The background behind the Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras

Preamble

When you are more used to other brands (read Nikon or Canon) and decide to pick a camera from Olympus it can be initially confusing as to what model does what. It gets worse if you look at the older models (which are still on sale but production has ceased). Here're my insights.

Before the Beginning

Before the beginning of the Micro Four Thirds Standard, there was the Four Thirds Standard for DSLRs. Although this was grandly called a Standard, only a few brands sat at the Committee table. Olympus was the lead, Panasonic, co-leader. Sigma promised third party lenses, Kodak made a sensor or two (the E-1, E-500 had a Kodak CCD sensor), Panasonic made NMOS sensors and in collaboration with Leica, made some Lumix/Leica (affectionately called Panaleica). I think Samyang made manual focus lenses as well.

Olympus was keen on embracing Live View and competent Auto Focus in Live View. For that, they innovated the E-330 that offered two Auto Focus mechanisms - Live View A and Live View B.

The whole idea of Four Thirds with that infamously small sensor was that the lenses could be designed smaller, the body could be smaller and the sensor technology would advance to the stage that the difference between APS-C size vs Four Thirds size would not be significant to cause pain to the camera owner. The lens mount was brand new, all the lenses would be focus-by-wire instead of clunky mechanical coupling (since Olympus did not have a legacy of autofocus lenses) and this would offer brand differentiation and advantages over the other brands - at that time, Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Minolta.

Sadly, the idea was ahead of its time.  Financial year after financial year, there were losses - it's hard to take on the near duopoly of the big two. Although Olympus made a 3 tier model structure - Pro level, Enthusiast level and Entry level, all three levels failed to make inroads in the market. Technical handicaps were immature sensor technology, zoom lenses that refused to shrink and were not able to compete on price because of lower volume sales, bodies that lacked the AF finesse of the competition.

So the Micro Four Thirds Standard was born

Olympus finally decided to give up the Four Thirds DSLR line (including lenses) and embarked on niche market, knowing that it would eventually grow. This is Micro Four Thirds. It does not have a mirror box and the body shrinks considerably.

When they built and sold the Four Thirds DSLR lenses, they could not foresee the motor and mechanical performance needed to work fast with the Micro Four Thirds adoption of Contrast Detect Auto Focus (DSLRs use Phase Detect Auto Focus). For that reason, they had to build and sell all new lenses again. And amateur home movies had not become popular - newbies want movies that are Auto Focus, Auto Exposure, no sounds from lens motors during zoom and focus, no jumping of the image during zooming in the movie.

Note that with an electronically coupled Olympus or Panasonic lens adapter, Four Thirds DSLR lenses will drive and shoot on Micro Four Thirds bodies, but AF will be slow. And with the plethora of third party adapters, legacy manual everything film lenses can be fit onto Olympus cameras - exposure control can be set to Manual with metering or Aperture Priority.

Olympus decided not to tackle the Pro segment of the market because that is a high cost, low volume market requiring high performance, bright, fast AF lenses and high performance, robust, fast AF bodies. They knew their first Micro Four Thirds models would not have fast enough AF and they still produced the E-5, their last Four Thirds DSLR which was the best Pro level body they could make.

Panasonic decided that they would build all three tiers - Entry level, Enthusiast level and Professional level Micro Four Thirds bodies. Panasonic did not have a Pro level DSLR to keep alive nor did they have a sizeable DSLR owner base.

The Olympus model tiering

There have been several generations of Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras. Olympus uses the phrase Olympus PEN to invoke nostalgia driven sentiment (they produced a legendary innovative half frame film camera called the Olympus PEN F) and styling clues.

There are three levels of PEN. The three levels are differentiated thus:

1. The top PEN - the E-P model. This has enough buttons and dials, should exude some luxury feel in the hand and be the most styled cosmetically. It is not aimed at the Pro level of photographers.
2. The middle PEN - the E-PL model. This body does not have the strong style emphasis. The body does not have to be especially thin. There will be less dials or buttons to distinguish it from the E-P model.
3. The entry level PEN - the E-PM model. This body has markedly fewer buttons and dials - in fact, just one dial. It is assumed that price would be the major imperative with this model and owners would not normally be that keen to change camera settings between shots.

In the OM-D. Olympus decided that the technology had matured enough to aim for Enthusiast / Pro level market. This series has these features that the PEN range are not designed to have:

1. Built in eye level Electronic Viewfinder
2. Optional battery grips to allow longer sessions without needing to swap batteries, better ergonomics with larger lenses,  sometimes incorporating second shutter release button for portrait orientation shooting

Launch Dates and Reviews

Generation 1	E-620 DSLR March 2009	E-P1 June 2009 DPR	E-PL1 Feb 2010 DPR
Generation 2	E-5 DSLR Sept 2010	E-P2 Nov 2010 DPR  CL	E-PL2 Jan 2011 DPR   CL IR
Generation 3		E-P3 July 2011 DPR   CL  IR	E-PL3 July 2011 DPR  IR	E-PM1 July 2011 DPR   CL  IR
Generation 5		E-P5 May 2013 DPR  IR	E-PL5 Sept 2012 DPR  CL  IR	E-PM2 Sept 2012 DPR   IR
Current PEN			E-PL7 Sept 2014
Current OM-D		EM-1 Oct 2013 DPR  CL IR	E-M5 Feb 2012 DPR  CL  IR	E-M10 March 2014 DPR CL IR

Note: Dates generally from DP Review

Generation 1 - had sloooow AF. The sensor is a Panasonic sourced sensor.

