Incidentally, this article just popped up in my feed. I don’t really know how much to trust James Artaius, the Editor in Chief of the publication, but the points he makes seem to make sense. I have often wondered myself whether I would invest in the OM system if I were to start all over again.
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I agree with the article basically. A few years ago I bought the ubiquitous Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 and the current lens that I keep on it is close to his favorite, mine being a Vario 12-35 mm Mk.II.
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Interesting!
I see the same author has a review of the OM-5 II. It includes ‘lab tests’ that show it mostly equals, and in some cases even exceeds, the sensor performance of the Z50 II.
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Damn it, now I want one! I know some of its specs, like resolution, are not class leading, but it’s a heck of a lot of camera for the price. I’m particularly interested in playing with the computational features, like live ND and in-camera focus stacking. I can imagine it’s great as a macro camera.
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I think that depends on what class you think it’s in!
As far as resolution goes, from what I understand all the OM cameras have basically the same sensor. The top end OM-1 and OM-3 are stacked sensors, which is an advantage mostly for fast action I think? Outside of sports and wildlife, I don’t think there’s much difference between the OM-5 (new and previous versions) and the flagships. They’re all 20MP.
Agreed. I’ve been looking at examples from the OM 12-45 f/4 and the 20 f/1.7, and it’s making me wonder how much my Nikon gear would get as a trade-in.
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That is very interesting. I have a Canon R7 with very high pixel density for a crop sensor. Its pixel size is 3.20µm. Noise and low light performance are not a draw back on this camera compared to my earlier Nikon D7100 with a pixel size of 3.90 µm. So I guess pixel size alone is not the only factor for low light performance.
The OM-5 mk II is very compelling, and part of my current GAS problem. In a vacuum, it seems like a great camera for the price, but everyone is mad that it’s not much of an upgrade. I really don’t need it, but the size, capabilities, and yes the look, are drawing me in. I don’t love my Lumix GX7, but I love having a small M43 camera.
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Agreed. It sounds like there’s not much to motivate upgrading to it from the previous 2 (3?) versions of this camera. But as a first m43 camera, it looks pretty good.
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Yep, that’s basically it. Honestly, 20MP is fine for me 90% of the time, and probably most people too. But having the 40MP X-T5 has spoiled me a bit, and I really enjoy cropping in when I need to get closer than my lens allows. It’s almost like having 2 prime lenses without the heft of a zoom.
But I could just adjust again to having a lower resolution. I used to have an X-S10, and that had something like 26MP. I certainly don’t need a stacked sensor.
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I chose Micro Four Thirds because of the M.Zuiko 60mm f/2.8 macro.
There’s no other system with such a compact macro lens offering this kind of reach and magnification.
I use the Panasonic GX9 with the M.Zuiko 60mm macro to document insect sightings.
It’s great to have the lightest and most compact setup possible when out in the field.
Another lens I really enjoy using is the Panasonic Leica 15mm f/1.7. Despite the GX9 being a bit dated, this combo still delivers fantastic image quality.
And the 30mm full-frame equivalent focal length (a bit more when shooting in 3:2) is extremely versatile.
For portraits, I used to have the Panasonic 42.5mm f/1.7 — a great compact lens, and from what I’ve seen, it seems a bit sharper than the M.Zuiko 45mm. I don’t own it anymore, though.
The Sigma 56mm f/1.4 is a solid alternative as well.
From what I’ve seen, the Panasonic 9mm f/1.7 also looks like an amazing lens.
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You can check photos of Oly 12-45mm f/4 PRO (24-90 mm ff eqv) and 12-40mm f/2.8 (24-80mm). High praise for these two lens…
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Do you also like the bokeh? I rented the Olympus 12–45mm for a day but ended up not buying it, the blur was too nervous/busy for my purposes.
I ended up with the PanaLeica 12–60mm which is slightly better for background, but still not comparable to a prime lens. But it is great for travel, and environments where I really, really don’t want to change lenses.
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I second the 12-60mm 2.8-4.0
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Where?
This is another advantage over crop sensor, at least for Nikon. There are four zooms total to choose from in that system.
Another interesting take from a youtuber. He’s a bit snarky, but makes some good points. Namely, M43 cameras are good, very competitive with other formats, and with their own particular advantages. But - recent releases from OM have had very modest updates, raising questions about their long-term commitment.
People have been burying micro 4/3 for decades now. It ain’t dead, it just smells funny 
OM System came out with two 3 new camera bodies in the last two years (OM-1 ii, OM-3, and OM-5 ii), and a bit before that, OM-1 ii. Panasonic came out with the G9ii and the GH7 (I am not counting the G100D which is just a minor refresh). And a couple of new lenses, but let’s be frank, the line is nearly complete, there are not many gaps.
This of course predicts nothing about the future. Any camera maker could decide to pull the plug on any of their lines, as it happened so many times in the past.
I think it is best to make choices based on what is available now, not what one expects to happen, because we simply do not know. Who, for example, could have predicted even half of Fuji’s moves this year?
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The “m43 is dead” stuff is a bit skewed. I watched that video the other day, and admittedly I don’t really like Camera Conspiracies, but it just sort of felt like it was missing some key stuff.
He admits that you could, today, build out a small, lightweight, relatively cheap kit that does everything you want it to do. The problem he posits (specifically about lenses) is that there’s probably going to be nothing interesting to buy in the future. Like… ok? That’s a bad thing?
How many more lenses do we need? There’s six 25mm (50mm equiv) lenses listed here that span multiple price points and quality levels, and in m43 land, the cheaper lenses are often quite good. And that list doesn’t seem to include the revisions as distinct lenses either.
Olympus / OM has three distinct 17mm (34mm equiv) lenses. One’s a PRO line, one’s a more compact but quality 1.8 lens, and one is a pancake 2.8. Where else do you have these sorts of options?
I get that recent camera releases aren’t that exciting but I feel like people are really looking for a reason to be parted from their money.
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Off-topic, but this is just ridiculous:
I know for some time that this is starting to happen, but I’m still shocked this is allowed. For what I quickly read online, its legality is still in a sort of grey area.
I wonder, what does disabling JS on the website achieve? I mean yes, it breaks the website basically, but I’m not sure if More Options -> WITHDRAWAL CONSENT actually rejects the cookies.
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which site is this?