Olympus E-5: The Last of the Mohicans?

This morning, Olympus presented a new semi-professional dSLR, the E-5. For some reason, the number 4 isn't quite good enough for the Japanese camera firm, as the E-5 is designed to replace the E-3. To be honest though, not a great deal looks to have changed.

Semi-professional SLRs are updated less frequently than their entry-level counterparts, generally holding out for around two years. Sometimes, the replacement models are only really minor updates too, like the Nikon D300s or the Canon EOS 30D, which were only slightly different to their predecessors. However, the E-3 has been hanging on in there for a good three years now.

Olympus is therefore replacing its semi-pro model with a camera that looks very, very similar, the E-5. The camera body looks to be identical, but then that's no bad thing, as the E-3 was very well made, and we liked its surprising viewfinder (1.15x magnification rivals viewfinders in APS models) and the 11-point autofocus is still very good. What's more, the E-3's dust removal system was clearly the most effective on the market.

However, we can't help feeling a little disappointed, as there's not much new in the E-5. The sensor has been upped to 12 Megapixels, the swivel screen has an improved definition of 920,000 dots, the autofocus in Live View has been improved and xD cards have given way to SD (but there's still a second slot for a Compact Flash card).

There's a 720p HD video mode that records at 30 frames per second, but which uses the largely out-dated Mjpeg format, with a compression-to-degradation ratio that's not up to the standard of H.264, for example. Sound is recorded in mono, but there's a stereo microphone socket.

Elsewhere in the market, the Canon EOS 7D has also been recently released and, on paper, looks better than the E-5 in several different fields. The Nikon D300s could also be a threat the E-5's success, as could certain products a step down in manufacturers' ranges, such as the Canon EOS 60D, which could seriously compete with the E-5's autofocus, Full HD video and burst mode (the E-5 snaps just 5 fps). Price could also be a factor, as the E-5 is announced at €169.99 for the body only—which will probably end up as about £1,400-£1,550—while the Canon EOS 7D body is currently selling at £1,100.

It's also difficult to see a future for the four-thirds-format system, especially since Olympus is the only manufacturer still making this type of camera. In fact, no consumer model has been released since the Olympus E-620 in spring 2009, and now the first new model for 15 months is a semi-professional camera that's fate is yet to be decided.

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