Olympus OM-D EM-5 on Shasta

Big photos small camera!

As an outdoor shooter and backcountry adventurer I have written before about my interest in the new micro 4/3 camera systems and how much weight can be saved by using them.  With interchangeable lenses, no mirrors, electronic view finders, and no waiting when you push the shutter button they fill the void between my full frame cameras and less than ideal point and shoots. 

The one complaint I have had with early micro 4/3 bodies is that viewfinders are an accessory that makes them awkward and less durable.  Often these viewfinders also have a lag time that makes it difficult to capture moving action.

D800 vs EM-5 with similar focal length wide angle lenses

With all the hype about the Olympus OM-D EM-5 micro 4/3 camera I thought it was high time I gave it a shot to see if its built in electronic viewfinder would be up to professional level action work in bright conditions that my previous 4/3 bodies were not.  So two days before heading to Mount Shasta what does the happy little man in the brown truck deliver?  A brand new EM-5 with the 12-50mm lens.  I figured I have 30 days to return it if I don't like it, and taking it on a real mountain adventure for a couple days is a far better real world test then lens charts in the office.

So after shooting about 600 frames while climbing to 14,180ft and skiing 5,000ft how does it compare to my D800?  In terms of actual resolution the D800 is obviously going to beat it, but in terms of real world use how often do I need 20x30 prints from a climbing or skiing adventure?  Aside from lacking the ability to activate the autofocus using a thumb button rather than the shutter button to make focusing and recomposing easier I didn't really miss too much from my D800 or D3s.  The autofocus was fast, the exposures were good once I had the histogram appearing in the viewfinder (remember I was shooting on snow with an untested camera), and the 9 frames a second was great shooting what little action I did come across. 

Overall the climb was more about getting my Dad to the summit and my getting to ski back down, so I didn't focus all my energies on shooting, but the time I did spend was well rewarded with enough publishable images to illustrate a magazine article about climbing with my Dad. 

In a perfect world I wouldn't have to make compromises, but the difference between leaving the camera at home or taking it to a summit makes these compromises worth every ounce saved.  Of course I would prefer to have my D800 with an entire 40lb bag of professional glass, but that would mean I never made the summit.  If I were doing the trip again I wouldn't hesitate to take the EM-5.  This time I would just make sure not to forget the wide angle lens in the car!