OM System OM-5 Mark II Review

OM System's problem with the OM-5 Mark II is that it already made this camera in 2022 and did not change much. The sensor is the same 20 megapixel Four Thirds chip, the processor is the same TruePic IX, and the viewfinder is the same 2.36 million dot panel that looked ordinary three years ago and looks dated now. What is new is a USB-C port in place of the old micro connector, a fresh sand beige finish, and a menu system carried over from the OM-1.

The reason to forgive it is the same reason the OM-5 was likeable. It weighs 418 grams, carries an IP53 splash and dust rating that shames cameras twice its price, and hides genuinely clever computational tricks inside: handheld high resolution shots, a Live ND filter that fakes long exposures without a filter thread, in camera focus stacking and starry sky autofocus. On a wet ridge line at dawn this is a lot of capability in a jacket pocket.

The autofocus is the giveaway that this is old silicon, a contrast leaning system with none of the subject detection that makes the OM-1 Mark II feel current, and the video tops out at a modest 4K30. At 1,199 dollars, unchanged from the outgoing model, you are paying today's price for last cycle's camera. Buy it for the weather sealing and the field craft, not because it is new, because in every way that counts it is not.