Will stay on Olympus photo market after the great fall in sales “tsifromylnits”? All hope for a mirrorless interchangeable lens apparatus (although from the mirror technology, the company has not officially abandoned). Olympus does not update the range every six months as its competitors. Issue new products technologically justified and not dictated by the marketing department. On one of those “reasonably updated” cameras today we take a closer look.

In a series of Pen Olympus now offers three lines. Most small and simple devices called Pen Mini and have the letter M in the title. In the middle is the Pen Lite, the camera with the letter L balance between simplicity and enhanced functionality. Vertex per line Pen with the letter P, which presents devices with professional and amateur stuffing interface. E-P5 – one of them.

Design

External appearance of the Pen line inspired by the film model 1963 Olympus-Pen F. By the way, it was not a full-frame device (yes, in the last century there were also models with a frame less than 24×36 mm, shoot at the 35th film), and half-frame – size images on film was the standard 18×24 mm (in the “portrait” orientation). According to some reports, the system then Olympus-Pen was the smallest in the world of SLR cameras with interchangeable lenses. On one of the ads even depicted male shoes, which was placed in the unit itself has a couple of lenses.

Each succeeding each other models Pen digital era a little different from the previous one, without losing the retro charm. Judge which version is closer to the original meaningless as a minimum, because the film had an optical viewfinder Pen (this is another story, instead of the dominant pentaprism it used a combination of Porro), and assume the current sight on the screen or on the rear panel, or by Plugs into the accessory port external viewfinder.

If you want to see the location and estimate the size of government, see video overview prepared by the project Hotline Video.

Changes compared with the previous model (Olympus Pen E-P3) and a lot and a little at a time.

The first thing that catches your eye – the rear screen has gained a degree of freedom (albeit limited, but it is a significant step toward increasing the convenience of shooting unusual angles).

Wheel for changing settings are now located on the front and rear panels – just below the thumb and index finger – in conjunction with the hardware switch set their functions the phone got almost professional management system. Slight offset five-way joystick (one of the wheels used to be located around it) down and left also increased usability – thumb does not need to bend in an unnatural position.

Powering now produced a lever with two fixed positions, and this is good because we see immediately turn off the camera or simply “fell asleep.”

The body is made of aluminum alloy, a number of controls – metal. Quality materials and workmanship meet the requirements to product-preimum klasaa.

Functionality

Owners OM-D EM5 upset and save money for a new model OM-D: Olympus Pen E-P5 not just absorbed all the best developers to come up with the ex-leader, but also received a number of features not available in EM5.

Goodies finally leave, as long as we consider some improvements.

Exposure 1/8000 is still regarded as the prerogative of professional cameras. Need it in at least two cases – when shooting with large apertures in bright light (yes, neutral density filter helps, but can degrade sharpness and lower contrast due to reflections) and when you want to capture very rapid processes (in most cases it is impossible to imitate.) At Pen E-P5 such exposure is.

In contrast – a couple of examples of unsuccessful implementation of very interesting features.

Olympus engineers have added the ability to shoot time-lapse-videos (in the sense of not just do a set of frames at a specified interval, but also turn them into a video.) But the implementation can not even discuss – limit of 99 frames reduces the usefulness of innovations to zero.

Appeared wireless interface Wi-Fi. Itself – great. Very pleased with the implementation of the connection based on the QR-codes and the ability to create two profiles – public (for “foreign” smartphones, which in the presence of adequate free utility you can download only the camera footage material) and private, suggesting greater interaction with the machine, including remote management and geotagging.

However, implementation of the remote control eliminates virtually all the advantages of wireless access, because shooting can only be performed in automatic mode. Once the alliance partner Olympus Micro 4/3 – company Panasonic – made the program through which change almost all shooting parameters to market such flawed decision, at least ashamed.

Olympus E-P5 first in a series Pen received intracameral 5-axis optical image stabilization with automatic recognition of the pan. It really is an important achievement, since this system – one of the best on the market.

Engineers finally took into account the fact that Panasonic produces lenses with built-in optical stabilizer, and E-P5 menu item appeared, allowing you to select which of the systems use – their own, in-chamber, or “objective”.

Screen on the rear panel has a “photographic” proportions 3:2, it is powered by LCD technology (OM-D EM-5 – OLED) for reasons of priority color quality, increased to one million the number of pixels.

