E5-End User Review by Owner of Camera

E5-End User Review by Owner of Camera

E5 Review by Chan Teng Heng, a biz professor who loves tinkling with photo equipment

I now own three superb camera DSLRs, and one high end compact:
Olympus E5~ I love the colours of the image.
Canon 7D-dual processor and high fps. This is a balance of softer image and color, so I would place this between Olympus and Nikon. this reates beautiful portraits, especially for weddings. Look at the wedding photos I took of my daughter as the bride.
Nikon D700-fantastic camera with high and good performance in low light. Also sharpest images of the three. Colour can be improved.
G9- good images, light especially for travelling, but low light performance is still sluggish. LCD usage in bright light quite difficult.

Why E5?
-love the balance of colours compared to canon and nikon.
-top of range, weather proofed.
-fastest autofocus claims with 12-60mm SWM lens. (Put this off for at least 3 years, cannot resist any more).

In reality, this is my experience:
-Autofocus:
I have used and owned e510 (best colors, light camera, in good light conditions)
e520-autobalance was a problem, e30-hyped up camera, it failed me in dinner photo taking, and I sold it. Pen E1-great disappointment as it was the slowest autofocus I had, compared to all cameras I have used.

The E5 is the best Olympus camera I have used (together with 12-60mm f2.8-4 SWM lens); even in extremely low light, I could autofocus. Surprisingly, the 7D failed in the autofocus, and even the D700 focus gave me difficulties under the same light conditions. So the E5 had improved tremendously, over the e510,520, In almost dark conditions, I could focus well.

Image quality: because I stayed in Sands Marina in Singapore on the 49th floor, I had excellent views of Singapore financial district, the "durian" and the lighting. The 12mm lens gave a very wide view, absolutely good for landscape or cityscape. Taking photos through the bedroom windows was not the best way to take photos. I went up to 57th floor where the Skypark was. This floor has the highest swimming pool in Singapore, and the edge of the pool made up the horizon.

However, taking night views of the city was not good, unless I use a tripod.

Hand holding the camera for E5 cityscape night photography is NOT good. Day time photography is not aproblem-fast, sharp (especially with the 12-60mm f2.8-4 SWM lens).

Lens: I used the 18-180mm lens and the 12-60mm lens. The images from the 18-180 is not as sharp, although the quality is acceptable for prints. Images for the 12-60mm lens, I can only say wow.

Weight: the E5 is heavy for travel; with the 12-60mm lens, it weighs over 1 kg. I shall need to take my G9 when I travel to Europe for a tour.

Autobalance: if set correctly, you can get very nice pictures. I am not sure why, after the E510, the autobalances of the e series cameras seem to be a problem. Day time photography with autobalance is not an issue. Good.

Filters: there are so many filters in the E5, you can literally play a long time with them and still have not tapped the full potential. Three seetings and filters I found very useful.
-Dramatic Tone: this is like HDR, where the bright sky and shadow areas are adjusted by the camera, and you get beautiful balanced images where sky and shadow areas are seen.However, this cannot be used if you are taking pictures through the glass, eg. the windows of room in hotel.
-ienhance: this enhances the images so that images color and exposure are well adjusted.
-diorama: this creates more saturated images.
The three filters alone are worth the camera's prices.

Video:unfortunately video is only at 720p, short of full HD video, and this resolution similar to G9, and below par of the cameras such as the canon 7D and mark II (The mark II sets the standards for the highest resolution and best quality video).

Downloading of photo images on to the computer: Unlike the higher speed of download by cameras such as the Nikon 700 and the Canon 7D, the download speed of compact flash is slower. With SD HC card, class 4 memory card download, is comparatively very slow. The slow speed reminded me of the snail speed of the xD card used by earlier Olympus cameras. It is advisable if SD HC cards were to be used, at least class 6 card is desirable.

Overall, the E5 is worth the money, for its fast focus with the 12-60mm lens, and the quality image. Its past weakness of focusing of Olympus cameras in now overcomed in the E5. However, the quality of image in low light has to be improved. More reviews will follow.

You may email me at achanth@gmail.com for your comments. Thanks.
Chan TH

Picture Images