The mountain peak OM-D E-M1 Mark II
($1,999.99, body only) packs in
additional technology than the other camera we've reviewed in recent memory. The buirdly small Four Thirds shooter sports a high-speed 60fps Raw
capture mode, a high-resolution multi-exposure
capture setting, associated
an in-body stabilization system that steadies eachpictures and 4K video. It's a superb camera, particularly if
you place a stress on
video capture, however not an idealone. Its pursuit focus struggles at
its fastest commonplace burst rate, and its
image sensing element lags
behind APS-C competitors in resolution and high ISO performance. Our
Editors' selection for
high-end mirrorless cameras, the Fujifilm X-T2, does not have quite as a powerful description list, however delivers a a lot of satisfying
photographic expertise.
Design and Controls
The E-M1 Mark II is titled sort of a sized-down
SLR, complete with associate array
of dials and switches, associated
an eye-level electronic finder.
It measures 3.6 by 5.3
by 2.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.3
pounds while not a
lens. It's offered in
black solely, and also the body is sealed to shield it from dirt and wetness. you will need to combine it
with a sealed lens, just like the new
M.Zuiko erectile dysfunction 25mm
f1.2 PRO, so as to securely use it in inclement
conditions.
The E-M1 Mark II incorporates a deeper handle than several mirrorless
cameras, a lot of in
line with the dimensionsof
a midrange SLR. there is associate indentation for your finger, that created the
E-M1 a awfully natural slot in my hands. A vertical
shooting grip, the HLD-9 Power Batter Grip ($249), is associate facultative add-on. It homes one extra battery, however does not do something to spice up camera
performance just like the X-T2's
add-on grip.
Olympus has stuffed an oversized quantity of
buttons and dials onto the E-M1's surface. There ar 2 buttons
to the correct of the
lens mount, accessible exploitation your paw once holding the grip. they're each customizable,
with default settings designed to 1 bit White Balance and Depth of Field Preview. the sole different button on the front is that the lens unharness, situated to the left of the
mount.
The On/Off switch
sits on the highest plate,
to the left of the new shoe.
The body omits a inherent flash, howeveralittle FL-LM3 flash
is enclosed within the box, slippery into the new shoe once required. It offers modest power (GN 30'), however will cowl a
12mm angle (24mm full-frame equivalent) and options 90-degree tilt and 180-degree rotation adjustment.
The flash is high-powered by
the camera body. Next to the On/Off
toggle, atop a raised circular protrusion, ar buttons that management the
Drive Mode and optical device system.
The Drive button works with the E-M1's twin management dials
(on the correct aspect of the highestplate, at the rear and
on high of the
grip) to regulate in-camera
HDR settings and to settle on from the manycontinuous and delayed
shooting settings that ar offered.
The AF button uses the front dial to regulate scene metering and also the rear to alter between single,
continuous, or manual focus, also as pursuit choices and a predetermined manual
focus distance setting.
In addition to the quality metering patterns,
the E-M1 includes Spot Highlight and Spot Shadow settings. they arehelpful for tough scenes, however are not advocate for
general use—it's simple to
blow out a scene by metering on the
incorrect a part of a picture exploitation Spot Highlight, or to lose detail within the shadows by doing constant in Spot Shadow. the thought is that you will use Spot Highlight
to meter on the brightest a part
of a scene so as to make sure that
highlights are not clipped,
and Spot Shadow to meter on the darkest space to make sure that
shadow detail is preserved. you
will either ought to center
those components of
the shut in your image, or use the modes in conjunction
with the rear AEL/AFL button to lock in exposure. Neither mode is as helpful because the Highlight Priority choice that Nikon includes in a number of its SLRs, together with the D810, that analyzes the
whole scene and ensures that highlights will not be clipped.
The E-M1 uses a Mode
dial to line shooting
controls, in distinction to
the distinct shutter,
aperture, and ISO dials utilized
by the Fujifilm X-T2. It sits to the correct of the
new shoe and incorporates a lockup style.
The lock may be atoggle
that engages or disengages with the
clicking of its center button, therefore you do not ought to hold down a button whereas turning it.
Front and rear management dials rest within the usual places, accessible via your paw. Fn2, a programmable button that
adjusts highlight and shadow curves by default, and also the Record button for movies sit in between them.
