In the first part of my review, I mentioned I had a favorite feature on the 16 megapixel Olympus OM-D E-M1 mirrorless camera.

Besides the fact that this a compact camera which makes for easy traveling, it allows you to connect via WIFI to your smart phone. Utilizing this feature you can download photos directly to your phone and then upload to your favorite social media site wherever, whenever in just a few simple steps. Because I detest my phone camera, this was immediately a huge hit with me.
I headed to one of my favorite furniture stores in town armed with this camera to see how intuitive it would be for me to use. I love looking at all the decorative trinkets and this provided the perfect opportunity for me to see how the camera handled white balance, clarity, depth of focus, and bokeh. The first two images I shot I got pretty excited.

Here you can see the difference in depth-of-field. I will tell you that while using the Olympus, I mostly shot manual and in JPG. Yes, I said, JPG which is rare for me because I always shoot RAW.
Click the image to view it larger…

As I moved along the store I was getting very close to the subjects and shot
pretty wide open to see what the bokeh was like. Pretty sweet, that’s what.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

As for clarity, and white balance, I loved the color. I didn’t use auto white balance but adjusted accordingly using the presets and I was very pleased. I typically like my images on the warm side and I really thought the camera did a nice job. Considering I spent a lot of time shooting in low light situations, the images had nice clarity too.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

After snapping away all over the store, I sat down on a comfy sofa to begin the process of connecting via WIFI to my smart phone and uploaded a few snapshots to Facebook and Instagram. It was pretty easy, and oh, did I mention that the LCD is a touchscreen? Awesome. Users of the WIFI feature need to download a simple Olympus App to their phone that allows for wireless connection to download, basic editing including use of filters, use as a wireless remote for the camera. When I returned home, I was able to see the images on my big computer monitor and was even happier.

Up to this point, I had shot only with the 12-40 mm f.2.8 and I truly enjoyed it. As I said, I normally only shoot in RAW, even when I am capturing images for myself. In truth, I thought I would spend all my time in RAW when I received the E-M1, but then I saw the JPGs and just let the camera do the work for me. After all, I was shooting only for myself and the JPGs looked pretty awesome. So why bother? I was also using ridiculously high ISOs (like 5000) and the noise was surprisingly very low and/or pretty much nonexistent.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Aside from uploading photos via WIFI, there are some cool features that not only allow you to be a little more creative but forego the smartphone apps needed to do things like collages or corrections. I took to the built-in collage feature right away. This is a REALLY cool feature. You don’t shoot your images, then import them into an app and put them into a collage. You pick the collage style you want to use to display your photos, and shoot directly INTO THE COLLAGE. Bam, it’s all done. Make a mistake on one of the photos? Just press the delete button to clear that frame in the grid, capture a new image, and press the shutter until the collage is filled. WHAT?! Yes, it’s all done for you IN CAMERA. They even have stylish framing options from which to choose for two to 5 images with various border colors.

Below are some sample of collages you can shoot into when creating your images. Yes, that is me doing a yoga challenge. Don’t laugh. I had to get 5 days into one post and the collage feature was perfect for that task and soooooo easy that my 12 year old daughter figured it out within 30 seconds. Fast enough that she was ready to snap my pics when I was ready to strike a yoga pose. 😀

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At this point, I was thoroughly enjoying the Olympus E-M1 and having tons of fun
with it. I hadn’t even thought of picking up my DSLR to capture an image, and when I did, I brought the Olympus. 🙂 More later…

Olympus OM-D E-M1…
Olympus E-M1 Review, Great Portraits…

 

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