okay for a little while

 

[Renysmom]

I dont have the OMD - I just wish I did! I do have a PEN, though, and I will try to get some pics of it with the 4/3 lenses on it. (It was too hot today, though!!)

Congratulations on your purchase!! You and pugrpooh will have to let us know how you like it. What are your plans for your E3?

Thanks, I think I will soend the weekend reading the manual (I dl'd the .pdf to my iPad) and watching videos so when it arrives I am a step closer to using it.

I will be keeping the E3 for now. I love that camera and have had great results. Who knows though, I may end using the OM-D so much I don't need both.

 

[DizzyV6P]

I sold my entire Canon 40D body, lenses and accessories just to get the new E-M5. It came just in time for my daughter's ballet performance and the Disney Fantasy cruise. I just got home from the cruise yesterday and am looking at over 1000 pictures taken w/ the E-M5. It is MUCH lighter than my Canon kit and much easier to bring everywhere.

Jpegs straight out of camera are fantastic. I'll be doing post-processing using Corel's Aftershot Pro (formerly Bibble 5.0) with the raw's that I took. I had set it on Raw + large fine Jpegs so I got the best of both worlds.

Purchased a Silver Olympus OMD E-M5 w/ kit lens 12-50 (it takes really good pictures...take the reviews w/ a grain of salt), Panasonic 45-200, Panasonic 14 f/2.5, Olympus FL-300R flash - still on backorder so it didn't make it on the ship w/ me.

Amazon has some really good sales on the Panny 45-200, Olympus 40-150, etc... Check out www.mu-43.com and www.43rumors.com for some really good info on this new camera.

I'll be posting all the pics up on my photo website and will be starting a new thread on Disboards using only pictures taken w/ the E-M5.

 

[Renysmom]

Hi Dizzy -

So glad you like your camera. I received mine on Friday and after spending the last three days using it I have decided to return it. Images are great, ease of use not so much. I am a long time Olympus Dslr user and I just could not get use to the controls and dials. It simply was not what I was looking for.


I am so glad I didn't sell my E-3. I will be doing more research on the other mirrorless and see if I find what I am looking for.

 

[JoeDif]

Hi Dizzy -

So glad you like your camera. I received mine on Friday and after spending the last three days using it I have decided to return it. Images are great, ease of use not so much. I am a long time Olympus Dslr user and I just could not get use to the controls and dials. It simply was not what I was looking for.


I am so glad I didn't sell my E-3. I will be doing more research on the other mirrorless and see if I find what I am looking for.

Sorry it didn't work out for you.

Does the E-M5 allow you to access the Super Control Panel? That feature makes using the E-PM1 so much easier to handle.

 

[Pugrpooh]

I sold my entire Canon 40D body, lenses and accessories just to get the new E-M5. It came just in time for my daughter's ballet performance and the Disney Fantasy cruise. I just got home from the cruise yesterday and am looking at over 1000 pictures taken w/ the E-M5. It is MUCH lighter than my Canon kit and much easier to bring everywhere.

Jpegs straight out of camera are fantastic. I'll be doing post-processing using Corel's Aftershot Pro (formerly Bibble 5.0) with the raw's that I took. I had set it on Raw + large fine Jpegs so I got the best of both worlds.

Purchased a Silver Olympus OMD E-M5 w/ kit lens 12-50 (it takes really good pictures...take the reviews w/ a grain of salt), Panasonic 45-200, Panasonic 14 f/2.5, Olympus FL-300R flash - still on backorder so it didn't make it on the ship w/ me.

I'll be posting all the pics up on my photo website and will be starting a new thread on Disboards using only pictures taken w/ the E-M5.

Congrats on your purchase! I just returned yesterday morning from 2 weeks in Hawaii including a week's cruise around the islands. I took the E-M5 and did use the 12-50 extensively, especially at the beach and the times we were out and it rained. We had no internet access, but I did take my laptop and worked on my pictures during the trip. I have Lightroom and have finished a few hundred of them so far but have not uploaded any to Smugmug yet. I'm also waiting on the flash. I don't sleep on planes so I was up for over 34 hours straight before I went to bed last night.

