Olympus E-M1 II mini-review - a sign of things to come with the Panasonic GH5?

[Borbarad]

5 minutes ago, frontfocus said:

Hopefully a lot more. While it‘s probably one of the best cameras you can get ergonomically and offers some unique feature, some main point such as image quality, autofocus or viewfinder performance have fallen behinde competition. Especially if you consider the price 

I guess 2019 won‘t be Olympus‘ year of the E-M1x, but the E-M5III

I slightly disagree. They designed the EM1X with the fastest 120 FPS EVF. And until about 3mth there was no alternative. So Olympus got caught on the wrong foot here.

Image Quality, I think is very good. Maybe they could have gone with 24MP... but the key is not the sensor but processing power.

AF is also very and there are now really really good BIF examples available that where not possible beforehand. Yes, it could always be better. But I would be satisfied now

My personal guess in about October we will get the 2.0 Firmware with the release date for 150-400 F4.5.....

B

 

[frontfocus]

23 minutes ago, Borbarad said:

I slightly disagree. They designed the EM1X with the fastest 120 FPS EVF. And until about 3mth there was no alternative. So Olympus got caught on the wrong foot here.

that's what people repeat over and over again. They claim that the very old lcd panel was the only way to get 120fps. To be honest, I couldn't see the difference between 120p and 120i in different cameras. What I could see was that it wasn't resolving anywhere close to the competition, the contrast wasn't great and so on. But that's not the main critic I have about the viewfinder. It's the blackout that's still there when shoot fast pace. And that's where other manufacturers are infront

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Image Quality, I think is very good.

it's not. It's good. It's a 3 year old 20MP FSI 12bit mFT sensor. Again, this is where competition is running away

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AF is also very and there are now really really good BIF examples available that where not possible beforehand. Yes, it could always be better. But I would be satisfied now

it's good. But again, competition is overall better and is doing it was less than half the price! I wouldn't criticize it, if the camera was <1000€ or even 1500€ due to the formfactor, but at 3000€ it should be best in class. It's not.

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My personal guess in about October we will get the 2.0 Firmware with the release date for 150-400 F4.5.....

hopefully. As I said, I think that the E-M1x should either be better at many small things or cost a lot less.

[Borbarad]

Well again I disagree.

Ive noticed the difference in speed and compared directly with the GH5.

Image quality? Well, what is your bases??? I use a Leica M9P as my main camera and with a 50 mm Lux at daylight it kicks the hell out auf the Sony, Nikon’s etc of today and it’s a 6 year old camera. I know at night but that’s not my interest.  

Same is for m4/3. Sony’s and Nikon’s are better, yep, but when Zooms and Tele are the key the difference for me is negligible. Prime and DOF, ok, but I’ll take the M.

I rarely go beyond ISO 1600. And have you ever seen ISO 1600 handheld high resolution from the E1Mx? Awesome!! And fully usable for portrait!

So it’s horses for courses. And the lenses used are the key, not the sensor nowadays.

What really kicks is the Fuji MF System.

The fair starting price would have been 2500,- EUR.

B

[Andrew Reid]

3 hours ago, Borbarad said:

Well, the thing everyone needs to consider now is what is actually possible. The Firmware 3.0 is working flawlessly on basically three year old E1MKII.

Now the E1Mx has twice the power, better cooling. Just imagine what a 2.0 firmware could do!

For me the EM1x only has two real downsides: no top status display which is a requirement for such a body and the 120 FPS EVF is now already superseded. And it’s priced in with an 500,- Euro discount ( 300,- cash back now). I’ll bet in 3-4 month you can get one for 2400,-.

Anyway,  I will exchange my GH5 for one by the end of this year.

 

B

 

 

 

It's an incredibly fast camera. 60fps raw. Huge buffer. Amazing ergonomics and build quality. It's a little tank, a mini 1D X Mark II for half the price. I've had creative shot after shot with it!

[Video Hummus]

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

It's an incredibly fast camera. 60fps raw. Huge buffer. Amazing ergonomics and build quality. It's a little tank, a mini 1D X Mark II for half the price. I've had creative shot after shot with it!

How long does the buffer last shooting 60fps raw? And did you use it to create a raw video? ?

