Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II review

Image quality

The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II uses a 16-million-pixel Four Thirds sensor, which is basically the same as the one used in the E-M5 three years ago. This means that it can’t technically match its APS-C competitors, particularly for noise at any given ISO. It gives good results up to ISO1600, but ISO 3200 is marginal, and the higher settings for use only when there’s no other choice. However the new 40-million-pixel High Res Shot mode is very impressive indeed, giving both excellent resolution and low noise. Photographers who shoot JPEGs will also appreciate Olympus’s attractive colour rendition.

Resolution

The E-M5 Mark II resolves around 3400 l/ph at ISO 100 in our resolution tests, which is close the theoretical maximum its 16MP sensor could achieve. This falls gradually as the sensitivity is raised and the effects of noise and noise reduction take their toll, to around 3000 l/ph at ISO 1600. Past this though things deteriorate more rapidly, to about 2600l/ph at ISO 6400 and just 2200 l/ph at ISO 25600.

Below we show 100% crops from our resolution chart at each ISO, with a black triangle indicating our estimate of limiting resolution. Multiply the numbers by 200 to give the resolution in lines/picture height.

Resolution: 40MP mode

Switch the OM-D E-M5 Mark II to 40MP composite mode, and the resolution can surpass 4000 l/ph at ISO 100, which is pretty impressive. Because this is a multi-shot mode, noise has less of an impact as sensitivity is increased, with resolution dropping to around 3600 l/ph at ISO 1600. This is still higher than the camera can manage at low ISO in standard 16MP mode.

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