Generation 2 - Quite improved AF. Accessory Port introduced.

Generation 3 - Very fast AF. Touch Screen for AF and control.

Current Generation PEN and E-M5 - First generation with Sony sourced sensor.  Very fast AF. Considerably better dynamic range, low noise high ISO performance. Fast stills frame rate.

New  Generation EM-1 - Phase Detect Elements on Image Sensor - Dual Fast AF system. AF that can handle legacy Four Thirds DSLR lenses comfortably.

Navigate to my Index of Articles on Olympus cameras

Having fun with Fireworks

Coinciding with +City Of Melbourne What's On 's announcement of the Docklands Fireworks Season,  +Ockert Le Roux wrote a blog article to advise on techniques.  I missed the fun of last year with our gang and it wasn't raining yesterday so Ockert,  +Luster Lai and +Sophie Argiriou waited by the Cow In The Tree whilst I got myself in a standstill traffic jam at the end of Bourke Street.

I confess, I seldom do well at fireworks - it's a mental thing - Most defeated photographs happen in your head before you even press the trigger.. This time, I had a more positive outlook.

I started at f/11 but I moved onto f/22, the smallest aperture I could go, and the lowest ISO my camera could do -ISO 200, I didn't like bleached out trails and overwritten trails so on Ockert's advice of using a black masking board, I brought my Olympus polyprop environmentally friendly bag, tied the strings around the tripod head and laughed as I played peek-a-boo blacking out the scene between bursts. 

Oh and turned on Olympus's unique Live Time  - the feature that +Trey Ratcliff was asking for on his NEX. 

We could have gotten nearer. I could have swapped my DSLR 7-14 (used at 14mm) on the Olympus E-PM2 for the Panasonic 20mm prrime, to get more magnification. Even this is cropped a bit. But, hey, that event only takes like a few minutes and then it's over so what-the-heck, leave it alone. Let's set this one up for lots of negative space, shall we?

Does Live Time really help? It sure does. You can "see" when you are getting too many bursts superimposed and when the white trails which are so much brighter, are bleaching the scene so that you can end that frame and start a new one. 

But you must set the refresh frequency right. For this series of cameras, you can only refresh the LCD 24 times. If you set it at 2 secs refresh and you use a black mask in front of the lens to keep the exposure running but not take in more light, you could have the shutter open for way longer than 48 secs. (there is finite limit to the number of refreshes). Something like 4 secs at this fireworks density is about right - if you have more fireworks bursting per sec, then you may not hold the shutter open for that long).

And so, Enjoy!

Walking with the Leica X Vario - Part 3 - Conclusion

The Questions to Ask

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series. Links to Previous Parts - Part 1 and Part 2
The Questions one poses are as important as the answers that one figures out. I'll start with the elephant in the room question and carry on from there.

Is the Leica X Vario worth all that money?

You don't gauge the worth of a Leica on some pragmatic assessment of features. Is the high ISO noise performance good enough for the price? Is the lens bright enough for the money? Questions like those aren't the issue. You buy a Leica, any Leica because it is a Leica. It may have a sharp lens, it may have German engineering encased in luxurious metal. But above all, it's a Leica. That's what you pay for. Money isn't an issue.

Can I use this camera to take satisfying photos?

Certainly. People in black and white.

And in colour

There are issues with the speed of the Auto Focus. You're not seeing some shots of kids on BMX bikes doing jumps on a bike challenges playground. Because they were pretty much blurred - not the artistic blurs, just the mundane blurs. With manual focus and the scale marked focus ring. preset at a target distance, some skill and experience, they would not be impossible.

How about touring and some street scenery?

Street Art

Street Photography

Indoors

Auto Focus speed and sureness indoors is unexceptional (the camera does have a red AF Assist light but it was not obviously making AF better).  Incidentally, the AF motor sometimes murmurs in a steampunk way.

The lens brightness is pedestrian (similar to those DSLR kit lenses) - f/2.8 at 28mm equivalent and f/6.3 at 70mm equivalent.

The APS-C sensor allows the camera to offer high limit of 12,500 but I didn't use that. The Auto ISO defaults seemed to suggest 1600 as the max and it didn't occur to me that there was anything higher than 3200. I should have tried an even higher ISO.

Window lit interiors appear subtly lit but photo results often show a severe dynamic range. When kept comfortably away from highlight burning, the camera's JPEG engine produced quite lovely tones. At the overexposure boundary, skin complexion turned yellowish and plastic.

An Olympus OM-D / EM-5 captured by the Leica X Vario

Summing Up

I liked the camera. It was my first time with a digital Leica and I enjoyed it. 

The shutter could be made absolutely silent. Within the dynamic range, the sensor and in-camera JPEG engine produced classic film like colours and monochrome tones. I appreciated the focus scale marked on the lens barrel. And the two physical dials on the top deck - one for f/no, one for shutter speed. I wish Leica had prioritised and/or dedicated the right hand top deck dial to EV adjustment, with scribed EV markings.

 That's not to say there are kinks and quirks to iron out.  My biggest irritation?

1. Press the button on the bottom left back of the camera to "Menu/Set" to display the Main Menu
2. Scroll with the up or down edge switches of the silver Control Disc.
3. Arrive at the value you want but you cannot Set by pressing the center of the Control Disc with the same hand.  You must use the other hand to press the "Menu/Set" button.