Mathieu and Heather from MirrorLessons have already gotten their hands on the upcoming E-M10 Mark II and they’ve wasted no time before reviewing it. From what I’ve seen, the update is somewhat underwhelming. The Mark II retains the same 16 MP sensor and TruePic VII image processor, there’s still no weather sealing, and there’s still no battery grip option. This update doesn’t really try to grow the list of things the E-M10 was already capable of, instead it is a refinement of the original concept.

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of this camera is how it repositions the E-M10 series within the Olympus lineup as an entry-level product. While the original E-M10 was so good that it even had a leg up the E-M5 with features like WiFi and a more modern image processor, this time around there’s no such thing going on. Everything the E-M10 II can do, the E-M5 II can do as well, but not the other way around. With this camera, the Olympus lineup falls back into a good/better/best model once again, which will be made all the more apparent once the upcoming E-M1 Mark II is announced.

Now, Olympus did add a few interesting new features with the E-M10 Mark II, like their excellent 5-axis IBIS and an electronic shutter option that goes up to 1/16,000th of a second. The EVF was also slightly improved, although probably not enough to constitute a huge difference over the previous one.

Still, for my money the original E-M10 remains an excellent value. Despite these few nice additions, you won’t get better image quality out of the Mark II, which means owners of the previous generation don’t have many compelling reasons to upgrade this time around. That said, if you’re looking to buy your first Micro Four Thirds camera, the new E-M10 Mark II is definitely a solid choice.