The E-M5 will be the first Micro Four Thirds camera with external battery grip! Ahm…ok, we have a battery grip for some m43 cameras from [shoplink 27770 ebay]Ownuser (Click here to see them on eBay[/shoplink]). But that doesn’t count :)

Here are some new camera specs:

1.44 million dot viewfinder. Same specs as the VF-2 but with new “tweaks” -> Olympus seems to love tweaking…sensor and EVF :)
Fastest AF of any mirrorless AND DSLR camera!
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 or Jpeg motion recording
9fps without the super fast AF. 4.2 with super fast AF enabled.
5-axis image stabilisation
610 million dot 3 inch OLED screen tilted by max. 80° upwards or max. 50° downwards
HLD-6 external battery grip
MMF-3 Four Thirds mount adapter
FL-600R electronic flash
Comes in a silver or black body.
In Stock in April 2012 for 1099.00 Euro ($1200 Dollars in USA) or with 12-50mm kit lens for 1,299.00 Euro ($1450)

That’s 500 Dollar less than the Fuji X PRo 1 ($1699 at Amazon).  $400 more than the GH2 ($800).  Will it sell well at that price? Everything depends form the final REAL image and video quality.

Sources are now reporting us that according to Olympus own words the E-M5 should have the “fastest autofocus of any interchangeable lens camera (including D-SLR cameras)“. So while the sensor is apparently the same as the GX1 the whole circuitry around it and the processor engine are more powerful. That could explain why Olympus can afford to make such statements like “fastest AF ever” or “extended dynamic range”  and put the highest ISO at 25600.

UPDATE: It has also “3D tracking for improved moving object tracking performance”

Stay tuned! More rumors coming soon!

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IMPORTANT UPDATE:

I just learned a couple of things with the upcoming Olympus release. While the rumors I reported here are almost any time correct the perception and meaning of the used words are sometimes very different:

1) Olympus marketing words:
I talked with my sources and it looks like Olympus marketing uses big words when describing the new camera performance but de facto they compare the E-M5 with their own current Olympus cameras. So when they say the sensor has an “extended dynamic range” we have to keep in mind that Olympus has a different idea than we have when using those words. We tend to imagine much more than what Olympus is really delivering to us. It’s like when Steve Jobs said “this is our best product ever”. An Android phone can have better specs but for Apple the newest iPhone is always the best.

2) The way to present rumors:
There is a discrepancy between what I write and the perception of many readers. Example: When I got the rumor about the sensor having an “extended dynamic range” I started to talk about possible sensor and technology scenarios. As you know I always said I don’t know how image quality improvement has been archived or what sensor is used (a part that it has 16 megapixels). The thing is that I didn’t “calculate” that this would increase the “emotional” side of the story and lead you to an eventual disappointment. In summary to much guesses and fantasy discussions tend to discredited me even if I made it clear that this are just discussions based on no-facts.

So I learned from this and I will now 100 times make you clear that one thing is Olympus marketing statements and rumors, another story is reality.

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We already know the new camera series name is “OM-D”. And the first camera name will be “Olympus E-M5“!

About the sensor:
Olympus marketing guys cleary say that the 16.1 Megapixel sensor has an “Expanded Dynamic Range“. But from what I have been told it looks like the E-M5 uses the same [shoplink 26836]GX1 sensor[/shoplink]. I am not 100% sure yet but it looks like all the video quality and image quality improvement are coming via TruPic VI engine, a weak AA filter and probably a better circuitry around the sensor (faster readout for example).

UPDATE: Next week you will hear BIG words form Olympus marketing about the image quality improvement, but I don’t know yet if those words are on par with the expectetions you and I have. Sources are telling em that there is a visible JPEG quality improvement. But I don’t know if the “expanded dynamic range” marketing statement from Olympus is justified.

UPDATE: Probably my biggest “not so good news” is that the viewfinder has the same specs as the VF-2. It’s not a bad viewfinder but Olympus Manager Mr. Ogawa. told Impressjapan (Click here to download the pdf of the magazine) that Olympus new camera will empathize a new viewfinder technology. So I was hoping to see this on the E-M5.

Blog.Livedoor stitched together the three leaked images to create the OM-D alike image (it’s NOT a real image of the real camera. Also the camera name is just their guess!).

Olympus OM-D, between hype and reality.
While some good sources tell me that the camera has a high dynamic range, superb video quality, much faster AF than the [shoplink 23568]Olympus E-P3[/shoplink] and and a possible two stop JPEG noise performance issue we still have to remain with our feet o earth. I haven’t seen any image sample yet and I have no info about who made the Olympus sensor and how the supposed image quality increase has been achieved. But finally I got at least one new “fact”. I have been told the the OM-D can shoot 9fps! The current best m43 camera of the class, the [shoplink 16254]Panasonic GH2[/shoplink] shoots 5fps. A trusted source also told me that it has a buffer of “max. 11 or 17 frames on sequential shooting depending on the mode (H/L, both in RAW).” And considering that this is a 16 megapixel sensor that’s quite a good performance!

The camera will be announced next week on February 8th. Only than we can be 100% sure if the Olympus sensor has some new major technology or if it’s just a “tweaked” Panasonic sensor. All sources and rumors lead us to believe that this will not be a remake of the [shoplink 23568]Olympus E-P3[/shoplink] marketing hype, when Olympus said that this is a “tweaked” sensor and in reality the image quality improvement turned out be very minimal. Let’s hope the best guys!

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Personal notice: I am very busy until late Thursday night. I have to work on a frozen lake for two days and the terrible Burian will bring temperatures down at -15/20 grad Celsius. So expect some delay in comment moderation and email response.