Olympus E-M1 Comments

Comparison of sizes for the Olympus E-M5, Olympus E-M1, Leica M3 and Nikon FE2

As I mentioned in a previous post, I purchased an Olympus OM-D E-M1 recently.  I have been very satisfied with my E-M5 over the past 18 months, with only a few niggles. It has become my primary photographic tool.  When the E-M1 was announced and I read the differences/upgrades from the E-M5, it appeared that Olympus had corrected all the minor aggravations I had with the older model.  And yes, they have.  Here are some comments after owning and using it for about a month.

(Minor Rant: Do you notice today that a lot of people who comment on the internet want a camera or product that is perfect for them!  They complain loudly and critically if any feature is left off or menu or control is not the way THEY want it!  Do they ever think that if it is perfect for them, then it is probably not perfect for anyone else?  Reasonable people have to understand that companies produce products to satisfy the greatest number of potential customers, not just them.  I find it amazing how self-centered individuals have become; but that is another story...)

There were a few things about the E-M5 that didn't get along with me.  Nothing major, but photographing for over 40 years, I have become accustomed to doing things in certain ways.  I change with the times, of course, and adapt.  We all have to.  The biggest issue I had with the E-M5 was the ability to change so many items and to customize it more than any other device I have ever owned.  Now, that may sound like a good thing, but too many options actually degrade one's experience with anything.  Humans don't do well with 200 choices versus 3 choices.  Satisfaction levels are reduced as one always wonders if one made the right choice.  But I digress.

Comparison of sizes of the four cameras with comparable lenses attached

After several months, I finally mastered the menu system and felt comfortable with it.  I could find what I needed reasonably quickly.  So, that no longer was an issue for me.  But, some other aspects of the camera remained issues.

a) The electronic viewfinder, although much better than the last generation, being clearer, more detailed with better color, still seemed a bit small compared to using a full frame SLR.  You definitely had to adapt if you were used to an optical viewfinder.

b) the function buttons were too small, too mushy and too close together for anyone's hands but a child's.  I had to construct a work around for using the Fn1 button consisting of a small, narrow sticky-side-out rolled gaffer tape stuck to that button with another narrow piece of gaffer's tape over it and taped to the top of the camera above the button and to the back below the button.  I did this as I decouple the focusing function from my shutter button and use the function button to initiate the autofocus mechanism.  See this post here.  In effect, what this did was enlarge the surface area of the button and raise it so it is easy to find and push to actuate focus (or any other function to which you may assign to the Fn1 button),

c) I use a single focus point for the vast majority of my photography and move that point around as needed rather than focus and recompose.  There are downsides to focusing and recomposing as lenses can be either flat field or curved field and that will affect the focus of your overall image, depending upon how far off center and the distance of the point of focus before recomposing.  (I will post something on that soon.)  I found it difficult to move the single focusing point, then re-center it.  The number of focus points were also limited.  There are more on the E-M1.  I was used to easily moving the point on my Nikons,

d) I use auto-bracketing a lot and combine the images when the contrast of a scene exceeds the capabilities of the sensor.  It was difficult to go into the menu system to activate, then deactivate the auto-bracketing feature on the E-M5.  I could easily find it, it just took several steps to accomplish,

e) no secure way to grip the camera without buying the optional Olympus HLD-6 battery holder and grip for $300.  The camera is small when compared to Nikons and Canons.  A built-in grip would have been nice, but not having it didn't make it unusable.  Spending the extra $300 should not have been necessary,

f) the off-on switch was in a place that I really disliked and found cumbersome to use,

g) lack of a reasonable tracking focus ability, and

h) only three custom function buttons.  Ironically, the camera can be customized, it seems, in a thousand ways, but there are only three custom function buttons, one of which would be to lose the start-stop video function if you employed the third.  In essence, there are only two.

That is about it as far as niggles.  I was able to live with those things, but it seems Olympus has satisfied my desire to fix ALL of those issues in the E-M1.  I have no complaints, so far, with this newer model.  It does everything I need it to do as delivered.  It is easy to use and manipulate.  Even with the slightly increased size, it is smaller than the E-M5 with only half the optional grip attached (see photos above), which was my normal way of configuring and carrying the E-M5.

 The E-M1's viewfinder is so satisfying.  I don't think I'll really ever favor an optical viewfinder over EVFs now.  The function buttons are numerous and extremely configurable.  They have added phase detect sensors to the imaging sensor to greatly improve focus tracking.  The on-off switch is on the top plate now. I can move the autofocus sensor around and center it at will.  Additionally, the auto-bracketing function is easy to enable and has an automated features HDR as well as a manually set bracketing features.  I have more auto-bracketing options in this camera than any I have owned.  As I said above.  This camera, as delivered, is just about perfect for me.

What would I like to see in the future?  In the future, I would like to see if Olympus can cram a few more pixels onto a future sensor, say 20-24, without losing the quality we have now.  That is about the sweet spot for me as far as number of pixels.  But if they don't, that is okay.  Sixteen is a nice size and I can "uprez" the files to 24mp for stock submission as I do now.  The files still maintain their sharpness, contrast, saturation and density very well.

Overall, a really nice photographic tool in every way you can imagine.  It does everything right!

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.

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