Sony vs Olympus Mirrorless. Help me decide.

[B0baFett]

Looking for opinions/perspectives between the olympus om-d e-m5 mark ii vs sony alpha a7ii. I've researched the crap out of these two cameras and I am leaning towards the olympus due to the excellent weather resistance factor and micro 4/3 for the telescopic lenses. The full frame and picture quality of the sony is the other factor. Mostly going to be taking landscape, family and macro photography. Not worried about video. I want mirrorless vs dslr due to the fact that I can make adjustment changes on the view screen. The only reason I am hesitant about the sony is the weather capabilities. Don't want to be caught in a rainstorm and it get ruined. I know it's dust and moisture/condensation resistant but that's it. Seeing people pour water on the olympus with no issues makes me lean towards that even though I'm sacrificing image quality and full frame viewing. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. I've already looked at the a6000/a6300 and I like the image stabilization of the other two and the 6500 is out of my price range.

 

[waday]

I have not used either, but I own the EM5's bigger sibling the EM1 and 6 lenses (12-40 f/2.8 WR, 17 f/1.8, macro 30 f/3.5, 45 f/1.8, 75 f/1.8, and 14-150 f/variable WR). So, I'm somewhat biased.

I've had no issues with the EM1 with regards to water/rain/sand/snow, and I do not hesitate to get it wet (not submerged). One point that should be made for both of these (Sony and Olympus) is that the lens ALSO has to be weather resistant (I've added "WR" to the lenses above to indicate which ones that I have that are weather resistant).

When you say "sacrificing image quality and full frame viewing", what exactly do you mean? And, what is the end result of your photos?

If you're shooting landscapes, I imagine you don't necessarily need a really thin depth of field. Macro, the EM5.2 has in-camera focus stacking, which is a cool feature. "Family" to me means parties, travel, etc, which you'd want something that's smaller and more portable. Both bodies are fairly similar in size, but the lenses of the Olympus family are going to be a bit more manageable.

Here's a comparison for the EM5.2 with a 12-40 f/2.8 compared to a Sony A7II with a 24-70 f/2.8: Compact Camera Meter

Yes, the Sony will have a thinner DOF, but how important is that to you? It wasn't that important to me, and anyways, when I want really thing DOF, I have my f/1.8 lenses.

If you want to see what Olympus and other m43 lenses look like, take a look at the sample image showcase here: Native Lens Sample Image Showcase

Edited to add: I LOVE the IBIS of my camera. I've taken images down to (if I recall) 1/8 of a second that are sharp.

 

[pixmedic]

its not just the camera itself that you have to worry about being weather sealed...its the lenses too.

 

[Jeff15]

Hello and welcome, have you looked at Panasonic Lumix...???

 

[B0baFett]

Hello and welcome, have you looked at Panasonic Lumix...???

Yeah I was looking at the g85 or g8

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[jaomul]

Olympus em5s are great. Olympus do lovely lenses all in very tidy setups. You already know the Sony will do better as you raise the iso. So you need to see if that's ok. Personally I think Olympus make nice imagers, I would not buy Panasonic (again).

Some of my fav photos were taken on olly m43 cams, and I have fx and dx also

 

[DarkShadow]

The Panasonic g85 is the best bang for the buck with the weather sealed body with the 12-60mm lens also weather sealed has better Ergonomics with the DSLR style body and deep grip and with the optional grip getting battery life of a DSLR.Excellent OLED view finder and a much more intuitive and organized menu system and miles ahead of Olympus when it comes to video work but look at the Olympus as well for its weather sealed body and some really great lenses. I have the Panasonic GX85 with the Panasonic 12-32mm the Olympus 25mm 1.8 and the Olympus 40-150mm the image quality with all three lenses is very impressive and Video is superb.IQ is best with the 25mm 1.8 lens for sure. This is SOOC with the 25mm 1,8 Olympus @ ISO 200 @ f/5.6 with 3.2 second exposure time.

 

[ac12]

I am old school, so while the Olympus may be Weather Resistant, I would not plan to shoot in the RAIN without some kind of cover.
And once it gets wet, do NOT swap lenses, or it is likely that you will get water into the camera or lens.

For landscape, if you after maximum detail, you can't beat a high MP FF camera with a pro grade lens.
If you are not going for max detail, then either will work. My 16MP EM1 does just fine, for me.

 

[waday]

I am old school, so while the Olympus may be Weather Resistant, I would not plan to shoot in the RAIN without some kind of cover.
And once it gets wet, do NOT swap lenses, or it is likely that you will get water into the camera or lens.

For landscape, if you after maximum detail, you can't beat a high MP FF camera with a pro grade lens.
If you are not going for max detail, then either will work. My 16MP EM1 does just fine, for me.

For landscape, doesn’t the EM5.ii have the high resolution mode?

 

[ac12]

I am old school, so while the Olympus may be Weather Resistant, I would not plan to shoot in the RAIN without some kind of cover.
And once it gets wet, do NOT swap lenses, or it is likely that you will get water into the camera or lens.

For landscape, if you after maximum detail, you can't beat a high MP FF camera with a pro grade lens.
If you are not going for max detail, then either will work. My 16MP EM1 does just fine, for me.

For landscape, doesn’t the EM5.ii have the high resolution mode?

I think it does.
BUT, I think that has to be done on a tripod, so that the camera does NOT move between shots.

 

[DarkShadow]

Yes the EM5II does have high res mode for stills so its limited in use but for things like Architecture i bet its great or any landscapes of none moving objects looks like its cranks out some impressive detail from what i have seen.

 

[Nick Fernandes]

The sony mirrorless camera features 693 autofocus points, 11 frames per second burst mode, ISO which is expandable up to 204800, five axis in-body image stabilization, dual SD card slots, weather sealing, a three inch tilting touch screen, an OLED electronic viewfinder, and Wi-Fi and NFC capabilities.
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[NGH]

When I was switching from dSLR a few years ago I looked at both Sony and the Olympus Pen-F as my shortlist. I rented both each for a week so I could try them out. The Sony was the technical leader and had a much better feature set (especially the fast focus) but even though the Olympus was more expensive, wasn't as technically advanced, wasn't weather sealed, and had feature I didn't really see myself using , I went for that instead. My reasons were that it just felt right when I used it; after a week with the Sony it still felt like I couldn't find the controls when I needed them and I missed many shots as a result. with the Olympus it felt right within minutes and it was very intuitive for me to use.
In my opinion your camera should make you want to go and shoot it and be comfortable doing so. Fetaures and specs are all very well but if it doesn't work for you then whats the point of them. All the specs that made the Sony better we not really that important to me so in the end usability was the winner.
I advise you to take both your candidates out for a real world test (I took mine on holiday/vacation) and see which really works for you.