New reviews roundup…(new Gariz leather case for the E-M5)

[shoplink 30623 ebay][/shoplink]

The picture on top shows the new Gariz leather case for the E-M5 which are right now for sale on [shoplink 30623 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. You can find them in [shoplink 30624 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 30625 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink]. Looks good or not?

New reviews:
More Fun Comparisons – Fuji X-Pro 1 vs Olympus OM-D vs Sony NEX-7 – JPEG by Steve Huff (Click here): “Out of the three, the most joyful and fun to shoot was the Olympus.
SLR Magic x Toy Lens Pinhole for Micro Four Thirds at ThePhoBlographer (Click here).
GF5 versus GX1 JPEG and RAW comparison at DSLRcheck (Click here).
The Lightroom 4.1 beta (CLick here) now supports the E-M5 RAW file.
Sigma 19mm review at Photographyblog (Click here).

And here are the links to all the mentioned stuff:
SLRmagic pinhole on [shoplink 30626 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink] The 19mm lens is in Stock at Amazon US (Click here), Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Amazon FR (Click here), Amazon JP (Click here) and Digitalrev (Click here).

E-M5 preorders (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.

5 axis stabilization tested by man suffering from hand tremor.

On of the positive side effects of the E-M5 new 5 axis stabilization is that it can help people to shot better pictures even if they suffer from hands tremor. The author (“Fiatopichanon” on vimeo) of the video you see here on top writes: “I currently suffer from essential tremor, causing my hands shake about 5-10 Hz, which makes my shooting both still picture and video somewhat difficult. When Olympus introduced the new OM-D E-M5 with the new image stabilization system, I thought it might help me shooting easier and I might buy it. Finally I got it and found that the new IS system is really helpful. Here is my test. Hope you enjoy this.

Thanks Fiatopichan!!!

P.S.: Amazon Germany (Click here) has the Black body in Stock while the 14-42mm kit vesion keeps getting IN and OUT of Stock every couple of hours at Amazon USA (Click here).

Today E-M5 Rankings (changes hourly!):
USA: E-M5 on position 7/10/11/17 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 3 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 5/6/12 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 2/11 (Click here).

E-M5 (Pre)order links (Click on store name): Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

New reviews roundup (E-M5, GF5, 12mm)

The GF5 and E-PM1 size comparison from Quesabesde.

Soundimagesplus (Click here) has plenty of E-m5 testing articles. PCmag (Click here) posted a full E-M5 review: “The Olympus OM-D E-M5 is the best Micro Four Thirds camera we’ve tested.“. Sample photos at ePhotozine (Click here). E-M5 image smaples at Pantip (Click here). Another ISO test at Lepidi (Click here). E-M5 (Pre)order links (Click on store name): Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

Japanese Olympus 12mm lens review at Itmedia (Click here).

Panasonic GF5 review at Quesabesde (Click here for the translation). Full GF5 image samples at Focus Numerique (Click here).

DxOmark: Canon Four Thirds versus Panasonic Four Thirds.

a
We are used to read comparisons between “our” Panasonic Four Thirds sensor versus other larger APS-C sensors from Samsung, Sony or Fuji. Now for the first time we can see the Micro Four Thirds sensor compared with the very similar sized Canon Four Thirds sensor. DxOmark (Click here) just published their Canon G1X test. As usual with DxOmark tests keep in mind that they don’t take into account the resolution as variable for their scores. The test shows that the Canon Sensor is more or less on par with the Panasonic. A tack better than the [shoplink 26836]GX1[/shoplink] and a tack worse than the still best result from the “old” [shoplink 14826]GH1[/shoplink]. Soon DxO will post the [shoplink 29074]E-m5[/shoplink] results and I am curious to see if it really will surpass the GH1.

Reminder: David Parry, from Canon UK explained at Techradar (Click here) why they didn’t opt for the APS-C sensor: “We managed to create a four times zoom in a very compact body, and really it has the biggest sensor that we could use and also get decent coverage from the lens. If you made the sensor any bigger, the lens would have to be a lot bigger and it would be much more difficult and expensive to produce.

