Olympus E-5 review

Olympus E-5: A rugged DSLR for the adventurous photographer

The latest E-system DSLR from Olympus has arrived fashionably late. Three years late, in fact. It seems the brand has been so busy focusing all of its attentions on the latest digital innovation of mirrorless cameras, that the long-awaited update to the E-3 has only just hit the shelves.

Based on appearances, it would appear that nothing much has changed. Our hands fit comfortably around the robust, tank-like body with a sculpted rubber grip on its right flank. It’s made of magnesium alloy and feels every bit as rugged and ready as its target consumer – the great outdoors photographer. Securely sealed from the elements, the E-5 is dustproof and splashproof so that when everyone else has to traipse back indoors, you can stay out in all weathers to capture the best shot.

Controls are well placed for your thumbs and dedicated buttons for commonly accessed settings such as white balance and ISO aid efficient shooting. We did miss having a Mode dial, though. Instead, there is a button on the top of the camera that calls up the usual P, A, S and M settings, which can then be selected by turning the dial at the rear. A similar ridged dial at the front alters the Drive mode, and autofocus and metering are also accessed in this way. It takes some adjusting, and a Mode dial would have been much quicker.

There are considerably fewer controls than on the E-3, as they have been ousted in favour of a larger LCD screen. This is a welcome evolutionary change and it can be pulled out, twisted around and put back the opposite way around to protect the screen when in transition. It’s a useful feature, enabling the user to capture daring angles with ease. This 21st-Century LCD has also received a resolution boost to 920k-dot from 230k, and has been glazed with an

anti-reflective coating. The result is a noticeable difference in detail and the optical viewfinder was often made redundant while testing, as it was easy to compose shots in Live View, even in bright conditions. Incidentally, the large viewfinder has 100% field of view. There is also a sensor just beneath it, which dims the LCD when you raise your eye to the viewfinder.

Olympus has decided to sit on the sidelines of the megapixel race, settling for a 12MP Live MOS sensor. Marketing manager Mark Thackara told us: “The reason we haven’t gone for a higher resolution is to give the best possible results we can across the board. The major thing that people mention is that smaller sensor sizes produce noise at higher ISO values, so the aim was to produce something that gave the best performance overall.” It’s hard to argue with him, as straight out of the camera images are packed with detail and beautiful tonal gradation.

The E-5 accompanied us on a day when the weather was particularly British, but where lesser cameras would have served up washed-out skies, the E-5 recorded the subtle tones for gorgeous, gloomy images.

Aimed at pro photographers and semipros, this model performs admirably well at ISO settings up to 800. Pictures are still usable at 1600 and this time around we have the option of cranking it all the way up to 6400, rather than 3200. It still falls behind competition from Canon and Nikon, offering top settings of 12800 and even 25600 with the new Nikon D7000. But is this even necessary, when the noise produced from these settings is likely to result in unusable images anyway? It seems that Olympus has taken the sensible approach to specs, instead of scrambling to tag gratuitous zeros on the end of figures.

White balance is the only area that needs adjusting, producing images that are fairly cool in natural light. However, this can be easily remedied on a shoot by making adjustments to the presets, or by using i-Enhance. This newly added feature was formed on the basis of psychological research into how human memory responds to colour. By choosing this setting from the menu, it selectively boosts colours to prompt the most emotive effect in the viewer. Whether you prescribe to this theory or not, the resulting image is pleasingly punchy without appearing oversaturated. Also filed away under Menu>Picture mode are ten art filters, a feature borrowed from Olympus’s micro four thirds range. This includes Film Grain, Pin Hole and Diorama (which lends a miniature effect to a scene). It’s doubtful whether pros will venture into these fun settings, but it’s a pleasant added feature regardless.

What will come in useful for experienced photographers is the super-fast AF system. The 11-point phase-detection autofocus is biaxial (detecting detail in both vertical and horizontal axes). This effectively draws on 44 points within the frame, in order to calculate the focus. Olympus bills it as being the quickest in the world, and out in the field the E-5 seemed to live up to this bold statement. There is also face detection when shooting in Live View mode, producing detailed, flattering portraits.

Images can now be recorded on CF or SD cards, thanks to the dual memory slots hidden behind a sliding, solid plastic door. This is also the first Olympus E-system camera to sport 720p HD movie capture for budding videographers. There are HDMI and stereo mic connections too, bringing this model up to the standard of its Nikon and Canon rivals.

The E-5 presents nothing revolutionary, as it shares more similarities than differences with its older brother. This, along with the fact that it turned up a lengthy three years later, has sparked rumours that this may be the last in the four thirds range. Olympus’s Mark Thackara conceded: “In the future it is very likely that most of the technology will go to mirrorless, for all sorts of reasons.” He cited space-saving qualities and quick capture modes among the benefits, as it appears the PEN range is paving the way for a very different digital future. “We wouldn’t leave anyone in the lurch that has existing lenses,” he adds. “We want to make sure that people who have the high- performance E-system lenses always have a body they can use them on.” It would certainly be a shame, because for photographers who want quality images in all kinds of weather, the E-5 is the ideal answer.