Ok, so I took the EM10 and my new Oly 40-150 to Marwell Zoo today to give it a test. I've been through and edited the images and here's my observations and some samples
First thing to say is that today was grey and dull, not really conducive to good photography but good to learn the limits of the camera - most of my shots were ISO1000+ and often the 1600 max setting wasn't enough.
The first thing I noticed was that the body, O40-150, P14 and PL25 a spare battery all fit into the freebie bag that comes with the 40-150 which is spot on. I could barely tell I had it on me at all and after 2.5 hours of wandering around I still couldn't, I had actually started to look at people with normal low level (i.e. 'small') DSLRs and thought how silly and big they looked, and people with bigger bodies and bigger lenses just looked unnecessarily heavy. There was a chap with a pro Nikon and, I think, a 400mm f/4 on a monopod - how ridiculously massive that looked. I walked back to the car park rather smug about this.
IN USE
I had the Duracell battery in the camera, it is on its first charge and I had shot about 20 shots yesterday and had been playing around with the settings, I got ca. 350 shots from it today, Raw+JPG and screen switched off. I am satisfied with this given the circumstances and my expectations.
The camera is nicely responsive, switching back to the V1 to try and it seemed very sluggish in comparison (although some of the issues with the V1 could be resolved with firmware if Nikon could ever be bothered, which they won't be)
It underexposes most of the time and I will now probably adjust the AE to +0.3 permanently (maybe even 0.7).
Focussing with the 40-150 is slower than my other lenses but still ok, I used the PL25 once and it was noticeably much quicker
Focussing accuracy is fine
At 150mm I wouldn't count on more than one stop of IBIS help, sometimes better but don't count on it, at 40mm it was more like two stops
I like the small size and didn't feel like this restricted me at all (although I do have small hands).
At a zoo the small front element is very handy for shooting between fences
RESULTS
On inspecting the images I would say that at 100% they look pretty much like what my D3200 did, that is to say a little disappointing, but then I am used to full frame goodness and these were almost all shot at high ISO.
High ISO is better than the V1 and the extra resolution is nice although I still love the images the V1 produces.
At normal viewing sizes the images are very pleasing (remember the high ISO).
The raws do seem very flat and require a bit of work
The green channel seems pretty strong - had to drop it a little with most of the shots with grass in.
The images respond well to sharpening and most need it, especially with the 40-150.
White balance often went much too cool - easily corrected but not something a Nikon user is used to.
Even wide open at f5.6 and the x2 crop factor, you need to be aware of stopping down if you want to get everything in focus
Wide open the lens is perfectly good enough for me not to bother stopping down
Here are a few shots:
1. Penguins, this was the only time the sun even made an attempt to come out
Marwell-1040035 by
Ned Awty, on Flickr
2. Meerkat, you can maybe see here where I've dropped the greens in the background?
Marwell-1040113 by
Ned Awty, on Flickr
3. Vulture type thingies, I needed to boost the exposure and shadows a fair bit but the blacks still look nice enough to me
Marwell-1040229 by
Ned Awty, on Flickr
4. Rhino
Marwell-1040312 by
Ned Awty, on Flickr
5. Snow Leopard, this was where the chap with the Nikon pro kit was, I'd be interested to see his results
Marwell-1040350 by
Ned Awty, on Flickr
There are a few more on Flickr.
Overall I would say that today has really ingratiated me towards the EM10, I still need to get used to some of its quirks and learn how to get the best out of it but I am really happy with how it worked today. Combined with how the whole kit fits inside a tiny bag and weighs virtually nowt, has some great other features I've not touched yet (v. excited about live bulb) I am pretty confident my D610 will be permanently relegated to 'best' occasions. Not sure how I feel about that...