Olympus E-P5 - Hands-On Preview

[ed9119]

The package just came in this evening around 6pm and the PEN series with this camera looks good and all color co-ordinated with the 17mm f1.8 , the retrp metal screw-on hood AND the all new VF-4 detachable viewfinder... all coming together in matt black

Battery's charging till tomorrow morning so in-camera images should be coming pretty soon.

Will hand off the camera set to WongLP tomorrow where it'll go through its paces

So for now just share a few product shots

My personal opinion.... its not pretty, its not sweet..... its just plain handsome

 

[ed9119]

The product was announced and more info including features and all bells and whistles about the camera can be found in this thread

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/four-thirds-standard-4-3-m43/1255458-%5B-its-official-%5D-olympus-e-p5-vf4-may-2013-a.html

 

[ed9119]

I understand that online orders will start on 31 May this FRIDAY at a few of our favorite camera stores locally

PRE-ORDER Package Special details can be found here

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/four-thirds-standard-4-3-m43/1267174-olympus-pen-e-p5-online-pre-order-special.html

 

[ed9119]

While we wait for the battery to charge tonight before the review proper begins (ha ha)

[video=youtube_share;Lum2ifX0IVY]http://youtu.be/Lum2ifX0IVY[/video]

 

[ed9119]

Olympus' philosophy behind the E-P5

[video=youtube_share;bkIw2aS5vow]http://youtu.be/bkIw2aS5vow[/video]

 

[ed9119]

[video=youtube_share;ysTDZ0s3bbQ]http://youtu.be/ysTDZ0s3bbQ[/video]

 

[ed9119]

Met up with WongLP for a coffee this afternoon to hand him the E-P5

First comments were:

"Wow this new viewfinder does'nt seem to have any lag"
"Looks a little bigger (read taller) than the older viewfinder"

 

[ed9119]

Images below shot of the E-P5 sitting beside its 'Grandpa' ..... a nicely blinged E-PL1

 

[ed9119]

at ISO 100

at ISO 200

at ISO 400

at ISO 800

at ISO 1600

 

[ed9119]

at ISO 3200

at ISO 8000

at ISO 12,800

at ISO 20,000

at ISO 25,600

 

[ed9119]

At lower ISOs, the images are very very clean. In low light conditions where high ISOs are used, how do the images turn out ?

The following images are cropped 100% (of the above images) for a closer look at noise performance at higher ISOs

100% crop at ISO 100 (lets use this as a base reference for the other images below)

100% crop at ISO 400

100% crop at ISO 800

100% crop at ISO 1600

100% crop at ISO 3200

 

[ed9119]

100% crop at ISO 8000

100% crop at ISO 12,800

100% crop at ISO 20,000

100% crop at ISO 25,600

 

[keithwee]

very powerful poison..... no.................................................

I understand that online orders will start on 31 May this FRIDAY at a few of our favorite camera stores locally

PRE-ORDER Package Special details can be found here

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/four-thirds-standard-4-3-m43/1267174-olympus-pen-e-p5-online-pre-order-special.html

 

[ed9119]

The 17mm f1.8 is also a very good performer, regardless the bare brushed metal or all black version
Image below shot with the 17mm lens (the original brushed metal version) attached to a different other m4/3 camera
WongLP has the E-P5 now with the Black 17mm and an assortment of his own m4/3 lenses and his images are more relevant

 

[ed9119]

At ISO 25,600 , its a useful last resort, covered-Joker, Better-Than-Nothing, I-have-little-or-no-choice alternative (aka Bo Pian option) despite the muddiness and blotchy output
Few cameras go up to these higher ISOs

 

[wonglp]

Thanks for the start Ed9119!

<EDIT> This is pre-production set, so do look at this preview from the basis of that.

For full specifications , kindly review to here.

This review is more user based rather than technical. & several different m43 lenses will be used as well. All shots will be jpeg with little or no processing. The review will also focus much on the new features that's stated below.

