Giant Killer? Olympus OM-D E-M5

Alex Mustard · Issue 67, Jul/Aug 2012 · pp. 30–34

Products mentioned: Olympus OM-D E-M5, Olympus PT-EP08 housing, Sea & Sea RDX mount, Panasonic 8mm fisheye lens, Olympus 9-18mm lens, Olympus 45mm macro lens, Olympus 60mm macro lens (forthcoming), Inon Z240 strobe, Inon S2000 strobe, Sola 600 light, Canon 7D, Nikon D300

In the last issue of UwP, Peter commented in the editorial that we now truly have three exposure controls underwater: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. The penalties incurred by bumping ISO on the latest SLRs are so small that we can consider changing ISO as freely as we alter aperture or shutter speed. And it is this philosophy that makes the new Olympus OM-D E-M5 such an exciting camera. In low light conditions the E-M5, as I’ll call it from now on, wins on all three counts even compared to many SLRs (I’ll explain more below). Add to this image quality that outguns the Canon 7D and Nikon D300 and you have a very exciting photographic prospect in a tiny package. The E-M5 is a new addition to the Micro Four Thirds (M43) camera range, a system of mirror-less interchangeable lens cameras developed jointly by Olympus and Panasonic. The M43 sensor is smaller than APS-C/DX and only half the si…