The Little Olympus That Could

Just a brief interim report of cameras clogging the queue at Chez TOP: I failed to return the Panasonic GX7 in time, so I bought it [unsmiley face]. I guess that means I was intended by the Fates and their friend Destiny to use it and write about it. Not hardly a hardship.

I bought a review Olympus E-M1 at the same time and won't be returning that one, even though I am now officially swamped with cameras (I have two fine lenses that I like for my trusty NEX-6, and two full-frame DSLRs). About the film cameras in my cabinet, owned and borrowed, do not ask. Repeat, do not ask. Josh Hawkins, shut up.*

Like much of the Central and Eastern U.S., we have been beset here in Wisconsin with a relentless and oppressive winter this year, complete with round after round of enough snow that you have to get out and shovel, and just enough cold that you're quickly made miserable outside (<—applicable to couch potatoes and blogmeisters commonly shackled to the leg of the desk where the computer is; not (necessarily) applicable to youths, outdoorspeople, and those of hardy constitution). Or else way more cold than that. Winter has limited dog walking, neighbor visiting, and camera messing-arounding-with.

However, I have used it enough to be of the opinion that the E-M1 is the best camera Olympus has made since the original E-1 4/3 camera (five megapixels) in the Fall of 2003; I really liked that camera, although I never owned one. The E-M1 has a heck of a lot going for it: "just right" size and weight, not too small, definitely not too big; excellent feel in the (and when I say "the," I mean my) hand; excellent control configurations; weatherproofing; really good IBIS; a flip-up viewing screen; a good EVF; and pleasing (to moi) image quality. The slight annoyances I've encountered so far are the somewhat awkward position of the on-off switch and the fact that the review button on mine is difficult to engage. (This might be a sample glitch.)

You know, when I posted Crabby Umbo's "quote of the day" the other day, my view was that the sentiment he expressed meant no more than that Micro 4/3 is generally pretty decent for the same general kinds of things that 35mm used to be pretty decent for. I didn't really expect people to bore down hard with hyperdetailed point-by-point comparisons. Guess I haven't been on the Internet long enough to know what to expect yet. Relax; I kid.

The whole thing works together really well and feels really good. There's no such thing as a perfect camera, just those models that stick up above the ways in the ocean of choices, and the OM-D E-M1 sure seems to be one of those. It's expensive but I still feel the price reflects actual value.

More on that when the weather warms. (<—Believed to be coming, eventually; doubt on that point seems well justified hereabouts, where it has not been warm for what subjectively feels like a very long time.)

Mike

*Josh was the manager at Oak Park Camera when he was a smart and energetic post-teenager and I lived in Illinois within walking distance of the shop. He is now a husband and father and lives in Vegas but is still a friend. JH has seen the ugly side of my camera obsession close up, which he seldom neglects to rib me about, with a relish and even glee which is most unseemly.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Josh Hawkins: "Let's be fair here. A little context. During the time when I was one of Mike's camera dealers—and dealer is the correct term here—I never saw Mike own more than one camera at any one time. I also never saw him own the same camera for more than any one month. (I'm sending warm thoughts from Vegas.)"

Mike replies: See, this is exactly the sort of thing I mean. A gross exaggeration. I owned several cameras for two or three times that long!! Unless you're talking about on average, in which case I guess the ones I kept for ten days or even less might count against me. (OPC had a large used section and was like a buffet constantly replenished with new delicacies.)

Good thoughts back atcha, Josh. Let's see some new pics of the kid some time. Did you know Nick has moved to Arizona? A few flakes of snow, a touch of ice, a lowish temp or two, and everyone turns soft.

John McMillin: "Go a little easier on yourself. Four cameras isn't such an 'obsession.' I have that many in current use, just to cover the bases. Go over to Ming Thien's blog and peek into his vast bag of gear. In your line of work, you're probably obligated to keep trying out the new, just to stay current and keep our endless curiosity fed."

Comments

[Bryce Lee]

""*Josh was the manager at Oak Park Camera when he was a smart and energetic post-teenager and I lived in Illinois within walking distance of the shop. He is now a husband and father and lives in Vegas but is still a friend. JH has seen the ugly side of my camera obsession close up, which he seldom neglects to rib me about, with a relish and even glee which is most unseemly.""

Mike, having your friends criticize your
obsession is only akin to understanding that they do know who you are and feel safe reminding you (from a distance) of your insurmountable situation.

[Glenn Brown]

The sensor size is just too small, love Olympus but only in the film days (remember that) I moved to the Fuji X cameras as the sensor offers the most room for improvement when yo think about how much lenses cost and want to stay in a system as I did with Nikon for 30 years. In low light the Olympus hunts a lot.Not for me and I do worry that they will survive as they are so small a company, and with a lot of financial baggage recently.

[John Krumm]

I actually cleaned out the film camera closet two days ago and took a big pile of bodies and a few lenses to a local charity. So long just fine K1000 and 3 lenses, so long 3 never-tried Minolta bodies, goodbye two OM2's with sticky shutters, so long beat up Canon rangefinder, and bye-bye two film point and shoots. Keeping my OM4, which I still love and use. If I could only get up the nerve to rid myself of the old digital cameras I don't use, the EM1 and OM4 make a great set.

[Bryan Hansel]

You need to get out of the house with your cameras and head up to the Apostle Islands ice caves. I went two weeks ago and it was amazing, plus the Village Inn in Cornucopia has the best fish chowder in Wisconsin.

