Upgrading (finally) from compact to mirrorless

The ONLY benefit the Olympus EM5-3 has over the EPL10 is the separate shutter speed and aperture control dials.  However in my research I found its nearly a 70% price increase (price difference of housing (using both as AOI housings), camera body, and strobe trigger) for the addition of control dials.

I think the general consensus is definitely the EM5III and EM1II is better than the EPL10.

However the EPL10 is maybe about 90% of the capability at half the price or less. Which makes it a capable setup. So its a real bargain.

Floris, Dann-oh and my experience seems to point to lack of buttons seems to be one of those missing capabilities people miss. I have however found you can press the up button shortcut this allows you now to adjust aperture by pressing up and down, and adjust shutter speed by pressing left and right. This in my case makes up for the lack of dedicated dials for shutter and aperture. But i still miss those custom settings.

Another good point is the angled view finder — game changing capability I feel — but i feel is a question of cost (they are damn expensive). AOI has a cheaper alternative of an angled LCD viewer which is a make do sort of option. But the angled view finder is more versatile.

I think it really is a dilemma of cost versus performance. Mainly how much you’re willing to spend.


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11 hours ago, Dann-Oh said:

The ONLY benefit the Olympus EM5-3 has over the EPL10 is the separate shutter speed and aperture control dials.  However in my research I found its nearly a 70% price increase (price difference of housing (using both as AOI housings), camera body, and strobe trigger) for the addition of control dials.

I think it might be a little more than just the dials, I understand the EM-5 MkIII has the 20MP sensor from the EM-1 MkII.  DXO tests show it is about 2/3 stop better on noise than the 16MP sensor of it's predecessor and the this reflects my experience using both EM-5mkII and EM-1 MkII.   All of the other 16MP models reviewed have the same tested ISO performance as the 16MP EM-5 II sensor more or less. 

The AF is clearly a better on the EM-1 MkII compared to the EM-5 II.  The little PEN will have similar AF to the EM-5  MkII.  And of course the EM-5III has an EVF, I much prefer that to the back screen not least because it has a diopter adjustment so I can see the image clearly even through the standard finder.

The reason I am suggesting considering the EM-5III/EM-1II over the EPL-10 is that the EPL-10 when used with the kit lens doesn't seem a huge upgrade over the RX-100II, it's about 1 stop better on noise and AF may be a little better.  The RX-100 had a 28-100 equiv lens while the 14-42 is 28-84 equivalent.   So with the same wet lens it wont do quite as well on macro magnification.   I don't doubt at all the EPL-10 in the AOI housing is a great little package, but if I were spending on an upgrade I feel I'd want to get more additional features for my $$ than what is on offer with the EPL-10.

I fully agree with Chris' remarks. As the EM5-III has the same phase-detection autofocus system as the EM1-II and the same 20MP sensor, I reckon their AF perfomances are the same.  As a reviewer put it "the EPL-10 sticks with a solely contrast-detection autofocus". Not that the EPL10 is a bad camera, but if you can afford it, I would choose for the capabilities of the EM-5III/EM-1II.