I have been studying the mirror-less interchangeable lens segment a lot since it's inception and very much so in the last couple of weeks. I was an early adopter of the original Panasonic GF-1 and enjoyed the camera but ultimately had to let it go. Based on test data, previews, specifications, capabilities and so on, I am coming to the conclusion that the OM-D may be the mirrorless camera for the working pro and the high end enthusiast. It has nearly all of the capabilities of a high end DSLR in a smaller package utilizing a more traditional control layout than most of the compacts out there. It is also thoroughly weather sealed, something you don't see much in this segment. It also has ground breaking IS/VR incorporated into the body. Other contenders are the NEX 7 from Sony and the GX1 from Panasonic. Early testing shows that the dynamic range issue with m43 has been solved in this body too. The problem for me with the NEX 7 is the placement of the electronic viewfinder which really only works well for right-eyed shooters. And the GX1's biggest problem is that Panasonic USA is an unmitigated marketing and supply chain disaster. Of course the problem with the Oly is whether or not Oly can stay in the camera business at all but their latest offerings are certainly compelling.

The lens system for micro 4/3 is still an issue although less so than for Sony. The longest lenses available only go to 300mm (600mm equivalent) but are slower lenses (f/5.6 for the Panasonic and f/6.7 for the Oly) and Panasonic lenses are slowed down in AF on Oly bodies and vice versa - the Panasonic 100-300 is the best long lens out there for native m43 but it is slowed down on the Oly body and the Oly 75-300 is too slow at just f/6.7. On the wide end there are some fantastic prime options including Leica, Voigtlander, etc but on the zoom front, everything is again very low end consumer oriented. So the lens system has great wide to short tele primes but nothing even remotely great in the zoom arena. I had high hopes for the Oly 12-50 (24-100 equivalent) but early testing does not show that lens to among the higher resolution lenses and at just f/6.3 on the long end, again, it is slow although best optical performance on that lens is wide open.

So why write all of this? As I get older, due to some serious injuries in the past (leg, hip, back, shoulder - all of which required extensive multi-year treatment), I am growing very weary of lugging around heavy gear all of the time and airlines are making it harder and harder too. So I am looking for a lighter system that produces professional results to complement my Nikon gear. I will likely replace my D3x with a D800 after that camera is shaken down by the early beta-testers... er pre-order people... which will help. But it still is a big and bulky system, especially the wildlife rig with the huge 500 and all of the heavy support equipment. I would love to have something like a quality 80-400 or 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 for micro 4/3 which would get me out to 800mm equivalent. I would love to be able to go to someplace like Africa or Antarctica with two Oly OM-D and a 12-50 and 80-400 and nothing else. It would all easily fit into my Think Tank Shoulder bag. That would leave only Nikon gear for serious landscape shoots where I could use my D800, 14-24, 24-70 and 70-200. Imagine that landscape kit weighing double what the big wildlife rig would weigh...

E.J. - funny you should bring up the OM-D

About a year into shooting professionally, my body started letting me know that carrying even two 'prosumer' bodies (5D2/7D), four lenses, and two flashes over my shoulder on a daily basis was not a good idea, long term. I actually started investigating a smaller system before the OM-D E-M5 was announced, and concluded that none of the existing bodies really met my needs, but once the rumors of the E-M5 started up, I became really interested.

I would agree that, based on everything I've seen from the lucky few shooting with pre-release bodies, this is a camera that can do just about everything I need to do on a daily basis, and do it very well. The AF looks great for static subjects (the jury is still out on moving subjects, but that's the vast minority of my paying work), the lenses are largely there (I rarely need anything longer than 70mm or wider than 24mm) or coming soon (Panasonic has shown 'concept' weather-sealed 12-35 and 35-100 f/2.8 lenses, for probable release later this year), the in-body IS looks incredible (some say "like a steadicam", and the footage bears that out), and the body looks the part - I know this shouldn't matter, but a lot of my work comes to me via a major media company, so I want my equipment to look suitably professional when I arrive at a job (the Panasonic G/GH bodies don't cut it here, looking too much like high-end digicams).

I've already started selling off Canon gear (just have my 5D2, 24-70L, 135L, and 300 F4L left) in preparation for the E-M5's arrival in April - I'm first in line at my local shop, and already have an Olympus E-PM1 to act as a backup/walkaround body and a growing m43 lens collection. While the E-M5 may not end up being an ideal wildlife camera - due to the lack of long lenses, I'm going to use an adapter with my 135L and 300L and manual focus for the time being - that represents a very small portion of my normal shooting (and none of my income). My daily camera bag will shrink from several pounds to less than five, with no loss of quality that the clients will ever notice, and I'm enjoying lusting after $1k cameras rather than $3.5k cameras. Nothing against the latter, but I can't justify the expense in the economic client I'm dealing with (Kirk Tuck at http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.com has been particularly eloquent on this over the past year), and I'm honestly enjoying the process of learning to shoot with a whole new system.

A side benefit is that my fiancee can now imagine traveling with me to far-off lands - the amount of effort that went into packing and lugging my Canon gear made traveling a chore, and she never enjoyed walking down the street with the guy sporting the HUGE camera. She loves my E-PM1, and is completely supportive of my efforts to down-size my camera kit

I've been interested in the E-M5 since I heard of it. I currently shoot with a Rebel, but coupled to a 24-105mm, it's not small. (Especially in event situations where you want to shoot photos, but also want to actively take part. I've got a 50mm, but on a 1.6 crop, I find it restricting.) I love the fact that the E-M5 can be beefy with the hand grip, but slim without. I don't shoot much wildlife, so the long lenses aren't a problem.

