Olympus OM D E-M5 - Thinking about buying one - good move or not!!

willie garvin

willie garvin

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Mick
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Hi,

As per title, I'm possibly thinking of buying one of these but I'd honestly like some feedback from this forum first.

The reason behind this is that I am interested in doing some 'street photography' & this Olympus is much smaller than my Canon 40D, so less imposing when out on the streets.

Cheers,

WG
 
There should be an EM5 owners thread on this forum with tons of info if you do a search.
 
Found this on another forum!

i have an x-e1 and had an e-m5

the e-m5 focuses faster and the weather sealing is a plus. otherwise the camera did nothing for me - it just didn't click with me. image quality was good... everything was fine. it was a little small in the hand and i found the buttons annoying and squishy. in the end i just felt it was a boring camera to use and the IQ had nothing special about it to keep me coming back. m4/3 has some nice lenses.

fuji is quirky, the af is clunky, and the files are just wonderful. plus all controls i need are on the outside (although this wouldn't be the case with the zoom as it has no aperture ring). the main thing is the files in post... i love the way the files convert to b&w which i shoot a lot of. they're much nicer to work with than my 5d3 files in that regard. buy extra batteries because fuji loves to tell you you're battery is full and then it bites the dust.​
 
Happy E-M5 owner here - I came from a Pentax K-x which I loved but I didn't take anywhere as the lenses were so damn big (subjective, I know!). I also felt a lot more comfortable poking it in people's faces. You can't beat m43 for a small kit, I can physically hold a 3-lens prime kit in the palm of one hand and carry a 5 lens kit in one small, light shoulder bag.

The folding screen and touch-shutter are also great for unobtrusive shooting. Fold out the screen and hold the camera at waist-height, the camera can focus and fire on the point of screen you touch in less than a second. Edit - I'm aware this reads like an advert, sorry! It really was a revelation for me being able to get great photos with such a small gear bag.
 
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Another very happy E-M5 owner here too. I have a small set of prime lenses and the whole lot fits in a very small bag. Going back to my Canon 5D after using the Olympus for a while makes the Canon feel enormous! Unlike the quote in post 3 above, I found the Olympus really worked for me and I love using it. The Fuji (which I also owned for a while) probably gave better image quality, but it didn't gel for me as it was somehow too clinical and the lenses aren't much smaller than full-frame lenses, while the m4/3rds are much smaller.
 
Yep I am with @magicolor1 on this one, I couldn't meld with the Fuji(xpro1, x20 and xf1) yet the Olys seem to be in my way of thinking, very happy em5 owner but if I was just going out for a bit of street I would take the epl5 out with me instead of the em5.

Get to a shop for a fondle you might not get on with them, you need to have a good go with all systems to see which are more tuned to your way of thinking.
 
I have the E-M5 & E-M1. Originally bought the E-M5 for street work & lighter field trips, feel in love with it straight away, then when the E-M1 came out tried it & bought one. I haven't picked up my Canons 1DS Mk III or 1D MkIV for ages now use the Olympus fr all my street work, & landscape stuff, works great with cars (E-M1 best) but haven't tried it with BIF yet but know many who do. Some great lenses around now as well to support rather than the kit lenses. I often use old OM lenses set on hyper focal for street work the quality is fantastic at so little cost.
 
I'm pretty much of magicolor1's opinion too. I've done the Fuji X thing, nice gear but I find Oly gels with me better. I had my E-M5 all along so was able to compare very well with Fuji (X-E1 and a nice set of lenses).
Like Peter I've added the E-M1 a few months ago, still have my E-M5, great little camera.
 
I have an oly om-10 and love it but unless you just want a new toy (which is fair enough) I would just use your canon. This camera less intimidating bit I really don't think comes into it-unless your using a huge great white L lens. I think its more to do with how the tog feels taking pics rather than the subjects perception of a camera. if someone doesn't want there pic taken its irrelevant whether its a camera phone of a d800!
bang a 40mm pancake on your canon and its pretty subtle
 
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archstanton said:
The folding screen and touch-shutter are also great for unobtrusive shooting. Fold out the screen and hold the camera at waist-height, the camera can focus and fire on the point of screen you touch in less than a second. Edit - I'm aware this reads like an advert, sorry! It really was a revelation for me being able to get great photos with such a small gear bag.
Click to expand...

Indeed and this one was taken in exactly that manner without the subject knowing using this very technique on the E-M5 even though I was less than 8 feet away from her, I could have asked and i did with some i took but sometimes I want a un-posed look.
156673825.jpg
 
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craftysnapper said:
Indeed and this one was taken in exactly that manner without the subject knowing using this very technique on the E-M5 even though I was less than 8 feet away from her, I could have asked and i did with some i took but sometimes I want a un-posed look.
156673825.jpg
Click to expand...
Hi Paul,

What lens what lens was this taken with?
 
scottduffy said:
Hi Paul,

What lens what lens was this taken with?
Click to expand...
Sorry I am late to this but thank you sdb for answering, it was indeed the 45mm and shot wide open at f/1.8 it is a remarkable lens for the price.

That and the 17mm f/1.8 are my usual street walk around lenses.:)
 
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