You really can’t go more micro than that! I just found a 3cmm small miniature OM phone strap on eBay. There are actually two of them for sale: The [shoplink 31458 ebay]Silver E-M5 miniature (Click here)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 31459 ebay]Black E-M5 miniature (Click here)[/shoplink]. You also get two interchangeable lenses! Of course, it won’t take any picture. P.S.: A funny camera that works is the Ikea cardboard camera you can find on [shoplink 31460 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

We had many E-M5 reviews in these days but Admiringlight is the first to test it as Sports Shooting camera: “The continuous drive mode is competitive with even professional grade DSLRs, and the excellent viewfinder and stabilization helps in framing shots with long lenses. I was impressed that the battery lasted all day, including 872 shots and a bunch of chimping, and still had some juice in the tank. The image quality was excellent, even given the very difficult lighting conditions. Overall, I really couldn’t ask for more from this tiny wonder.”

P.S.: Leica X2 vs Fuji X100 vs Olympus E-M5 and Sony NEX-7 by Steve Huff. An E-M5 review by Savezzi.

E-M5 orders (Click on the names of the stores to see the product page):
Black E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, and Amazon Japan.
Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto , Digitalrev and J&R.
Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland , Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.

The Pansonic 25mm f/1.4 on the GX1 (Image courtesy Photozone).

Klaus from Photozone (Click here) posted the full [shoplink 23110]Panasonic Leica Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH[/shoplink] review: “The Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 25mm f/1.4 ASPH is a very desirable lens. The quality is very high across most of the image field when stopping down to f/2.8. However, the extreme corners remain only “good” here. Lateral CAs as well as distortions are all well controlled and not relevant in field conditions. In addition, the quality of the bokeh is very good.”

The [shoplink 23110]Leica 25mm[/shoplink] is certainly a great lens but I still prefer the [shoplink 14796]20mm f/1.7[/shoplink] for his tiny size that allows me to carry a camera in a pocket!
Check the price and availability of the Panasonic Leica: [shopcountry 23110] Check the price and availability of the Panasonic Leica: [shopcountry 14796]

More lens tests: Standard-range micro 4/3 Imatest Results at Lensrentals (Click here). 50mm prime battle at 3Dkraft.

The E-M5 is now shipping to more and more 43rumors readers and they are sharing their reviews of the cameras with me (Thanks!!!). Unlike the usual professional reviewing websites their reports are more “personal” and based on their own needs. I find they very interesting also because they are far away from the pixel peeping mania. And here you have the list the latest reviews made by our 43rumors readers:

Alex Mustard reviews Olympus OM-D E-M5 at WetPixel:”The camera has significantly improved AF, ISO, dynamic range, resolution etc and the housing is more button controlled than menu driven. It is a no brainer, if you have the funds. The E-M5 is also likely to appeal to many compact shooters looking to make a serious upgrade, providing a system that is much easier to adapt to than a SLR. I can also see it appealing to some current SLR shooters, who are looking to downsize, without compromising on performance and image quality.”

Full review by Ming Thein: “The original promise of ‘smaller, same quality’ which was made with Four Thirds I felt was never fulfilled with earlier cameras; they weren’t small enough, or able to deliver the same image quality. Although Micro Four Thirds went a long way to fulfilling the smaller part of the equation, image quality, speed and usability were lagging behind until the last generation; only now has the promise been met. I don’t look at the OM-D’s files and think ‘wow, this isn’t bad for such a small sensor!’; instead, I look at the files and am satisfied enough to not think about the sensor size.”

Jonathan Hrovath shared his thoughts about the E-M5: “The bottom line is that the OMD E-M5 feels like a high end DSLR in speed and function.  Considering how small it is, this is quite the feat.  I am loving this camera and haven’t been this excited to get out and shoot since I got my Nikon D700 back in 2009.  It just makes you want to immerse yourself in the camera and make some art.”

Dearsusan posted a review of the OM-D’s IBIS and found it to provide a solid 3-4 stops of stability improvement in real life conditions.

Terje: “I have written an open letter to Olympus on the OMD-5 at http://www.anotherimage.com/?p=2574. It is not a review of a fantastic camera but a summary of weak points that easily may be fixed.”

