My reaction on looking at my first batch of Olympus OM-D E-M5 photos was, “this camera is better than it has any right to be.” I am really amazed by what Olympus has been able to get out of the E-M5’s new 16-megapixel Four Thirds sensor. I assumed we were reaching the point of diminishing returns with the 12-megapixel sensor in the last batch of Olympus Pen Micro Four Thirds cameras (read my Olympus E-P3 pro review). Apparently not, because the E-M5 has seriously surpassed the image quality produced by the last generation of Four Thirds sensors – even ISO 12,800 looks good to me in the right circumstance; and ISO 800 is rock solid. To my eye, ISO 3200 is where noise starts to really show itself. But the images are still sharp, with excellent detail.
I’m including a couple of real world samples below as well as the standard set of studio tests. The first (left) is an ISO 12,800 photo of my friend Rob a.k.a. zerodog. That was one of the first photos I took with the camera. It was set for auto ISO and it knocked me back a bit because I was not expecting the OM-D to produce that kind of image quality at ISO 12,800. In fact, if I hadn’t of had it set for auto ISO, I probably would have avoided shooting at an ISO that high for fear it would be a wasted shot. The other photo (right) is a bike I’m selling. I’m including it because it shows how great the image quality is at ISO 800, which I considered the edge of what was reasonable with the 12-megapixel Pen camera sensors. That’s not at all the case with the E-M5, though. I think ISO 800 looks great.
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 12,800 Portrait |
 |
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 800 Mountain Bike Photo |
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Photo Gallery >>
For all the nerds in the house, here are the technical details the Olympus OM-D E-M5 studio sample photos, below. They were taken in aperture priority mode (A) at f/8, at all sensitivity settings, from ISO 200 to ISO 25,600. Since the E-M5 is a more professionally-targeted camera, I used one of my favorite Olympus lenses, the Zuiko Digital 12-60mm Four Thirds lens, mounted with an Olympus adapter. All images were shot RAW, and then converted to 16-bit TIFFs with Adobe Lightroom 4.1. The graybar, text and logo were added in Photoshop and the files were resaved as maximum quality JPEGs. Lightroom settings were all left at their defaults – no extra noise reduction or image quality adjustment of any type was applied at any point. Feel free to geek out to your heart’s content with these tests. Download them, print them, and compare them to studio sample photos taken with other cameras.
Warning: these files are HUGE – be patient while they download.
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 200 Sample |
|
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 400 Sample |
|
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 800 Sample |
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 1600 Sample |
|
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 3200 Sample |
|
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 6400 Sample |
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 12,800 Sample |
|
 Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 25,600 Sample |
|
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Intro >>
All Digital Camera Sample Photos >>
Related Content:
All Olympus Digital Camera User Reviews
All Compact System Camera User Reviews
All Olympus OM-D E-M5 Sample Photos
Olympus Digital Cameras Forum
Compact System Cameras Forum
All Compact System Camera News & Articles
All Olympus News
Olympus Web Site
All Digital Camera Pro Reviews
All Digital Camera Studio Sample Photos
Mine will be getting a workout over this weekend.
I will have to read the manual carefully, because what AF works at what burst speed will be critical.
I doubt if I’ll be using tracking AF, because it seems to hunt around the subject when it’s not moving fast.
Getting it to lock onto the right subject in the image is tricky too, and I doubt I can get it to lock before the subject is past me.
But I will give it a fair try in practice and qualifying sessions.