OM System OM-5 Mark II, with the Olympus M.Zuiko 12-45mm f/4 Pro lens, outdoors in woodland.
In the course of testing the new OM System OM-5 Mark II, I took thousands of photographs. Admittedly they're not all keepers – you burn through hundreds of shots while using features like Pro Capture, for example, which records the 15 frames before you fully depress the shutter button so that never miss a moment.
Then there's all the photos of test charts and pictures of my DVD shelves as I fiddled with different settings and features… but beyond all that, I took some halfway reasonable photos in the course of producing my OM System OM-5 Mark II review. And I think they're useful to share with you, to give an idea of what the camera can do.
In case you missed it, this camera packs a 20.4MP Micro Four Thirds image sensor – though it's capable of pixel shift shooting for up to 80MP photographs. It packs 10fps burst shooting with full AF (or 30fps with AF locked), and it boasts amazing computational photography tricks (accessible via the CP button) such as Live ND filters – which give you a software-driven 4-stop ND without the need for a physical filter!
Often overlooked, however, are the 14 Art Filters. Admittedly some of these are a bit tacky, but others are as good as anything on a Fujifilm camera (heck, one of them is the camera filter that Taylor Swift uses). I've used them liberally here, so you can judge for yourself… here's a real-world look at how the OM System OM-5 Mark II shoots.
OM System OM-5 sample photo gallery
OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 Macro (1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO500, custom mono) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/500 sec, f/8, ISO200, Instant Film filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 (1/80 sec, f/6.2, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/200 sec, f/5, ISO200, Instant Film filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 Macro (1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO200, Vintage I filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/320 sec, f/6.3, ISO200, Instant Film filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/200 sec, f/5, ISO200, Vintage I filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO200, custom mono) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/20 sec, f/8, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/400 sec, f/7.1, ISO200, Instant Film filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/200 sec, f/5, ISO200, Vintage III filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/250 sec, f/8, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/400 sec, f/7.1, ISO200, custom mono) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/125 sec, f/4, ISO200, Vintage III filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 (1/2000 sec, f/5.6, ISO1250) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO200, Vintage III filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO500) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + Helios 44-2 (1/500 sec, f/2, ISO200, Pop Art filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 (1/200 sec, f/6.7, ISO1000) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 Macro (1/80 sec, f/3.5, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 Macro (1/320 sec, f/3.5, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 Macro (1/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO500) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 (1/80 sec, f/6.2, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 Macro (1/125 sec, f/3.5, ISO200) (Image credit: James Artaius)OM System OM-5 Mark II + M.Zuiko 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro (1/400 sec, f/7.1, ISO200, Vintage III filter) (Image credit: James Artaius)
High Res Shot (80MP) mode
And in case you're wondering about the camera's High Res Shot mode, here's an example of how it works.
Obviously when you take a regular photograph with the OM-5 Mark II, it captures it in the standard 20.4MP resolution:
20.4MP standard resolution (5,184 x 3,888) (Image credit: James Artaius)
However, when you enable High Res Shot mode, the camera takes multiple frames and uses the image stabilization system to shift the sensor between shots – then stitches them together to create a 50MP or 80MP image:
80MP High Res Shot (10,368 x 7,776) (Image credit: James Artaius)
To save you pixel peeping, here are a 100% crops of both images so you can see exactly what the difference in resolution looks like:
100% at standard 20.4MP resolution (Image credit: James Artaius)100% at 80MP High Res Shot (Image credit: James Artaius)
This obviously gives you far more firepower than the camera's native 20.4MP resolution. However, there is a catch; because multiple frames are being taken while the sensor is being shifted, any motion in your frame will be rendered as movement artifacts.
Thus, High Res Shot isn't suitable for subjects that are moving. Still life, architecture, cityscapes and so on are ideal, but even natural landscapes can create problems – if there is movement in leaves, branches or water, you can see some strange effects in the final photo.
