Olympus OM-D E-M10 Review Part 1: Handling, 3-Axis Image Stabilization and the New M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ Lens

Important Note:

1) I am an Olympus Malaysia employee. 

2) This review is a user-experience based review, from a photography enthusiast's point of view. 

3) All images were shot in RAW and converted to JPEG via Olympus Viewer 3. Noise Filter = OFF, Gradation Normal, Saturation, Contrast and Sharpness set to default "0". Image Setting Natural, Auto White Balance with Warm Color OFF. 

4) The images were almost straight out of camera, with slight exposure (brightness/contrast balance) tuning and white balance tweak. 

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, and there is no better way to start this auspicious year of the Horse with a new review of the Olympus OM-D E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ Pancake Zoom lens. 

The Olympus OM-D E-M10 and the new Pancake Zoom kit lens 14-42mm EZ were designed to be paired perfectly together, creating a very small and lightweight combination, pocket-able yet aiming to provide the well received OM-D experience. The OM-D E-M10 goes all out against the stereotype set by traditional DSLR equivalent category: big and bulky, cheap plastic build, typical ugly design, lack of direct buttons/controls and controls and stripped down features and lower overall performance in comparison to higher tier DSLR categories. The E-M10 though slotted in "premium compact", promises to deliver high image quality, superb performance and new advanced photography features, the core aspects that made Olympus OM-D line cameras stand out from the competition. Without weather sealing and magnesium alloy body and with 3-Axis Image Stabilization instead of 5-Axis from the E-M5/E-M1, being smaller and lighter, how does the E-M10 fare? Today I have been out shooting whole day and I cannot wait to share the images and my thoughts with you beautiful people!

As usual there will be multiple part review, and in this Part 1 I shall be discussing on the performance of the new M.Zuiko 14-42mm Pancake Zoom lens, and to answer the most popular questions: How is the handling of the E-M10 considering it is so small and light? And now that we have 3 Axis Image Stabilzation instead of 5-Axis, is it good enough?  In my later entries, I shall explore other capabilities of the camera such as high ISO shooting, autofocus performance and the camera features like WIFI connectivity, time lapse shooting, etc. 

I am going to break my tradition and do something rather different in this review part. Instead of the OM-D E-M10, let's talk about the new M.Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ Pancake Zoom lens first. The reason is because I practically fell in love with this lens! I know it is just a mere kit lens, but do bear with me, I find it to be more than capable in delivering very good results, and most important of all, it is made to match the E-M10 perfectly. 

THAT AMAZING PANCAKE ZOOM LENS, OLYMPUS M.ZUIKO 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ

This pancake lens is so small and light, I cannot believe it is a zoom lens when I first saw and held it. It is a collapsible design, meaning when you power it on, the lens will extend out, to a length more than doubling it's original length. Not an issue to me, as the lens when powered off is currently the world's slimmest pancake zoom lens, thinner and smaller than what Sony and Panasonic are offering. 

Although the pancake zoom lens is considerably smaller and lighter than the original M.Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II kit lens, the optical architecture inside remains the same, and the same glass elements and groups were used, of course with improved and advanced technology and assembly methods to keep the size down. Having similar optical design means that theoretically there is very little if no compromise when it comes to image quality. The glasses inside included multiple ED and Aspherical elements to correct distortion and chromatic aberrations. We are not expecting the pancake zoom lens to match the performance of the now highly regarded M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8 or 45mm F1.8 lenses, no that would be too much to ask for such a tiny package. I am more interested to find out how the kit lens performed as a kit lens. 

In short, I was impressed. As usual, let's see some photos first. 

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/500sec, F3.5, ISO200, 14mm

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/40sec, F5.6, ISO640, 42mm

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E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/6sec, F5.6, ISO200, 14mm

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E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/60sec, F5.5, ISO800, 37mm

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E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/80sec, F8, ISO400, 42mm, Macro Converter M-CON P-02, Wireless TTL Flash 

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/13sec, F5, ISO200, 14mm

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/200sec, F5.6, ISO200, 42mm

The Pancake Zoom lens is reasonably sharp, and I find it a tad bit sharper than what I usually get from the M.Zuiko 12-50mm F3.5-6.3. At wide angle the difference is not that significant, but as you zoom in to the telephoto end, the image quality is evidently better than what you can obtain from the older M.Zuiko 12-50mm F3.5-6.3 lens. In fact, I was very impressed with what the lens can do at longer zoom range, even at full 42mm end, producing a good amount of useful detail. This is fairly important to me because I usually shoot at the longer focal length, especially photos of people. Looking at the images, I also like how the pancake zoom lens renders the out of focus area, creating very smooth and pleasing looking bokeh. The bokeh is actually so much better looking than what I normally get from the M.Zuiko 12-50mm F3.5-6.3 lens. 

