Thread: Olympus OM-D E-M5 boasts retro styling

Olympus brought the wraps off itsrecent Micro Four-Thirds camera today--its eighth compactexchangeable-lens camera including all, but the first model not to besegment of the company's Pen series. Rather, the 16-megapixel OlympusOM-D E-M5 is the inaugural entry in the company's novel OM-D line.


While the novel camera's sensor is thesimilar size like that of last Pen and Panasonic Lumix G cameras , itis a revamped version of the Live MOS sensor. Olympus tells that,thanks to the re-planned sensor, the OM-D E-M5 proffers the fastestautofocus speed of any interchangeable-lens camera on the market,DSLRs contained.


Olympus is positioning the OM-D E-M5like a "wish list" model resulting from user feedback inJapan, where the company tells mirrorless models account for almost50 percent of exchangeable-lens camera sales. Depended upon customerrequests, the OM-D E-M5 is constructed to meet high demand for arain- and dust-resistant body, an exchangeable-lens camera on anintegrated eye-level viewfinder, and good low-light performance.


The camera has been entirely re-plannedfrom the within out, on a dust- and splashproof magnesium-alloy bodythat's slightly bigger as compared to anything Olympus has free inits Pen line. Hold in mind that "splashproof" does notequal "waterproof"; the OM-D E-M5 can manage rain andspray, but it is not planned to be submerged underwater.Esthetically, it is modeled later the Olympus OM-4 SLR from themid-1980s, a 35mm film camera.

The OM-D E-M5 has a 1.4-million-doteye-level viewfinder on a 120-fps refresh rate over its MicroFour-Thirds lens mount. Olympus claims that the camera proffersadvanced noise correction during its ISO scope, which caps out at25,600.


Beyond those core "wish list"specifications are a number of equally enticing in-cameracharacteristics and hardware. In extra to the aforesaid fastautofocus speeds, the camera proffers a 4.2-frames-per-secondburst-shooting mode on proceed autofocus,add 1080i video recording at60 fps on automatic correction for rolling-shutter effect. It evenhas body-depended image stabilization because of a five-axissensor-shift system constructed to correct pitch and yaw rotation, aswell as an adjustable 3-inch touchscreen OLED screen that complementsthe camera's physical controls for focusing and shutter release.


With top of holdovers such as theMiniature Mode and Toy Camera effects, novel filters have ablack-and-white edition of Olympus's ominous-feeling Dramatic Tonefilter, an Echo effect that creates visual trails behind movingobjects in video mode, and a Key Line mode that creates photosresemble comic-book drawings. One thing that is missing is a inbuiltflash, while a detachable flash is contained on the camera. Thecamera's hot shoe and accessory port even hosts older flashes,microphones, and other accessories from the Pen line.


Even with the "wish list"that Olympus's research supplied was a greater variety of MicroFour-Thirds lenses, particularly in the areas of fixed focal lengthand high-end glass. The company wishes to address that demand onthree novel lenses even declared today, everything of which arecompatible on Olympus's Pen series, Panasonic's Lumix G series, andthe novel OM-D line.


The only zoom lens of the three is theM.Zuiko Digital ED 12-50 mm F3 5-6.3 EZ, which will be usable like akit lens with the OM-D E-M5. As other Micro Four-Thirds cameras, theOM-D E-M5 has a focal length multiplier of 2X when a lens is joined,meaning that the novel zoom lens will have an effective focal scopeof 24mm to 100mm in 35mm film equivalent when mounted.