Olympus OM-D E-M10 IV
● £699 body only ● www.olympus.co.uk
THE E-M10 series is of cially the beginner’s entry into the Olympus OM-D camera system, but as this model is now on its fourth incarnation, and has improved each time, there isn’t too much it doesn’t do. The build is perhaps not as rugged as the OM-D E-M1 series bodies, but with the care most enthusiasts take of their kit I don’t suppose that will matter too much.
For the street photographer the E-M10 IV provides a nice ip-up screen that slides away from the body when in the waist-level position so there’s a very good angle of view without the view nder housing obscuring the display. The screen also ips down and below the camera so you can do sel es – though you might prefer to use this to take pictures over your shoulder. The screen provides responsive touch-shutter, and a silent mode with electronic shutter gives us shutter speeds as short as 1/16,000sec. In-body image stabilisation steadies current as well as vintage and third-party lenses, and high-drive settings make shooting at 15 frames a second possible for action sequences. The camera’s AF system is snappy for still and slower-moving subjects where tracking isn’t a priority, and image quality is very nice indeed – sharp pictures, good colour and plenty of dynamic range.
Aside from the quality of the body-build and the absolute sophistication of the AF system, the E-M10 IV doesn’t differ from the E-M5 and E-M1 series bodies in many ways of signi cant importance when it comes to street photography, so using this body instead of one higher up the range shouldn’t disadvantage you very much at all.