@brudney I'm hoping he whose name shall not be spoken just got it wrong someone else said 2.4 I can live with that. Hopefully I may get mine if Best Buy ever ships I preordered joke on me. Will never use Best Buy again they have had it on preparing order all week so I could not even cancel.

The High Res Shot mode, which has evolved from the sensor-shift stabilisation system (which Olympus also developed) provides a welcome boost to the capabilities of the company's Micro Four Thirds cameras.

Even though its applications are limited, this development is genuinely new and exciting. It gives technical writers a fascinating subject to investigate and photo enthusiasts a reason to invest in new equipment. Olympus merits praise for 'going boldly where others fear to tread'.

But even photographers for whom the High Res Shot mode is of minimal interest will find the E-M5 Mark II provides some attractive reasons to choose it, rather than other 'mirrorless' CSCs. The substantial improvements to its movie functionality and performance and its more adjustable LCD monitor make it more useful to some users than the E-M1, while the latter's slightly better weatherproofing and phase-contrast AF system provide quantifiable advantages for long-time users of Olympus DSLR cameras.

http://www.photoreview.com.au/reviews/advanced-compact-cameras/interchangeable-lens/olympus-om-d-e-m5-mark-ii

@brudney I was curious about this as well. What I have heard is GH4 4k is a 2.3 and the Olympus is 2.7 with or without IBIS. I'm not to happy with that but guess I will live with it. I think in camera stabilization is the future and I just love the Olympus Pro lenses. Hopefully Olympus will except video is a major selling point of M4/3 and keep improving.

@Duly_noted

Have you compared the E-M5II directly with GX7? I have the GX7 but was hoping to switch back to Olympus for the IBIS if the video had been improved. I might just stay with the LX-100 and GX7 for now and see what the GX8 brings as it is easier to match shots from the same camera brand.

Still, it would be great not to have to think about stabilisation though.

@mpgxsvcd: would you kindly include in your review comments on what the Mk II is like to use; specifically, what can be adjusted on the fly once recording has started. My main concerns are WB and exposure.

On the weekend (and your indoor shoots must be similar) I was shooting in a gym under sodium and mercury lights (and daylight coming through fibreglass panels in the high veiling); point is that WB and exposure kept changing. John Brawley reports "It really is a problem that you can’t change the exposure once you’re rolling".

I don't mind not being able to change WB on the fly (we shoot 4-camera multicam, so the light is changing on all four bodies at the same time), but can you describe how exposure can be changed? On the G6 bodies we use presently, we just press the centre button; that brings up ISO on the Q. menu, and press it again, and use the four-way controller to increase or decrease. Because we shoot multicam, these changes can be covered on another angle, so not a problem.

But what are the ways exposure can be changed on the Mk II? TIA

You can see that in studio comparisons on dpreview. http://www.dpreview.com/previews/olympus-om-d-e-m5-ii/5 Locking a camera down is not always practical for video.

I have seen a lot on the web about the e-m5 having live clean uncompressed 4:2:2 HDMI out for recording externally, but has anyone tried it in 60hz land, has any one read the spec and had some concern, because I have not seen the concern raised anywhere. Is this Emperor wearing any clothes

From the e-m5 spec sheet.

HDMI With (GUI* is shown on connected device only, and peaking function is not available when connected by HDMI.) *GUI can be hidden on the connected device by pressing down on INFO button for recording an external drive under the following condition. Movie quality: YCbCr 4:2:2 / Frame rate: same as movie setting (24p, 30p and 60p settings are not recommended.) / Sound recording: not available

On my 24 inch computerscreen the difference in resolution is very obvious, it won't matter if you only use the em5 II but from what I see it will once you start to mix in GH4 footage.

I don't have mine yet, but reading the manual it looks like it does. Will be interested to see if this is softer like the E-M1, but hopefully they have improved this as well.

The problem with Pana style AF+MF is that you always risk pushing the shutter button too hard and stopping recording accidentally. Oly style AF+MF is much more handy: either half press AF or manual focus pulling works any time.

This and AE/AF lock working properly during recording are two Olympus features I miss the most in Pana.

@mat33

I really like their implementation of AF + MF mode

Panasonic cameras have that as well.

Maybe all it takes is a firmware update instead of a mark II version?