I am wondering if the upcoming Canon interchangeable mirrorles system will use the same Four Thirds sized sensor! Would be once again the confirmation that the sensor size Olympus and Panasonic have chosen is the right one for the mirrorless system. Sony has the impressive APS-C sensor but the lenses are much larger and the corner quality of the image mostly suffers with the NEX lenses.

P.S:: The Canon G1X is a fixed lens camera and costs $799 at Amazon (Click here). Probably too expensive to compete against the [shoplink 26836]Panasonic GX1[/shoplink].

New Olympus E-M5 roundup (on par with markIII in wide angle test!)

The image on top (Click on it to enlarge) is another comparison made by the Japanese DSRLcheck website. These are in camera JPEGS with NR off and maximal quality taken with the [shoplink 29074]Olympus E-M5[/shoplink] and the also very new Canon 5DmarkIII (full frame camera that costs $2400 more than the E-M5). The google translation tool doesn’t help me a lot but here is what I hope to have understood from the article. This is an 18mm focal length comparison. The images have been taken at the ideal aperture of the lens (f/4.0 for the E-M5 and f/5.6 for the markIII). The best lens on the E-M5 is the Four Thirds 7-14mm ZD lens ($1799 here at Amazon). The best m43 lens is the Panasonic 7-14mm.

As usual with those testings be aware that there are many subjective variables the tester has to set. But the overall impression I get from these images is that the image quality difference between the two camera is pretty much negligible in real world conditions. That’s a good achievement for that tiny m43 sensor! If you really don’t need the 5DmarkIII buy the E-M5 and spend the money on good quality lenses! Or even better, buy the $149 E-PL1 (here via Cameta) and put a top quality lens like a [shoplink 30452 ebay]17.5mm f/0.95 Nokton (hee on eBay)[/shoplink] on it :)

More E-M5 reviews:
Steve Huff (Click here) compared the E-M5 and X PRO 1 video quality and it is definitely not a surprise that the E-M5 beats the Fuji by miles! Fuji didnt’ make the camera with video in mind. P.S.: New firmware is out for the X PRO 1 (via Fujirumors).
Admiringlight (Click here) posted an E-M5 preview: “So, one more thing I feel needs mentioning from my brief time with the camera.  The shutter is QUIET.  Very quiet. It is far quieter than any other Micro 4/3 body, and quieter than any SLR I’ve ever used.  It is almost approaching leaf shutter quiet.  Needless to say, if you shoot in quiet environments and need to maintain stealth, this camera deserves a hard look from you.
The first three user reviews are up at Amazon (Click here). Also the German Amazon (Click here to read their interesting opinion) has three reviews. All six reviewers are super satisfied with their E-M5 camera! A good start :)

The first batch of E-M5 (mostly with the 14-42mm kit lens) is now shipping in Europe and USA. And it clearly shows in the rankings that the E-M5 is now climbing on top! Today E-M5 Rankings (changes hourly!):
USA: E-M5 on position 2/7/11/13 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 7/12 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 1/4/5 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 3/6/11 (Click here).

E-M5 (Pre)order links (Click on store name): Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

P.S.: For our japanese readers, there is a new review at Nikkei (Click here).

E-M5 vs X PRO 1 vs NEX-7 (help needed on the Olympus E-M5 sensor patent).

Before to read the next E-M5 reviews you may help me with this: Egami (Click here) posted the info about a new Olympus patent describing a sensor technology. Egamis claims that this could be alreayd in use in the E-M5. But the google translation tool does a messy job and I really can’t get into the details of this. Do you understand it?

