Road Trip Photography Summary; Practical Review of the Micro 4/3 System (Olympus E-M5) Part II

Gull on Driftwood; full image frame, nice bokeh
Made with the Olympus E-M5 and Panasonic 35-100mm F/2.8 lens at F/3.5

To see more of my images, please look here.  Thank you.

Yesterday, I posted an analysis of what equipment I took on my recent journey.  I also posted an analysis of its usage with some insight into why the stats showed what they did.  Today, I will give you my opinions on how well the Micro 4/3 format as well as the Olympus E-M5 and Panasonic lenses served my photography purposes.

After over 18 months using Micro 4/3 and the Olympus O-MD E-M5, let me say that the Olympus E-M5 is the most complex and difficult camera I have ever used.  It has more settings, configurations, convolutions and customizations than any camera I have owned.  It is the first camera whose controls I have not mastered.  But...

Pixel Level (1:1) portion taken from the above image;  You be the judge on the quality of images
generated from the E-M5 and Panasonic 35-100mm F/2.8 lens; ISO 200, 1/4000 @ F/3.5
I have no complaints with images such as this, even for submission for stock photography

That being said, here are my likes and dislikes followed by general comments.  Finally, I will give you my decision on whether or not I will keep and use a Micro 4/3 system as well as this camera and lenses.

Olympus Camera Likes
-Size of the camera body (with a qualifier); It is too small without the grip.  I don't use the spare battery part.
-Weight of the camera body
-Price of the camera body (you get a lot for your money);  A good value
-Appearance of the camera (styling); I like the faux SLR look, retro design
-How the camera feels in my hand; it just fits well (with the smaller part of the grip)
-The sound of the shutter; the look, feel and shound of a precision instrument can be as important as the         feautres it provides
-Quality of build;  this camera is built like a professional camera and feels like it
-Location of the shutter button; Its location feels natural, no trying to find it.  It is where it is expected.
-Weather sealing of the camera; I have used the camera in the rain with no issues
-Fast focus in the single focus mode; the focus is dead on every time,  every time; Unlike my PDAF full-frame SLR
-Image Stabilization--it is amazing!  I made sharp images at 1/5 to 1/3 second and I'm almost 62 years old!
-After over 8 months of use, no dust on the sensor.  I have not had to clean it.  Unlike my Nikons
-EVF;  I've come to like them and the ability to pre-chimp or pre-process;  I know exactly what my image   will look like before I press the shutter.  I use the handy exposure compensation dial to adjust the exposure   for exactly the look I want before pressing the shutter.  It is wonderful
-EVF data; I like the ability to see my histogram in the EVF along with other vital data to ensure my exposure   is right on the money.
-Touch Screen & Super Menu; makes adjustments easier than having to go through the menus
-Live Bulb/Live Time; very handy
-Image files;  white balance, color, sharpness, pleasing
-Resolution of the sensor; for a 16mp sensor it does a great job for its size
-Micro 4/3 sensor size gives great depth of field when you want a lot of DOF
-Auto bracketing; I use this a lot for combining images into natural looking HDR

Olympus Camera Dislikes
-Size of the camera (with a qualifier); it is too small without the grip; hard to use
-Menus; there are too many and too many options;  it is like they were trying to please everyone with             everything; too difficult to configure easily
-Too difficult to move around the focusing spot easily; I like to move it instead of focus/recompose and you   have to go through a couple of extra steps to move it around; should be easier-like Nikon's way
-Buttons/controls too small and mushy;  I have normal hands and I struggle to use them comfortably
-Sensor size; 16mp is not my sweet spot; wish it were about 20-24mp for stock photography submission; my Nikon D800E with 36mp is really overkill, but I can down rez the images to 24 and they look even better!
-EVF could have more resolution and be a bit larger
-EVF loses its color when making backlit images.  Washes out pretty badly
-Follow/Tracking focus;  doesn't do a very good job, wish it were better; but I don't use it much anyway
-At 9 frames per second, the camera does not refocus between images; it should
-12-bit image files:  in today's high performance world, 14-bit files should be the minimum
-Micro 4/3 sensor size makes it harder to control depth of field when you want shallow DOF
-ISOs above 1600 can be a bit noisy, but I rarely go there; not really a complaint
-Battery life could be a little better;  you can get several hundred images but you better bring a spare battery or two for a full day of image making
-Better flash options for times when using a flash unit is necessary
-Too many steps to switch to auto bracketing and back; needs another custom function button or two

Point Arena Lighthouse, California

Panasonic Lenses Likes
-The attributes of the images they produce;  wonderful resolution, color, contrast and sharpness across the frame
-Size of the lenses
-Weight of the lenses
-Price of the lenses
-Quality of build; these lenses are built in the same manner as professional lenses and feel like it
-Fast focus and the focus is dead on every time,  every time; faster than my D800E
-Lens corrections for chromatic for distortion in camera, even in RAW
-Bokeh seems pleasant with all the lenses
-The Panasonic 12-35, 35-100 and possibly also the 7-14mm lenses are as good as any of the best Nikon or Canon lenses out there.  I buy the best lenses and these are magnificent.