Here's some quick key features that's either new from E-P3 the predecessor (there's no E-P4 btw), or OMD E-M5, or E-PL5.

- Hi Speed 1/8000s mechanical shutter, along with ISO100. From E-PL2 onward, till the most recent E-PL5, ISO100 was removed. It's good to see this back, for landscape photographers, and shooting primes at wide open bright day, chances of over exposure is much lesser, certainly an ND filter is probably not required in most cases.
- Built in Wifi. Certainly a first for Olympus, not the first to implement among the mirrorless though. This function allows sending pics to smartphone installed with Olympus imaging share app (Android & IOS), sorry Window user ;p , remote shooting (great for street shooting, iAuto mode at the moment), append GPS tag from smartphone to picture.
- 5 axis with IS-auto. 5 axis had been introduced to EM5, now IS-auto a new feature detect panning automatically.
- Image stabilization checked on Live View, great for birding and macro shots.
- Photo Story captures multiple viewpoints of a single scene this is on the dial mode in the camera to have a collage type of multiple picture in a single frame
- 2x2 control dial, a new control dial system, very smart and innovative.
- Focus Peaking, again not new, with the new VF-4 electronic viewfinder, this feature came at just in time
- 2.36 million dots, high-powered 1.48x* Electronic Viewfinder VF-4
- Allocatable "My Set" to any modes on the dial
- High-speed sequential shooting max. 9.0 fps (Approx. 5.0 fps* max. during Tracking AF). Seems the Continuous AF tracking has improved.
- Live bulb with histogram, great tool to judge exposure of shot with live update

For those who doesn't know about Pen history can take a look here. Pen camera today comes in the form of Micro Four Thirds interchangeable lens system with several manufacturers adopting this format and lenses can be used amongst the brands interchangeably. E-P5 is the highest end of the Pen series.

 

[wonglp]

Here's some camera shots.

Styling

The styling of E-P5 takes after Pen F, personally I think the silver unit looks awesome and great that this is the one that's review However, the VF4 (electronic viewfinder) adds quite a bit of bulk to the looks, and sometimes when put into bag can be awkward. It's good they added a locking mechanism, else can lose it easily. The hood on the 17mm/1.8 is metal and very well made. One fun part about Pen cameras is "zhng-able", you can dress it up with skins, with half or full case etc more say than say dslr/omd em5. For the metal hood, if you are olympus e-club member, you will get it free on the pre-order. You can reverse mount it back into the camera too. Overall this camera feels great in the hand. The grip though I feel may be a problem hand holding the larger / heavier lenses.

E-P5 is heavier than EPL5 (ard 100g more) & EMx series, pretty close to EM5, feels great and sturdy on the hands, and none the plasticky feel you would get with EPL/EPM series

 

[wonglp]

After 3 days of shooting over 500 shots. Here's some quick findings about the camera.

- Shutter sounds is so sweet, the best I've heard from a Pen/OMD. Close to OMD E-M5, but even softer.
- The 1/8000s with ISO100 is great, haven't shot one shot that's overexpose with Olympus 75F1/8 or 17/1.8.
- EVF is clear, with very little lag and it's not noisy at night as well, unlike previous VF2. At first, looking at how bulky it is from pictures, I had 2nd thoughts but now, the performance won me over.
- Focus peaking is a little laggy. Works but some lag so sometimes lose shots.
- AF is fast and there's a setting for "short" shutter lag, which makes E-P5 more responsive, downside likely is the battery. Though current shutter lag is already pretty good.
- So much customization that I need to read up more to find out how it works!
- Live bulb + histogram feature is sweet will post some shots and video on how it works.

Some pictures to follow.

 

[wonglp]

For those who are looking at the review of the Olympus 17mm F1.8, here's one I did a while back.

 

[wonglp]

A shot done from home last Friday poor weather, can't go sunset shoot. OOC jpeg, Auto WB, 17mm F1.8 @ F11, 40s, ISO 100 & with 6 stops ND. A few simple tweaking will bring out the colors.



Hi resolution.