The Fn1 button, that changes
the active focus space in
conjunction with the front and rear dials, is at associate angle at the correct rear corner, nearly on the
highest plate, however not
on the rear of the camera either.
A toggle button to alter between the rear liquid crystal display, EVF, or mechanically switch exploitation the
attention sensing element sits
to the left of the eyecup, close
to the highest of
the rear plate. alittle unitmanagement is snuggled into the eyecup itself,
on its left aspect. Rear
shooting controls ar confined
to the correctaspect. there is the 1/2 switch that
changes between the first (aperture,
shutter, and electron volt management, reckoning on the shooting mode)
and secondary (ISO and white balance) functions of the front and rear managementdials. At its center is that the AEL/AFL button—by
default it permits exposure
lock solely, however you'll be able totack together its operate.
Other rear
controls embody data, Menu, Play, and Delete
buttons, moreover as a
four-way management pad
with a middle OK
button. Pressing OK launches AN on-screen
bank of extra choices. These embody ISO, white balance, color
output, image stabilization, drive, metering, image and video quality, and
button remapping. The latter may
be ahuge and, as
diving into the E-M1's full, multi-page menu to alter button settings is daunting—the camera will such a lot that it's typically troublesome to find a specific setting. The
rear digital display is AN ample three inches in size, with a pointy one,037k-dot style.
It offers gloriousbrightness
and viewing angles, and options a
vari-angle style. It swings
out from the body, turning to face all the meansforward through all the means down, and
may fold flat against the rear to shield the screen throughout transit. bitpracticality is
powerful. you'll be able to faucet on a part of the frame to line focus or to focus
and hearth the
shutter. once reviewing pictures the screen permits you to swipe to navigate
through photos and to double faucet to concentrate on a trial. to boot, you'll be
able to drag your finger across the screen to maneuver the main targetpurpose once shooting with the EVF.
The EVF may be a crisp (2,360k-dot)
OLED style. it is a very little little for
a camera of this category,
with a magnification quantitative
relation of zero.65x, that is simply a bit bit
larger than the 0.63x
optical finder you get with a midrange SLR just like the Nikon D7200. The Fujifilm X-T2 sports a 0.77x EVF, that is simply a iota largerthan the 0.76x OVF utilized by the top-end Canon
EOS-1D X Mark II. Despite its little size,
the EVF is kind ofresponsive—it
refreshes at 120fps, therefore you'll be able to higher use it to trace action. that is double as quickbecause
the X-T2 in commonplace mode,
and to a small degree quicker than the 100fps that the X-T2
manages once shooting
in Boost mode with its add-on grip.
Additional options, Wi-Fi, and Connections
Olympus
includes variety of extra shooting modes with the
E-M1 that stretch its
capabilities on the far side that
of a straightforward camera.
In-camera HDR imaging is enclosed to
capture photos that show additional detail within theshadows and highlights than
most pictures will manage. There also are Live Bulb and Live
Composite modes that show your long exposure dynamic before your eyes—you will discontinue the
exposure at any time in either mode.
A special high-resolution capture mode
utilizes the detector shift
stabilization system to oversample photos, capturing Raw pictures at 80MP and JPGs at
50MP. the character of
multi-image capture involves a
static subject and a durable stand, however the camera is capable of removing blur that might preferably be apparent once shooting landscapes with
wind-blown grass or flowing water. we
have a tendency to checked
out the High Res Shot mode exhaustive once we lined the primary camera to support the feature, the E-M5 Mark II.
The E-M1 Mark II options integrated Wi-Fi, that ought to come back as no
surprise—it's a typical feature
at now. robot and iOS users will transfer the free Mount Olympus Image Share app to repeat photos wirelessly, or to use a phone or pill as a far off management for the E-M1. Full manual exposure management is obtainable, and you'll be able to faucet on any space of the live feed to line the active focus purpose.
