Mirrorless Camera Reviews

Olympus unveiled its latest, high-end mirrorless camera this morning: the tough, small and powerful OM-D E-M5 Mark II. The E-M5 II uses a Micro Four Thirds sensor similar to the one in the previous model – it once again offers 16 megapixels of resolution – but Olympus says the Live-MOS chip has been redesigned.

The Olympus OM-D E-M10 is the newest and smallest in the company’s mirrorless, Micro Four Thirds-based OM-D camera system. This Compact System Camera (CSC) has a classic SLR design, comparable to other OM-D cameras like the E-M1 and the E-M5. The E-M10 is quite small, almost like a high-end compact camera. The small body could make operating the camera a bit uncomfortable for photographers with large hands, although the body is very robust and based on a magnesium alloy chassis.

Ahead of our upcoming full review of the new 28-megapixel Samsung NX1 mirrorless camera, which will appear in the March 2015 issue of Shutterbug, we had a chance to shoot some sample test images with the camera at the annual Christmas Spectacular show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

The Samsung NX30 is a mirrorless, Compact System Camera (CSC) with a classic SLR design. It offers an electronic viewfinder with 2.36 million RGB dots instead of an optical SLR viewfinder. The viewfinder offers an exceptionally brilliant, sharp, and detail-rich image, which easily allows the photographer to shoot in manual focusing mode.

The 16 MP Leica T is Leica's first CSC (compact system camera) with an APS-C sized image sensor and a new lens mount system. The camera body is milled out of a massive block of aluminum and has a very stylish design. All function elements are fitted into the body: a small pop up flash and even the setup dials fit perfectly and only the shutter release button with the power on/off switch stand out. The power switch has a third position, used to extend the pop-up flash.

The Fujifilm X-E2 is a compact system camera with a “retro” design that offers 16MP resolution. Compared to its forerunner, the X-E1, changes include an electronic viewfinder with extremely high resolution. The small OLED display of the X-E2 has 2.36 million RGB dots and shows a brilliant, very crisp reproduction of the viewfinder image, images in review mode, and menus. The combination of the high-resolution monitor, the electronic magnifier (“viewfinder loupe”), and the focus peaking function are very helpful when working in manual focus mode.

Starting with the 2014 CES trade show, held at the turn of the year, and continuing through press time for this issue, we’ve seen a goodly number of new products come to the fore. All this is only the start—this being a photokina year we’ll see a whole new round of products, including CMOS-sensor medium formats, with prices to match, coming our way. I trust that this report will give you a good sense of what’s here and what’s coming down the pike. So, here are my quick picks of those products that caught my eye, plus a snapshot of some of the trends.