Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II Review - Review 2022

The Olympus OM-D E-M1 Marker II ($1,999.99, trunk only) packs in more technology than whatever other camera we've reviewed in recent memory. The beefy Micro 4 Thirds shooter sports a loftier-speed 60fps Raw capture style, a high-resolution multi-exposure capture setting, and an in-body stabilization system that steadies both images and 4K video. It's an first-class camera, especially if you lot place an emphasis on video capture, but non a perfect one. Its tracking focus struggles at its quickest standard flare-up rate, and its paradigm sensor lags behind APS-C competitors in resolution and high ISO performance. Our Editors' Pick for high-end mirrorless cameras, the Fujifilm X-T2 ($1,599.00 at Amazon) , doesn't accept quite as an impressive spec list, but delivers a more satisfying photographic experience.

Pattern and Controls

The East-M1 Marking II ($i,199.00 at Amazon) is styled like a sized-downwardly SLR, complete with an array of dials and switches, and an eye-level electronic viewfinder. It measures three.6 by five.3 by 2.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.3 pounds without a lens. It's available in blackness only, and the torso is sealed to protect it from dust and moisture. You'll need to pair information technology with a sealed lens, similar the new M.Zuiko ED 25mm f1.2 PRO ($ane,149.00 at Amazon) , in order to safely use it in inclement atmospheric condition.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

The Eastward-M1 Marking Ii has a deeper handgrip than many mirrorless cameras, more than in line with the size of a midrange SLR. There'due south an indentation for your eye finger, which fabricated the Due east-M1 a very natural fit in my easily. A vertical shooting grip, the HLD-9 Power Batter Grip ($249), is an optional improver. It houses one additional battery, but doesn't do anything to boost camera operation like the 10-T2's add together-on grip.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

Olympus has stuffed a large corporeality of buttons and dials onto the E-M1's surface. There are two buttons to the correct of the lens mount, attainable using your right hand when holding the grip. They are both customizable, with default settings configured to One Touch White Balance and Depth of Field Preview. The but other button on the forepart is the lens release, located to the left of the mount.

The On/Off switch sits on the top plate, to the left of the hot shoe. The body omits a congenital-in flash, but a small FL-LM3 flash is included in the box, sliding into the hot shoe when needed. It offers modest power (GN thirty'), but tin can cover a 12mm angle (24mm full-frame equivalent) and features 90-caste tilt and 180-degree rotation adjustment. The wink is powered past the photographic camera body.

Next to the On/Off toggle, atop a raised circular protrusion, are buttons that command the Drive Mode and autofocus organization. The Drive push works with the East-M1's dual control dials (on the right side of the peak plate, at the rear and on top of the grip) to adjust in-camera HDR settings and to choose from the numerous continuous and delayed shooting settings that are available.

The AF button uses the front dial to adjust scene metering and the rear to change between unmarried, continuous, or transmission focus, equally well as tracking options and a preset manual focus distance setting.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

In improver to the standard metering patterns, the E-M1 includes Spot Highlight and Spot Shadow settings. They're useful for catchy scenes, but aren't recommend for general use—it's like shooting fish in a barrel to blow out a scene by metering on the wrong part of an image using Spot Highlight, or to lose detail in the shadows by doing the aforementioned in Spot Shadow. The thought is that you'll use Spot Highlight to meter on the brightest part of a scene in order to ensure that highlights aren't clipped, and Spot Shadow to meter on the darkest area to ensure that shadow particular is preserved. Y'all'll either need to centre those parts of the frame in your photo, or use the modes in conjunction with the rear AEL/AFL button to lock in exposure. Neither fashion is as useful equally the Highlight Priority option that Nikon includes in some of its SLRs, including the D810 ($1,996.95 at Amazon) , which analyzes the entire scene and ensures that highlights won't be clipped.

The Eastward-M1 uses a Style punch to set shooting controls, in contrast to the detached shutter, aperture, and ISO dials used by the Fujifilm X-T2. It sits to the correct of the hot shoe and incorporates a locking design. The lock is a toggle that engages or disengages with the click of its heart button, so yous don't need to hold downward a push button while turning information technology.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

Front and rear command dials rest in the usual places, attainable via your right hand. Fn2, a programmable button that adjusts highlight and shadow curves past default, and the Record button for movies sit down in between them. The Fn1 button, which changes the agile focus surface area in conjunction with the front and rear dials, is at an angle at the correct rear corner, not quite on the top plate, but non on the rear of the camera either.

