Rather, it’s not far off from the image you’d normally capture without high res mode switched on — you know, regular old conventional shooting — but with more image quality thrown in from a picture that has been put together with as much detail as possible.
We tested this and found the 40 megapixel JPEG was able to show even more detail than the 16 megapixel one, hardly surprising given the amount of detail inside, but still impressive nonetheless.
Interestingly, you can set the feature up to run with a larger amount of megapixels in RAW mode, with close to 64 megapixels.
As impressive as the sensor shifting technology is, you’ll want to make sure the camera is perfectly still, as it doesn’t work when either the surface you’ve left the camera on or the subject matter you’re photographing is moving.
Not yet, anyway. We suspect Olympus is working on something for that, but right now, you have to be a statue.
Video is also one of the chief reasons to check this camera out, and while we don’t spend as much time evaluating this area — this journalist has always been a stills photographer primarily — the 5 axis stabilisation technology Olympus has been working on for yonks makes this camera worthwhile.
Granted, there’s no 4K UHD video capture yet, and that’s a shame, but since we don’t have much to show video in high definition on, let alone much of a fantastic and easy editing workflow for everyone, we’re not totally concerned by this.
Rather, the Olympus approach to improvements in the video space is to make that multi-axis stabilisation system hidden where the pentaprism would normally go function like a Steadicam, stopping excess vibrations from being picked up by your hands and allowing you a fairly steady movement as you hold and walk with the camera.
This only applies to video (because why would you need it for stills?) but offers something no other camera does well, and if you’re an amateur filmmaker, could end up saving you some dollars on a gadget that does more or less the same thing.
Wireless functionality is also the other notable thing Olympus has been improving in this generation, and to our delight, the company appears to have one of better implementations of wireless control for its cameras.
On the one hand, the app is easy to work with, allowing you to pair a camera with the smartphone or tablet easily using an app and a QR code, or just a wireless networking ID, because that works too.
Once the two are connected, you can move files from one to the other without too much of a problem, and even control the camera remotely.
That was perhaps our favourite part of the app as it not only offered the basics, but also some of that manual control using a live viewfinder.
Aperture, shutter speed, ISO, it’s all here, almost as if you were holding the camera with your hands, only you don’t need to, and you can leave the camera on a table or tripod and fire off some photos remotely.
There are some negatives to the second generation E-M5, but Olympus does tick most of the boxes off without any problems, and provided you keep your shooting to under ISO6400, you’ll probably find the camera handles itself very well.
Where Olympus makes a few misses, however, comes with what could be improved, and what’s missing from the box.