[Rick D]

Eyeballing my semi-ginormous 4/3 lens collection and given my E-M5's unenthusiastic focusing of same, I suspect an E-M1 might be headed my way. Sigh, more gear, always more gear. Frankly, given the Olympus teetering at the lip of insolvency less than two years ago, we're lucky to have these consumer dilemmas.

[T Bannor]

Don't get Josh started on the weather thing.

[Dave Karp]

Hi Mike,

That E-M1 just looks and feels right. It is the first digital camera I have used that did not drive me crazy. Granted, I have not spent lots of time with the highest end digital SLRs, but this E-M1 is just right.

Don't feel bad about the cameras. I have a few 4x5s, a whole plate camera, and just about every camera I have ever owned, plus a couple that belonged to my Dad! (I only ever purchased one film SLR and used it for many years, until it was supplanted by my Dad's old Canon F-1 and Pentax MX, so it is not as bad as it sounds.)

[Jim Simmons]

OK, I find that multiple cameras in the same format to be overkill, but I have (and shoot) Arca Swiss 4x5, Pentax 67, Sputnik MF stereo, and Fujifilm X-E1, not to mention the iPhone, each serving it's particular need. If I feel any guilt at all, it's that I'm not shooting up the freezer of film fast enough, it being out of date, and the day my local lab stops it's E6 line is inevitably on its way.

[Stephen Scharf]

I really like the E-M1 a lot. I own the E-M5, a camera I like very much, and the E-M1 I played with at a local retailer a month or so ago reminds me very much of the M4/3s equivalent of a Canon 1D-series: a rugged, durable, and tough professional level body that can meet the needs of photojournalists. To quote Will Smith in Men in Black, "That's what I'm talkin' about!"

When I was in NYC a couple weeks ago, I took my E-M5 as my travel camera, and really enjoyed using it and the images I was able to make with it. I walked into the brick and mortar B&H Photo store with the full intention of buying an E-M1 there on the spot.

But then I heard about the imminent arrival of the Fuji X-T1, a camera I now have on pre-order.

I'm in a bit of a quandary....I don't need two interchangeable mirrorless camera systems. My guess is the Fuji system will stay because of my attachment to the amazing image quality of my X-Pro1.

But, I still can't get the E-M1 out of my mind....who knows that the future will bring?

"Only The Shadow knows...."

[John Robison]

Although I loathe digital on principal. (this 'principal' is my own made up 'principal') This is a camera that makes me curious. I didn't get to handle an E-M5 till September/2013 so I might not be in a place that actually has a camera store that actually has an E-M1 for who knows how long.

But all the same, I'm curious.

PS: I didn't like the EVF on the E-M5 but I hear this one is better. Unfortunately the benchmark is the 1-10 screen (plain matte with grid lines) in my OM-1 and that is a tough standard to measure up to.

[Yes it is. The screen & VF on the OM-4T was one of my favorites ever. --Mike]

[Nigel]

Bet you wouldn't have left all those Hasselblads on the moon.

[Pak-Ming Wan]

There are much worse things to be addicted to than collecting great photo gear ... like alcohol and cigarettes for example. Besides, I would be extremely surprised if you weren't up to speed with modern equipment in your job. Don't feel so bad about it!

Pak

[Carl]

I also have problems engaging the review button. Very odd positioning and too much recessed. It seems Olympus does not get it right with the review button on the OMD-bodies.

I wish I could map any of the other function buttons as review button. There's a plethora of mapping functions, but Olympus didn't think of this (most important) one.

[Larry Dudley]

Had an E-M1 with the same (review button) problem. I am now waiting patiently on my new XT-1.

[Craig A. Lee]

Oh, no! The bastion of photographic willpower that is T.O.P World Headquarters has given in on the E-M1. How is this lowly hobbyist supposed to resist the siren's song now? ;-)

Hope that you enjoy it. It does look like a nice piece of gear.

[Steve Rosenblum]

The GX7 ain't too shabby either! I am looking forward to your comparison of the two which differ in form factor, price, and control layout. I am enjoying mine but do not have an EM-1 to compare it with.

[Roger Bradbury]

@Nigel : "Bet you wouldn't have left all those Hasselblads on the moon."
But... which ones to bring back, and which to leave? Decisions, decisions.... : ]

Roger "only 13 cameras" Bradbury.

PS
We have gone all italic, starting from your reply to John Robison's post.

[Zlatko]

The E-M1 offers an incredible degree of customization. I wish it also offered a way to export all of those settings. I've never before spent so much time customizing a camera. If a firmware update or some glitch were to reset all of my settings, I would have to start customizing the camera all over again. A camera like this should have a way to export all of the settings to the memory card or computer, and then to import them back to the camera. This feature would make it very easy to set up the camera again, or to set up a second camera with the same settings.

[David Miller]

My worldly-wise wife says, "What — he's only got four digital cameras!"

[Mark Janness]

The E-1 Olympus photos still grab the attention of gallery goers after all these years.

Just this past Sat 2/1 at gallery walk I still get comments about the color of my E-1 photos and closer examination thinking they might even be paintings. This suits my subject matter and style very well.

I committed to the 4/3 based on the system being build from the ground up for digital and not something cobbled from previous film cameras.

Still committed to the 4/3 and m4/3 system.

[Dan Khong]

Owning more than one or two cameras is merely an expression of Man's innate hunter-gatherer instinct.

"Keeps the bloke occupied," as some might wisely say.

My friend who is an MD and photographer once said, "No man who plays with cameras (and nothing else) has ever caught AIDS!"

[Shiva]

The problem is never how many cameras you own.

Its how the hell are you going to make sure you have them _ALL_ with you, on every photo occasion. ;-)