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Cameras

First Impressions: Olympus OMD EM1 Mk II

Chris Gampat
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09/23/2016
4 Mins read
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At Photokina 2016, Olympus announced the new Olympus OMD EM1 Mk II; a camera that they’re trying to aim at the professional and high end enthusiast. The EM1 has been the company’s flagship line for a while now, and the last one was already very good. The new additions make it faster, more feature packed with new things like an improved image stabilization system, improved viewfinder, etc. When paired with all the company’s newest lenses, it makes for a great solution that the professional photographer can use in many instances.

We had a few minutes to play with the camera recently.

Tech Specs

Specs taken from the Olympus website

  1. Sensor Effective Resolution / Type
    20.4 Megapixel Live MOS
  2. Processor
    TruePic™ VIII Dual Quad Core Processor
  3. Focusing System
    Dual F.A.S.T. AF (Contrast & Phase Detection AF) 121 Point (All Cross Type) On-Chip Phase Detection
  4. Image Stabilization System
    5-Axis In Body Image Stabilization
  5. Viewfinder
    2.36M dot LCD Electronic Viewfinder
  6. Rear Monitor
    3.0″ Vari-Angle Touch LCD
  7. Weatherproof
    Dust, Splash and Freezeproof
  8. Sequential Shooting Speed
    15fps [H] mode 10fps [L] mode mechanical shutter
    60fps [H] mode 18fps [L] mode silent electronic shutter
  9. Flash
    Bundled FL-LM3 (dust & splash-proof)
  10. Special Features
    4k Video Capture (30/25/24 fps)
    PRO Capture Lag-Free Electronic Shutter Mode
    In-camera Focus Stacking
    Dual SD Card Slots

Ergonomics

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When you look at the Olympus OMD EM1 Mk II, you can tell that it’s a serious looking camera. There are a load of buttons, switches and dials all over that make the camera overall pretty simple to use if you’ve got the time to customize it.

The front of the camera has very controls aside from the lens release. There are a few buttons other than this–but you’re bound to mostly only work with the shutter release.

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When you get to the top of the camera, you start to finally see lots of the controls. You’ll spot the mode dial, the shutter release, on/off switch, headphone jack, drive mode and custom function buttons for stuff like ISO or white balance.

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Move to the back of the camera, and what you’ll find are loads more buttons in addition to an LCD screen that tilts and swivels. The directional pad is great for changing the autofocus and the other buttons and switches are clearly labelled.

What you’ll also find here is the EVF–what you’ll also clearly notice at this point is that the optional grip is attached.

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The LCD screen folds out and swivels just like the one of the previous model and the OMD EM5 Mk II.

Build Quality

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Olympus is billing the camera as being weather sealed and tough overall. In our years of testing Olympus cameras, I’ve always found this to be true. However, I haven’t had the chance to pour a bottle of water on it yet or run it under a faucet.

To refresh, here’s what we did with the original OMD EM1. If this camera has better weather sealing, then it should be able to stand up to anything.

Autofocus

The Olympus lineup of cameras have always been very fast to focus–part of this takes advantage of the fact that the depth of field is greater that what other cameras with larger sensors need to accomplish due to the Four Thirds sensor. But even during my trial and two meetings with Olympus at Photokina, this camera’s autofocusing even in low light is incredible. It can effectively track a subject, and is also just very snappy overall in addition to being accurate.

If anything, I’d say that the Olympus OMD EM1 Mk II, Fujifilm X Pro 2 and the Sony a99 II have the fastest autofocusing out there of any mirrorless camera right now. But two of those cameras are still in the pre-production stage, so I’ll need to save my final evaluation for later on.

Ease of Use

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Olympus’ menu system are a like it or hate it camp. I’ve never found their menus to be problematic, but they are indeed deep. However, if you have patience, they’re pretty simple to navigate. There are some new functions overall, so expect the menu system to also be deeper.

Image Samples

The units that we were testing had not final sensors inside, so we couldn’t bring back sample images.

First Impressions

I’ve got no doubt that Olympus has made a solid product–they sold me on that years ago. I think that their biggest challenge is convincing the public that the Four Thirds sensor is still highly capable when they don’t realize that an iPhone can be used to shoot advertising campaigns on Instagram. Most of us that read the Phoblographer are aware of this.

This camera is more than capable of doing some amazing things; folks just need to realize it.

Olympus OMD EM1 Mk II
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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