Olympus E-M1 Mark II – Hands-On Review

Olympus officially announced the successor to its high end OM-D EM1, named the OM-D EM1 Mark II several weeks ago. This camera which was shown for the first time during Photokina 2016 last year was recently tested by our friend and colleague Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake from the Camera Store take a deeper look at the camera.

Chris seems to like the ergonomics of the new camera as well as the very large battery (which officially can shoot up to 400 shots but according to him in some situations can do more – and you can also use the grip to double the time if you are willing to spend the money). The flip screen is also a nice improvement and the touch features seems to work well (also with the viewfinder). Chris didn’t like the Olympus menu system but the Mark II does seem to bring a nice improvement in this respect (and is also highly customizable).

On the downside Chris did encounter some issues with the tracking in continuous AF with the camera on complex situations so keep this in mind. Also at high ISOs (around 6400 ISO) you will still have a lot of artifacts (this is still a Micro 4/3 sensor after all so no miracles here).

In terms of video Jordan came in with some expectations based on the initial specs and he was not disappointed. Really the only problem is the AF in video so Jordan had to use mostly MF in video.

Here are some of the main specs of the OM-D EM1 Mark II:

  • 20MP Live MOS Sensor with no AA filter (micro 4/3).
  • TruePic VIII Image Processor.
  • 2.36k-Dot EVF  (0.74x maganification).
  • 3.0″ 1,037k-Dot fully rotating touch screen.
  • Continuous shooting speed – up to 60fps (and 18fps with AF).
  • 4K @24/30p / up to 237Mbps (headphone and microphone jacks) and 4:2:2 video out of its HDMI port.
  • In-Body 5-Axis Image Stabilization (up to 5.5 stops).
  • Dual SD (with one of the SD slots supporting UHS-II).
  • Built-In Wi-Fi.
  • Price: $2000.

You can find many more previews and reviews on our Photography review section here on LensVid. You can find many of The Camera Store videos here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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