Olympus OMD-EM5 Mark II Review 

thank you so much! We really appreciate that. -Josh (please subscribe!)

a tip: watch movies on Flixzone. Been using it for watching a lot of movies during the lockdown.

@Hassan Harrison Definitely, I have been using Flixzone} for years myself =)

Yeah, I liked it so much that I bought it too! It's a great camera. -Josh

No

+Scotty Turner Thanks Scott. We hope to review the XT-10 soon too! My initial impression of the Oly vs Fuji is that they are both cameras. If you are the kind of shooter who only shoots primes, the xt-10 is the way to go for the larger sensor in terms of the size and weight, it is a trade off at that point. However, the APS-C zooms can be much larger than the m4/3 options. Also, the touch screen and stabilization on the Oly are great and video is probably better on Oly and certainly panasonic. Overall a tough call, but one we hope to explore more in detail soon!

+rvdw98 haha... more in depth review of the xt10 coming soon to our channel. i promise.

+Lyndon Smith Thanks! We all agreed it was one of the finest lenses that we've used. Great image quality and with the in body stabilization it's rock solid. ~jay

+Lyndon Smith Thanks! We all agreed it was one of the finest lenses that we've used. Great image quality and with the in body stabilization it's rock solid. ~jay

+David Brown Thanks! We set out to bring a different approach to camera reviews so we're really glad you enjoy. Stay tuned for more! ~jay

+Matt Day Photo Thanks!

Awesome, so glad you like it! I haven't used the g7 much, but have heard it is basically the slightly less capable but much cheaper gh4! It would certainly be a good option, but with photokina coming up, I'd wait for announcements of new cameras. There may be a g7 successor coming out!

+Bob Izam We're a pretty new channel, so spread the word! And thanks! -Josh

+Viktor Gabyshev I don't believe it does. I found articles stating that it doesn't, but I can't find it clearly in the camera's specs.

panasonic gh4 and gh2

+Austin Kral Mostly a GH4 and a GH2.

+Blank951 Yeah, we probably will add the focal length info soon! Thanks for the feedback!

+iSteven “iSteve” 899 When compared to the em10ii, it's not that different. There are a few features that make it better. It is weather sealed, it has fully articulating screen vs. tilting, and has higher bit rate video recording. Most of the other features are the same. So if those things don't matter to you, the 10 would be possibly a better deal. I would definitely recommend the 5 or 10 as a great first camera for someone coming from a phone. We haven't reviewed it yet, but the Panasonic gx80/85 also looks like a good option. -Josh

That's awesome, I think you can get a really good deal at this point because it's pretty old and will probably replaced with a newer model soon. That said, you won't get the good deal on the new one!

TheCameraProject you think it will make a good first learning camera?!

@@nkf_gh absolutely. It is still my daily camera!

TheCameraProject oh wow! Then I’m sold! I’m getting it. Your words have been helpful. 👍🏾

Tough call. I'm a Nikon owner for years, but have recently sold off my Nikon gear and my EM5ii is my primary camera. A lot of my reasoning was based on convenience, in that I never found myself carrying my slr around and with the style, size, and weight of my Olympus, I bring it with me much more often. Some Nikon advantages: Larger sensor for potentially better low light performance and shallower depth of field. A large selection of lenses at a lower price since the system is older and third party lens manufacturers and the used market have brought prices down. Some Olympus advantages: 5 axis image stabilization: Meaning if your subject isn't moving you may actually get better low light performance from the olympus because you can hand hold it and keep it steady at slower shutter speeds, which means lower iso needed. Size is smaller and more portable. Camera is weatherproof. Some really cool modes like live exposure and live composite (do you a youtube search for more info). Great small prime lenses to give you shallow depth of field if desired, like the 17mm 1.8, 25mm 1.8, and 45 1.8. Great all in one zooms with light weight and small size like the 14-150. What is your budget? What type of stuff do you like to photograph?

Many thanks!

