Personal View site logo
Make sure to join PV on Telegram or Facebook! Perfect to keep up with community on your smartphone.
Please, support PV!
It allows to keep PV going, with more focus towards AI, but keeping be one of the few truly independent places.
Olympus EM-5 topic
  • 386 Replies sorted by
  • There may be a few redeeming values for video on the E-M5. One of them is clearly the IS that on top of working amazingly (going by the posted video) will also work on any legacy monster that you can think of. Another one (although questionable) is what it outputs to HDMI. You can always plug an external recorder in there but then you loose some of the portability and begin to enter tripod territory.

    I'm sure it blends, but the real question is... Does it bin?

  • E-M5 is not really interesting for video. Only 30fps. Pentax K-01 is more interesting for video. And K-01 also has built in IS, mic input, HDMI out.

  • image

    AF speed chart.

    OM-AF_Speed.jpg
    600 x 416 - 74K
  • Does the em5 have live hdmi out or mic in?

  • More on 5 axis stab. In the past it was believed that in-lens stabilization is superior to in-body one. Olympus has reveled that with their new technology. And their results are stunning.

    How it works

    600 mm equivalent. On/off. Wow that's MASSIVE.

    Some random footage

    I'm one of those quys who's sick of CMOS rolling shutter and wobbly DSLR footage that's everywhere these days and am very impressed with the new Oly. That's the only robust solution so far for shooting handheld video with a prime lens without steadycams and other dedicated additional hardware. Pentax also utilizes in-body stabilization but it's definitely not in the same league.

    Good news is that we, Pana users, can adopt any of our existing m43 lenses without hassle.

    To rain on the parade are 30p only (Oly is yet to discover that there is PAL world outside Japan and US) and 29 min recording limit.

    No reviews are known to me so far that shed any light upon aliasing/moire in video mode.

  • I was skeptical of the video stabilization at first, but it looks amazing in all the test clips. Though, on the wider shots, it seems like the architectural lines get skewed and contorted when the camera moves around. Other than that, everything looks great. The only thing holding me back from purchasing one is the lack of 24P. It's a real shame that they missed out on an opportunity to capitalize on that market segment.

    Could you imagine using 24P with a camera stabilizing the Nokton 25mm, Panny 20mm, or even the Summilux? For run-and-gun, travel, or personal shots, it would practically be near perfection. Why carry an obvious stabilizer around town, or even buy one for that matter, when you only need to grab your camera and a lens? Oh well, I guess there's always next time. I don't see Panasonic implementing in-body stabilization, but if the GH3 had it, that would be the end-all camera body for me. Again, Olympus missed an opportunity, but I hope they or Panasonic can capitalize on it next time around.

  • Is there still any hope for the video in this camera? That five axis image stabilization is downright amazing- it's a bit like having a built-in Glidecam. Is the lack of a high bitrate more of a detriment than the lack of 24p? Wonder why Olympus only gives customers 30p wrapped in a 60i container? There's tons of cools things about this camera from a stills perspective- like the live view bulb feature.

  • Here comes THE MUD! Look at 0:22 quick pan and consider 20Mbit limit. GH1 waves hello back from 2009!

    And I have nearly fallen in love with this camera. Another example of marketologists brutally castrating the genious work of engineers.

    17015283.jpg
    400 x 300 - 54K
  • As impressed as I am with some of the hacked GH2 footage I think my next camera will be an Olympus instead. Probably not the E-M5, I'll wait for that 5 axis IS to filter down into a less expensive E-PL3 or E-PM2. The huge draw for me is that the handheld footage will look smooth without having to add something big and expensive like a Steadicam. The drop in price of the GH2 is very tempting but that new Olympus image stabilization is just too good.

  • I just watched a video where it was mentioned Olympus will be coming out with a less expensive OMD model later this year, one without the weather sealing. Perhaps Olympus will improve the video capabilities on the next model, giving people the option of 24p.