Like most pro-grade cameras, the E-M1 Mark
II options twin memory card slots,
accessible via a door on the
properaspect. every slot
supports American state,
SDHC, and SDXC memory, however solely Slot one is ready to requireadvantage
of the most recent high-speed
UHS-II memory cards. this can be in distinction to the Fujifilm
X-T2, thathas twin UHS-II slots. If you are shooting at a high burst
rate, the camera can take a extended time to put in writingfiles to fit two than it'll Slot one, albeit you utilize the quickest memory obtainable. The E-M1 incorporates a variety of
ports, together with laptop set to attach a
studio flash system, a 2.5mm jack for a wired remote, 2 3.5mm jacks for phone and mike,
micro HDMI, and USB-C three.0.
In-camera charging is not supported; an ardent device,
with a clastic plug,
is enclosed. The charger
has the brightest inexperienced charging
indicator I've ever seen. It lit up the lounge of my lodging sort of a nightlight, ANd once I was traveling with the E-M1 I had to use an
outlet within the building toilet so as to prevent it from
brightening the area to the purpose wherever my sleep would be
disturbed. If it bothers you, invest in some gaffer tape to hide the sunshine. CIPA rates the battery for 440 shots per charge.
Performance and optical device
The E-M1 Mark II is hopped-up by a quad-core processor, and it actually shows it. It starts,
focuses, and fires in zero.7-second, an honest mark for any mirrorless
camera. Focus speed is lighting quick,
about 0.05-second in bright light-weight and zero.1-second in terribly dim light-weight.
The optical
device system is matched with a fantastic burst rate. The E-M1 shoots at fifteen.4fps mistreatment its mechanical
shutter. It keeps that rate up to fifty
four Raw+JPG, 73 Raw, or 108 JPG shots before pausing. I tested
with a SanDisk 280MBps memory card within
the UHS-II slot and had to attend 22.8
seconds, 9.5 seconds, and 6.4 seconds, severally, for all files to be committed to the cardboard.
There's additionally a
totally electronic shutter choice. mistreatment the
e-shutter boosts the AF-C speed to 18fps at most and therefore
the AF-S speed to a blistering 60fps. It will solely keep the 60fps rate up for a brief duration—roughly forty five shots, in spite of file format—and needs similar time to clear the
buffer to card like 15fps
capture.
There's an extra 60fps capture mode,
dubbed professional Capture,
that starts to buffer shots once
you press the shutter unharness halfway all the way down to interact optical device. it's a
configurable frame rate—15, 20, 30, or 60fps—and will buffer up to fourteen shots. it
is a sensible tool
for capturing the right moment
of action, however as a result of it fires thus quickly and utilizes the
electronic shutter, you cannot utilize
a flash. it is best used
for brilliantlylit outside scenes so as to induce a crisp shot that freezes quick motion.
Read other : Fujifilm X-T2
The E-M1 is meant to be ready
to track subjects and keep them focussed at 18fps. And, reckoning on what you areshooting, you'll be pleased with the results at that
speed. If your subject is moving left to right, while not plenty of
motion toward the front of the camera, it will thus with nice confidence and a solid hit
rate. however the
camera struggled in our back-and-forth continuous optical device take a
look at, netting out-of-focus results as our take a look at target enraptured toward and faraway from the lens, even when setting the main target system to place . Dropping the burst rate
to the the low setting—still a blistering 10fps—netted sharply centered shots.
Tracking at 10fps is not any little deed. It's slightly faster than what the Fuji
X-T2 will manage with
its Booster Grip (9.6fps), and is in line with top-end APS-C SLRs just like the Nikon D500 and
Canon Greek deity 7D
Mark II. howevereach the
X-T2 and D500 have focus systems that
supply alittle additional coverage at the sides of the frame—the E-M1's
focus space is enclosed by a approach all sides that lacks
focus capability. i might like if the camera restrictedits speed to a rate that might web systematically centered pictures once set to C-AF or C-AF with trailing.
Image and Video Quality
The E-M1 uses a 20MP small Four Thirds image sensing element, physically smaller
than the APS-C sensors utilized by competitive models just like the Sony Alpha 6500 and
Fujifilm X-T2, with a 4:3 native ratio instead of the additional common 3:2. just like the Alpha 6500, the
E-M1's sensing element is stable employing a five-axis in-body system, a feature that the
Fujifilm X-T2 does not provide. It ensures that any lens you
attach advantages from
stabilization, and works in conjunction with lenses with their own
stabilization system, as well as the Mt. OlympusM.Zuiko erectile dysfunction 300mm f4.0
IS PRO, give additional helpful than either lens or
camera may provide on
its own.