I guess one of my main questions is about the viewfinder. I'd love something bigger than my current Rebel, but if this has very similar respects to the Olympus VF2, it might not be. Has anyone looked at a VF2 vs. a Rebel's optical viewfinder?

Another big question: silver or black???

The price and the smaller size is very attractive.
The question is if the quality of the picture would match or even come close to that of a 1D Mark IV and 500 lens. (equivalent to 650 mm)
A'm afraid as the old saying goes, you gain some (lightness and prize) and loose some (IQ).
I'm in the age group when every year counts about four in terms of loosing strength and flexibility (and memory).
It would be nice to have a lighter package and retain the image quality or just about.

Most of the higher end EVFs are more like full frame DSLR viewfinders not like small APS-C viewfinders. I dont know specifically for this camera but I would imagine it to be bigger and certainly brighter

Silver of course - gotta go with the Classic Olympus OM look

I found an other zoom lens from Olympus.
It is 70-300 f4-5.6. I'm wondering if it is less of a quality as the price is about half of what you mentioned E.J.
(Talking about the 75-300 with the f 6.7)
Also you can use an adapter and use your existing lenses on the OM-D four third camera.
It would defeat the purpose won't it?

Karl - the 70-300 is a Four Thirds lens, not micro Four Thirds, so you would need an adapter and it would AF slowly (if at all).

Paul - from what I've heard, the VF2 EVF and the EVF on the E-M5 are larger than most APS-C VFs, but I don't have any of the latter around to check (just my 5D2). I have no issues with the size of the VF2 on my E-PM1, and having live exposure information in the VF is so worth it - even beyond having a histogram, the Olympus bodies have a mode that shows over/under exposure as blue/orange pixels as you compose. Even on the little E-PM1, you just click the 'up' position on the rear dial to activate exposure compensation, rotate until the exposure is balanced as you want, click the "OK" button in the center of the dial, and shoot - you basically don't even need to review the photo after it's taken, as you already know what your exposure looked like.

Given that Olympus is known for their beautiful JPEG colors, this will probably allow me to start shooting JPEG only for my daily work, dramatically cutting post-processing time. I could even download to 'the new iPad' (not iPad 3 or iPad HD, thankyouverymuch ), do any necessary processing in iPhoto, and submit the photos from the road over Verizon 4G LTE. A micro Four Thirds camera kit and 3G/4G iPad with iPhoto might currently be the ultimate in 'travel light, submit from just about anywhere' photography. I can't wait to start trying it out.

Karl, you have to be careful not to confuse 4/3 lenses with micro 4/3 lenses. You need an adapter that severely compromises AF to use 4/3 lenses on m43.

Thanks for the thoughts. I have been thinking seriously about the NEX 7, but as we see with the same eye I've got more to think about now.

Thanks guys!

Mr. Baumhauer - The VF2 is smaller than the 5D viewfinder though; right?

Thanks E.J. I guess that's what I just did.

Even at the age of 45, I feel the need to say that Mr. Baumhauer's my dad

It's hard to do a straight-up comparison of the 5D2 and the VF2, as there is so much more camera to obscure what's in front of you on the 5D2, but it does appear that the 5D2 is a bit larger. That said, the VF2 is still pretty large - I don't really notice it being smaller until you really compare them closely, side-by-side. I wear glasses, and both have just enough eye relief that the viewfinder just impinges on the corners of the view, so they feel very similar in use.

Also, as I mentioned, there are HUGE benefits to a good EVF, and I say this as a guy who was very anti-EVF until very recently. The transformation of my shooting and post-processing that will come about when I am able to shoot JPEG instead of RAW while knowing what the exposure actually looks like when I take the shot is a very big deal - a massive time savings.

[quote="Karl Egressy"]
The question is if the quality of the picture would match or even come close to that of a 1D Mark IV and 500 lens. (equivalent to 650 mm)

Right now, IMO and experiences (G3, 100-300/5.6)-no, but not bad either. I think, the point of m4/3 is not to have equal image quality to a professional body/lens combo, but to have small portable camera systems that provide very good image quality.

Panasonic G3. 100-300/5.6 300 mm (600 mm FF equiv) F 6.3 at 1/1250 sec. ISO 400. Basic PP.

Today's higher end m43 cameras exceed the image quality of the original 5D, the D300, and is on par with the 1Ds Mark II. Are we saying that photos taken with those cameras aren't good enough anymore?

That"s right E.J. I was referring on image quality not cameras, but long telephoto m4/3 lens only. My 500/4 still shine if I could stay in radius 500 meters from car zone

Thanks Vlad. Very nice photo BTW!

Not according to DXO Mark camera sensor ratings. The 1Ds Mark II is still 10 points clear of the top rated m43 camera that I could find.

I know that some people criticized the small sensor of the Nikon V1, but I love mine, especially paired with the FT1 adapter. If in the future they will get it working in continuous AF, it will awesome.

Giulio

I think for me the newest generation m4/3 are there for image quality I just wish for fast, longer prime lenses. Olympus should come up with a 4/3 to m 4/3 adaptor like Sony's for the Nex that maintains AF. Olympus have some nice 4/3 lenses like the 300/2.8 and the 90-250/2.8 that would be great for bird photographers. I am not sure sure how the continuous AF is for the EM-D will be though.