I too am pleased with the 12-50's performance. Used it a lot in macro mode and I like having that focal range. My favorite lens is the Oly 12-60 and it's not quite up to par with that one, but it's pretty good.

Hi Dizzy -

So glad you like your camera. I received mine on Friday and after spending the last three days using it I have decided to return it. Images are great, ease of use not so much. I am a long time Olympus Dslr user and I just could not get use to the controls and dials. It simply was not what I was looking for.

I am so glad I didn't sell my E-3. I will be doing more research on the other mirrorless and see if I find what I am looking for.

Kelly, sorry you're disappointed in the E-M5. I bought the E-PL2 about 15 months ago primarily for travel use and video and to see if I'd eventually like to make the switch completely over to m4/3. I got great shots on vacations but when at home, I tended to use the E600 with the 12-60 on it. I just felt more comfortable with it and felt I could probably stick with that and the 50mm macro and be quite happy.

After I preordered the E-M5 in February, I forced myself to just use the E-PL2. I became more comfortable with it and started using it more and more. The 45mm on it started to become my favorite lens. It's incredibly sharp! I've hardly picked up the E600 since and I love the E-M5! DD25 took the E600 with the 14-42 to Hawaii and DH has the E-PL2 with the 14-150 on it and I gave him some pointers on photography and showed him how to do some post processing on them in iPhoto. He leaves for China and Japan Friday so we'll see how he does with it there.

This week will be crazy but I'll try and get some pics up. This afternoon we pick up DD10's new puppy (don't know what I was thinking but she's awfully excited), Wednesday my parents move in with my sister while their patio home is being built, should be finished by Oct. (Dad has advanced Alzheimer's so it will be difficult.) DD25 moves to Dayton on Thursday to start a new job after getting her master's last month, and DD23 and her DH will be bringing my grandson this weekend (haven't seen him for 2 months!) and DH leaves for China on Friday am.

Anyway, Kelly, maybe you could pick up an older m4/3 camera (they can be had for a good price now) and play around with it to see if it's something you might get used to. It took me a while to become convinced but the 45mm f1/8 helped quite a bit!

Also, as an aside, we sailed Norwegian last week and in their photo gallery, they featured Fuji and Olympus cameras for sale. They had the E-PL2 and the E-PM1 for sale plus a couple of p&s's. The ship's photographers used Nikons but I was pleasantly surprised to see the Oly's there.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Interesting!

I agree, the PEN's controls (we have the E-PL1) take some getting used to coming from even Olympus dSLRs. (This seems to be true of most mirrorless.) It's a work in progress for me. (DS seems to have an easier time at times, having grown up in the electronics age.) I bought the Dummies book and am working my way through it slowly. There are times it's frustrating trying to figure out how to get to something but two things I keep in mind: 1) mirrorless had to be smaller and therefore more challenging and 2) they "dumbed it down" a little bit having people unaccustomed to SLR use as their initial customer market base. (Which may not be true of newer models.) Using it kind of reminds me of my first months with my dSLR when I was fairly lost. I'm sure there's a learning curve with using a mirrorless camera as well. My feeling, though, is that they will just keep getting better as technology improves and people use them and offer feedback.

Lynn and Dizzy, can't wait to see your pics! Dizzy, there's a Mirrorless thread going that would be great for you to post on. (Be sure to include the name of your camera as I started the thread in part so people who are thinking of buying could get some idea of picture capability.) We also have an Olympus, 4/3 and m4/3 thread as well that we'd love to see you on. I don't know how many people have this particular camera yet (just you and Lynn that we know of right now) so a thread just for it might not get too many posters at this point in time.

 

[Pugrpooh]

Sorry it didn't work out for you.

Does the E-M5 allow you to access the Super Control Panel? That feature makes using the E-PM1 so much easier to handle.

It does have the SCP, but for some strange reason you still have to enable it deep within the menus first. It's the first thing I did after charging the battery. And the touch screen works with it, for example you can touch the ISO box and then use the dial on top to go through the options.

 

[JoeDif]

It does have the SCP, but for some strange reason you still have to enable it deep within the menus first. It's the first thing I did after charging the battery. And the touch screen works with it, for example you can touch the ISO box and then use the dial on top to go through the options.

