Andrew Reid

So you don't want that Alexa then leeys. Bit snobby is it?

The Sigma 30mm F1.4 (old version) is a surprisingly good fit for the 54. Very sharp at F2. Flares up nicely. Good physical fit too.

You see my dilemma...

Yes size is a clear benefit but the X-T1 with 35mm F1.4 is barely any bigger than the E-M5 Mark II with Panasonic 25mm F1.4. Sony have done a pretty good miniaturisation of their FE lenses too. The A7S with 50mm F1.8 is pretty tiny. The zooms may be slow but they still give you a shallower depth of field and better low light performance on the A7S than a faster F2.8 zoom on the Olympus. I am big Micro Four Thirds fan but starting to doubt it vs the competition a bit.

I think you need to reduce horizontal resolution to make the lines roll faster off the sensor. Cropping the sensor vertically would have same effect on rolling shutter as doing the crop in post. In the end, a line of 4K is 3840 or 4096.... that's a lot of pixels compared to 1920.

Hopefully the fact you are offended is ironic given the subject matter! ​Call me blind but I did recently watch a BBC documentary on UKIP, where one party member (reasonably high up) brought one of her friends into her living room, who then in full view of the camera started talking about how she didn't like people with "negro features".

So close yet so far away. Micro Four Thirds needs to go high end if it is to remain a serious prospect for stills. I know people who wonder why ANYONE would shoot stills on anything other than full frame. Well you have lenses to compensate for that, on APS-C - the Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 is one. The Fuji 56mm F1.2 and 35mm F1.4 too. On Micro Four Thirds you have noise problems above 3200 and difficulties getting closer to the full frame look. This was fine when the prices were low (GH2), or video spectacular (GH4) but when Olympus is serving up 2011 vintage E-M5 image quality in 2015 you do start to wonder whether it is all worth the effort any more. It's not like we have a lack of alternatives!! What I think will happen is that the high end mirrorless market will go to the A7, the X-T1, etc. I am sure the lower end consumer stills market will still love the E-M5 II but Micro Four Thirds need to also compete in that high end mirrorless market as well and it is losing the battle there.

As far as stabilisation goes there's no doubt the only reason to buy the damn thing is the stabilisation. The X-T1 beats it for stills and the GH4 thrashes it for video quality. That's a real shame because in many respects the E-M5 II is an inch from greatness.

​Well said. We are being molly coddled. I know it's a cliche, but it's true. Too many people are offended about offence. The US networks have their own version of Top Gear. It would be interesting to see the difference. I very much doubt it is edgier.

Suppose you've got a TV show with 350 million worldwide viewers. It's sold around the world for £50m. One of the most watched BBC shows in the world. Do you decide to protect the content, sorting out disagreements behind closed doors or do you cave into a vocal minority and the press, taking it completely off air, before launching a month-long investigation? Read the full article

​Those portrait shots are the best case scenario and they just about pass muster for YouTube. You will notice a massive distance on wider shots with a focal point that isn't bang in front of the lens.

It's £1099 compared to 1099 euros. Exchange rate is 1.36 euros to the pound. Edit - ah my mistake it's actually £899 in the UK.

​That's pretty optimistic. I don't see the 7D II and 5D III leading the sales charts at the moment. The 7D Mark II body in the US market is only 17th on the Amazon rank for DSLRs, placed 249 in the overall Camera and Photo sales rank, well outside the top 100. The 5D Mark III is number 5 in the DSLR ranks but there are 3 cheap Nikons ahead of it. The D750 isn't far behind at 7. This chart excludes all the mirrorless stuff. Look at that rank and you will see Sony in places 1 to 7. Stuff like the A6000 and A7 Mk II is selling very well. Even better in Europe and Asia where mirrorless has caught on. Canon USA won't even release a new mirrorless camera in the states. They are too scared or cannibalising their DSLR sales.

​How do you explain the Samsung NX1 then? APS-C, 28MP and yet does 4K with full pixel readout. Barely gets warm. It's cheap. The processors for 4K are already even in smartphones.

  ​Interesting spot, however a fixed lens 1" camcorder doesn't sound much like a GH4 competitor to me.

This is probably the most revealing interview I can remember with a Canon exec. Barney Britton and Rishi Sanyal at DPR have asked not just tough questions, but the right questions! Canon imply a small GH4-like 4K camera is "under consideration" and they want to satisfy demand from the news media industry. Read the full article - http://www.eoshd.com/2015/03/canon-exploring-4k-gh4-competitor/

​It might have some advantages. - Finer noise grain - Less banding (this can be caused by scaling) - Less rolling shutter And 1.68x crop is tiny over 1.6x crop Canon APS-C standard, nobody complains about 1.6x vs 1.5x APS-C standards do they? I think the difference will be smaller than imagined.

​I will be showing this with my full review, of course. The first article is just that, a first impressions. It's obvious to me, by shooting the E-M1 and E-M5 II side by side though which has the better quality 1080p. The difference is pretty big. That's because the E-M5 II seems to carry over the same or similar old Sony sensor from the E-M5, whilst the E-M1 uses the Panasonic GH4's sensor with the addition of phase detect AF sensels, allegedly.

​And this method is totally useless.

​Nice post

Yep but probably not for another couple of weeks as busy with other stuff. Love the NX1 internally so much, it doesn't really need the Shogun!

But be careful with the EF Smart Speed Booster, mine doesn't fit, hits the faux-prism at the top of the mount for the EVF.

Sure if the new stabilisation system is THAT much better than the E-M1 then I will keep it and try to put it to some good creative uses. Early days yet, I'm just so disgusted that Olympus have squandered their stabilisation YET AGAIN on a sub-par image. It's getting less easy to let them off the hook because in 2015 it should be judged against the NX1 and GH4, from which point on it starts to look incredibly dated. Think of it as an old E-M5 with heftier crop factor, then add whatever benefit the new stabilisation might give you over other forms of stabilisation before laying down precious cash for this camera. It carries a high risk of disappointment. Also more advice is to use Speed Booster and a soft lens wide open to reduce the aliasing and crop. That helps. Various shooting styles especially close-ups help. Avoiding infinity focus and wide angles or scenes which require hefty dynamic range. Careful grading also helps. At least the codec is better this time out.

Absolutely superb Ed. Love the cinematography, the mood, the idea, the sound, the writing, it's all spot on. Two lines in particular, the one about your dog knowing something "we're still trying to figure out" and the closing lines about New York - utter magic. Will stay with me for a long time because it's exactly how I feel about Berlin at the moment.

The crop in movie mode is enormous on the E-M5 II, larger crop than E-M5 originally and it no longer reduces when you switch off IS. Looks like 2.7x crop so Nikon 1 size sensor effective for movies on the E-M5 II. Oh dear.