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on it, especially around video since there isn’t a lot of info on it in the wild. It’s appealing to me for its incredible build quality and weather sealing.

I’m really surprised Olympus didn’t try to put a better sensor in it. But I guess they did it for the speed.

It has a lot of horsepower under the hood for firmware improvements. I’m hoping Olympus has something up their sleeve to give it some legs.

[Andrew Reid]

Buffer was big enough to make this on the E-M1 II. Not tried the same thing on the E-M1X yet. Maybe buffer is the same, or larger. I'll find out soon enough.

 

[BTM_Pix]

Leaving aside discussions about imaging chips for a moment, if there are any better actual chips than the thrice cooked ones available from the van at that market then I've yet to taste them

[Video Hummus]

Now having PDAF and OM-LOG400 in video I’m thinking about picking one up used. Seems pretty decent.

[Dave Maze]

I just received my EM1 Mkii from B&H used department and immediately loaded V3 on it. 

I am using the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 and the autofocus performs flawlessly. As good as Canon Dual Pixel AF IMO and more reliable than the Nikon Z6. 

I love the colors on the camera and I feel the size of this body is just perfect. THIS is what I wanted. The EM1X was overpriced and always having a grip made it unnecessarily bulky for a MFT camera. Going to do a review on this new setup soon. 

I feel the upcoming Panasonic Leica 10-25mm f1.7 paired with this camera will be my go to "YouTuber" camera for a while. I love the color science and IBIS is magical. Only thing "missing" is a good 120fps mode...which I can just get with my Z6 when I occasionally need it. 

So for now my current setup is this:

1DC on a tripod in my studio setup for that 4K MJPG Canon Log.

EM1 Mkii for vlog style, run and gun shooting.

Nikon Z6 for 120fps and run and gun shooting/ backup cam.

Leica Q (which I just picked up used for a steal) pictures of my kid and everyday life/ instagram shots. 

[thebrothersthre3]

The EM1 Mkii is probably where its at for vlogging. 

[Amazeballs]

So good working PDAF on mft is possible! No more bullshit excuses for Panasonic. 

[ntblowz]

9 hours ago, DaveAltizer said:

I just received my EM1 Mkii from B&H used department and immediately loaded V3 on it. 

I am using the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 and the autofocus performs flawlessly. As good as Canon Dual Pixel AF IMO and more reliable than the Nikon Z6. 

I love the colors on the camera and I feel the size of this body is just perfect. THIS is what I wanted. The EM1X was overpriced and always having a grip made it unnecessarily bulky for a MFT camera. Going to do a review on this new setup soon. 
 

Can't wait to see your video!

I wonder is there anyone gonna do GH5/EM-1 II video af comparison

[Video Hummus]

Exciting. I don’t NEED one but I want one now! I’ll wait off and see what more people say. 

[Volumetrik]

7 hours ago, ntblowz said:

Can't wait to see your video!

I wonder is there anyone gonna do GH5/EM-1 II video af comparison

Man that would be a VERY exciting comparison

[Malraulio]

On 6/21/2019 at 5:31 PM, Andrew Reid said:

Buffer was big enough to make this on the E-M1 II. Not tried the same thing on the E-M1X yet. Maybe buffer is the same, or larger. I'll find out soon enough.

Hello From Spain Andrew- Now you have max. recodable RAW images in sequential shooting 321 RAW in E-M1 mkii (with FW3.0), before you had up to 148 RAW, so is a great Improvement for this kind of ''RAW RECORDING VIDEO'' ;-)

Se you all!

 

[Dave Maze]

17 hours ago, ntblowz said:

Can't wait to see your video!

I wonder is there anyone gonna do GH5/EM-1 II video af comparison

I will certainly include that in my review... with maybe a full comparison video as well..

[Video Hummus]

On 6/26/2019 at 10:45 PM, DaveAltizer said:

I will certainly include that in my review... with maybe a full comparison video as well..

Dave,

Can you actually do some real world tests instead of those walking towards the camera and ducking? Maybe mount both cameras on a rod and get the angle of view as close as possible and vlog with it and shoot some scenes. Interested to compare the whole package: AF, IBIS, color, codec etc...

I would be more interested in how it compares to A7iii, EOS R or XT3.

Thanks for taking the time to even look at it. I’m sure not a lot of people will.

