Olympus OM-D E-M1 First Impressions Review

Our First Take

With an upgraded ergonomic design, vastly improved controls, and a 2X2 control setup, it's possibly the most pragmatically designed Olympus M43 body to date. Throw in a terrifically sharp EVF, a fast new hybrid autofocus system, and improved compatibility with legacy Four Thirds lenses and you've got something quite impressive. But all that functionality comes with a new price tag—one steep enough to put the E-M1 far into enthusiast APS-C and full frame DSLR territory.

Design & Usability

It may look like a tiny DSLR, but don't be fooled—this sucker’s mirrorless.

Whereas the original OM-D E-M5 rocked a strong film camera vibe, the E-M1 is designed more like a modern DSLR. Its large grip, taut lines, and rubber coating remind us a little bit of one of our ergonomic benchmarks—Pentax's K-5 II. That camera, in particular, is one of several DSLRs in direct competition with the E-M1. Both are small and well-built, both are weather-sealed, and both are at the top of their respective companies' lineups.

The E-M1 features a button layout that is completely new for Olympus. The small, squishy buttons of the E-M5 fade into memory as you work with the sizable D-pad on the back of the new OM-D. Most everything is within easy reach of your thumb and forefinger, except for a continuous/timer/HDR button, the EVF/LCD toggle, the power switch, and an AF selector button. In our brief time with the camera, the only button that seemed a bit out of place was the playback button, which rests awkwardly underneath your thumb joint. That said, the E-M1’s bigger, firmer buttons are a welcome change.

The 2X2 control dial setup works as it did on the PEN E-P5. On the E-M1, though, the shape of the grip and the placement of the dials and the control mode toggle make the system far easier to use. Again, Olympus has taken full advantage of the extra real estate available on the E-M1's slightly larger chassis.

Features

An array of functions, and not just for pros

The E-M1’s spec sheet, unsurprisingly, reads a lot like the E-P5's. You've got 5-axis in-body image stabilization, a tilting touchscreen, plentiful art filters, WiFi, a photo collage mode… stop us if you’ve heard this before.

All joking aside, the E-M1’s newest and most technically impressive feature is one that most users won’t benefit from. Olympus hasn’t introduced a new DSLR in almost three years, and its Four Thirds glass never autofocused adequately on Micro Four Thirds cameras. The lack of phase-detection autofocus meant that adapted Four Thirds lenses were slow compared to using the native M43 lenses. But now, with Olympus’s Dual Fast AF, Four Thirds lenses are no longer second-class citizens. At long last, the enthusiast dream of Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds becoming “One Beautiful System” has come true.

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We liked the E-M5's EVF when it came out, but the E-M1's blows it out of the water. The E-M1's viewfinder uses the same components as the VF4 accessory that Olympus rolled out with the E-P5. It’s a responsive, crisp display that even adapts to the brightness of the scene as needed. The E-M1 is also weather sealed, and rated to -14ºC, making it ready for whatever climate you might be visiting.

In deference to video shooters, the E-M1 is the first Olympus M43 camera to include a standard microphone jack. Unfortunately, with the exception of some funky video effects, Olympus continues to trail Panasonic when it comes to video quality and features. The highest frame rate available when recording Full HD is 30p, just like on every other Olympus camera out today.

Conclusion

Olympus invests in the future of Micro Four Thirds.

We know Olympus has already won over many enthusiast photographers as a favorite “second camera” brand—its cameras are what professional Nikon and Canon shooters relax with when the meter isn’t running on a wedding or studio portrait session. For those users, the E-M1 pushes all the right buttons.

But for everyone else out there, the price could be a showstopper. Competing models from the Big Two in the same price bracket could very well spell “no sale” for the E-M1. If you're shopping for a camera and have $1,400-plus to spend, it's inevitable that you'll compare this camera to rivals like the Canon 6D, which has recently been selling for as little as $1,500 (body-only), or even Nikon's advanced APS-C D7100.

That said, we still think the E-M1 makes a powerful statement as a halo product. Micro Four Thirds can be a viable choice for pros, and here's a camera to back up that claim. Halo products ostensibly exist to sell the brand—the idea is that the E-M1 will make you want an Olympus that you can afford.

It helps that the Olympus lineup already has a number of well-priced PEN cameras you can choose from. Olympus is more interested in expanding its user base than selling millions of E-M1s. And from our limited time with this chiseled hunk of camera, there’s no doubt that the OM-D E-M1 has some real animal magnetism— just what the company needs to bring more photographers over to its system.