And now back to reviews! In these days you can read many comparisons between “our” Olympus E-M5 and the other two advanced mirrorless cameras, the Fuji X PRO 1 ($1600 at Amazon) and Sony NEX-7 ($1199 again at A.). After ThePhoBlographer (Click here) and Dslr-check.info (Click here) also Kai from Digitalrev made it. You can see it on the video I posted here on top. And Blog Paran (Click here) compared the E_M5 against the…Samsung NX200 which isn’t really known to be a good performer! And to finish, a hands-on report by one of our readers at Weisserth (Click here).

Today E-M5 Rankings:
USA: E-M5 on position 5/7 (Click here)
UK: E-M5 is on position 23 (Click here).
Germany: The E-M5 is on position 5/10 (Click here).
France: not available (Click here to see rankings anyway).
Japan: E-M5 on position 4/5/9 (Click here).

E-M5 (Pre)order links (Click on store name): Amazon, Adorama, B&H, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

Chasseur d’images says the E-M5 is best m43 ever (and Olympus sound noise response).

Olympus E-M5 with the [shoplink 30286 ebay]Sonnetar prototype lens[/shoplink] (that will  not go into final mass production).

Sound Noise
In these days our readers will hopefully receive their E-M5. But the first thing you will notice once you unpack the camera is the Sound Noise you hear when you turn on the camera. It’s pretty annoying but on the good side you here it in a silent ambient only and it gets away during video recording. Olympus issued that official response to explain the Sound Noise you hear on the E-M5: “You are hearing the new 5 axis Image Stabilization system. It uses a type of Magnetic field to keep the sensor assembly suspended so you will even hear it if the IS system is disabled.
My very basic question is. How is it possible that you don’t hear the noise while recording movies? I mean it’s not that it stops working …so would it not be possible to turn the noise off while shooting photos? Hmmmm.

E-M5 review
Our reader “RRR-HHH”(funny name) summarized the E-M5 review from the latest Chasseur d’images magazine: “they are absolutely in love with it. They were sincerely bluffed by the IQ, appreciated the handling, the honorable VF, the good stabilization, the reactivity, the lightness, the manufactured quality of the body and the large choice of lenses.”

What they don’t like :

  • the lack of an external plug for the mic (sema 1 prevents blocks the hotshoe);
  • and the lack of GPS.

What the E-M5 does well :

  • images : exceptional IQ up to 800 ISO, very good IQ at 1600 ISO.
  • stabilization : you gain 5 stops (sic ? I’m not sure they tested that) and it is also good for video
  • monitor : big touch LCD, flipping and offering clean and good readability, completed by a VF,
  • very nice well finished and weather sealed body.
  • full HD video of promising quality, with continuous and fast AF
  • very large choice of lenses.

 

Thanks for the translation!

USA+Canada:
Black E-M5 body at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), J&R (Click here), Henrys (Click here).
Silver E-M5 body at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), J&R (Click here), Henrys (Click here).
Black E-M5 with 12-50mm lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), J&R (Click here), Henrys (Click here).
Silver E-M5 with 12-50mm lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), J&R (Click here), Henrys (Click here).
Black E-M5 with 14-45mm lens at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here), J&R (Click here), Henrys (Click here).

Europe:
Black E-M5 body at Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Jessops (Click here) and Warehouseexpress (Click here).
Silver E-M5 body at Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Jessops (Click here) and Warehouseexpress (Click here).
Black E-M5 with 12-50mm lens at Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Jessops (Click here), [shoplink 30334 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and Warehouseexpress (Click here).
Silver E-M5 with 12-50mm lens at Amazon DE (Click here), Amazon UK (Click here), Jessops (Click here), [shoplink 30333 ebay]eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and Warehouseexpress (Click here).

Asia:
Black E-M5 body at Digitalrev (Click here).
Silver E-M5 body at Amazon JP (Click here).
Black E-M5 with 12-50mm lens at Digitalrev (Click here) and Amazon JP (Click here).
Silver E-M5 with 12-50mm lens at Amazon JP (Click here).
Black E-M5 with 14-45mm lens at Digitalrev (Click here) and Amazon JP (Click here).