[Dave Maze]

9 hours ago, Video Hummus said:

Dave,

Can you actually do some real world tests instead of those walking towards the camera and ducking? Maybe mount both cameras on a rod and get the angle of view as close as possible and vlog with it and shoot some scenes. Interested to compare the whole package: AF, IBIS, color, codec etc...

I would be more interested in how it compares to A7iii, EOS R or XT3.

Thanks for taking the time to even look at it. I’m sure not a lot of people will.

I currently only have a Z6 and a GH5 at my disposal...I can try to get a hold of an a7iii but the Z6 is pretty similar. 

But ya I'll do some boring focus tests for sure! lol

One thing that does suck is it needs light. A lot of it. Its a noisy camera. Gotta keep that ISO low and shoot super shallow if possible. 

[Andrew Reid]

On 6/26/2019 at 1:02 AM, DaveAltizer said:

I just received my EM1 Mkii from B&H used department and immediately loaded V3 on it. 

I am using the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 and the autofocus performs flawlessly. As good as Canon Dual Pixel AF IMO and more reliable than the Nikon Z6. 

I love the colors on the camera and I feel the size of this body is just perfect. THIS is what I wanted. The EM1X was overpriced and always having a grip made it unnecessarily bulky for a MFT camera. Going to do a review on this new setup soon. 

I feel the upcoming Panasonic Leica 10-25mm f1.7 paired with this camera will be my go to "YouTuber" camera for a while. I love the color science and IBIS is magical. Only thing "missing" is a good 120fps mode...which I can just get with my Z6 when I occasionally need it. 

So for now my current setup is this:

1DC on a tripod in my studio setup for that 4K MJPG Canon Log.

EM1 Mkii for vlog style, run and gun shooting.

Nikon Z6 for 120fps and run and gun shooting/ backup cam.

Leica Q (which I just picked up used for a steal) pictures of my kid and everyday life/ instagram shots. 

I'd agree with that. The EM1X is a great camera but a bit heavy for Vlogging. I was really surprised E-M1 II got such a big firmware update, so long after release. If the AF is as good as you say it is, then you can pick one up used cheaper than a boring old A6400 and have much more fun with it, with much better colour, ergonomics, not to mention that incredible IBIS.

I am glad you have a 1D C again. I'd love to see a comparison of images between the 1D C and everything else. I still feel like the hefty MJPEG codec has the most CCD/film like colour going on of all the modern 4K stuff, especially in Canon LOG with a good LUT.

Even though the E-M1 II has taken a leap, I am keeping my EM1X though. I don't currently do any vlogging, and having a smaller, lighter pro Canon 1D style camera with great colour and IBIS is really nice. The feel of the body is superb, like a mini 1D C or 1D X II.

[Dave Maze]

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

I'd agree with that. The EM1X is a great camera but a bit heavy for Vlogging. I was really surprised E-M1 II got such a big firmware update, so long after release. If the AF is as good as you say it is, then you can pick one up used cheaper than a boring old A6400 and have much more fun with it, with much better colour, ergonomics, not to mention that incredible IBIS.

I am glad you have a 1D C again. I'd love to see a comparison of images between the 1D C and everything else. I still feel like the hefty MJPEG codec has the most CCD/film like colour going on of all the modern 4K stuff, especially in Canon LOG with a good LUT.

Even though the E-M1 II has taken a leap, I am keeping my EM1X though. I don't currently do any vlogging, and having a smaller, lighter pro Canon 1D style camera with great colour and IBIS is really nice. The feel of the body is superb, like a mini 1D C or 1D X II.

I'm totally with you...however...have you had any bugs with the EM1X? I owned two of them and both had crazy firmware bugs. Like the camera locks up and doesn't let me take photos, or in video mode all of a sudden the buttons get all whacked out and don't work. Gotta be just early firmware issues. If I can get a good deal on an EM1X I'd go with that over the EM1mkii.

Great perspective though on pricing. It is cheaper than the Sony a6400 and is a much better option for most people. 

Ya...I won't let go of the 1DC again. I think its an important camera and it's a camera I want to always have in my collection. The Leica Q feels excessive. I may sell that honestly lol. 

I want to pick up that Panny Leica 10-25mm f1.7 for the Olympus system and I'll be set.