+Jimmer John Jimmer, I was in the EXACT same boat. I got to shoot with the Fuji XT10 and the Olympus in this review, and wound up buying the Olympus. Fuji WILL be better for shallow depth of field, but it is certainly possible with the Olympus. It all depends on focal lengths and what type of stuff you are shooting. For instance, if you are shooting planned portraits, the Olympus 75 1.8 and 45 1.8 are great lenses. If you want, shallow depth of field at a 50mm equivalent however, the Fuji 35 1.4 will be better than the Olympus 25 1.8. Though there is a panasonic leica 25 1.4, the fuji will still be shallower. If you are ok with manual focus, there are some .95 lenses in the m43 system out there that will certainly get shallow DOF. For me, the reason for the Oly over the Fuji was somewhat featureset based. The touch screen is great and once you use one, it's hard to go back. The sensor based stabilization is fantastic. The fully articulating screen can be really nice too. But also, as you send, the cost of the system is less for m43, as is the size and weight. So I bring my camera with me every day now, as opposed to my nikon d7000 which sat on the shelf most of the time. You won't go wrong with either system, but once zooms get involved, the size of the fuji lenses will certainly be larger and more expensive. Not saying that is the wrong choice, just something to keep in mind. I would LOVE some official Olympus or Panasonic glass around the 25 1.0 or 1.2 mark, then we'd have a 50 at 2.0 or 2.4 that could hold it's own against a full frame 50 1.8. -Josh

+TheCameraProject many thanks. I am leanings towards the Olympus and will be my likely choice. The size, price of the entire system, and in-camera stabilization is certainly swaying me.

hey grace, so glad you like the videos. I would say if you are looking to get more into photography, and video, the micro 4/3 system is probably a good place to start. Cameras like this one, or the Panasonic G7 would probably be a great place to start. Of course it all depends on your budget. If you are looking for a great deal, you could probably get a used GH3 and make great stuff with it. Let us know what type of budget you are looking at and what your main focus is, photo or video.

Hey! Thank you for your reply, tbh i'm really into both photography and video making... this is so hard.... maybe more towards photography actually. My idea is to own a camera which I can practically grow up with(is that how it works..?) , and just changing the lenses would suffice, as well as portability, so it's easy to bring around :) so glad you guys replied!!

actually, would it be possible for us to narrow down our choices to cannon? my father has some cannon lenses so we could share :)) thank you so much *excite*

well, honestly, i'm less familiar, but on a budget you'd be looking at the t5 or t6, if you want to spend a bit more, the 80D

thank you for helping out, really appreciate it :)

Gh4 and gh2 for this one. Now 2 gh4s.

+Viktor Gabyshev Yes there is! It works great!

+TheCameraProject Thanks!! Will it work with kit lens M.Zuiko 14-150mm F4-5.6 II ?

+Viktor Gabyshev I think it will work with any olympus lens, and perhaps any lens at all.

+TheCameraProject Many thanks for your replies! Point is that I am trying to choose a second camera (I have Canon 6D) between Fujifilm X-T10 and OMD EM5 MII. I like so many features of EM5 MII (IS, small size, weather sealing, live composite mode, focus bracketing, touch screen). But my passion is night landscape photography. I am confused 4/3 sensor. I'm interested in your opinion. How much I will lose in working ISO range (in low light condition) if I will choose OMD EM5 MII? Thank you in advance!

+Viktor Gabyshev Well it all depends on what you want. You said night landscape, and both cameras have an advantage there. Fuji's sensor is supposed to be great for long exposures, low noise, etc. I believe cameralabs.com may talk more about that. In terms of the Olympus, it has live composite and live bulb so you can watch your long exposures on the back of the camera or your phone. So AS they are building, let's say a 30 second exposure, you can check it several times along the way and make sure you are not overexposing anything. So in terms of high iso, chances are if it is night landscape, you are on a tripod, so high iso may not matter as much because you can just use a low-iso and a long exposure. In terms of high iso, the fuji is probably about a stop better in terms of my rough guess than the micro 4.3 sensor. In terms of handholding, if you are not a on a tripod, the stabilization in the Olympus will buy you several stops of hand holding, so instead of shooting at 1/60th of a second, maybe you'll get away with 1/4th of a second, and therefore you can use a low-iso. Of course the other question I can ask, is... you have a 6D, what are looking for that would be different in a new camera that the 6D doesn't have. If it's smaller and more portable, both of those cameras are good, but if you like shooting with zooms, micro 4/3 will be smaller. If it's merely live view and an EVF, than they are both good. Not a simple answer... but a lot of things to consider.

rgeerin looking for a good zoom I assume?

+simon wang Actually YES simon! Haha, Jay is doing a review on that camera soon, but we also hope to do some more of every format. Just trying to spread the love a little!

Boom. Nailed it.

I would say it wouldn't benefit you that much. Image quality is pretty similar. The stabilization will be the big standout on the olympus while the video on the g7 should be much better. The g85 would probably buy you a lot more at this point than the em5-ii.

thank you will take a look at it?