Not without a spoon of tar – when tilted down part of the screen casing extends above the bottom edge of the casing. You probably will not notice it. Until then, unless you need to install the camera on a tripod. One way out – to look for the puck in the bins a couple of millimeters thick, and enclose it between the body and the tripod platform – the important thing is to have enough length to secure the screws.

Built-in flash (also envy owners OM-D EM-5) is designed poorly. It is completely hidden in the body, but the folding mechanism does not allow to reject the lamp unit upward. In addition button on the rear panel is too soft and often flash pops from being accidentally pressed, which can have dire consequences when carrying the bag.

Video mode Pen E-P5 beautiful specifications and menus, but the results are not encouraging. As an interesting note takeaway ideas on hot area of ​​the touch screen incorporating filters – it allows you to add, for example, not to the entire Video Echo roller, but only to his particular story part.

Now about the promised goodies. The first relates to the manual focus. In the Olympus Pen E-P5 there is an increase (up to 14x) and lights contrasting edges. All in all – there is nothing revolutionary. However, their combination allows very accurate the sharpness (eg for macro).

Lights contrasting edges of objects

The combination of magnification and illumination contrast edges of objects

But that’s not all. Intrachamber stabilization system can work not only a snapshot, but at the moment the focus, it will be appreciated by owners of telephoto lenses.

Unfortunately, the movie mode lights not working edges. There is one more wish: a choice of two colors of illumination edges (black and white), add one or two more (yellow and red, for example) is easy firmware upgrade.

It should be noted that the autofocus speed and accuracy – one of the best in the industry, especially when you consider the convenience of specifying an arbitrary point. It can be chosen by an enlarged fragment of the image to 14x.

Second goodies – control system parameters. As already noted, in the Olympus Pen E-P5 two wheels, their location is very convenient. However, the “trick” – a hardware switch on the rear panel, instantly reassigns both ring and button at the switch.

Sounds complicated. But if you get used to, it is very convenient. Basic settings can be changed without any additional travel menu (which in itself is very comfortable at Olympus). For example, in position 1 the wheel set shutter speed and aperture, and in position 2 – sensitivity and the white balance.

In normal mode button enables video recording, but the menu is bound to it is another function.

Just four options, the first two actually overlap each other (the difference – on which wheel is assigned to ISO and white balance), and the third involves remapping button video recording, and the fourth – the focus mode (ring while working offline).

Quality frames

There are a few shots taken on the street – one in the apartment with light saving bulbs and a standard test set.

First, the white balance when shooting in JPEG. En plein air – no complaints, everything honestly. Indoors, under incandescent lighting – too honest. Automation makes frames unnaturally warm – a person perceives a more neutral image. Save preset position or capture a neutral point of the sample.

JPEG at default settings pleases clarity of details and correct saturation, even in the red.

How small 16-megapixel sensor allows you to raise the sensitivity? If we remain within JPEG, ISO 6400 is completely operational value: look at the images on a scale of 25%. Yes, already have a claim to the dynamic range, can be seen zamylennye. But the results are impressive.

In poor lighting conditions the difference between ISO 200 and 6400 much more noticeable, but the footage is still usable.

There are cases where the frame to make the problem better than not doing any. ISO 12800 and 25600 for JPEG contraindicated, even for the Web is better not to apply. But from RAW obtained good results if the colors quite bad enough to take a picture to grayscale.

The overall quality of the shooting should be called great. Yes, the camera is not designed for specific types of pictures (eg, sports reporting, where the AF tracking is needed), but in the hands of an experienced lover is a great tool for the implementation of most of his creative ideas.

During the test operation of the camera proved to be a good side. It starts quickly, responds promptly to switch (including touch screen). Rate – if you do not need autofocus – 9 c / a in RAW, it is especially useful when shooting HDR (the minimum number of “ghosts”).

According to the manufacturer, the autonomy of up to 330 frames standards CIPA. Especially this study characteristics were not made, but a normal shooting day battery stand. External battery charger, so that if necessary you can buy an extra battery and recharged as needed.

The only serious complaint – the price (especially if you want to purchase an external electronic viewfinder).

Liked

+ Quality Pictures
+ Lots of features and components of the OM-D EM5
+ Almost a professional set of features
+ Innovative control system

Dislike

– Price
– Implementation of Wi-Fi-functions
– Video Quality

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