This blog is going to be about my first impressions of the Olympus OM-D E-M1 mark 2 and the selection of lens I got sent from Olympus UK. I spent the first day with camera taking photos in my hometown, just trying to find my way around the Olympus system, I’ve never used a camera that can be customised as much as this one and while I like the way you can customise all the buttons and dials I do feel that it’s a bit too much especially when I started navigating around the menus, but I’ll get into that later.
There is so much to love about the camera itself, with that let’s get into this
Ergonomically the camera is almost perfect, the button layout has been well thought out and apart from the power button everything is where it should be and it’s so easy to control the camera one-handed. The power button is out of the way and it all comes down to personal preference, I like having it under the shutter button so that I can use the camera with one hand, but on the E-M1 this just wouldn't work and I must point out that here that it’s not a knock against the camera its as I said it’s personal preference. The camera is a bit slow to power on, it’s a good 2/3 seconds before you can take a photo and again for me, this just isn’t quick enough, it’s a lot faster to wake the camera up from sleep and take a photo. The first day I was using the camera I kept switching it off as I had read the battery life wasn’t that good, now I know better I’m leaving the camera on while I’m shooting.
Let’s talk about the battery life, Olympus themselves say that you’ll get about just over 400 shots before the battery dies and right here I must call bullshit, Olympus have really underestimated the life of the battery, I shot with the camera all day in London shooting with both single shot and burst mode, plus sitting in a bar with clients going through the photos on the back of the camera and not only did the battery last all day but I still had 69% left when I got back to the hotel. If that’s not good enough for you, how about the fact you can charge the battery from empty to full in 2 hours, I’m not joking here, 2 hours for a full charge. The battery life and charging are my favourite things next to the burst mode about this powerful camera.
Going back to the camera body I have to talk about two things that I really didn’t like, the first is the shutter button, like Fujifilm’s H1 the shutter button feels soft and spongy and I just can’t on with it, I like to feel the half-press. However, the shutter button is bloody quick if you want to take a second photo fast and that I like a lot, it’s perfect for street photography, I’m sure this is something I’d get used to overtime and again this comes down to personal preference as does my next problem, the flip-out screen. The screen is big and bright and I have no complaints apart from I can’t get on with flip screens that pullout to the side of the camera, I prefer the screen on the E-M1 Mark 1 or my Fujifilm X-T2. The screen works really well for video as you can see what you're recording, so I understand why the screen is the way it is. These are small complaints about a camera that fits so comfortably in my hand and is so easy to use.
As with any new camera system you try, I think we can all agree the first thing we have to learn is the camera’s menu and it doesn’t matter which camera it is if you not use to the system it can be a nightmare. The Olympus is a bloody nightmare when you dive in for the first time, but it doesn’t take long to find where everything is and after a few days it’s become second nature. I do think the menu could be a bit easier to navigate around and what makes the menu so vast is the way you can customise the camera and as I said at the start I do feel it’s overkill. For me there are things on the camera that can be customised that really don’t need to be, being able to customise all the buttons on the camera’s body is a great idea and it really helps when using the camera. The perfect analogy would be Mac vs Pc, if you want a computer that works right out of the box you buy a Mac and if your one of those people that likes to play and customise you buy a Pc, Olympus is the Pc and Fujifilm is the Mac, don’t get me wrong I wish I could customise more of the buttons on my X-T2, so there must be a middle ground between the E-M1 and the X-T2.
For those of you that have been following my blogs will know how much I hate zooms, I’ve always been a prime shooter, I just find it’s easier to focus with a fixed focal length. Olympus gave me 4 lenses with the camera, 3 primes (75mm F1.8, 25mm F1.8 and 17mm F1.8) and 1 zoom the 12 - 40mm F2.8 being honest here I had no interest in using this lens, but as Olympus had given it to me I thought I’d give it a try and boy was I surprised. Before I talk about this lens I’d like to point out that for me the worst Fujifilm lens is 16-55mm F2.8, I’ve never been able to get on with it and I thought the same would be said of the Olympus equivalent, nothing could be further from the truth, I enjoyed using the lens more than I thought I would and I’ll be honest and say I prefer it to the Olympus primes I was given. I thought that I’d have the 75mm F1.8 lens on the camera more, as it turns out I’ve been using the zoom more than I thought I would, the other lens I’ve been using is the 17mm F1.8. Both lenses have been perfect for my street photography and the few jobs I’ve had.
I’m going to move onto my biggest complaints about the E-M1 Mark 2, the first is colour profile. I’m spoilt here because of Fujifilm’s Classic chrome which I love, Fujifilm’s film simulations are the best, nothing comes close and I’m afraid to say this includes the E-M1. Again I really don’t see this being a fault with the camera, I remember hating the colour profiles on my Nikon and how much time I spent editing the photos in Lightroom to get them to look the way I wanted and with the E-M 1 I feel like I’m going backwards, the colour photos I’ve included with this blog have been edited and where’s as with the Fujifilm editing takes seconds I found myself spending almost 3 times as long editing the RAW files from the Olympus. But, it’s not all bad news, the monochrome from the E-M1 is beautiful and mix this with the 17mm lens, I'm getting some amazing looking shots.
My second complaint and believe you me this is a big one, I can’t seem to change the size of the single focus point and the size it’s fixed too is just too small. For me this is a massive problem and one I’ve been struggling with since I’ve had the camera. I will check with Olympus just to make sure I’m not being stupid, everything I’ve read online seems to point that the size can’t be changed and if this right Olympus need to address this. With everything that is customisable on the camera, the one thing I would want to customise and I can’t.
I’ll report back once I’ve had the camera for a month and I’ll give my final thoughts.
Thank you for reading
Update: I've found out from David at Olympus UK that the power button can moved and now I can use the camera with one hand. I'll write more about that in my final thoughts.
