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London Camera Exchange have an E-M5 Mk III that they are taking on a tour of their branches. Ours must be one of the first as they have it today so I popped in for an anticipatory fondle.
I know pretty much what the image quality etc. will be like, as it has the same sensor as the E-M1 Mk II which I have been using for a while. So I was concentrating on the ergonomics and handling.
First up - it's gorgeous. No surprise there.
My overall conclusions were that it is light and small and handles well. There is one small disappointment that I wasn't really expecting to be fixed, and a small feature which is a big enough disappointment to make it a no-go for me.
First - size, weight and handling. I took the old original E-M5 (it wasn't called a Mark I because it was the only one and wasn't called Mark
) for comparison. Size is roughly the same, the new one feels slightly lighter. This was noticeable with the body alone, whether it would be significant with a lens like the 12-100 on I don't really know. The grip part of the body has been slightly reshaped, I think the change is quite subtle but it felt much better in my hands. It would be a lovely package with one of the small primes.
It has a flippy-out screen that some people will like and others won't.
Second - a slight but expected disappointment. I like to be able to work with nothing on the rear display screen, because I am sometimes in dark performance venues and don't want to distract the audience. The simple solution is to turn the screen to face the body, and this works fine - it is how I use the E-M1 Mark II most of the time. It has the disadvantage that you can't use the touch screen to select the focus point. The problem is that if you turn the screen to face out, and turn EVF eye select off so that the viewfinder display is always through the EVF, image review and the main menu always come up on the rear screen. This is a pain. I have raised it with Olympus and am slightly disappointed that it hasn't been fixed in a new body.
Third - a small thing that is a big disappointment. One of the most useful small improvements that the E-M1 Mark II brought us was a decent battery charge level gauge. The E-M5 Mark III goes back to the mickey-mouse 3-bar display. I have had problems with this all the way back to the E-1 - sometimes it will soldier on for ages while blinking orange to warn of low charge. Other times it will claim to be full and show 3 bars, then you blink and the battery dies. I presume that the better charge display is a conspiracy between battery and body, and the 5 Mark III uses an older battery that won't co-operate.
All in all it's not a camera for me. It would be lovely with something like the 17mm f/1.8 as a holiday/walkabout camera, but the unreliable battery display makes it a non-starter - I would want to put the battery grip on it which would mean it was no longer a compact package, thus destroying its main selling point.
It was good to have the chance to try it, thanks to LCE and Olympus.
John
I know pretty much what the image quality etc. will be like, as it has the same sensor as the E-M1 Mk II which I have been using for a while. So I was concentrating on the ergonomics and handling.
First up - it's gorgeous. No surprise there.
My overall conclusions were that it is light and small and handles well. There is one small disappointment that I wasn't really expecting to be fixed, and a small feature which is a big enough disappointment to make it a no-go for me.
First - size, weight and handling. I took the old original E-M5 (it wasn't called a Mark I because it was the only one and wasn't called Mark
) for comparison. Size is roughly the same, the new one feels slightly lighter. This was noticeable with the body alone, whether it would be significant with a lens like the 12-100 on I don't really know. The grip part of the body has been slightly reshaped, I think the change is quite subtle but it felt much better in my hands. It would be a lovely package with one of the small primes.It has a flippy-out screen that some people will like and others won't.
Second - a slight but expected disappointment. I like to be able to work with nothing on the rear display screen, because I am sometimes in dark performance venues and don't want to distract the audience. The simple solution is to turn the screen to face the body, and this works fine - it is how I use the E-M1 Mark II most of the time. It has the disadvantage that you can't use the touch screen to select the focus point. The problem is that if you turn the screen to face out, and turn EVF eye select off so that the viewfinder display is always through the EVF, image review and the main menu always come up on the rear screen. This is a pain. I have raised it with Olympus and am slightly disappointed that it hasn't been fixed in a new body.
Third - a small thing that is a big disappointment. One of the most useful small improvements that the E-M1 Mark II brought us was a decent battery charge level gauge. The E-M5 Mark III goes back to the mickey-mouse 3-bar display. I have had problems with this all the way back to the E-1 - sometimes it will soldier on for ages while blinking orange to warn of low charge. Other times it will claim to be full and show 3 bars, then you blink and the battery dies. I presume that the better charge display is a conspiracy between battery and body, and the 5 Mark III uses an older battery that won't co-operate.
All in all it's not a camera for me. It would be lovely with something like the 17mm f/1.8 as a holiday/walkabout camera, but the unreliable battery display makes it a non-starter - I would want to put the battery grip on it which would mean it was no longer a compact package, thus destroying its main selling point.
It was good to have the chance to try it, thanks to LCE and Olympus.
John
but I am on the verge of preordering. The battery is no problem for me as I have the "baby" and I think the batteries are the same for both cameras. I am also trading in a very old point and shoot for a further discount.
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