Olympus OM-D E-M5 digital camera resource

Last update: Sep. 18th, 2012 Sep. 18th: resource set up

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Specifications

Technical data and reference manuals

• Olympus E-M5 complete specifications
• Software for the E-M5 can be downloaded here.
• The complete reference manual can be downloaded here.
• See here the FAQs of Olympus America.
• Here are the Q&A of Olympus Japan.
  

Reviews

• See here Imaging Resource's Olympus OM-D E-M5 multipage review
• Robin Wong Olympus E-M5 review contains a number of photos taken in the Batu Caves, KL showing the high ISO and dynamic range performance.
• The Phoblographer have a long article about the Olympus OM-D with photos and comments about the camera.
• Digital Camera Resource have a detailed, multi-page review of the EM-5.
  
• Techno Buffalo have article about the use of the E-M5, where they compare the camera with the original OM-1.
• The photographer Ming Thein has published an interesting article about the Olympus OM-D on his site with many photos, all taken with the 45mm/F1.8 lens.
• This Amazon page contains a detailed description of the E-M5 and several interesting user reviews of the camera.
• Cameralabs have a long and detailed one-page review of the Olympus OM-D with several test images.
• ephotozine have an interesting review of the Olympus OM-D with several tests and sample images
• Here is a review by Alex Mustard regarding the use of the E-M5 for underwater photography. Very interesting review, the only one found which explains how the camera performs in its underwater housing.
• The OM-D review of Luminous Landscape is very interesting, both for its technical analysis and field use report. Luminous Landscape conclude that the OM-D is the best MFT camera yet.
• Camera stuff have an interesting in-depth review of the Olympus E-M5 which includes a technical analysis.
• Photography Blog have an in-depth, multipage review of the Olympus OM-D with several tests and sample images.
• See the in-depth review of the E-M5 by dpreview.
• Here is an interesting article by Jonathan H Rovath "My thoughts on the Olympus OMD E-M5".
• Gadgetbox have a short one-page review of the E-M5 about the use of the camera in every day situations.
• EOSHD Olympus E-M5 review is an interesting use report of the OM-D under different use scenarios.
• Digital Photography School have reviewed the Olympus OM-D.
• This is a video in which Eric Kim explains and comments the E-M5.
• Here is another "video, in which Blunty3000 explains the OM-D.
• Photo Travel Asia series:
  • OMD - On the Road
  • Traveling with the OMD & G3
  • Istanbul Day 1 - OMD on the Road
  • Istanbul Day 2 - OMD on the Road
  • Istanbul Day 3- OMD on the Road

RAW file format

• Adobe Photoshop (from CS5 on) with the latest camera camera RAW plugin supports now E-M5 RAW files.
• If you have an earlier version of Photoshop you can always convert the ORF files to DNG and process the DNG files.
• Lightroom and Photoshop Elements can also be used - check if your version supports E-M5 RAW files.
• Aperture supports Olympus OM-D RAW files with the Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.13 - see here.
• Dave Coffin is listing on his dcraw page every RAW image processing software which either is using his decoder or use the decoder as documentation (scroll down to "Other Raw Photo Decoders").
  
• Some of these packages are free, some are not.
  
• Even Irfanview can decode E-M5 RAW files, thanks to the dcraw code.
  

Memory cards

• The E-M5 takes SD, SDHC and SCXC memory cards.
• Class 6 is recommended for movie shooting.
• xD and Compact Flash cards cannot be used.

Batteries

• The E-M5 uses the new 9.3Wh BLN-1 battery. Previous Olympus batteries cannot be used with the OM-D. The BLN-1 battery is rated at 360 shots (CIPA standard test).

Firmware

• Firmware update 1.2 (Jul. 12, 2012)
  • Improved sleep recovery operation
  • AF target is indicated when using C-AF+TR while shooting sequential images using Sequential L.
  • Added function to automatically move zoom to the following zoom positions when underwater macro mode or underwater wide mode is selected. (Only when M. ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-50 mm F3.5-6.3 EZ is attached)
    • Underwater wide mode: Wide setting
    • Underwater macro mode: Telephoto setting
• Firmware update 1.1 (Apr. 18, 2012)
  • Issue of updates stopping while updating firmware has been resolved.
  • Image stabilizer function when using the following lenses has been modified:
    • ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 8mm F3.5 Fisheye
    • ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 18-180mm F3.5-6.3
    • LEICA D VARIO-ELMAR 14-150mm
• All firmware updates released so far can be downloaded here.

E-M5 info screens

Information verified to work with firmware 1.1, 1.2 and 1.5, provided by Bart van Leeuwen:

• (with full battery)
• Hold down menu key and power-on camera
• When the display (or EVF, depending on settings) becomes active, release the menu button and immediately press it again
• When the menu appeared, goto the 'wrench' menu (5th item, press right arrow to enter the menu)
• In the 'wrench' menu, goto display brightness (3rd item, press right arrow to enter the display brightness screen)
• In the display brightness screen, press 'info', followed by 'ok'
• A hidden screen will appear saying 'OLYMPUS E-M5'
• Press the following keys in order: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, Shutter (full press)
• Press UP
• You are now in info screen 1.
  • RIGHT: screen 2
  • DOWN: screen 3
  • LEFT: screen 4
• Interesting info:
  • Screen 4 should only display D:, if it displays anything else, that points at the firmware having detected an error.
  • Screen 2: R: activation count (shutter releases), S: flash use count

Questions? Comments? Put them in the OlympusE-M5 user group

Accessories

• See here all accessories for the Olympus E-M5.
  
