It's been two weeks since I've bought a new Olympus OM-D EM5 and I have to say I'm impressed. Yes I've moved from my cropped sensor Pentax k200d to a micro four thirds.

The in body image stabilization is rock solid up to a good size lens length. I've bought lens adapters so I could use the lenses from my Pentax And they works quite well although with a narrow depth of field manual focus can be difficult. However my cheap 500mm lens seems to work better on the olympus then it did on the pentax but that may be because the art11 setting helps to get a more accurate focus.

1/250 sec at f8, ISO 200, 500mm

The image is still soft but usable in situations where sharpness isn't as much of an issue. I was pleasantly surprised to find the 500mm lens works very well in video mode.  I suspect it me be the lower resolution of video compared to still photos.

dove from Aaron Lee on Vimeo.

One of the features that has turned out to be very useful that I didn't expect is the ability to set up to four sets of settings. This allows me to easily switch between different modes. I currently have settings for normal images, infrared, and HDR.

Yes this camera will take infrared photos with a infrared filter. Image quality is so good at high iso settings that these can be taken handheld in good light. This is the tutorial I used to set up my camera for infrared. 

1/30 sec at f 22, ISO 6400, 27mm

Using the Olympus for HDR photography is incredibly easy. The tutorial I used for setting this up can be found here.  Five exposures at 9fps  with good light takes a little more then half a second. This can easily be done hand held if you are steady enough or have something handy to brace against.

five exposure HDR at f22, 12mm

Just a few observations to finish up this post. I bought the camera with the 12mm to 50mm lens. A you can see from the above photo At 12mm this lens has a wide enough view it catches the lens hood. I have also found the touch screen is sensitive enough it can be used instead of a remote shutter release if you are careful. 

Finally I love how small this camera is. I had gotten out of the habit of carrying my camera around with me because the size made it awkward and inconvient to use on a everyday basis. My phone taking the place of a point and shoot for everyday photos. The kit lens is good enough for most uses and the camera and lens easily fits into my smallest bag and I've started carrying it with me when ever I leave the house. I've heard it said often that the best camera is the one you have with you. The camera i have  suddenly upgraded from a 5mp camera phone to a very versatile 16mp  camera.

I really enjoy shooting with this camera. I expect to get a lot of use out of it over the next few years.