Review
Mirrorless / CAMERA REFERENCE
OM-D E-M5
Olympus
Catalogue announcement:
The E-M5 introduced the digital OM-D line with a compact, weather-sealed Micro Four Thirds body and five-axis stabilisation. It paired a small system with controls and construction aimed at photographers who wanted more than a basic compact.
01 / TECHNICAL RECORD
Specifications
Catalogue specifications. Source: DPReview historical specification record ↗.
Sensor and files
- Effective pixels
- 16 megapixels
- Sensor size
- Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm)
- Sensor type
- CMOS
- Max resolution
- 4608 x 3456
- ISO
- Auto (200 - 25600), 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800, 25600
- Uncompressed format
- RAW
Lens and focus
- Lens mount
- Micro Four Thirds
- Number of focus points
- 35
- Manual focus
- Yes (Live view image is magnified when the focus ring is rotated. (at S-AF+MF or MF mode))
- Image stabilization
- Sensor-shift
Exposure and shooting
- Minimum shutter speed
- 60 sec
- Maximum shutter speed
- 1/4000 sec
- Continuous drive
- 9.0 fps
- Exposure compensation
- ±3 (at 1/3 EV, 1/2 EV, 1 EV steps)
- Metering modes
- MultiCenter-weightedSpot
- Aperture priority
- Yes
- Shutter priority
- Yes
- Built-in flash
- No
- External flash
- Yes (via Hot-shoe (FL-50/FL-50R, FL-36/FL-36R, FL-20, FL-14, FL-300R, FL-600R))
- Timelapse recording
- No
Video and audio
- Resolutions
- 1920 x 1080 (60 fps), 1280 x 720 (60, 30 fps), 640 x 480 (30 fps)
- Format
- H.264, Motion JPEG
- Microphone
- Stereo
- Speaker
- Mono
Viewfinder and screen
- Viewfinder type
- Electronic
- Viewfinder coverage
- 100%
- Viewfinder magnification
- 1.15× (0.57× 35mm equiv.)
- Screen size
- 3″
- Screen dots
- 610,000
- Articulated LCD
- Tilting
- Touch screen
- Yes
Body and connections
- Storage types
- SD/SDHC/SDXC
- Battery description
- Lithium-Ion BLN-1 rechargeable battery & charger
- Weight (inc. batteries)
- 425 g (0.94 lb / 14.99 oz)
- Dimensions
- 122 x 89 x 43 mm (4.8 x 3.5 x 1.69″)
- Environmentally sealed
- Yes
- USB
- USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/sec)
- HDMI
- Yes (Mini HDMI type-D)
- Wireless
- Eye-Fi Connected
- Remote control
- Yes (Optional (RM-UC1))
02 / INDEPENDENT COVERAGE
Reviews and field reports
Independent review
Cameralabs · Olympus OM-D E-M5 review ↗
McMahon found single autofocus fast and praised the stabilisation and compact weather-sealed body. Continuous autofocus was less dependable than stronger tracking systems, and the body lacked a microphone input.
03 / PROVENANCE
Sources and dates
A catalogue year identifies the year held in the source dataset. Announcement dates and retail months are labelled separately. Specifications can vary by region, firmware and recording mode; use the linked manufacturer documentation for those conditions.
Archive updated 2026-10-04. Archive coverage and dataset credits →