Olympus Announces the E-5

[velvet4269]

I'm a lil surprised/disappointed I haven't seen this mentioned here sooner.

DP Review's Preview of the E-5

I have to admit, I'm on the fence about this. For a "Pro" camera, it seems they've focused on adding a bunch of bells & whistles most "pros" wouldn't care about (Movie mode? Really? Art filters? You're joking, right??), but I do like the dual CF/SD card slot.

[xinman]

I read the announcement but I really wasn't trying to dream too much over it. I just got my e-620 less than a year ago. This body is twice the price... my wife would kill me! It does have some nice specs though. I think some of those features are just trying to entice people with features, like some of the other companies do. I for one do like the art filters that are on my 620, I don't use them all and I don't use them a lot but sometimes they are just what I'm looking for. I am very glad to see the CF/SD card, the 620 has a CF and a XD slot. My XD card died and took about 60 shots with it, not too mention how slow and expensive they are. The larger swivel screen, the splash-dust proof body those are the features I like. Overall though, those features don't justify that price tag to me. I think Olympus should work on getting more low-mid priced lenses available to the public. When all I see is that they are working very hard to keep their Pen lines and there high end stuff relevant. There has to be something to bridge that gap.

[kuvahmagh]

This is Olympus's nail in the coffin as far as I'm concerned. It just doesn't stack up against other semi-pro bodies, its a high end consumer camera and thats it. I'm not looking at MP, I Understand their point there but what does 6400 ISO look like on here, I bet it still won't be as good as 6400 on its closest rivals who can do better than that anyways.

I like the apparent IR Strobe for AF Assist (it is present in the picture but in the write up it says it uses the pop up flash so if they included the IR Lamp then why wasn't it included in the write up or if not then why is it in the image, not necessarily Olympus's fault just an observation). The removal of XD is long over due but I would prefer dual CF slots since this is a "Flagship" Camera. The external WB Sensor is another good thing.

All together it has some promising features but including things such as art filters, facial detection and other such 'entry level' marketing toys in what is supposed to be at the very least a semi pro body is just taking away from the package imo.

I agree that more mid range glass would be preferable to this body however it seems Olympus's days of playing in the DSLR sandbox are slowly coming to an end and it seems likely they will continue to devote much of their time to the Micro 4/3s Platform. Maybe that is the best thing for a smaller company like Olympus but it leaves me looking elsewhere for my gear.

I could be completely off base with this POV and they could prove me wrong when this thing comes up for full reviews but until I see something epic out of this I will continue looking elsewhere. IMHO there just is no future in the 4/3s DSLR market.

A few of the things to watch for as far as I'm concerned will be the ISO and Auto Focus performance, if they can manage to get these up to par with at least the current competition I could be persuaded to stick it out but I just don't think they will.

[velvet4269]

[QUOTE=kuvahmagh;1083291]

All together it has some promising features but including things such as art filters, facial detection and other such 'entry level' marketing toys in what is supposed to be at the very least a semi pro body is just taking away from the package imo.
[QUOTE]

On another forum, someone commented about how could I possibly still be shooting with my E500 and be disappointed in the new E5? Your comments there sum it up. Yes, there are things that I'd love to have on my camera (IS & the SD slot, for example), BUT the addition of the "marketing toys" detract significantly from any value the camera might hold for me. What do I get for the money I'm spending? Art filters & movie mode? I'm fairly capable with photoshop & don't have much interest in shooting movies (if I did, it would be with a camera designed for such a task), so ... what else do you have to offer that I can't find in a higher end camera from another brand?

Not much.

Particularly when Oly is touting this as their "pro" camera, and the Canon/Nikon lines see this as more their mid-range (if not Prosumer) get ups. Oly glass is still great, and my Sigma Macro lens is my baby, BUT my camera won't last forever. I'd love to stay brand-loyal, but this just doesn't do it for me.

[kuvahmagh]

Originally Posted by velvet4269

Particularly when Oly is touting this as their "pro" camera, and the Canon/Nikon lines see this as more their mid-range (if not Prosumer) get ups. Oly glass is still great, and my Sigma Macro lens is my baby, BUT my camera won't last forever. I'd love to stay brand-loyal, but this just doesn't do it for me.

That's my fundamental problem with Olympus, I love them but why would I spend the literally thousands of dollars in lenses when I have no real belief they will be around in 2 years when this body naturally dies. There is no real room to grow from amateur to professional with Olympus since they max out with a body that I have a hard time considering Semi-Pro even.

[macromike]

Quote from another forum:
This morning I had a half hour phone conversation with an Oly digital tech support rep -- so first off, kudos to him and to Oly for making the effort to get in touch with me. Here's what I learned (any errors are mine -- my notes were pretty scrambled ; words in quotes are the rep's).

1. Analog to digital conversion -- The filters in front of the filter are less "heavy-handed" than in the past (particularly, I take it, with reference to the E-3). In past cameras pixels were handled in groups, but in the E-5 they are handled pixel by pixel, which allows extracting more detail. The rep emphasized that this process is "significantly different" than previous cameras and does affect raw files.

2. The E-5 "takes what Oly has learned" since the E-3 (meaning the E-30, E-620, and the m4/3 cameras) and "tweaks it" to get what the rep called "a significant advance in image quality" not just beyond the E-3 but beyond all current Oly cameras.

3. The rep described an image quality test in which unlabeled 16 x 20 prints from a pre-production E-5, current Oly cameras, and E-5 competitors were presented to Oly tech support staff, who were asked to select the print with the best IQ. 5 of 6 staff members selected the E-5 image.

Take all this for what you think it's worth. For me, based on sidebar conversation that I won't go into here, I thought the rep was being straightforward and open. We need to see images from production model E-5s before we'll know for sure, of course, but from what I heard today, I'm increasingly optimistic about what the E-5 will be able to do for Oly shooters.