Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Well what was predicted has happened, sounding the death knell of Four-Thirds. Olympus has announced the release of the next camera in the OM-D series; the E-M1. It has a phase detection focus sensor built into the imaging sensor, making it capable of using Four-Thirds lenses with DSLR speed. If anyone has seen a review that talks about C-AF effectiveness with Four-Thirds lenses, I would be very grateful.

http://www.dpreview.com/previews/olympus-om-d-e-m1

Check out what Robin Wong has to say:
http://robinwong.blogspot.com.au/

Some notes about his reviews (quoted from his site):
1) I am an employee of Olympus Malaysia. I am reviewing the Olympus OM-D E-M1 from a photography enthusaist’s point of view. I was given the liberty to perform the gear review as usual.
2) This is a user experience based review.
3) The insect macro images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG Large Fine via Olympus Viewer 3 (provided by Olympus Malaysia). The Continuous AF test images were shot directly with JPEG Large Fine, and presented straight out of camera.
4) General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal
5) No post-processing applied to the images. All images were as good as straight out of camera, with minimal cropping for better presentation.

I pre-ordered. I doubt that I will, but I'm hoping that I can get my hands on one before the last regional racing round. If this camera won't perform at least as well as my E-5, with Four-Thirds lenses, I'll have to switch systems.

According the to Bloomberg article in the other thread "Camera Sales drop 35%" Olympus is stopping SLR development this year. So yes, it could mean this is the last.

Well it's actually a mirrorless system camera, but with a phase detection sensor built into the imaging sensor, so it should be able to focus as quickly as a E-5 DSLR when using Four-Thirds lenses. Given the investment I've got into semi-pro and pro glass in Four Thirds, I'll be pretty damned angry if they don't at least continue some sort of line that can use those lenses well.

Maybe that's what they meant - going mirrorless for the future.

The one thing that really concerns me, apart from C-AF performance, is power consumption. When I first got my E-M5 I had it go dead in the bag, because the viewfinder sensor was constantly triggered and kept the viewfinder turned on. My E-5 would have just gone to sleep. Smaller batteries, with more drawing from them, means more frequent swaps and more batteries needed.

You could always disable the automatic viewfinder switching sensor.

I tried that. It's just trading having it on all the time when it's in the bag, for having it on all the time when it's in-hand.

I would typically just turn off my E-M5 when its in the bag. I agree that relying on the sleep function kicking in wasn't always reliable.

Well come mid-October I should find out if it's up to the task. It would be nice if I could have it before this weekend, to try it out at the last regional motorcycle event of the season, but no such luck.

People that pre-ordered directly from Olympus on announcement day have already received their E-M1s.
You'd think stores would also have their backorders by now

Given that I received no response from the Henry's corporate folks, I should have bought direct.

Well that's annoying. I won't be getting the camera in-hand until the end of the month. When I ordered I'd been hoping to get it before the last race event of the season, which was last weekend.