Olympus E-M1 II and Rode Stereo VideoMic X first impressions

[Andrew Reid]

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The ideal run & gun solution for music videos?

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[Mattias Burling]

I love the Videomic X, really great for ambience, on camera and obviously music.
Nice article BTW!

[cantsin]

Hmm, I wonder how well the Videomic X performs against the (superb yet less expensive) binaural Ohrwurm microphone: www.ohrwurmaudio.eu/ohrwurm-x.html

Subjectively, I find the concert audio recording lacking in the lower frequencies. (But that might as well have been an issue of the PA.)

[Don Kotlos]

Thanks Andrew, nicely written. The positive atmosphere of this article reminds me a lot of the original E-M1 you did... 

By the way did you have a chance to look the HDMI output? I know it against the run&gun type of shooting but sometimes its nice to know that you can get something better if needed. Waves for example is something that many internal codecs have problem with or low light noise compression, or if it is possible to have 4k to 1080p downscaling so we can use a ninja star... 

 

[Batou Bato]

"written with google translate"

I do not know if I am the only one to wait the test of the xc10 by andrew  : (   especially when it compares the xc10 to a c300 (mark2)

[liork]

Yes, this camera is a joy to use and image quality in C4K is very good, without looking too over sharpened. I am still learning if its better to use Highlights / shadows tool and what levels. What I really love is the option to configure dials and buttons differently from stills shooting, so you can go fast between the modes (it can be nightmare on some of the other cameras if you are a "hybrid" shooter).

[kuban]

Hey Andrew, personally I'm a big fan since the EM5 back from 2010. I hope you don't mind me asking, but when you say you bought the EM1 and 25mm Lens was that under a rebate sponsor program?

[wolf33d]

Great review thanks

completely agree 

only cons for me is no 4k60p and FHD120-180p. A deal breaker when i have a GH5 at same price. 

If specced like this, I would have got the Olympus for the better ergonomics and better IBIS 

[Andrew Reid]

1 hour ago, kuban said:

Hey Andrew, personally I'm a big fan since the EM5 back from 2010. I hope you don't mind me asking, but when you say you bought the EM1 and 25mm Lens was that under a rebate sponsor program?

Haha I wish. No, like always I bought it at retail... In this case online.

[dvcrn]

How are the pre-amps? I heard very mixed things. Some say they are as bad as the em5II, some say they are good. 

Did you notice an awful audio hiss like on the em5II on the production model?

[kidzrevil]

The audio sounds amazing ! would love to see some more tests in different lighting situations ! looks good but it may be too early to say its comparable to the gh5. I seen some great test footage from the GH5 floating around online...

[briwil78]

Man, I love this site- I got talked out of getting the E-M1 II after reading Andrew's review of the Panny G80, where he talked about how the Olympus wasn't worth the money compared to this alternative. Now fast forward a month and Andrew has actually gotten his hands on the Olympus and now it's totally worth it. Can we hold our future judgements on specific cameras until we've actually had a chance to use them?

Doesnt really matter, I couldn't have afforded the E-M1 II anyways.

[DPC]

I'm not sure the video supports the writing here. There's not much movement to show the virtues of the in camera stabilisation. It'a a long low wide shot with a few cutaways inserted. There is a colour difference between camera angles (magenta vs green). At times the focus is significantly off. I don't see the image quality described at all.  Sorry.

[Hitfabryk]

Thanks for posting, I like the song very much, but agree with DPC about the colour difference between the shots and that the focus is off at times.

Not impressed at all with the IQ. It seems that the videomic is lacking bass but like cantsin said before, that  could be the problem of the PA. But I doubt that.

[sgreszcz]

16 hours ago, cantsin said:

Hmm, I wonder how well the Videomic X performs against the (superb yet less expensive) binaural Ohrwurm microphone: www.ohrwurmaudio.eu/ohrwurm-x.html

Subjectively, I find the concert audio recording lacking in the lower frequencies. (But that might as well have been an issue of the PA.)

I just bought the ohrwurm and walked around with them and the little dead cats on my ears shooting bobsled and skeleton this past weekend. I was using my gx80 which doesn't have mic in so I need to sync. Despite looking like an idiot, the sound is really amazing and quite spooky when listening with headphones on. I listened to the audio of some of the bobsleds rumbling by and it sounds quite good except on day 1 I stupidly left the limiter on the Sony recorder (which is awesome, and much smaller than the zoom h1 - too bad it has been discontinued!).  I'll put something together if I can.

Offtopic but any tips on how to manage audio with slowing down and playing with the speed of 50fps video?

[jonpais]

1 hour ago, sgreszcz said:

I just bought the ohrwurm and walked around with them and the little dead cats on my ears shooting bobsled and skeleton this past weekend. I was using my gx80 which doesn't have mic in so I need to sync. Despite looking like an idiot, the sound is really amazing and quite spooky when listening with headphones on. I listened to the audio of some of the bobsleds rumbling by and it sounds quite good except on day 1 I stupidly left the limiter on the Sony recorder (which is awesome, and much smaller than the zoom h1 - too bad it has been discontinued!).  I'll put something together if I can.

Offtopic but any tips on how to manage audio with slowing down and playing with the speed of 50fps video?

your question is not clear at all... you want to record audio at a high frame rate, slow it down, then use the audio or what? i don't think that's possible, but so many people request that. Think about it for a moment...

[Stanley]

1 hour ago, sgreszcz said:

I just bought the ohrwurm and walked around with them and the little dead cats on my ears shooting bobsled and skeleton this past weekend. I was using my gx80 which doesn't have mic in so I need to sync. Despite looking like an idiot, the sound is really amazing and quite spooky when listening with headphones on. I listened to the audio of some of the bobsleds rumbling by and it sounds quite good except on day 1 I stupidly left the limiter on the Sony recorder (which is awesome, and much smaller than the zoom h1 - too bad it has been discontinued!).  I'll put something together if I can.

Offtopic but any tips on how to manage audio with slowing down and playing with the speed of 50fps video?

Wow, wish I had the Ohrwurm microphone Just listened to a recording of the train on the link @cantsin provided. at that price I'm getting it for sure. Can also see the value of the Rode mic that Andrew used, I kinda liked that as well. Horses for courses.

[DPC]

1 hour ago, sgreszcz said:

Offtopic but any tips on how to manage audio with slowing down and playing with the speed of 50fps video?

Separate audio and video tracks

[sgreszcz]

2 hours ago, jonpais said:

your question is not clear at all... you want to record audio at a high frame rate, slow it down, then use the audio or what? i don't think that's possible, but so many people request that. Think about it for a moment...

I did think about it, sorry my question wasn't clear.  

I recorded separate sound in realtime with the binaural mics and I want to play with the speed of the sleds since I shot at 50fps and they go by so fast. The ambient sound is cool, so I'll google for any examples where people have tied in the audio while altering the video playback timing.

I'm way off topic, sorry. On topic: After using my gx80 and dualIS for almost a year now I still think that my former E-M5ii was more solid and less wobbly in the Stabilisation department...

[fuzzynormal]

I've been surprised to find how enamored I've been with the Olympus cameras.  They're far from perfect, but I just like 'em.  The model I've been using is the EM5's.  And even thought the EM5II doesn't spec out as good as the LUMIX stuff, it just works better.  Ultimately, that makes it a better production tool, for me, than. say, the GX85...even though the GX85 does shoot better looking video.