I generally do not encounter any issues with distortion even shooting wide open (a few samples in this blog). I also do not have issues of Chromatic Abberation, mainly thanks to the Truepic 7 image processing as well as ED elements in the pancake zoom lens. 

Close up performance of the lens is mediocre, perhaps this is the only thing that the M.Zuiko 12-50mm F3.5-6.3 can do better. For the spider shot above I did attach the new M-CON P-02 macro converter to get closer, but still not as good as a macro lens. The important point I want to highlight is that the macro image was shot via manual focus for pin-point accuracy (it is just me, not that I do not trust the camera, but my own habit of engaging manual focus when I do macro shooting). Considering how small and thin the pancake zoom lens is, thankfully Olympus did not take out the manual focus ring, and it was still good enough for me to do my manual focusing to grab my macro shot. Since it was a close-up shooting, the depth of field was very shallow and it was sufficiently shallow to isolate the subject. Do check out the smooth bokeh behind the spider, though at F8, the bokeh was round and pleasing to look at. 

Of course Olympus already has many higher performing and sharper lenses out there, but for a kit lens the new Pancake Zoom M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ is a class on it's own. It is so tiny, the Autofocus is as fast as any other Olympus lenses on OM-D (still the world's fastest if I am not mistaken, at this time of writing) I just could not think of any reason not to highly recommend this lens to go along the OM-D E-M10, or any other cameras that you want to keep as small and light as possible, including the PEN series (E-P5, E-PL5, E-PM2, etc). 

GENERAL CAMERA HANDLING AND THE IMPORTANCE OF EXTERNAL CAMERA GRIP ECG-1

Since the E-M10 is made to be very small, even smaller than E-M5, handling has been a concern for me. I always treasure a beefed up grip for comfortable hand-holding, and adequate size for better camera steadying when shooting. To fully test the OM-D E-M10's handling, I did not just use the pancake zoom lens, I also have brought along the M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8 (I just cannot get over how awesome this lens is) as well as the M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro, obviously for some extreme insect macro with high magnification shooting, which is my ultimate test for any camera handling. 

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8, 1/1600sec, F1.8, ISO200

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8, 1/180sec, F2.8, ISO200

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro, 1/100sec, F4.5, ISO200, Wireless TTL Flash

100% Crop from Previous Image

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro, 1/100sec, F4.5, ISO200, Wireless TTL Flash

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8, 1/400sec, F1.8, ISO200

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 75mm F1.8, 1/1600sec, F2.8, ISO1600 (mistake, I do not need ISO1600 for this shot)

Using the pancake zoom lens 14-42mm EZ on the E-M10 was very comfortable in hand. I can even just hold the camera single-handedly, it was light enough, but being a conservative photographer I used both hands for added stability. You will see in the later part of this blog entry when I was pushing the 3-Axis Image Stabilization, I have no trouble steadying the pancake zoom lens on the E-M10 at ungodly shutter speeds. Handling was very comfortable, and I was very confident using this combination. 

However, the same cannot be said when I was handling larger lenses especially 75mm F1.8. The 75mm felt imbalanced and the weight was shifted to the lens. If I was just taking a quick shot or two with this lens, it was no problem at all, but as I used for more than 30 minutes, it was getting increasingly difficult to ignore the out of balance and odd handling. I then added on the External Camera Grip ECG-1 (click to watch the youtube video on this cool ECG-1). The E-M10 felt like a different camera altogether. There is something about this new External Camera Grip that is different from E-M5's horizontal/landscape grip (though both are built with similar concept), this ECG-1 seemed to bond completely with the E-M10. If you have larger/heavier lenses such as 75mm F1.8 or 75-300mm lenses, or intending to buy and use any of the larger/heavier lenses, you MUST have the External Camera Grip for better overall handling. Thankfully the ECG-1 is not expensive. 

I also tested the ECG-1 on E-M10 while using the M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 macro. If you have not read about my macro shooting techniques please do so here and here. I held the camera + macro lens combo with my right hand single handedly, while my left hand held the external flash unit fired wirelessly off camera. Since I was shooting at extreme magnification (some of the spider images were 1 to 1 true life magnification) every tiny shake will render the image useless. Therefore, being able to hold and steady the camera and macro lens with just one hand was crucial, and E-M10 with the aided stability from the ECG-1, I found no issue nailing my shots. I cannot say the same without the external camera grip. 