Steve Huff posted the second part of the E-M5 highlight recovering test. And he also posted an “unfair” comparison with the Nikon D800 and superexpensive Leica X2 (Click here to read the article): “While the OM-D did not meet or beat the D800 here it came damn close, and to me that is impressive. I have to say that the more I shoot the OM-D E-M5 the more I love it. As for the X2, it also has a larger sensor than the OM-D but it appears it performed about the same noise wise though you can clearly see the Leica color signature coming through.”

Head to Head, E-M5 versus X PRO 1 at Digitalcamerareview.

On the in Stock front I can report that two silver cameras are on auction in Europe at [shoplink 31456 ebay]eBay UK (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 31455 ebay]eBay Spain (Click here)[/shoplink]. And first E-m5 are now listed at Amazon France. As you can see from the rankings below the Silver version is loved in USA while the Black leads the rankings in Germany.

E-M5 (Pre)order links (Click on store name): Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev. Cheap [shoplink 31278 ebay]third party E-M5 batteries on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink].

The E-M5 keeps to be present in the Amazon Bestseller list(changes hourly!):
USA: E-M5 on position 7/9/20 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 23/38 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 1/10/12 (Click here).
France: E-M5 on position 17 (Click here).
Japan: E-M5 on position 22/23 (Click here).

The German reviewers of Digitalkamera (Click here for the translation) tested the new 12-35mm X lens. They say that they never had such a small f/2.8 zoom in their own hands. The build quality is top of the notch. It has a violet color because Panasonic decided to mark preproduction lenses in that way. The Autofocus is “rasend schnell” which means it’s super fast. They sharpness test shows that center and border resolution are practically always on a high level at any aperture. Vignetting is only slightly visible at f/2.8 aperture and almost negligible distortion. Overall a superb lens!

I am now wondering how Olympus will respond to that lens. Will they offer a faster zoom? That is something Olympus can do and no other company managed to do with the [shoplink 25320 ebay]14-35mm f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 25119 ebay]35-100mm f/2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] Zuiko lenses….or at least I don’t know of any other fats zoom like these!

The Panasonic 12-35mm X lens can be preordered at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Panasonic store (Click here), Amazon Japan (Click here), Digitalrev (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here) and [shoplink 31399 ebay]eBay (via Japan reseller)[/shoplink].

CameraLabs posted the Olympus E-M5 vs Panasonic GX1 RAW noise comparison. While doing the test CamerLabs discovered something interesting: “But when framing and later analysing images from both cameras, it became obvious the E-M5 was capturing a fractionally smaller field of view to the GX1, suggesting a fractionally smaller sensor (…) The actual difference in field of view is sufficiently small not to have any significant impact on quality or coverage, but it does reinforce Olympus’ claim that the E-M5 uses a new sensor. Or at least uses it in a different way to preceding models from Panasonic.”

From a pure photographic point of view that question ins’t important. It would just have been interesting to know why Olympus is making a hype around the sensor by simply not disclosing the manufatcorer. Anyway, speaking of good photographic articles. As suggested by our reader “Dummy” (Thanks!) you have to read this: “Show Me Photographs, Not Gear: How to Improve Photography Without Upgrading Gear” by Robin Wong.

—
E-M5 shop search links at [shopcountry 29074].
GX1 shop search links at [shopcountry 26836].

The Nokton 17.5mm f/0.95 is one of the nicest Micro Four Thirds lenses and it just got reviewed by the Spanish DSLRmagazine (Click here for the google translation). The reviewer Valentin Sama is impressed by the lens quality. Already at full f/0.95 aperture the resolution is very good. You get the highest resolution at f/5.6. The lens has no weakness, it means center and border resolution are on high level at all apertures. A weakness may be the high vignetting at full aperture which is not surprising for such a fats lens. Vignetting almost disappears from f/2.0 upwards. Distortion is negligible if the subject is distant from the camera. Closer you get to the subject more distortion you will see. There is little CA (Chromatic Aberration) and little Astigmatism. In sumamry it’s a pretty soldi lens that is even better than the (alreayd good) [shoplink 15659 ebay]Voigtländer Nokton 25mm f/0.95[/shoplink].

I think Voigtländer deserves a lot of praise for the two lenses they made for the m43 system! it’s really not easy to find lenses like this (with a high quality and decent price) in any other system (DSLR or Mirrorless)!

So, where to find the 17.5mm lens in Stock? First look at [shoplink 30452 ebay]eBay (Click hee to see all acutions)[/shoplink]. You can find plenty of stores selling the lens. Also BHphoto (Click here) has it in Stock (from June 1st).