  • It would be very interesting to test this camera on a quadro/hexacopter .. I would like to know how much smoother would be those shots with that nice 5axis IBIS...

  • isn't it possible that 24p and/or better bit rates come with a future firmware upgrade? The GH1/2 without Vitaliys hack is also not "so" good...

  • I know it might sound naive but I could not resist from dropping a line to Olympus requesting 25p (I'm PAL and don't care much about 24p).

  • Good idea zigizigi- if Olympus knows people are seriously interested in the video they might take it a bit more seriously. More frame rates, better bit rate, etc.

  • well, for some reason I pre-ordered the E-M5 back in January. Before I'll send it back, I would like to do some side by side tests with the GH2 to put the EM5's IS and DR in relation.

    major fails of E-M5 's video mode:

    • low bit rate
    • no 24/25 fps
    • no audio meter/control
    • no video recording while HDMI is plugged in

    how ever, the in body 5-achsis IS and the (maybe) high dynamic range makes it an option for some sneaky documentary work. Can't wait to test my Canon FD 135mm lens hand held with the in body IS ...

  • @ zigizigi I already asked Olympus about 25P when E-P3 came out. I got an answer from Japanese department in bad English:

    "We could find the specification for FullHD format in PAL and NTSC market.

    And Full HD format has a many kind of frame rate option. In europa, basic frame rate is 25i or p and 50 i or P, but all product can hundle option frame rate which is 30i or p and 60 i or p. And also NTSC area, plyer also has same function.

    Therefore we can offer all customer for AVCHD 60i mode of E-P3. "

    So basically they are saying, your TV can handle those files, even if you are in PAL region, so no problem. Same goes for Nikon 1 and Samsung mirrorless. It is true that consumers that specifically look for 25P and 24P is very small, and most people couldn't care less.

  • just pick up the Olympus MO-D E-M5 and charged the Battery half way through. Now I need to learn how to best setup this camera for shooting video. Flat image with high dynamic range is what I'm after. There are a lot of shooting modes to figure out. I chose one that sounded flat, contras -2, sharpness 0, saturation 0. The OM-D has a very cool gamma curve function where you can shape an "S" or an "?" (flipped S). I went with the "?" to brighten up the lows and bring down the highs for more DR.

    I have two Olympus OM 28mm 3.5 lenses so I can mount the MO-D on top of may GH2 and shoot with equal lenses, equal ISO and so on ... the first try was very rushed and hand held. I will need some time to learn the OM-D better and to carefully set everything up.

    First finding that caught me by surprise is that the OM-D has a larger crop factor than the GH2. It might be the IS that causes a slight zoom in on the censor (I read something about it in the manual) ... Compression artifacts on the OM-D are terrible. The GH2 is patched with Sedna AQ1. Focus on both lenses had been set to infinity.

    Colors and DR are very very promising on the OM-D.

    Photo 23.04.12 19 02 45.jpg
    2592 x 1936 - 2M
    Photo 23.04.12 18 57 07.jpg
    2592 x 1936 - 2M
    EM5.png
    1920 x 1080 - 1M
    GH2.png
    1920 x 1080 - 1M
  • @Alex

    It is very interesting camera, hope to see more information from you soon.

    As for sensor crop, most probably it is same as normal 43 sensor crop, GH2 has oversized sensor, so in 16:9 modes crop is smaller.

  • @vitaliy that makes sens!

    from the manual page 67:

    "If [Image Stabilizer] is activated while recording a movie, the recorded image is enlarged slightly. Even if [Vertical IS] or [Horizontal IS] is selected, the setting for [Auto] is applied."

    the OM-D's build quality is much better than that of the GH2. The Problem is that the camera is a bit smaller than the GH2 and there is not much real estate left for all the tiny buttons. The thumb and index finger wheels on the right top are very well place and nice to operate. I couldn't find the function to zoom in to get the focus right. Must be there though.