Olympus OM-D E-M5 Digital Camera Review

Shooting Modes

The E-M5 features a physical dial on the left side of the electronic viewfinder housing on the top plate of the camera. The dial has a ridged edge, with just enough resistance on it as you switch from mode to mode. The dial houses the basic PASM settings, along with intelligent auto, scene modes, art filters, and a dedicated video mode. The program auto P mode is the most basic automatic mode, with the intelligent auto switching to appropriate scene modes when the conditions are right.

Manual Controls

The Olympus E-M5 offers an incredible host of manual controls, not just over exposure but also tonal gradation, creative filters, control layout, and focus and metering. Most of these controls are placed in the custom menu, including (curiously) all of the focus modes, methods, and controls that are normally found under just shooting settings.

Focus

Focus on the Olympus OM-D E-M5 is lightning quick, even faster than we saw on the latest series of PEN cameras. It's also startlingly accurate for a contrast detection system. Contrast detection systems, by their nature, have to move past optimal focus in order to ensure maximum sharpness, retreating to the point of highest contrast. That the camera can do so that fast is remarkable, and it gives the E-M5 a leg up on the rest of its competition in the high-end compact system camera market.

The E-M5 features plenty of focus modes and methods, with manual focus, single AF, continuous AF, single AF with manual focus adjustment, and continuous AF with manual adjustment. There's also a digital zoom function that will engage when you turn the focus ring to help you lock in focus, with magnification of 5x, 7x, and 10x available.

Recording Options

The image sensor in the E-M5 is capable of producing images at a maximum resolution of 16 megapixels, or 4608x3456 pixels. In JPEG that produces a file of approximately 7.5MB, with RAW files lossless compressed at approximately 1/1.5, producing a 17MB file. You can set the camera to produce smaller JPEGs as well with 1/8 compressed 4608x3456, 2560x1920, and 1024x768 options available, producing 3.5MB, 1.1MB, and 0.3MB files respectively.