Dpreview.com have published their studio tests of the exciting new Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera and not only confirms how much the image quality has improved over the previous sensors in the Olympus cameras but when looking at the ISO 3200 jpegs, the E-M5 has MORE image detail than most of the other cameras available for comparison, including the APS-C dSLRs and even the Canon 5D mark II and Nikon D3s.

Now of course, the stated Olympus ISO appears to be 2/3EV higher than actual tested ISO, but even given this observation, the image quality has substantially improved to at least be in the ball park with the current larger sensors and that is an impressive achievement and shows that the 2x crop sensor is a perfect compromise in size giving adequate image quality for 90% of us whilst provinding high quality, compact, cost effective lenses – to me this is the perfect travel and social photography kit.

Don’t take my word for it, check the tests out yourself and see how much more detail the E-M5 has at those high ISO levels with not much more noise, and this means one can use NR and still have a good amount of image detail present unlilke the smudged loss of details provided in some of the other cameras.

Olympus USA has also announced a rebate scheme where buyings of this new camera can apply to get one of three optional accessories for free – the OM adapter, the weatherproof Four Thirds adapter or the FL-300R flash – see here.

Olympus Australia has announced their pricing at $A1299 for the body – some 30% premium to US pricing but hopefully they too will be adding free bonuses – perhaps the grip as the European distributor has offered – here’s hoping!