Olympus 16.1MP E-M5 Rugged Mirrorless Review by CameraLabs With Rating 88/100

On February 7 2012, Olympus announced the Olympus OM-D (OM Digital) Series of Micro Four Thirds camera. The dust- and splashproof metal-bodied Olympus OM-D (also called the Olympus E-M5) is a retro styled 16.1 Megapixels compact camera featuring a body-integral 5-axis image stabilizer to compensate for multi-directional camera shake during both still photography and HD moviemaking, 1.44-million-dot 120 fps refresh rate EVF and auto focus with 3D subject tracking at up to 9 fps sequential shooting. It also comes with a tilting 3.0-inch touch screen OLED and new Movie Effects: One Shot Echo, for a semi-transparent frame at your whim and Multi Echo, for a multi-motion trail effect.

In sequential shooting mode, the camera is capable of capturing up to 9 frames per second (4.2fps with AF, when fitted with the M.Zuiko DIGITAL ED 12-50mm f/3.5-6.3 lens). The OM-D has an eye proximity sensor that allows automatic switching between the EVF and the articulated OLED touchscreen. The camera is capable of recording Full HD videos and can store them in either AVI or MOV format with M.JPEG or MPEG-4 encoding. Along with the OM-D camera, Olympus also announced a number of new accessories including the dust- and splashproof MMF-3 four thirds mount adapter, the HLD-6 power battery holder grip and the FL-600R flash with a guide number of 36 (in metres at ISO 100/21°), improved recharge time as well as a wireless control option. The Olympus E-M5 will be available in April and ships in body-only (black and silver) for $999.99, or $1,299.99 with black M.ZUIKO Digital ED 12-50 mm f3.5-6.3 EZ lens, or $1,099.99 with black M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 14-42 mm f3.5-5.6 II R lens. Here's the summary of review by CameraLabs, giving the camera a rating of 88 out of 100:

"The OM-D E-M5 marks the beginning of a new strand in mirrorless CSC cameras that poses the strongest threat yet to the dominance of DSLRs in the higher-end of the consumer market. It cleverly combines a retro SLR design (which is still widely held in affection 40 years on) with the best that modern technology can offer. It looks good, handles beautifully, produces superb quality images and is great fun to take pictures with. It may have a tough rival in the form of Sony's NEX-7, but boasts a considerably broader native lens catalogue (31 vs 7 models at the time of writing), and all become stabilized thanks to the built-in sensor-shift system - and as my results show, the image quality is closer than you might expect.

Any downsides? Well I'd have preferred the screen to be fully-articulated like the Lumix G3 and also to support its rival's touch-screen pull-focusing capabilities while filming video (please can you address this in a firmware update Olympus?). A built-in mic input would also have been nice, as would interval timer facilities, and some may find the supplied flash unit not being built-in a bit inconvenient. It's also worth noting that while the single AF speed is very fast indeed, the continuous AF tracking is still not as confident nor consistent as the phase-detect systems on traditional DSLRs, Sony's SLTs and the Nikon 1 models. But overall the pros far outweigh the cons with Olympus delivering one of the most compelling higher-end compact system cameras to date - and if you haven't already, I'd urge you to check out all of the results pages if you assume the Sony NEX-7 has an advantage in quality due to its bigger sensor. Indeed it all adds up to a killer combination that's hard not to fall in love with. It's hard to think of a recent camera more richly deserving of a Cameralabs Highly Recommended award."