I could never understand that. Why take an incredibly useful feature and bury it in the menu? The SCP should already be enabled out of the box.

 

[DizzyV6P]

This link made all the difference in me figuring out the E-M5 settings.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/9115179666/user-guide-getting-the-most-out-of-the-olympus-e-m5

Here's a teaser

The bar at Palo's on the Disney Fantasy

Enchanted Garden

 

[Pugrpooh]

This link made all the difference in me figuring out the E-M5 settings.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/9115179666/user-guide-getting-the-most-out-of-the-olympus-e-m5

I printed this article out and took it with me to Hawaii. It was helpful, but there is one thing (and I'm sure it's not the only one) that I couldn't figure out while there. That was using live view with the bulb feature to be able to see exactly what the picture will look like on a long exposure. There were fireworks on Waikiki that I wanted to try it out on.

I also had downloaded the manual and I set the camera up the way the manual said to, but I still couldn't do it. Have you used that feature yet?

The stabilization works great though. I used some 1 sec shutter speeds on the fireworks handheld and they were pretty sharp. A lot of them were not sharp at all, but I did get some good keepers.

 

[DizzyV6P]

I haven't tried the Live Bulb feature yet. I saw their cool E-M5 video of what it can do thought...its very cool!

 

[Pugrpooh]

I got a few photos uploaded to smugmug today. Here are a couple of quick macros taken with the OM-D and the 12-50mm lens in macro mode.

 

[Pugrpooh]

View of Honolulu from atop Diamond Head, taken with the OM-D at 9mm and the 9-18mm lens.

The trail up to the top of Diamond Head, taken at 50mm with the 12-50mm lens.

1.3s shot handheldresting the camera on the balcony railing, 9-18mm lens.

Taken with the 40-150mm lens.

 

[FencerGirl]

I also believe that you can use almost any lens (not just 4/3 or m4/3) on a m4/3 camera with an adapter if an adapter exists.

We got our OM-D last week with the Olympus adapter. We have been using our old 70 to 300 mm Zuiko E-series lens. It works great and auto-focuses surprisingly quickly. The only problem is that the lens is HUGE for the body. It's pretty ridiculous looking.

 

[Pugrpooh]

We got our OM-D last week with the Olympus adapter. We have been using our old 70 to 300 mm Zuiko E-series lens. It works great and auto-focuses surprisingly quickly. The only problem is that the lens is HUGE for the body. It's pretty ridiculous looking.

I sold my 70-300mm to my nephew and opted not to get an adapter. I got the free flash with the rebate and received it on Friday. One of my reasons for going u4/3's is the size and that lens kind of negates that.

How are you liking the OM-D? Which DSLR do you have?

And welcome to the board!

 

[FencerGirl]

I sold my 70-300mm to my nephew and opted not to get an adapter. I got the free flash with the rebate and received it on Friday. One of my reasons for going u4/3's is the size and that lens kind of negates that.

How are you liking the OM-D? Which DSLR do you have?

And welcome to the board!

Thanks for the welcome. I've been lurking around here long enough, I figured I'd better join.

I LOVE the OM-D! We have the Olympus E-620. It's terrible in low light and pretty slow to focus, in my experience. The OM-D is soooooooo fast and I'm loving the touch screen.

We went back and forth on the adapter vs flash. It came down to the fact that my FIL has an older Olympus and we wanted to have access to his lenses. The 70 to 300 is really big for the body, but we didn't want to spend more on a zoom yet.

 

[JoeDif]

Thanks for the welcome. I've been lurking around here long enough, I figured I'd better join.

I LOVE the OM-D! We have the Olympus E-620. It's terrible in low light and pretty slow to focus, in my experience. The OM-D is soooooooo fast and I'm loving the touch screen.

We went back and forth on the adapter vs flash. It came down to the fact that my FIL has an older Olympus and we wanted to have access to his lenses. The 70 to 300 is really big for the body, but we didn't want to spend more on a zoom yet.

Have you checked out the 45mm f/1.8? It is an absolutely fantastic lens!!

 

[HPS3]

Lynn, those are some fantastic shots!