In short, just get the external camera grip ECG-1, seriously. 

3-AXIS IMAGE STABILIZATION, GOOD ENOUGH?

The previous incarnations of OM-D have 5-Axis Image Stabilization, and Olympus was the only camera manufacturer in the market to include such image stabilization system in their camera bodies. The 5-Axis Image Stabilization have proven to be extremely effective, with many photographers finding the IS helpful in steadying their shots in many situations. It was not a surprise that the 5-Axis IS was one of the main selling point of the OM-D E-M1 and E-M5, a unique feature that only Olympus has at this moment. 

The new Olympus OM-D E-M10 has 3-Axis Image Stabilization. The missing two Axis were horizontal and vertical translational movements (movement up-down and left-right). The camera is still compensated for Yaw, Pitch and Roll movements, which according to extensive research were the main causes of camera movement/shake. 

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 0.6sec, F5.6, ISO200, 37mm

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E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1sec, F5.6, ISO200, 25mm

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E-M10 and M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro, 1/100sec, F8, ISO250, Wireless TTL Flash

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro, 1/160sec, F11, ISO250, Wireless TTL Flash

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/160sec, F11, ISO250, 42mm, Macro Converter M-CON P-02, Wireless TTL Flash 

This image is not the best to demonstrate anything, but I wanted to include this since it was quite a rare find for me, baby spiders! They were underneath a leaf, so imagine how hard it was for me to get this shot. It was cropped, and the original image was severely underexposed, hence the degraded image quality. But it was taken with E-M10 and 60mm F2.8 macro lens, and I still think the image looks quite cool. Despite all the imperfections I do like this image a lot. 

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8 Macro, 1/125sec, F8, ISO200, Wireless TTL Flash

To be entirely honest, I did not feel any difference using the 3-Axis IS, considering I have been so used to 5-Axis IS all this time. I still get the live stabilization preview as I half-pressed the shutter button, the IS works it's magic in reducing hand-shake, which proved very useful for me when I am doing very high magnification macro shots, such as the few demonstrated above. The live-stabilization preview increased my hit-rate by significantly reducing the jumpiness of the image. 

I can still slow down my shutter speed comfortably to half a second, something which I can do confidently with E-M5 and E-M1. I did also push the shutter speed to as slow as 1 second, and still managed to get some useful shots. Of course anything slower than that, a tripod is highly recommended. The point of having image stabilization is not for you to recklessly slow down the shutter speed. The 3-Axis Image Stabilization, as I felt being as reliable as the 5-Axis, can boost your confidence when shooting at slower shutter speed than recommended. For example, when using a 45mm lens, normally I would ensure my shutter speed is 1/100sec, or 1/80sec if I do not have Image Stabilization. With 3-Axis IS, I can confidently slow down my shutter speed to 1/20sec, or even 1/15sec (yes I can do slower, but I still play safe). Provided that your subject is not moving, in this situation, you can significantly lower down the ISO setting, which can result in less image quality loss. 

The insect macro shooting test was perfect to torture the 3-Axis IS. If you have done close-up shooting before you will know every tiny movement is hugely amplified as you go to high magnification shooting. The 3-Axis made a whole world of difference (in comparison to IS turned off). 

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/1250sec, F8, ISO200, 32mm

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/1600sec, F6.3, ISO200, 14mm

100% Center Crop from Previous Image

The pancake zoom 14-42mm EZ lens is reasonably sharp in the center. 

100% Crop Corner from the previous Image. 

At the corner the pancake zoom lens 14-42mm EZ does very well, though there is noticeable softness, which is still a lot better than competing kit lenses from any other camera manufacturers. 

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/40sec, F5.6, ISO250, 22mm

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/250sec, F4.7, ISO1600, 25mm

E-M10 and M.Zuiko 14-42mm EZ, 1/500sec, F5.6, ISO200, 14mm

As usual I am providing full resolution images for your pixel-peeping pleasure. You may download the selected 10 images from this review Part 1 here:

OLYMPUS OM-D E-M10 IMAGE SAMPLE DOWNLOAD Part 1

I will be out shooting again for my later parts of the review, so please do give me some time to gather sufficient images. After all my review is heavily photograph based. More to come very soon, and I know many will be requesting for the new M.Zuiko 25mm F1.8 lens review, I will be working on that, I promise! 

More shooting awaits, and I cannot wait to go out and grab some photos with all these new gear!

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