The Olympus EM1 mk II experience

So I gave a serious look to the m4/3 options. Yes, the sensor is smaller. Yes, ISO performance is below their FF counterparts. But how is it the IQ? And what about versatility? Some years ago I tried the first generation Olympus sensor, especially in low light: I wasn’t impressed. But now, maybe things have changed? And: what would I do with the output of this camera? Printing up to 60x40cm, not more. In rare conditions go to 150x100cm: did that already in the past from the output of my 5D and the prints, with the right post-processing and printing adjustments still look great.

The current mFT panorama has many potentially appealing cameras. The Panasonic G80/85, for instance, is pretty interesting: low price, good set of features. On another hand the Olympus OMD EM1 mk II had something that could have been of interest for me: speed and the possibility of Hi-RES captures to cover my static subjects when needed. Of course for a lot more cash than the Panny, a 20Mpixel sensor with a dynamic range similar to the “venerable” Canon 5DmkIII, so enough for most of my real life needs.
I have to admit that form IQ standpoint I was very skeptical. Coming from the results of the trio above it’s an hard life for any smaller sensor camera, especially if you consider that I would have paired the camera with Zoom lenses, the 12-40 Zuiko pro zoom, and, maybe later, the 12-100. So I did my usual research, asked a good friend to lend me his Pen-f 12-40 combo, just to have an idea about the quality of the output. I knew the sensor is not the same on the EM1 mk II, but renting here in Italy is hard and I needed something similar to make some basic assessment. I was positively impressed. Not so much by the handling (admittedly, the PenF is a too small body for the 12-40), but rather for the resulting IQ. Nice colors and tones rendering, good sharpness, fast AF and sleek operations. In the following picture, shot with the PEN-F and processed in Capture One, I like the rendering of the lens and the different focus planes from the bicycles to the background.

So? Bought the top OLY EM1 MK II with 12-40 and 75-300 (to have, finally, a 600mm equivalent lens!), battery grip and additional battery. Not to REPLACE the trio of fixed lenses cameras, but rather to have a camera to use in different situations, that would come along with me and the RX1RII in travels and can be used in adverse atmospheric conditions.
After a couple of months of use I should say that my experience, so far, is positive.

I had a “lemon” first sample of 12-40, promptly replaced by a good copy. Shit happens. The 75-300 is surprisingly good for such a lens in this price range: nothing special but small and discrete, so discrete that nobody will guess you have a 600mm cannon in your hands.

The EM1mk2 is very well made, solid, good button feeling, better than the Sony RX1RII for button feedbacks.
Large EVF, nice touch implementation. And FAAAST. Except the off-to-on time, still a bit behind a DSRL, the rest happens and light speed. Focus, responsiveness, burst, pro-capture mode. I’m not a spray-and-pray kind of photographer, so I limited the burst of the Oly to avoid 60 frames in a second. This is an animated GIF of 25 photographs showing Petrucci’s Ducati flying during the MotoGP race in Valencia. All full RES RAW, of course, @600mm equivalent.
The continuous autofocus tracking was excellent in keeping the bike in focus while panning… IBIS on, +1AF Scanner: the number of out-of-focus picture in this scenario was maybe 1% of the total photographs shots (over 2000)…

Menus are VERY complicated: you get a lot of options and you may customise the camera to your specific needs up to the very single bit: you may even decide to change the assign the power-on-off lever to a different one. It takes a bit of time to understand the philosophy but I find those menu still better than the Sony’s.

Battery life is good: you don’t have to live with the restrains of the Sony: 600-700 shot are normal. The overall man-machine interface is well made. Once you customise the camera to your needs all is simple and fast to use. JPG are VERY good. I’m finding myself using JPGs more and more, especially for all those “uncomplicated situations” where you don’t have to struggle with a specific image, or, as I did in Valencia, shooting motorbikes. The two card slots are a peace of mind: RAW on the first, JPG on the other. One may have the best of both worlds.

Of course, you cannot freeze movement so I’m not saying that Image Stabilization is the mantra that will solve all issues. But, for me, shooting mostly architectures at night, this is for sure a nice feature, also to check a shot before setting up tripods and other tools. The Sony A7RIII has IBIS, but not so efficient as the one of the Olympus and all the other above considerations remain valid.

In a different scenario, when shooting on the street, at daytime, from the hip, I find the full articulated monitor rather cumbersome to use and I prefer there the “tilt-only” Sony. IQ on the Sony, at comparable ISO, is, of course better but this depends very much on the size of the final print. As I wrote above, when comparing prints up to A2, it’s going to be hard to tell the difference.
I tried some High-res capture of the Olympus versus the Sony as well. It’s the old style brick wall test that is so boring to see that I would really not like to publish here. My conclusions: quality is very high from those High-res capture but still not up to the 42Mpixel in real world situations, where a light breeze may change the scene you’re shooting. But it’s nice to have when you need it.

These are the main areas where the camera could be improved. Of course I’m not dreaming fantastic bokeh or things that are simply not applicable to this device but to a number of small issues that may be probably addressed with a good firmware update.

I you came so far you probably will guess that my impressions are positive. The camera has found a place in my arsenal and I should say that overall, I’m positively impressed by it.
The niche it fits is indeed quite large: it’s a good general purpose camera, that can be used by a pro in most of the situation. For my particular case it is what I was looking for: small, good IQ, speed and it will nicely complement my image creating devices.