Panasonic Lens Dislikes
-Only one; the intrusion of the color purple in high contrast scenes with the 7-14mm F/4 lens;  You can remove it, but it takes some work; different from normal looking chromatic aberration
-Other than that, I love the lenses!

General Thoughts
I think the one thing that has been on my mind since I acquired a Micro 4/3 system is, "Is the sensor really large enough and with enough quality to generate image files that will meet my really high standards?"  I now know the answer to that is yes.  I finally am at peace with the Micro 4/3 system for my images.  No question any longer.  I am very pleased with the images I have made under all sorts of conditions, save one and that is fast moving subjects.  But that is to be expected with today's technology and contrast detect auto-focusing systems.  However, with the introduction of the E-M1 and the Fujifilm XE-2, manufacturer's are putting phase detection focus sensors right on the imaging chip to increase the speed of tracking focus.  This will only get better and better.  That issue may no longer be a problem.

The other thoughts that have been on my mind center around how difficult the Olympus E-M5 is to configure, reconfigure and change settings while shooting in a fast moving situation.  It feels good in my hands, but for me, at my age and experience in using much simpler cameras over the past 43+ years, the camera has way too many options, too many menus to scroll through and too many steps to change settings.  The "super menu" helps a lot, but the things that are not on the super menu are difficult to change quickly.  This is not a deal killer, but one has to learn and practice to get to the items, change them and get back to pressing the shutter quickly.  By the way, I do carry the user's manual with me in the field because there are so many options.  In my view, too many choices can lessen the quality of experience.  By trying to be all things to all people, one degrades the use of the camera.

Overall, despite the negatives I have highlighted, I like the Micro 4/3 system and I really like the Olympus camera.  The Panasonic (and Olympus) lenses are superb.  I've read the reviews and analyses of the new E-M1 and it looks even more attractive, as it solves most of the issues I have with the E-M5.

Micro 4/3 allows me to carry a nicely furnished travel kit that is smaller and lighter than I could in the past.  I feel good when I use the Olympus.  I'm not sure why, but it makes me feel differently when I'm making images.  Funny, but it does.  Maybe it would be like driving a quirky little car instead of a standard sedan. You just feel differently than using the normal stuff, whatever it may be.

Handheld at 1/3 of a second @ F/14 with the Olympus E-M1 at ISO 400 and Panasonic 12-35mm F/2.8 lens at F14
Amazing image stabilization!  It just doesn't get any better than this, even on a tripod!

Other Camera Systems for Consideration
I am really intrigued by the Fujifilm X-Trans sensor and cameras.  I've done a lot of research on this system and, from what I have read and seen, the images from and the haptics of the system are excellent.  I love the idea of adjusting apertures on the lens, as I had done for years and years.  Same with adjusting the shutter speeds on the top of the camera.  I was a Leica rangefinder user for many years and I like the shape of the body as well as the location of the EVF.  I really want to buy a Fujifilm XE-2 and several lenses, but I downloaded the user's manual and there are several things that the camera lacks that I use in my photography.  For example, you can only make three bracketed images.  I routinely use 5 and sometimes as many as 9 for images and 3 won't cut it.  Additionally, by being an APS-C sensor, the lenses are larger than the sizes I am trying to achieve.  None of the camera bodies or lenses are weather resistant, which I find baffling when looking at industry trends.  Also, from my research, Adobe hasn't done a top notch job demosaicing the raw files which results in smearing of certain colors and that causes a major issue as I don't want to alter my workflow by processing in another raw converter, then importing to Lightroom and processing the files there also.  So, for now, my lust for this camera and system will stay on hold.

The new Sony A7R and A7 really look attractive.  They are really small, full featured and from preliminary reports, produce gorgeous images.  But, again, the size of the image circle (Micro 43/ at 21.6mm, APS-C at 28.3mm and Full Frame at 43.2mm) dictates the size of the lenses.  It is physics and there is currently no way to shrink them all to Micro 4/3 size.  So the Sony is not under consideration.  Small, high quality camera but big, big lenses compared to Micro 4/3.

So, I will keep my OM-D E-M5 and probably buy a E-M1 when they start being discounted or go on special.  Additionally, I will also purchase a couple of more prime Olympus lenses to round out my Micro 4/3 kit with the intention of utilizing that kit as my primary image making system but keep the Nikon D800E and lenses as a backup.  I've been using Nikon and Canon since 1974 and I just can't sell all of my Nikon gear--yet!

In the future, however, I may divest myself of my Nikon full frame gear and obtain a Fujifilm APS-C system, thereby further reducing my load while keeping quality high.

I hope you enjoyed this.  If you have any questions, you can email me at dennismook {AT} gee male daht com or leave a question in the comment box here.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook


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