OM-D E-M5 does handheld night shooting

[Jman]

Ok....I think I'm in love with this camera. I'm not saying it's perfect...it's not. The buttons are a bit squishy and not as precise as they should be...the menu system is overall terrible (though amazingly customizable), I have this horrible fear that the IS unit will break (when off, the sensor just drops down into the body, and floats around free...kind of scary). But...image quality is excellent for a small sensor (heck, it's pretty darn good for most any sensor, save a recent full frame release), good dynamic range (by far best in class), and the IBIS is outstanding. Like I said, I took a little walk around Columbus tonight with my E-M5 and no tripod, and I was amazed at what I could do.

My favorite of the night: E-M5 and Olympus 45mm f/1.8 @ ISO 640, f/1.8 1/6 second handheld

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And a few more. Being able to shoot at low ISOs and still get usable night photos is amazing. At these longer exposures, it does seem to affect corner sharpness a little, but it allows you to get the shot.

E-M5, Olympus 12mm f/2 @ ISO 200, f/2, 1/4 second

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E-M5, Olympus 12mm f/2 @ ISO 400, f/2, 0.4 seconds!

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E-M5, Olympus 40-150mm f/4-5.6 @ 82mm, f/4.7, ISO 1600, 1/13 second

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[Mellow]

These look great! And a great demonstration of the value of IBIS/IS with normal and WA lenses.

I do like the first one best, though the second is also very good.

 

[littleMT]

most excellent, I am getting a OMD primarly for night shots...

if the legend of the Silver OMD is indeed true.....

 

[bitmatt]

SO NICE. After seeing these I think I'll go out right now & find some pictures!

 

[LisaO]

Nice to see these! FYI This weekend there is supposed to be a super big moon.

 

[ckrueger]

So, Jordan, if you were to fire off twenty shots in situations like this (ie: way below 1/focal length) about how many would you say would be critically sharp? That you could print at a decent size?

With all my cameras in the past I've found IS to be very helpful in smoothing out marginal shots, but when I try to pull off heroics like your photos I usually end up with maybe one of ten shots that's pretty sharp (ie: decent 8x10, no more), and a whole lot of shots that look good at web size but no larger.

Is the EM5 really so much better than other cameras? Or are my shaky hands just causing me troubles other people don't have? (I do have pretty shaky hands.)

 

[Jman]

I have to use the camera a lot more to give you really accurate numbers, as I just got the camera today, and I frankly didn't have much time to shoot with it.

However, from what I was seeing, shots 3 stops slower than 1/effictive FL (so 1/(2xFL)) were almost 100% sharp. 4 stops slower was in the 65-75% range. 5 stops slower was much lower, like 25%. I actually got a very sharp shot with the 12mm at 1.3 seconds today, though it wasn't free floating handheld, but with elbows resting on a ledge.

In my opinion, the IBIS in the E-M5 is at least 2-3 stops better than the IBIS in my old E-P1. I generally could count on the E-P1 to give me one full stop (1/FL). Here I feel very comfortable at 3-4 stops....which rivals the best lens based IS in Canon bodies, and is pretty impressive.

 

[Laurentiu Cristofor]

I have this horrible fear that the IS unit will break (when off, the sensor just drops down into the body, and floats around free...kind of scary).

Don't worry about it. The Pentax SR system works like that too: one of the most asked questions about Pentax DSLRs was what makes the noise inside the camera when you rotate it around. Answer: the sensor assembly, because it's loose until you actually take a shot. SR has been around for years and I never heard of someone experiencing a failure.

Great samples. Nice to see that Olympus is finally producing higher end camera bodies. That's where the money is.

 

[ckrueger]

Wow, so those weren't hero shots at all, then.

I'm really excited to shoot with this camera in a way I haven't been since I got my original 5D1. It seems to take all the shortcomings of M43 and bring them to parity with Canon et al. And then the IBIS is massively better, too? Wow.