• See here a list of external flashes and flash accessories compatible with the E-M5.

Infrared photography with the Olympus E-M5

• Here is an article by Gary Ayton about infrared photography with the Olympus E-M5.
• These sites contain useful information about infrared photography with digital cameras:
  • Echeng.com: Digital infrared photography - site devoted to digital infrared photography with image galleries, information about filters and equipment and links.
  • Wrotniak's Infrared Photography page - excellent information resource devoted to infrared photography with Olympus cameras. Information about infrared filters, exposure settings, focus, post-processing, sample images and links.
  • Also see the Infrared photography page of the Apogee magazine: this is an interesting general introduction to infrared photography with digital cameras.

Lenses

• Micro four thirds lenses are currently available from Olympus, Leica and Panasonic:

• Also see the following lenses:
  • SLR Magic Nokton 12mm f/1.6
    
  • Tokina Reflex 300mm F6.3 Mirror Lens (Micro Four Thirds)
  • Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 Lenses:
    • A set of 12 "cine" lenses, with focal lengths ranging from 15 to 135mm.
  • MS-Optical Sonnetar 25mm f/1.1
  • ShenyangZhongyi 35mm f/0.95
  • Yasuhara Nanohax5 5x Macro Lens

• The following lens adapters are available:

• And the following conversion lenses:

• Also have a look at the page of Gary Ayton about micro 4/3 lenses.
• Photozone.de have detailed and accurate reviews of micro 4/3 lenses.

• Four thirds lenses are currently available from Olympus and Leica and can be used with the MMF-1, MMF-2 or DMW-MA1 adapters.
• See here which lenses are compatible with the MMF-1 adapter.

• Wide angle and Fisheye

• Standard zooms

• Superzooms

• Telephoto zooms

• Prime lenses (fixed focal length)

• Extension tubes, teleconverters and adapters

• Photozone.de have detailed and accurate reviews of four thirds lenses.

External flash

• The Olympus E-M5 has a standard flash hotshoe and can take standard external flashes (among others the FL-20, FL-36 and FL-50).
• Here is a list of external flashes compatible with the E-M5.
• Try out the Metz flash units - cheap and reliable. Alternatively try the FL-36 or other Olympus flash units.
  
• See here for how to measure the trigger voltage of your flash.

Controlling the Olympus E-M5 with a computer

• to be added

Underwater Photography

• Olympus is offering the PT-EP08 underwater housing for the E-M5. Waterproof up to 45m, can use the UFL-2 underwater flash. To be used, the UFL-2 needs the Olympus sync cord connected to the housing's bulkhead, or a fiber optic cable connecting the UFL-2 slave sensor with the camera's built-in flash. Both TTL and manual exposure is supported. The first Micro Four Thirds underwater housing with an interchangeable lens port PPO-EP01 which is separately available allows the optional use of different Micro Four Thirds lenses.
• Here is the complete list of Olympus accessories for the OM-D.
• Here is an in-depth review of the Olympus E-M5 in underwater photography. Alex Mustard reports his experiences with the OM-D when diving in the waters off Malta.
• Interesting forum for underwater photography: DigitalDiver.net

Data recovery

• Jpegdump, by Kurt Stege, is a free tool to recover deleted images from a memory card. Recommended, alough it involves more work an e tool of Convar.
• These software tools are not free, so since Convar's software is available for free, there is no real need to use them:
  • Datarescue also has a software tool (Photorescue) for repairing damaged memory cards, although it's not free.
  • Photorecovery is another tool. Price is $39.95.

Noise reduction

• In addition to the E-M5's inbuilt noise reduction, you can post-process the images with NeatImage. This software package produces surprisingly good results.
• Here is a comparison of different noise reduction software tools.

Exposure information data (EXIF)

• The picture files of the Olympus E-M5 contain the complete exposure information (aperture, exposure time, focal leng, white balance etc.).
• To read this data you can use these software tools:
  • ExifReader, by Ryuuji Yoshimoto. Haven't tried the software myself, but it looks interesting. Freeware.
  • Exifer, by Friedemann Schmidt. I'm using this one too. It can rewrite EXIF data to images which lost it due to processing with a software package which doesn't support EXIF. Quoting from his site:
    • "Exifer is a nearly free software (you only should send me a postcard if you're using Exifer frequently) with which you can manage the metadata (EXIF/IPTC) of pictures taken by digital cameras. Because many image processing software destroys this metadata when saving such files, the idea was to create a backup of the metadata before editing it in any software, and then, after that to restore it back into the processed file. With Exifer you can do this very easily. "

Panorama shots

• Personally I can recommend PTGUI (which I have been using for years now): not free but an excellent piece of software.
• Some interesting links:
  • http://www.skipwilliams.com/panos/panorama_links.htm
  • http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/tutorials/360/calibrate/
  • http://www.johnhpanos.com/pttute.htm

Astrophotography with the Olympus E-M5

• Review of the Olympus E-M5 when used for astrophotography.
• Here is an astrophotography forum for users of the Olympus DSLRs
  
• Astrophotography users's group here
• This may be also a good source.

Links

• MyOlympus.org photo sharing site: here Olympus E-M5 users can upload images and give/get feedback
• Yahoo Olympus E-M5 discussion group: a discussion group dedicated to the Olympus E-M5 digital camera