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New(ish) OM-5 Owner Here. Very Happy.

Yes, the 12-32mm has OIS. It supports Dual IS 1 and 2, on Panasonic cameras, but Dual IS is not available with Oly or OM bodies.
I have always been a fan of lens IS since my collection of Canon EF telephoto lenses. More than enough for what I needed. Furthermore lens-IS is in most of the Panasonic lenses - and certainly in all those that truly need it and a few more like the 42.5/1.2 Nocticron. Where it is obviously very handy in a serious stop-down situation.

But the Olympus infatuation with IBIS prevented lens IS being used until the 300/4.0 lens. That it is an excellent system in its own right is shown by their very nice 12-100/4.0 IS lens which when mounted on Panasonic kills the Panasonic IBIS where present. Not that this is an issue because lens IS is very good in its own right. This lens is rock steady on any Panasonic body from the G9 (IBIS) to the GM5 (unstabilised body). In fact the GM5 is a very stable platform with any lens that is stabilised.

Not so bad even with lenses that are not stabilised either. Which just goes to show that whilst IBIS, Len-IS and Dual are very good we can actually manage quite well without any artificial stabilisation at all when push comes to shove.
 
I would sure make the camera "jacket pocket" friendly.
As someone who also just got an OM-5 myself, my "jacket pocket" lenses are, the Olympus 14-42 EZ pancake zoom, which is the same size as the Panasonic 12-32 but (i) auto-extends and (ii) can accept an automatic lens-cap, so it is operable as soon as you power the camera up. My other favourite pocket-lens is the Panasonic 20/1.7 pancake prime, also with a semi-auto lens cap, so I never need to take it on or off.
 
I have been known to get my rocks off with an Olympus 40-150/2.8 all a huge wonderful lens, not a bit stabilised and mine still has its tripod mount attached despite being almost always hand held.

I have been known to use it in a GM5 camera body. But with the G9 it makes for full professional level combination. No way the GM5 with this lens is going into a pocket.
 
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I'm also an OM-5 owner since 2 months. I am very happy with it. I come from a Panasonic DMC-GX1, all my lenses are Panasonic but they work fine on the OM-5. The only slight disappointment was that the Panasonic lens IS indeed does not cooperate with the IBIS. Lens IS can be activated, but this will automatically suppress the IBIS, only Oly/OM lenses can join forces with the IBIS if they have IS. With the 14-42 pancake and trusty 14-140, the IBIS easily beats the lens IS. Maybe it's because those are almost as old as the GX1, perhaps the newer editions of these lenses perform better. With the 300mm Panasonic, it is unclear which of the IS systems is better, they seem comparable. I do like the fact that I can now slap even purely manual lenses on this body and still have IS.

Yes, I have used the 300mm on the GX1. It looked ridiculous and balancing or ergonomics were non-existent, like the body was some kind of odd-shaped lens cap, but I did manage to take some pretty OK pictures with it. It does seem to be sensitive to shutter shock at max zoom, the electronic shutter of the OM-5 helps a lot.

I agree that stabilisation is often unneeded, I tended to always turn it off with my GX1 in well-lit situations to save a bit of battery juice. But, I am a bit of a HDR addict and I often take EV bracketed shots to manually combine into HDR in postprocessing, and then it really helps if the frames don't move much w.r.t. each other. I have tried the OM-5 HDR mode but despite the fact that it can cover ludicrous ranges (up to ±6EV, maybe useful if I'm ever going to shoot a supernova next to a black hole or so), it enforces mechanical shutter and is rather slow. When I only need ±2EV (which suffices in most cases), plain old EV bracketing works much better, because it can use high-speed electronic shutter burst mode. Way faster and I usually only need to nudge the frames only a few pixels to align them, even with hand-held night shots.

I am doubting whether I'll sell my GX1 but I'll probably just keep it, because it's not like I'll get a huge sum for it and it certainly does not take much space. It was specifically for its small size that I bought it in the first place, as a kind of compact-on-steroids to always carry with me back in the days when smartphone cameras were still a total joke instead of reasonably decent. It is still in great condition, I only had a bit of a SNAFU with the display when I tried to clean it with an aggressive solvent, but it looks fine again with a good screen protector on it.
 
