My first photos with the Olympus OM-D E-M10, 45mm f/1.8 and Panasonic 25mm f/1.4

I’ve had my Olympus OM-D E-M10 for two weeks now, but due to being swamped at work and having some business meetings abroad I couldn’t find the time to write a blog post about the camera and the first batch of pictures I took with it. Together with the E-M10 I also bought the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 and the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4. Both seem to be excellent lenses. I can’t say much without some thorough testing first and I don’t like to go out on a limb, but Olympus cameras seem to be like mini super computers with loads of customization, which can be overwhelming at first. But once you assign the functions you want to the Fn buttons and customize the features and the way the camera operates to your liking, chances are you won’t need to dive in to a menu for a looong time. The E-M10 is the opposite of the Nikon V1. You can customize almost anything and the level of manual control is insane, but in a good way. The aspect of the camera I like best is undoubtedly the IBIS. With the V1 I’ve learned to hold the camera firmly and to do my best to avoid any movement. I even hold my breath when going under 1/50th of a second, but with the Olympus I find myself shooting anyway I see fit, while still getting sharp photos free of camera shake. Anyway here are some of my first photos with the E-M10, 45/1.8 and 25/1.4, most of which were taken at high ISO (ISO1600 and above).

Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Olympus 45mm f/1.8Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Olympus 45mm f/1.8Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Olympus 45mm f/1.8Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Olympus 45mm f/1.8Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Olympus 45mm f/1.8Olympus OM-D E-M10 & Olympus 45mm f/1.8

Here are my unboxing videos, which turned out too dark due to -2 EV exposure correction. I swear they looked too bright on the V1’s LCD without EC and just fine with -2. I guess V1’s video mode is not WYSIWYG after all.

How you can support me in bringing you more m4/3 love?

If you’re intent on buying the OM-D E-M10, 45mm f/1.8 or 25mm f/1.4, consider making your purchase through Amazon, by using the following links: AmazonUS, AmazonUK and AmazonDE.

You won’t pay a dime more compared to a direct purchase on amazon, but I will receive a small commission. Thanks for the support! 🙂

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Ivan Written by:

18 Comments

  1. 03/05/2014
    Reply

    Loving the kitty pics! Looks like a great camera and lens. Hope to read more here about these. Thanks for sharing your experiences with these.

    • Ivan
      04/05/2014
      Reply

      Thank you Joni for visiting and leaving a comment. 🙂

  2. 03/05/2014
    Reply

    By the way, do you have a blog posting about why you choose to buy this camera and the lens for it? Your Nikon 1 V1 photos are wonderful so why a new camera? Thanks for this info.

    • Ivan
      04/05/2014
      Reply

      Not yet. But I will write a post comparing the V1 and E-M10 soon.

  3. Jan
    03/05/2014
    Reply

    Congrats Ivan. Looks really nice.

    • Ivan
      04/05/2014
      Reply

      Thank Jan. There are some N1 features that I miss with the E-M10. But for the most part, the setup is very capable.
      Bottom line is, there is no perfect system.

  4. 04/05/2014
    Reply

    Great kitty shots (I have a gazillion shots of my dogs :-)! I’m a big OM-D fan, but just got the E-M10 and loving it! You’re right … the IBIS is wonderful.
    Nice choices for your lenses, but most of the OLY and Pany primes are great.
    Thanks,
    Mike

    • Ivan
      05/05/2014
      Reply

      Thank you Mike! For the most part I’m very happy with the E-M10. But I must say that the Nikon V1 has much better color rendition out of the box and much more precise auto WB. PP’ing V1 files is almost too easy, PP’ing E-M10’s files can turn into hard work really fast. Auto WB is just not as robust, and there seem to be odd color casts in the shadows. V1’s shadows are blueish, which is what you would expect based on reality. E-M10’s shadows can have a number of different color casts, depending on the lighting. With daylight, green seems to be the predominant color cast, which to my eyes looks really funky.

  5. 14/05/2014
    Reply

    “PP’ing” — what does that stand for? Thanks!

    • Ivan
      14/05/2014
      Reply

      It stands for “post processing”.

  6. 14/05/2014
    Reply

    “but with the Olympus I find myself shooting anyway I see fit, while still getting sharp photos free of camera shake.” — why is that? What makes it easier to get shake free photos? Sorry I don’t understand. Thanks for any help on explaining this to me.

    • Ivan
      14/05/2014
      Reply

      Olympus cameras have an in-body image stabilization (IBIS) system, which compensates for camera shake. Nikon 1 cameras have no such feature, but most Nikon 1 zoom lenses have image stabilization. But since I’ve used the 18.5mm f/1.8 most of the time, which is a prime lens without image stabilization, I got used to having to hold the camera very steady when shooting in dark lighting conditions with long shutter speeds. With the Olympus the IBIS, which works with every lens, makes it a lot easier to take shake free shots.

      • 15/05/2014
        Reply

        Thank you for this info. I wonder why Nikon does have this IBIS system.

        • Ivan
          15/05/2014
          Reply

          Nikon doesn’t have it, Olympus has it. Nikon chose to implement image stabilization in their lenses, but only zoom lenses have it. So when shooting with primes, you have stabilization on the Olympus, but you don’t on the Nikon.

  7. Randy Surya Putra
    31/08/2014
    Reply

    Hi Ivan ! I have a question regarding the EM10 color rendition. Do you find the color tend to be reddish? I used to have EM5, and sold it because I could not stand the “too red” color from EM5.

    • Ivan
      03/09/2014
      Reply

      Hi Randy!

      As I’ve said in this post, I don’t find that the E-M10 has a consistent color cast. It’s more like the auto WB is out of whack and it’s behaving like there are two separate algorithms at work, one for shadows and one for the rest of the image. Since writing these blog posts I have had a lot of time to adjust to the E-M10’s auto WB and color rendition. It is no longer a problem.

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