This year it’s all about going small, and Olympus has just introduced a new OM-D model, the tiny E-M10, which joins the E-M1 and the E-M5 in the expanding range of OM-D mirrorless Micro Four Thirds cameras.
The E-M10 is positioned below the E-M1 and the E-M5, and is meant as an entry-level OM-D, but with the features and build quality similar to its bigger brothers.
As such, the OM-D E-M10 is still made of metal, with the same 16-megapixel Live MOS sensor found on the E-M1, with Olympus’ TruePic VII image processor and ultra-fast 81-point autofocus arrayed across almost the entire viewfinder area.
While it is much smaller than its other OM-D siblings, the E-M10 still retains the 3in 1.04-million dot tiltable touchscreen LCD on the back, which allows for navigation of menus, focus point selection and shooting by simply touching the screen.
The E-M10 also comes with built-in WiFi which works together with the OI.Share app on smartphones and offers not just download of images and Live View, but also full control of aperture, shutter and shooting mode.
One surprise on the E-M10 is a built-in pop-up flash — until now, O-MD cameras have not featured built-in flashes.
The flash itself is pretty small and does not go up as high as most DSLRs when extended, but it is there and it works pretty well.
Although it shares many features with the E-M1, there is one feature that the E-M10 doesn’t have and that’s the excellent five-axis image stabilisation. Instead, the E-M10 integrates an older three-axis image stabilisation system which is still very good although not at the level of the 5-axis version..
With a smaller camera comes a smaller and slimmer lens — the E-M10 comes with a newly-redesigned M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 EZ that is even smaller than before — so much so that the lens now gains “pancake” status and is claimed to be the world’s slimmest standard zoom lens.
Despite its miniscule size, there’s very little compromise, as the lens even comes with the motorised zoom and a manual focus ring, unlike many pancake lenses.
E-M5 Elite Black
Interestingly, the OM-D E-M5 will still remain in Olympus’ lineup of cameras although it will get a minor revamp and will now be called the E-M5 Elite Black edition.
The camera’s hardware features remain the same, but the software has been updated to provide an “ISO Low” setting and a smaller autofocus target option.
Externally, it will drop the funky modern pattern rubber finish in favour of a more vintage leatherette finish.
The E-M5 Elite Black will also come bundled with the M.Zuiko Pro 12-40mm f/2.8 constant aperture lens instead of the 14-42mm consumer-grade kit lens that was previously bundled with the camera.
Prices for the products was not available at press time.
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