Olympus OMD EM 1

Maybe I'm biased. Alright, I am. The new Olympus OMD EM 1 Mark 11 have finally started shipping and the reviews are starting to come in. And I have to tell you, just as I thought the new Fuji XT 2 with its 20 megapixel sensor actually took slightly worse pictures than it's 16 mp predecessor, so do I think with the Olympus - the pictures on the EM 1 look better to me. For one thing, it seems on the new model they are adding more noise reduction. On the EM 1 they don't - it handles noise very well, but what noise there is is left for me to deal with. And fortunately, Adobe Lightroom is brilliant at it.

I also notice that their many controlled tests against different cameras reveal what my informal one did - the pictures of the Olympus don't give up even a hint of quality to shots from the Fuji, Nikon and Canon cameras with their bigger sensors. A remarkable achievement.

I have to confess, as I work with the OMD 1 I am more and more impressed. It's a camera that rewards getting to know it. I've discovered, buried deep, deep, deep in the menus, how to get live view to work in manual mode (there are three options in manual mode, and about six others as well). Woo hoo! So now as I alter aperture and shutter settings, I see the results on screen or in the viewfinder, whichever I happen to be using. I also discovered my new favourite focusing method - I start by slightly turning the focus ring on the lens and it automatically (well, I set it up this way) does two things - it zooms in to 7 times magnification, and it focus 'peaks', so there are highlights around the area in exact focus. What I just added to this is that when I have the focus exactly where I want it and depress the shutter button half way, the zoom instantly disappears and I see the entire shot, perfect for checking final composition just before shooting. The camera gives me choices in all these things - will there or won't there be live view , will it magnify with manual focus and how much, will there be focus peaking and what colour will it be, will the zoom stay or go away when the shutter is depressed, etc., etc. Powerful stuff as you get to learn it.

Does it work? Miraculously. Here are two shots below, hand held with my 30mm macro lens, ISO 800, aperture at 3.5, shutter speed done manually to match what it actually looked like (1/80 in this case), white balance set to incandescent, no flash, room light only. The colours are spot on and the focus is impeccable.

Love this camera.