Olympus OM-D E-M5 Review

Summary

As I have pointed out at the beginning of this review, I have been looking for a good mirrorless camera for a while now, mainly to complement my professional DSLR gear. While I absolutely love the image quality, speed and capabilities of my Nikon DSLR cameras, my biggest issue to date has been capturing those precious moments that happen every day around me and my family. Due to the weight and bulk of my camera equipment, I have only been taking it with me when photographing professionally or when I know ahead of time that I need to take pictures.

Constantly carrying a heavy DSLR like Nikon D800 with a professional lens is not only impractical, but it is also painful (especially when you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome like me). For example, I would not bother taking my DSLR when driving to a local grocery store, when attending a family event, or picking up my kids from school. And yet, I got tired of those “I wish I had my good camera with me” moments, when seeing something really unique or interesting and only having a crappy phone camera in my pocket.

During the last two years, I had a chance to test a number of different mirrorless camera systems from Fuji, Olympus, Nikon, Sony and Canon, and I am planning to continue exploring the world of mirrorless cameras with other brands like Pentax, Ricoh and Samsung later this year. It has been an interesting journey for me personally, going through each camera and exploring its capabilities, features and image quality. While I was impressed by many of the mirrorless cameras (thanks to their small size and image quality), which led me to write articles like “Why DX has no future“, there was always something that I did not like about each mirrorless camera I tested. Whether it was poor autofocus performance, bad ergonomics, poor battery life, bad RAW support or inferior image quality – it seemed like it was a world of compromises. You just could not have it all in a single camera.

Until I came across the Olympus OM-D E-M5. From the day I started using the E-M5, I just fell in love with it. Everything just felt right about it – excellent image quality, incredibly fast autofocus, wide lens selection, superior ergonomics with a boatload of customization options. Suddenly, it just felt like the camera I had been wanting to own and use all these years. My only doubt was the smaller sensor size – for a while I thought that I would go with a larger APS-C sensor system. But after seeing the lens size implications of a large sensor system in several different cameras, I knew there was no point in getting a bulky mirrorless system. My goal was to get a very capable camera that is compact enough to take it with me everywhere – not another DSLR that will prefer to stay in a bag. And the E-M5 just felt right from the start in that regard, once I mounted the tiny 12mm and 45mm Olympus prime lenses on it.

Is the Olympus OM-D E-M5 perfect? No, there are plenty of things I do not like about it, as I pointed out in the review. But I can live with those annoyances because I love everything else about it.

Can it replace a DSLR? Yes and No. Yes, for those of us that enjoy everyday photography, where things like enormous resolution, crazy low-light performance or blazing fast autofocus are not needed. (which probably hits 80%+ of DSLR users out there). No, for the smaller population of photographers like me that want the best image quality and autofocus capabilities of a full-frame DSLR. For those particular needs, my Nikon DSLRs are here to stay. But even if the E-M5 won’t replace my DSLR gear, I am still very happy to use it as a primary camera for everyday needs.

Without a doubt, the Olympus OM-D E-M5 is the best mirrorless camera on the market today. I just wish I checked it out earlier.