A toggle button to alter between the rear LCD, EVF, or automatically switch using the eye sensor sits to the left of the eyecup, most the top of the rear plate. A small diopter control is nestled into the eyecup itself, on its left side. Rear shooting controls are bars to the right side. There'southward the 1/2 switch that changes between the primary (aperture, shutter, and EV control, depending on the shooting fashion) and secondary (ISO and white residue) functions of the front and rear command dials. At its eye is the AEL/AFL button—by default it enables exposure lock only, but yous can configure its function.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

Other rear controls include Info, Menu, Play, and Delete buttons, too as a 4-way control pad with a heart OK button. Pressing OK launches an on-screen bank of boosted options. These include ISO, white remainder, color output, image stabilization, bulldoze, metering, paradigm and video quality, and push remapping. The latter is a big plus, as diving into the Eastward-M1'southward full, multi-page menu to modify button settings is daunting—the camera does then much that it'south oftentimes hard to locate a particular setting.

The rear LCD is an ample 3 inches in size, with a sharp one,037k-dot design. It offers excellent brightness and viewing angles, and features a vari-angle design. It swings out from the body, turning to face all the mode forward through all the mode downward, and tin fold apartment against the rear to protect the screen during transit. Touch functionality is robust. You can tap on an area of the frame to fix focus or to focus and fire the shutter. When reviewing images the screen allows you to swipe to navigate through photos and to double tap to zoom in on a shot. Additionally, you can elevate your finger across the screen to move the focus point when shooting with the EVF.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

The EVF is a crisp (2,360k-dot) OLED pattern. It's a little small for a camera of this class, with a magnification ratio of 0.65x, which is simply a little bit larger than the 0.63x optical finder you get with a midrange SLR similar the Nikon D7200 ($564.49 at Amazon) . The Fujifilm X-T2 sports a 0.77x EVF, which is just a smidgen bigger than the 0.76x OVF used past the height-stop Catechism EOS-1D X Mark 2 ($iv,999.00 at Amazon) . Despite its modest size, the EVF is quite responsive—it refreshes at 120fps, then yous tin amend use information technology to rails action. That's twice as fast as the Ten-T2 in standard style, and a bit faster than the 100fps that the X-T2 manages when shooting in Boost mode with its improver grip.

Additional Features, Wi-Fi, and Connections

Olympus includes a number of additional shooting modes with the Eastward-M1 that extend its capabilities beyond that of a uncomplicated camera. In-camera HDR imaging is included to capture photos that show more item in the shadows and highlights than nigh images tin can manage. There are also Live Bulb and Alive Composite modes that prove your long exposure irresolute before your eyes—you can cutting off the exposure at any fourth dimension in either mode.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

A special high-resolution capture manner utilizes the sensor shift stabilization system to oversample photos, capturing Raw images at 80MP and JPGs at 50MP. The nature of multi-image capture calls for a static subject and a sturdy tripod, but the camera is capable of removing blur that would otherwise exist credible when shooting landscapes with wind-blown grass or flowing water. We looked at the High Res Shot mode in depth when we covered the kickoff camera to support the feature, the E-M5 Mark II ($799.00 at Amazon) .

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Wi-Fi Remote The Eastward-M1 Mark II features integrated Wi-Fi, which should come as no surprise—it'southward a standard feature at this point. Android and iOS users can download the free Olympus Paradigm Share app to copy photos wirelessly, or to use a telephone or tablet as a remote command for the E-M1. Full transmission exposure control is available, and you lot can tap on whatever area of the alive feed to set the agile focus bespeak.

Like nigh pro-form cameras, the E-M1 Marking 2 features dual memory card slots, attainable via a door on the right side. Each slot supports SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory, but just Slot ane is able to take advantage of the latest loftier-speed UHS-2 memory cards. This is in contrast to the Fujifilm X-T2, which has dual UHS-II slots. If you lot're shooting at a high burst charge per unit, the photographic camera volition take a longer time to write files to Slot ii than it will Slot 1, even if you use the fastest memory bachelor.

