Olympus E-5 Review from a E-3 user perspective...
I am an Olympus E-3 user. And recently at the Olympus User Gathering sponsor by Olympus Malaysia.. i finally have a chance to test the Olympus E-5 the Olympus flagship SLR aim to replace Olympus E-3. I was hoping that the E-5 would meet my lust to upgrade my old trusty Olympus E-3.
SIZE
When i first glance at the Olympus E-5 it look so similar with Olympus E-3. Well i was hoping for a smaller and lighter version of Olympus E-5 but i guess the engineers in Olympus all have big hands...and the body of the Olympus E-5 is made of the same magnesium alloy body...Why cant they make it smaller????
C-AF AUTOFOCUS
The first thing i test is not the sharpness nor the dramatic tone art filter so overhype by many reviewers. The first thing i test is actually the C-AF because i was never satisfy with E-3 C-AF. This AutoFocus mode is suppose to track moving object. I ask my fellow friend blu to help me hold a spoon and keep on moving from left to right at a very slow speed. Then i set the Olympus E-5 to C-Af mode hoping to grab few usable pictures of the hand holding the spoon. Well the results is not encouraging. It is still the crappy C-AF Olympus E-3 have. Well for E-3 users hoping to get a better C-AF on E-5 ..forget about it.. Maybe i test it wrongly but if the claim as having one of the world fastest AF is true then a moving hand holding a spoon should not be a problem!!
LOW LIGHT ISO
i was not expecting miracle on low light iso performance because basically this is the same sensor as the one inside Olympus E-P2. I have a few photographragh taken during the gathering at high iso. Double click on the image to enlarge. You can judge for yourself whether it is good or not. If you compare it with E-3 well you will definitely find improvement. However comparing it with Nikon d90 and even Olympus E-P2 will leave you dissapointed. Dissapointed not because it is bad but i expect more from a flagship camera.
STORAGE
Thanks god olympus realize that the XD card should be remove from the flagship SLR. XD card is not the industry standard and it is a very slow card...the write speed is rediculous for a flagship SLR!!
ART FILTER
Err come on if i want to use fun art filter i would opt for a m43 camera like epl1
AF Assist Light
Yes this flagship SLR DO NOT have AF assist Light..What a shame...
Ok i think i need to explain more here..i know we can use the pop up flash as AF assist light but the burst of strobing white lights on your subject or model isn;t exactly what i have in mind. i am expecting something like the continuos red light or even white lights as the AF assist light. Dont the engineer understand strobing light / flashing light will annoy your subject or model..i mean come on even point and shoot like Lx3 have it..and panasonic Gf1 have it and even nikon D90 have it right..
DETAIL
The detail is the strongest pro of this flagship SLR. In fact this would be the only main attraction.
VERDICT
Other feature is plus minus the same with Olympus E-3. I cant find any main attraction to make me fall in love with it...it lack SOUL...or perhaps Olympus announcement on this is the last SLR from Olympus make me take a step back and reevaluate whether should i upgrade or not..Conclusion is i would not get one because of lack of substance and expensive. At rm5600 i would have go for the nikon D7000 or canon 7D which has much more better offering than E-5...
you can view the unedited out of the camera jpeg here (full size)
Click Here
SIZE
When i first glance at the Olympus E-5 it look so similar with Olympus E-3. Well i was hoping for a smaller and lighter version of Olympus E-5 but i guess the engineers in Olympus all have big hands...and the body of the Olympus E-5 is made of the same magnesium alloy body...Why cant they make it smaller????
C-AF AUTOFOCUS
The first thing i test is not the sharpness nor the dramatic tone art filter so overhype by many reviewers. The first thing i test is actually the C-AF because i was never satisfy with E-3 C-AF. This AutoFocus mode is suppose to track moving object. I ask my fellow friend blu to help me hold a spoon and keep on moving from left to right at a very slow speed. Then i set the Olympus E-5 to C-Af mode hoping to grab few usable pictures of the hand holding the spoon. Well the results is not encouraging. It is still the crappy C-AF Olympus E-3 have. Well for E-3 users hoping to get a better C-AF on E-5 ..forget about it.. Maybe i test it wrongly but if the claim as having one of the world fastest AF is true then a moving hand holding a spoon should not be a problem!!
LOW LIGHT ISO
i was not expecting miracle on low light iso performance because basically this is the same sensor as the one inside Olympus E-P2. I have a few photographragh taken during the gathering at high iso. Double click on the image to enlarge. You can judge for yourself whether it is good or not. If you compare it with E-3 well you will definitely find improvement. However comparing it with Nikon d90 and even Olympus E-P2 will leave you dissapointed. Dissapointed not because it is bad but i expect more from a flagship camera.
STORAGE
Thanks god olympus realize that the XD card should be remove from the flagship SLR. XD card is not the industry standard and it is a very slow card...the write speed is rediculous for a flagship SLR!!
ART FILTER
Err come on if i want to use fun art filter i would opt for a m43 camera like epl1
AF Assist Light
Yes this flagship SLR DO NOT have AF assist Light..What a shame...
Ok i think i need to explain more here..i know we can use the pop up flash as AF assist light but the burst of strobing white lights on your subject or model isn;t exactly what i have in mind. i am expecting something like the continuos red light or even white lights as the AF assist light. Dont the engineer understand strobing light / flashing light will annoy your subject or model..i mean come on even point and shoot like Lx3 have it..and panasonic Gf1 have it and even nikon D90 have it right..
DETAIL
The detail is the strongest pro of this flagship SLR. In fact this would be the only main attraction.
VERDICT
Other feature is plus minus the same with Olympus E-3. I cant find any main attraction to make me fall in love with it...it lack SOUL...or perhaps Olympus announcement on this is the last SLR from Olympus make me take a step back and reevaluate whether should i upgrade or not..Conclusion is i would not get one because of lack of substance and expensive. At rm5600 i would have go for the nikon D7000 or canon 7D which has much more better offering than E-5...
you can view the unedited out of the camera jpeg here (full size)
Click Here
Comments
I am too an E-3 user and regarding "Yes this flagship SLR DO NOT have AF assist Light", you probably mean "without having to use the on-board flash" which does provide AutoFocus assist strobe light.
J-Marc G from Nice, in France
I really like this new camera, although it does fall short in a few areas. And it seems a bit preposterous that they would charge $1,700 for the E-5 and only $1,200 for the D7000. I am strongly considering the D7000, although the fact that I primarily use the 50mm macro makes it really hard to go to Nikon.
If the E-5 was the same price as the Nikon, I would buy the Olympus immediately, still, even at the higher price, I may end up with an E-5...
If you go into the menu - Toolbox1> AF/MF> C-AF Lock, by default, this is set to OFF. Turn it on and do your moving spoon experiment again. I think you will find the results very different.
One of the big changes with the E-5 vs the E-3 in C-AF is the much better predictive AF capability.
OFF - for rapid changes in subject distance (fast moving, head on)
ON - for slower changes in subject distance (e.g., race car going diagonally across the frame) where one AF point needs to hand off to the next across the frame.
using this setting >> "If you go into the menu - Toolbox1> AF/MF> C-AF Lock, by default, this is set to OFF " will only increase the chances of having blur or ouf of focus picture..but i have not try that just my wild guess based on my experience with the e-3 behaviour
Sorry for the negative comment.
Alfred