Olympus E-M5 gets tested by germans. Beats Samsung APS-C sensors!
At least according to B&H (Click here) we are exactly one month away from the first Olympus E-M5 shipment. But seeing that the E-M5 still remains within the top list at Amazon (pre-)order rankings (Click here to see it) I doubt you will get the camera on that day :(
Anyway today we have a very interesting new review:
The German testers from Digitalkamera DIWA lab (Click here for the translation) tested the Olympus E-M5 with the new 12-50mm lens.
They first tested the lens and they were satisfied with the results with the only major issue being the high Chromatic Aberration at the wide end.
And now let’s talk about their E-M5 Labortest. First they discovered that the real sensitivity starts with ISO 120 (when the camera is set at ISO 200) and ends with ISO 14.200 (with the Olympus setting being at 25.600). This means that the E-M5 has a 2/3 stops difference from the official Olympus ISO value. The signal to noise ratio corresponds to a decent 40db at low 200 ISO (120 real ISO). It goes down to 35db at 1600 ISO. At high ISO the luminance noise is strong while Olympus handles the chrome noise much better. Digitalkamera says that up to 1600 the performance is good and from that point upwards the image quality visible decreases. Same thing happens for the dynamic range which up to ISO 1.600 reaches 11 stops (very good result). At ISO 3.200 it goes down to 10 stops, at ISO 12.800 it has 9 stops and at ISO 25.600 8 stops only. The sever German reviewer is positively impressed by the results that are better than the ones reached by the [shoplink 29758 ebay]Samsung NX200[/shoplink] which uses a larger APS-C result.
To see the full graphs and test you have to pay a couple of Euros :(
More E-M5 bits: Olympus E-M5 video at Quesabesde (Click here). A finish hands-on at Sulanto (Click here). Another full German review at Chip (Click here).
Olympus 12-50mm test: Photographyblog (Click here) posted the full Olympus lens review: “Photographers who require maximum sharpness and resolution will of course be better served by one – or more – of the excellent, fast, sharp Micro Four Thirds primes; but the Olympus 12-50mm f3.5-6.3 is hard to beat on versatility and price-performance ratio.” Lenstip (Click here) also posted a full review of the lens.
—
E-M5 preorders (Click on the names of the stores to see the product page):
Black E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Warehouse UK, and Amazon Japan.
Black E-M5 body with 14-42mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto , Digitalrev and J&R.
Black E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland , Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
Silver E-M5 body with 12-50mm lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, J&R, Jessops, Amazon UK, Amazon Deutschland and Amazon Japan.