Olympus remains true to the classic OM-D design with its new Micro-Four-Thirds camera OM-D E-M5 Mark II for 1100 euros. The progress usually takes place under the hood. The E-M5II is equipped with the 16-megapixel sensor of the E-M5, but now without a low-pass filter, as well as the Truepix VII image processor of the top model E-M1
Equipment and operation
The VII brings the fast computing capacities, such as the 40 megapixel tripod solution, the improved image stabilization in five axes, the faster "fast-AF" or even full-HD videos with 60p are necessary. Like the E-M1, the E-M5II is not only protected against splashing and dust, but also cold-resistant to -10 ° C.
Display and viewfinder
The 500 g light housing consists of a magnesium alloy. With 124 x 85 x 38 mm, the E-M5II is flatter than 5 mm flatter than the E-M5 (test) and less than 1 cm flatter than the E-M1. Similar APSC housings can not keep up. There was no more space for an integrated flash. For this, Olympus provides a small flash-on flash (LZ 9 / ISO 100) with flip-up and rotatable reflector. The handgrip is flatter than the E-M1, but thanks to the pronounced thumb support the E-M5II is secure in the hand. With larger telephoto and zoom lenses a handgrip is recommended.
Autofocus and exposure
When operating, the OM-D EM5II uses a lot of mechanical controls and a touchscreen control. The usual standard exposure modes, such as P / S / A / M, provide the lockable mode dial on the left side of the case. In addition, there are around 20 wheels, knobs and levers distributed at the top and rear of the E-M5II chassis, including the programmable function buttons Fn1 to Fn4
Image quality
The video quick start button with the red dot functions as the fifth function button, the dimmer button as the sixth programmable button. This allows you to quickly access options from the switch to RAW via sharpening depth control to the "Keystone" correction of falling lines. The new 40 megapixel function is hidden in the "Camera 2" menu. Because of the timeparallax between the eight necessary photos, it is only to be used by the tripod and with unmoved motifs. This also applies to the LiveBulb function, which allows you to control "development" in real-time during long-term night-time recording.
The multifunctional dials on the E-M5II on the right, concentric around the trigger for the pointing finger, the rear for the thumb, are large, grippy and very smooth, but can also easily be adjusted inadvertently. The touch screen operation is used to quickly position the AF field or touch AF trigger. In the "iAuto" mode, "photo assistants" can be used for example. Change exposure, color and contrast by finger strokes. The central switch is the OK button with the surrounding four-directional rocker.
The menu structure is as usual with Olympus interlaced. Six chapters offer up to eleven subpoints with up to 22 subpoints. We advise you to activate the menu under * D in the 22nd and last point "Call again menu". The next time you press the menu button, the last used menu item will appear again. Preferred settings can be stored in four sets for P, A, S, and M modes.
The rotatable and swivel-mounted display brings the flexibility that is particularly appreciated by videofilms. However, you have to expand the monitor completely and rotate it if you only want to shoot obliquely from above or below.
3-inch monitor, 345667 3: 2 RGB pixels and 768667 RGB pixels in aspect ratio 4: 3 correspond to the E-M1. Both convince in sharpness and color, only with fast pans and movements jerks the picture somewhat. The 100% viewfinder picture plus search magnification of 0.74x guarantee a very good overview. Since only very few optical viewfinders keep, without a real picture preview with exposure control before the recording to offer. In the viewfinder, the photographer can display a variety of information, including a light / shadow warning or a 3D level indicator.
When switched on, the E-M5II is 1.7 seconds a little more than the E-M1. The series exposure of the E-M5 of 8.5 B / s accelerates Olympus in the E-M5II to over 10 B / s. The E-M5II can take up to 15 JPGs and 11 RAW photos in a row.
Sensorbedingt the E-M5II of the hybrid AF of the top model E-M1 is missing. Only the Hybrid-AF allows fast focusing with 4/3-lenses on the OM-D series of micro-4/3-cameras. The contrast-AF of the E-M5II is also impressive. It plays with 0.29 s (300lx) and 0.33 s (30lx) in the same league as E-M5 (0.22 s / 0.32 s) and E-M1 (0.17 s / 0.32) S). All three models are at the forefront of these AF speeds.
The multi-field AF with automatic measuring field selection covers a wide area with 81 measuring fields. Selective measurement can be carried out with a movable group of 3x3 measuring fields and even more targeted with a single measuring field in large or small. The touch screen can be used to set the AF point and its size. Touch-AF triggering is also possible. AF tracking is also possible with continuous focusing. Focus peaking and an electronic viewfinder help with manual focus.
The E-M5II shows a typical OMD result. At ISO 200, the E-M5II excites the Nyquist boundary at 1679 Lp / Bh and drops only moderately to 1544 LP / BH up to ISO 6400. High-resolution is an aggressive signal processing: the dead-leave cross-curves go well over 1 high, and also show a significant distance between the measurements for high-contrast details and low-contrast details.
Video
The high contrasts intensify the Olympus visibly more powerful. This can lead to disturbances in the image like silhouettes, but it keeps the delineation of contrast-rich structures at a high level even with increasing sensitivities. Conversely, the delineation of low-contrast structures decreases noticeably with increasing sensitivity. The comparison with the Dead-Leaves-Direct curves shows that these are clearly above the cross-curves for the high-contrast details. The difference is direct to cross curve for artefacts.
The edge measurement confirms the DL results. Here we consider the signal curve of an edge and determine the overhead. In the case of hard edges Olympus reaches ISO 6400 aggressively, which leads to a crisp image impression but also favors artifacts. This applies both to the overhead in the lighter range as well as to the low range in the black range.
Conclusion
The gain values for low-contrast edges are also above-average, but here the values decrease faster with increasing sensitivities. The dynamics of the E-M5II with EV values of 11 and higher up to ISO 1600, and also up to 8.7 with ISO 12800, are the first. Especially with the higher ISO values from 1600 onwards, a significant dynamic gain of around 1 EV-level is shown against the old E-M5.
The noise level of the E-M5II is very good from 0.9 at ISO 100 to uncritical 1.7 at ISO 3200. It is only about ISO 6400 that it is over 2. The "footprints" are correspondingly small in the diagram. This keeps the new on the level known so far from the OM-D models. In the color gamut, the E-M5II shows a decent picture with DeltaE values from around 11 to 12 to ISO 12 600.
In general, fine-tuning is moderately decreasing with increasing ISO levels, but ISO 800 increases the artifacts. ISO 400 is therefore very good and ISO 800 is also good to use.
The E-M5II now offers full-HD videos with 24 to 60 full-size pictures in the MOV (H.264 / Quicktime) format. A recording is also possible in the interface-friendly All-Intramodus (77 Mb / s, 30 B / s) with compressed individual images. A movie clip function makes up to 16 s lasting film clips. You can take photos without interrupting the movie by pressing the shutter button (16: 9)
Thanks to WiFi - without NFC - the E-M5II can now also be remotely controlled and controlled via a smartphone or tablet with an app installed, as well as images transmitted wirelessly.
In the 16-megapixel image quality, the M5II is also close to the other OM-Ds without a low-pass filter and can not exceed the E-M1 (test). The M5II impresses with a crisp high-resolution image. However, your vote is highly controversial and can be too aggressive for critical subjects. Only the E-M5II offers the strong 40-megapixel option with enormous detail resolution and reserves for cut-outs. Positive is the flexible monitor and Wi-Fi on, negative the missing integrated flash. All in all, the photographer gets a lot of quality in a small space for a fair 1100 Euro - buy-tip trip.
You can find more on the topic here
No comments:
Post a Comment