Not particularly. It's a great stills camera, but the tracking autofocus in video is just ok. It's good, just not great. I would think that the panasonic g7 or g85 (in north america) would be great. The a5100 is rather old at this point, and I don't love the sony apc lenses in general, though there are a few good ones. The canon g7xii, though i don't have a ton of experience with it, would probably be good. It has a smaller sensor, but still 1 inch which is good. The lack of interchangeable lenses might be a good thing because it keeps size down and because you are getting a 1.8 - 2.8 lens, you will probably have similar shallow depth of field to a micro 4.3 camera with a kit lens. I'm not sure how the continous AF is for video so you may want to do more research on that. Similar cameras would be the sony rx100 series and the Panasonic lx10.

Thank you! do you have any experience with the olympus PEN E-PL8 or the PEN-F?

Sylvia Tran we have a pen-f review on the channel. No experience with the other camera. Video will be similar on pen-f to this camera.

I'm not that familiar with 4/3 to m4/3, but I think you should be able to d it. Albeit with some compromises like autofocus that isn't as fast. -Josh

Thanks Josh!

If my memory is correct the Olympus EM1 (which is their pro body and costs exactly the same as the EM5 Mk2) will allow you to use those old 4/3 lenses WITH autofocus enabled, while the EM5 MK2 will not allow you to use them with autofocus. I would get the EM1 if I were you, the only thing you really lose is the high res shot mode and (ironically solving one of the problems they had here) the compactness of not having a permanent grip attached. The EM1 is running around $900 new and around $600 used now

Thanks Angus, I'm off to the camera shop to have a play with both. Cheers!

Tough call. Both good cameras. Depends on what you shoot. We've reviewed both, and I bought the olympus. If you want larger sensor and better low-light, the fuji-wins. If you want to shoot video, have a touch screen, fully articulating screen, smaller overall lenses, more lens options, image stabilization in body, live time feature, live composite feature, the olympus.

+TheCameraProject thanks alot

How happy are you with your buy of the Olympus? I just bought the Fuji xt10 but I find it really uncomfortable to hold because the grip is really shallow and they sell the extended grip for more than $100.

+Fernando Zamarripa Jr i ended up buying the xt10 got an amazing deal on it, yes d grip is small, need some time to get used to it, plus i m not a big guy so that helps too

Nickeeth Lopez I like the Olympus EM5ii, a lot! That said, the grip also sucks. I wound up getting a 3rd party grip on ebay for $30 or so and that solves the problem nicely. Though the EM1 (or probably EM1ii in a few months) does have a nice big grip right out of the box. I found with the xt10, the fuji grip, while stupidly expensive, did make it very nice to hold.

it's black or silver. I debated as well, and ultimately bought the silver. Alison bought the black. I think we both prefer the silver!

ohhh tough call. I would probably wait a few months in hopes of a Em5- MIII. But if I needed ones today.... If I needed 4k video the 10 miii, otherwise, for the fully articulating screen, and more pro style controls I'd go with the em5-ii. That said, it is really pretty old in camera terms at this point.

TheCameraProject True - Thanks

The differences are only in a few small but important areas. Depending on what type of shooting you do if course. The 5 body is slightly larger and the lcd is fully articulating not just tilting. The 5 body is weather sealed and the 10 isn't. There are more function buttons on the 5. The image stabilization is slightly more advanced on the 5. The video bit rates are better on the 5. Meaning higher quality less compressed video. Those are the main differences. They should produce the same still image. The 10 has a few features over the 5. You can use the touch screen to change focus when your eye is at the viewfinder being the most significant.

TheCameraProject Thank you very much. I´m trying to choose between the both and you helped me!

TheCameraProject Does the EM 10 II perform in dark same like the EM 5 II ?

Yeah, it has the same image sensor to my knowledge so it should.

TheCameraProject Thanks!

different tristate haha

+Royston Kane gh4 is definitely not the best camera for low-light, which this was.

TheCameraProject thanks for that. Do you remember what lens you use and was it wide open?

+Royston Kane Not sure off hand honestly. Probably the 17 1.8 or 20 1.7, not sure if it was wide open.

Agree. Complaining the sensor is small when reviewing m43 camera is ridiculous. It's like complaining about spiciness when reviwing chilli sauce.

Yeah, we all have our own priorities, but it really depends on lens. With one of the small primes, sure. However, as soon as you put one of the pro zooms on there, like the 12-40 an especially the 40-150, you will see just how front heavy the camera is. Even with a 2 hand approach, the hand on the camera has to strain to grip the weight. I have a grip on my em5ii all the time, even with the small primes and I find it more comfortable. -Josh