Olympus PEN E-P5 mirrorless camera review

Nothing new in Olympus’ compact mirrorless lineup for a year now. Judging by the interviews, given recently by the company’s top-management, this series is “put on pause” at least temporarily. Buyers pay much more attention to the O-MD series which is where the manufacturer decided to concentrate its efforts. In our opinion, the situation is completely unfair, especially if you look at the PEN E-P5 camera.

The Olympus PEN E-P5 digital compact interchangeable lens camera

16.3 MP 14-42 mm, F3.5-5.6 3″ $1350

Despite its relative compactness, it’s just as compact as its sister model. It has no all-weather protection, but thanks to its magnesium body, metal controls and high quality workmanship and finish, it looks and feels solid and reliable in your hands. Its small size doesn’t affect its ability to handle advanced settings and manual modes quickly and accurately. It has an interesting 2×2 control system where you can use two knobs and one lever to quickly adjust four settings at once – shutter speed, aperture, sensitivity and white balance, for example. Creators E-P5 in the customization of the interface, in which they are already the undisputed leaders, went even further, allowing the user to reassign even a few wheel positions select mode.

So in the small E-P5 camera, the photographer gets both a beautiful, spectacular-looking accessory and a precise, flexible and functional photographic tool at the same time. A recently released firmware update has solved the problem of the 5-axis stabilization system not working properly at certain shutter speeds, thus eliminating the last possible complaints about the device’s performance.

Here for the first time ever, a mechanical shutter capable of extremely fast shutter speeds of 1/8000th of a second has been used. This is the first camera where Olympus has built in wireless data transfer and control. Specific functions, such as Live Bulb preview, were also incorporated into the camera. The E-P5 boasted the outstanding performance of the VF-4 external electronic viewfinder, which was later incorporated into the E-M1. In short, it’s a camera that deserves attention.