The Olympus E-M10 Mark ii - A Great Monochrome Camera

Buying an Olympus e-m10 mark ii in 2024

While in Athens, Greece, I found an Olympus e-m10 mark ii for a good price and purchased it. I’ve been looking for a mark ii for a few months. The e-m10 mark ii isn’t the newest model in the e-m10 line, but it has a few features the e-m10 mark iii and the e-m10 mark iv don’t have. These include better build quality and a tilt-screen, among other things which I’ll discuss in my full review.

I’ve been using my e-m10 mark ii as a dedicated monochrome camera and I want to share my results. Lets see how the micro four thirds sensor performs in 2024.

Olympus e-m10 mark ii Key Features

• 16 megapixel micro four thirds (m4/3) sensor.

• 5-axis image stabilization

• 2.36 million dot viewfinder

• Tilt-screen (not fully-articulating)

• Metal body and excellent build

• Built in Flash

• 390 grams

Is the E-M10 mark ii still worth buying in 2024?

*I am not an Olympus/OM System ambassador, so I have no reason to promote this camera beyond my own personal experiences with it.

Let me first say, the e-m10 mark ii is a great all around camera. For the price, it is one of the most complete packages you can buy on a budget, and also one of the most compact. I’ve seen the e-m10 mark ii hovering consistently around $250 on the used market (ebay mostly). I bought mine for 240 euros on Facebook Marketplace. At this price I consider it a bargain, especially considering the compact camera market has seen mad inflation lately, with the Fujifilm x100vi seemingly driving the hype.

The build quality is that of the Olympus golden days, the sensor is good enough for almost everything, the size is perfect, it has good battery life, and I love the tilt screen (I have enough cameras with fully articulating screens).

If I didn’t have professional video needs, I could probably use this camera as my one-and-only picture taker.

E-M10 mark II as a Monochrome Camera

My interest in using the em-10 mark II as a monochrome camera came after shooting black and white images with my Olympus e-m1 mark II. I really enjoy the monochrome picture profile on my e-m1, but it’s a bit large to use as a take everywhere camera. I also wanted a camera with a tilt screen, as I find it ideal for stills photography and behind-the-camera videography.

I’ve been shooting with my e-m10 mark II for about a month now and I’ve been very happy with the results. The camera uses an older 16mp sensor, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by its resolving power. 16mp really is enough for most uses.

The black and white picture profile is at least as good as the one on my e-m1, I actually think i like it a little better. I don’t know if that is due to the sensor or the profile itself. I generally keep the contrast high and the highlights toned down.

The photo examples in this article are all straight-out-of-camera JPEG files and I’ve not adjusted the images in post. The images were taken using two budget lenses, the Panasonic Lumix 14mm f/2.5 and the Panasonic Lumix 12-60 f/3.5-5.6. Even with budget lenses, the images have nice tonality and suit my preferences. I hope these images give you a good idea of what you can expect from this delightful little machine.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Overall, I’m very pleased to use my e-m10 mark II as a monochrome camera. I like the results more than the output of any other camera I’ve tried. If you’re someone who isn’t ready to plunge $5,000 deep into the world of monochrome by buying a Leica Q2 Monochrom, but you still want to have a pleasant experience with a well built and capable camera, I can heartily recommend an e-m10 mark II.