I used Imatest to see image noise at every full-stop ISO setting. once shooting JPGs at default settings, the E-M1 keeps
noise below one.5 p.c from its base ISO two hundred sensitivity through ISO 6400. Image quality is not excellentonce pushing the camera that so much. It will a fine job capturing minute
details in our take a look at image
through ISO 800, and shows terribly slight
blur at ISO 1600. The blur is slightly additional noticeable at ISO 3200, and details smudge along at ISO 6400. JPG pictures begin to point out vital blur at ISO 12800,
and you must avoid
shooting JPGs at ISO 25600. this
can be wherever the
X-T2's larger, 24MP image sensing
element has AN advantage—it
delivers perceptibly crisper
results at ISO 12800 and 25600.
You can choose to shoot in Raw format to eke more detail out of the sensing element. In-camera noise
reduction is not applied
to Raw images—our normal Raw device, Lightroom CC, will apply some color noise
reduction, however we tend to use normal settings for each tested camera to place them on equal footing.
The E-M1 Mark II will a
fine job with image detail through ISO 3200, however it willshow additional sandy noise at that sensitivity
than the X-T2. Noise becomes additional of a problem at ISO 6400, wherever it detracts from fine
detail, whereas the
X-T2 once more wins
out. At ISO 12800 pictures square measureterribly sandy, however detail remains sturdy, whereas the number of noise at ISO
25600 very detracts
from a picture. once more the X-T2 betters the
E-M1 Mark II at these extreme ISO settings.
Where the E-M1 Mark II outperforms the X-T2 is
in video. each shoot
in 4K, however the Mt. Olympus does not show any form of rolling shutter impact once panning, and its in-body stabilization may be a massive and for hand-heldcapture. It will shoot at twenty four, 25, or 30fps in 4K UHD
with a 102Mbps compression rate, and supports 1080p capture with a shocking 202Mbps All-Intra
compression theme at a similar frame rates. to feature fifty or 60fps choices you wish to drop the 1080p capture rate to a additional pedestrian 52Mbps bit
rate. the best bit
rate video is that the Cinema
4K setting, that shoots
in administrator resolution
at 24fps with a 236Mbps bit rate. it
isn't as sturdy a
video toolkit as Panasonic's competitive small Four
Thirds model, the GH5, however it is a solid choice for any enthusiast
and sure sorts of skilled use.
The internal mic is simply like all other—it
picks up the sound of my voice, albeit with a hollow sound and countlessbackground signal. For
serious work, connect AN external electro-acoustic transducer, and
utilize the electro-acoustic
transducer jack for watching levels.
The optical device system
in video delivers sleek,
slow racks, with none looking back and forth, permitting you to consider obtaining the shot instead of manually propulsion focus.
Conclusions
The Mt.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II packs additional technical bells and whistles into its little frame than the othermirrorless camera we have seen. it's a blisteringly quick most Raw capture rate, despite the fact that it's
extremelyrestricted in period,
and a solid buffer for shooting at a additional cheap 15fps once utilizing the mechanical
shutter. Subject trailing does not work well once shooting at the quickest speeds, however it will a solid job keeping track of
moving targets at 10fps—better than most cameras out there.
Add 4K video
in each UHD and administrator formats, in-body
stabilization, associate unrestricted build, and access to
the expansive small Four
Thirds optical device, and you've got got a powerhouse.
But at $2,000, it's one among the
priciest cameras out there, not investigating those
with larger full-frame image sensors, and it's sadly the small Four Thirds device that holds it back in
terms of image quality.
The E-M1 Mark II falls in need of the clarity and high
ISO performance delivered by competitory 24MP
APS-C models, as well as our
Editors' selection Fujifilm
X-T2, that additionally has a plus in worth, commercialism for $400 less. If you are looking for a significant mirrorless camera for shooting fast-moving
action, it's our prime decide. however if you
arealready invested with in small Four Thirds, rest assured
that the E-M1 Mark II is best, most capable, member of the system we've
tested up to now. It merely faces some terribly stiff competition
at the highest finish of the market.
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