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Archive 2015 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

ultimaterowdy
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

Hiya folks! I'm seriously considering jumping into M4/3 with an Olympus em-5 mark ii + Olympus 17 1.8 set up. I find this is $900 + $400 direct from Olympus. I checked refurb; didn't see any of this camera or lens model available. And the used availability seems pretty scarce. Any suggested alternatives to getting this set up?

I'm a Canon guy and want something smaller, and would like to focus more on video of kids/family, and explore EVFs and swivel touchscreens and just the M4/3 format. I have shot with 35mm prime (on a 5D) before and really liked the simplicity & FOV. Also considering the Olympus 12mm 2.0, to help get more family life into the shots indoors. that lens is $200 off with the Olympus campaign happening now, so $600 for it (haven't shopped that around to see if it was cheaper via other outlets).

thanks for any thoughts, advice!! cheers, rowdy

Oct 21, 2015 at 09:55 PM

goosemang
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

I have been using this combo as my everyday walk around body for almost 6 months now. It's my kid chasing setup and it's great. In addition to the 17mm - and I'm not kidding - buy the two "body cap lenses" which are fixed f/8. Honestly I use these two lenses more than the 17 because it turns this camera into an extremely small and fast point and shoot body. Set the lens for the hyperfocal and just bang away. Tons of fun.

Can't comment on the video because I don't use it.

Really like the e-m5 ii as a body though. Very well built, IBIS is amazing, controls are substantially better than on the first version of this camera. Go for it.

Oct 21, 2015 at 10:18 PM

goosemang
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

Obviously those body cap lenses aren't for pixel peeping.

Edit: couple other notes... 17mm AF is super fast and silent. Really nice. Olympus has also done a really nice job with MF implementation.... Responsive, smooth, not laggy. I also have the 45 1.8 which I picked up for something stupid like $250 and it's also very responsive and very small for a 90mm equivalent.

This is a really enjoyable system. If you need ultimate IQ it doesn't stand up to larger formats but if you accept that going in it's great. Olympus files are pretty nice, good malleability with raw, I shoot 'em to iso 3200 comfortably. Pretty nice b&w conversions out of them as well.

And I must say, I've gone around the block looking for small cameras and unless you're gonna rock an x100, micro 4/3 is the way to go if you want small. The problem with all the other mirror less systems is the lenses... Even aps-c/Fuji has big lenses. Micro 4/3 really allowed me to go small. I still keep the Dslr around for when I don't wanna enjoy myself.

Oct 21, 2015 at 10:19 PM

ultimaterowdy
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

I'd never heard of "body cap lenses" before. See, this m4/3 journey is taking me unexpected places already

. thanks so much for the thoughts, gosemang.

Oct 21, 2015 at 10:38 PM

tobycat2
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

If you don't need the weather sealing the E-M10 is a great camera and saves you $400 you could use on a lens. The 45/25 1.8 is a good combo.

Oct 21, 2015 at 10:43 PM

ultimaterowdy
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

Thanks for the pointer, tobycat2. I'm now seriously considering em10 ii. Seems the mark ii is important for video quality, one of my primary drivers here. $650 is certainly better than $900 (em5 ii price). Also... the "using touchscreen to indicate focus point, while using the EVF" seems genius & really useful (experience will tell, of course).

Do you have experience w/ the e-m10?

Oct 22, 2015 at 06:30 PM

tobycat2
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

I have the E-M10 first version and it works great as a backup carry around camera. I didn't need the weather sealing and the 3-axis stabilization seems fine for me, and the E-M10 seemed to have upgrades over the E-M5 that were important to me so I went with the 10. Can't really go wrong with either new version. As they say, lenses are more important than bodies so I saved the cash and got an extra prime lens.

Oct 22, 2015 at 06:49 PM

mawz
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

Panasonic is the way to go if video is a serious need, the G6 should run similar cost to an E-M10 right now, with the G7 in at E-M5II money. The GX7 is also heavily discounted at the moment, has IBIS (like the E-M5/10 and unlike most Panasonic bodies) and is arguably better than any Oly body at video.

Oct 22, 2015 at 09:01 PM

elkhornsun
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

For your planned use I would go with the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro lens. Equivalent to a 24-80mm f2.8 lens. Excellent image quality with this lens. Easily as good if not better than the Nikon and Canon 24-70mm f2.8 lenses and I have used both extensively. At a weight of 13.5 ounces it is not a heavy lens compared to almost any of my full frame lenses and makes more sense than carrying around 3 prime lenses.

Oct 27, 2015 at 03:23 PM

tobycat2
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

elkhornsun wrote:
For your planned use I would go with the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro lens. Equivalent to a 24-80mm f2.8 lens. Excellent image quality with this lens. Easily as good if not better than the Nikon and Canon 24-70mm f2.8 lenses and I have used both extensively. At a weight of 13.5 ounces it is not a heavy lens compared to almost any of my full frame lenses and makes more sense than carrying around 3 prime lenses.

Only problem is that lens is much larger than the 15, 17, 25, 45 primes (all the experience I have) so if one wants a compact kit the 12-40, while a great lens, doesn't fit that bill. Plus it's a stop slower which matters to me, but then I'm also going for the small kit and I tend to favor primes over zooms; as such carrying the 12-40 actually doesn't make sense for me as I'd rather carry two primes with one on the body.

Oct 27, 2015 at 08:29 PM

Pstockfisch
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Olympus em-5 ii + 17 1.8 purchase: thru Olympus a good way?

I can tell you from experience waterproofing is worth the money. My dog knocked me and the 5II into the pool, we both came out with no problems. Love my Olympus

Dec 15, 2015 at 03:56 PM


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