This last weekend I met up with a very good friend and with him was his new Olympus OM-D. Upon comparing notes his research was exhausting. He was on day 3.
Of course - I have to compare this to the Nex. I know it has been done before and with a twist as this is non image dependent. As we were both on the road and I didn't have a laptop to compare such. But there is a lot out there regarding this camera and the sensor.
I feels great in the hand - because of the heft - it is just feels so well built - like a tank. And I like that a lot. That first impression of quality really goes far.
Buttons and controls have a good feel - not snappy but responsive.
Fit and finish is perfect.
The lens has push pull zoom function -- push and it's electronically controlled - pull and its barrel controlled. I prefer barrel control.
Rear screen is OLED - who cares about that - it just looks great.
Electronic Viewfinder looks great also - better than NEX
Olympus must have a hell of an R&D facility because it sure seems they can come to market really quickly - this camera it seems to have come out of nowhere.
Holding the camera is awkward - to finger grip is way to go - any more than that and the other fingers start landing on buttons and pressing stuff. Sometimes when that happens the only way to clear what you did is too cycle the power.
There are too many buttons on the back. I understand Sony's reasoning to embed controls within wheels and scroll wheels etc. It frees up real estate on the back panel. And the Sony hand grip is about perfect.
Olympus tried to shrink an SLR body -- and it doesn't really work with out pushing a bunch of random buttons.
Autofocus is crazy fast - about instant - I didn't do any scientific low-light comparison but it was non comparable to the Nex. I wish the Nex was this fast.
So - in the end there is no such thing as the perfect setup - and you shoot what you have to shoot. For some that's a Brownie - others may have a D3s. I have Nex and his is the OM-D. You work with what you got - and in the end, the image does the speaking for you.
Get out and shoot.