The E-M1 has a number of ports, including PC Sync to connect a studio flash system, a 2.5mm jack for a wired remote control, two three.5mm jacks for headphone and microphone, micro HDMI, and USB-C three.0.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

In-photographic camera charging isn't supported; a dedicated bombardment charger, with a detachable plug, is included. The charger has the brightest greenish charging indicator I've ever seen. It lit up the living room of my apartment like a nightlight, and when I was traveling with the E-M1 I had to use an outlet in the hotel bath in social club to stop it from brightening the room to the bespeak where my sleep would be disturbed. If it bothers you lot, invest in some gaffer tape to comprehend the calorie-free. CIPA rates the bombardment for 440 shots per charge.

Operation and Autofocus

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Benchmark Tests The Due east-M1 Mark Ii is powered by a quad-cadre processor, and it certainly shows information technology. Information technology starts, focuses, and fires in 0.7-second, a expert mark for any mirrorless camera. Focus speed is lighting fast, near 0.05-2nd in bright light and 0.i-second in very dim light.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

The autofocus organisation is matched with an incredible flare-up rate. The Eastward-M1 shoots at 15.4fps using its mechanical shutter. It keeps that rate upwardly to 54 Raw+JPG, 73 Raw, or 108 JPG shots before pausing. I tested with a SanDisk 280MBps memory card in the UHS-2 slot and had to wait 22.8 seconds, 9.5 seconds, and 6.4 seconds, respectively, for all files to be committed to the menu.

Related Story See How We Test Digital Cameras

At that place's also a fully electronic shutter option. Using the due east-shutter boosts the AF-C speed to 18fps at maximum and the AF-S speed to a blistering 60fps. Information technology can simply keep the 60fps rate up for a short duration—roughly 45 shots, regardless of file format—and requires similar time to clear the buffer to carte du jour equally with 15fps capture.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

There'south an boosted 60fps capture mode, dubbed Pro Capture, that starts to buffer shots when you press the shutter release halfway downwards to engage autofocus. It has a configurable frame rate—15, 20, xxx, or 60fps—and can buffer upwardly to 14 shots. It'due south a good tool for capturing the perfect moment of activeness, but because it fires so quickly and utilizes the electronic shutter, you can't employ a flash. Information technology'southward best used for brightly lit outdoor scenes in order to get a crisp shot that freezes fast motion.

The E-M1 is supposed to be able to rails subjects and go on them in focus at 18fps. And, depending on what you're shooting, you may exist happy with the results at that speed. If your subject field is moving left to correct, without a lot of motion toward the front of the camera, it does so with great confidence and a solid hit rate. Merely the camera struggled in our back-and-along continuous autofocus test, netting out-of-focus results as our exam target moved toward and away from the lens, even later setting the focus organization to prioritize . Dropping the burst rate to the the depression setting—still a baking 10fps—netted crisply focused shots.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

Tracking at 10fps is no small feat. It's slightly quicker than what the Fuji X-T2 can manage with its Booster Grip (9.6fps), and is in line with top-finish APS-C SLRs like the Nikon D500 ($1,496.95 at Amazon) and Catechism EOS 7D Mark 2 ($one,199.00 at Amazon) . Merely both the X-T2 and D500 have focus systems that offer a scrap more coverage at the edges of the frame—the E-M1's focus surface area is surrounded by a border on all sides that lacks focus capability. I would adopt if the camera limited its speed to a rate that could cyberspace consistently focused images when set to C-AF or C-AF with Tracking.