David, I think you got your OM-5 around the same time I got my OM-1. I have been totally amazed by the OM-1. I still have both of my Panasonic MFT's although I did convert the gx85 to infrared. We'll see how that goes. So far I haven't had it out (590nm seems to like bright sunny days). I'm hoping that the MFT sub-forum here doesn't get as contentious as it was on DPReview.
 
A couple months ago I moved from Nikon FF (Z6 II) to m43, specifically the OM-5. I've been a Nikon user for many years but having recently retired and planning on a lot of travel, the thought of carrying around a FF camera and a couple lenses didn't make me happy. I wanted to be able to capture my travels at a quality level beyond a smart phone but at the same time, not wanting to make taking pictures the main purpose of my travels. The OM-5 is perfect for my needs. So darn light and small, even with a couple lenses. It's super capable and it's a camera that I can grow into should I decide to make photography a hobby.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences and learning from other here.
Hello David and welcome to the m4/3 world. If I may butt in and make a suggestion it has been my experience that m4/3 works very well with somewhat fast, prime lenses, e.g. the f/1.8 lenses from Olympus and the excellent f/1.7 lenses from Panasonic. There are some real bargains here and the DOF profile is very similar to constant aperture f/2.8 zooms on full frame. You might want to give one of these lenses a try. There are at least a dozen of them.

Also, as Dirk has mentioned, the GM-5 is a real gem, especially for travel. If you have a chance to pick on up don't hesitate like I did.

Tedolph
 
Hello David and welcome to the m4/3 world. If I may butt in and make a suggestion it has been my experience that m4/3 works very well with somewhat fast, prime lenses, e.g. the f/1.8 lenses from Olympus and the excellent f/1.7 lenses from Panasonic. There are some real bargains here and the DOF profile is very similar to constant aperture f/2.8 zooms on full frame. You might want to give one of these lenses a try. There are at least a dozen of them.

Also, as Dirk has mentioned, the GM-5 is a real gem, especially for travel. If you have a chance to pick on up don't hesitate like I did.

Tedolph
Thank you. I have the 12mm f/2 and 17mm f/1.8. Have not yet shot much with them but plan on doing so soon.
 
Have had an OM5 about a month now…

I’m still wrestling with how to get AF to behave itself during video clips particularly with a single object (plane or bird) against a blank background - sky or clouds. I’ve finally managed to get manual focus control to work - and stay put too, this’ll amazing how many settings had to be turned off or to MF to make that happen.

Another thing I’ve noticed is colour rendition of some deep reds is off - certain magenta flowers appear more orange-red. I tried a colour test card too with intereting results - can it be tweaked in camera, or deal with it in post ?

The little party trick - starry night focus is fun, and has me looking for a suitable fast really wide lens to have a go at auroras.

Currently using a Panasonic GX 12-35 II and the Oly 75mm f/1.8, both of which I like a lot.
 
A couple months ago I moved from Nikon FF (Z6 II) to m43, specifically the OM-5. I've been a Nikon user for many years but having recently retired and planning on a lot of travel, the thought of carrying around a FF camera and a couple lenses didn't make me happy. I wanted to be able to capture my travels at a quality level beyond a smart phone but at the same time, not wanting to make taking pictures the main purpose of my travels. The OM-5 is perfect for my needs. So darn light and small, even with a couple lenses. It's super capable and it's a camera that I can grow into should I decide to make photography a hobby.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences and learning from other here.
David, I am retired a few years ago and have been thinking about switching from my D500 to either Z or d the OM5. It’s gotten to be just a bit too large and expensive to haul much around. I am curious, how have you found the AF with the OM5 compared to your Z6 II?
 
David, I am retired a few years ago and have been thinking about switching from my D500 to either Z or d the OM5. It’s gotten to be just a bit too large and expensive to haul much around. I am curious, how have you found the AF with the OM5 compared to your Z6 II?
Hey there. Well, first of all you need to know that my photography doesn't really tax the AF in any camera. I don't shoot any action (birds, kids, etc.). I'm all stills. So, for that, I've seen no difference between my old Z6 II and the OM-5.
 
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