Image and Video Quality

The East-M1 uses a 20MP Micro Four Thirds image sensor, physically smaller than the APS-C sensors used by competing models like the Sony Alpha 6500 and Fujifilm X-T2, with a iv:3 native aspect ratio rather than the more mutual three:2. Like the Alpha 6500, the Due east-M1'south sensor is stabilized using a five-centrality in-body organisation, a characteristic that the Fujifilm X-T2 doesn't offer. Information technology ensures that any lens you lot attach benefits from stabilization, and works in conjunction with lenses with their own stabilization system, including the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 300mm f4.0 IS PRO ($2,899.00 at Amazon) , to provide more steadying than either lens or camera could provide on its own.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

I used Imatest to bank check epitome noise at each full-stop ISO setting. When shooting JPGs at default settings, the East-M1 keeps noise under 1.5 percent from its base ISO 200 sensitivity through ISO 6400. Image quality isn't perfect when pushing the camera that far. Information technology does a fine job capturing infinitesimal details in our test image through ISO 800, and shows very slight blur at ISO 1600. The blur is slightly more noticeable at ISO 3200, and details smudge together at ISO 6400. JPG images start to show significant mistiness at ISO 12800, and y'all should avert shooting JPGs at ISO 25600. This is where the X-T2's larger, 24MP image sensor has an advantage—information technology delivers noticeably crisper results at ISO 12800 and 25600.

You can opt to shoot in Raw format to eke more detail out of the sensor. In-camera noise reduction isn't practical to Raw images—our standard Raw converter, Lightroom CC ($9.99/Month at Adobe) , does utilise some colour noise reduction, but nosotros utilize standard settings for every tested camera to put them on equal footing. The E-M1 Mark II does a fine job with epitome detail through ISO 3200, but information technology does show more than grainy dissonance at that sensitivity than the X-T2. Noise becomes more of an consequence at ISO 6400, where it detracts from fine detail, while the Ten-T2 again wins out. At ISO 12800 images are very grainy, but detail remains potent, while the corporeality of noise at ISO 25600 really detracts from an image. Once again the Ten-T2 betters the E-M1 Mark Two at these extreme ISO settings.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

Where the Due east-M1 Mark II outperforms the Ten-T2 is in video. Both shoot in 4K, but the Olympus doesn't show any sort of rolling shutter effect when panning, and its in-body stabilization is a large plus for handheld capture. It can shoot at 24, 25, or 30fps in 4K UHD with a 102Mbps pinch rate, and supports 1080p capture with a stunning 202Mbps All-Intra compression scheme at the same frame rates. To add 50 or 60fps options you need to drop the 1080p capture rate to a more pedestrian 52Mbps scrap rate. The highest flake rate video is the Movie theater 4K setting, which shoots in DCI resolution at 24fps with a 236Mbps bit rate. It'southward not as robust a video toolkit as Panasonic'south competing Micro Iv Thirds model, the GH5, but information technology's a solid option for whatsoever enthusiast and certain types of professional person use.

The internal mic is just like any other—it picks up the audio of my voice, albeit with a hollow audio and loads of background noise. For serious piece of work, connect an external microphone, and utilize the headphone jack for monitoring levels. The autofocus system in video delivers smooth, tiresome racks, without any hunting back and forth, allowing y'all to concentrate on getting the shot rather than manually pulling focus.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II : Sample Image

Conclusions

The Olympus OM-D Due east-M1 Mark Two packs more than technical bells and whistles into its small frame than whatever other mirrorless camera we've seen. It has a blisteringly fast maximum Raw capture charge per unit, even though information technology's very express in elapsing, and a solid buffer for shooting at a more reasonable 15fps when utilizing the mechanical shutter. Subject tracking doesn't work well when shooting at the fastest speeds, only it does a solid job keeping track of moving targets at 10fps—improve than most cameras out in that location.

Add 4K video in both UHD and DCI formats, in-body stabilization, an all-weather build, and access to the expansive Micro Four Thirds lens system, and you lot've got a powerhouse. Only at $2,000, it's ane of the priciest cameras out there, not counting those with larger full-frame image sensors, and it's sadly the Micro 4 Thirds sensor that holds it back in terms of prototype quality.

The E-M1 Mark II falls short of the clarity and high ISO performance delivered by competing 24MP APS-C models, including our Editors' Choice Fujifilm Ten-T2, which also has an advantage in price, selling for $400 less. If you're looking for a serious mirrorless camera for shooting fast-moving activity, it'south our top pick. Merely if y'all're already invested in Micro Four Thirds, rest bodacious that the East-M1 Mark Two is best, nearly capable, member of the organization we've tested to appointment. It simply faces some very potent competition at the top end of the market.