Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III
Confusing Title, but a fantastic little camera
Just a heads up, pictures are coming. I have them, just haven’t had a chance to upload them. They will be coming eventually.
I have been using Olympus for a good enough while that I’m comfortable talking about it enough to give a nice verdict. First and foremost, it’s small and light, but far from perfect. Let’s look at the good, bad, and what makes the camera my favorite to shoot.
All the shit that doesn’t matter
This camera just looks great. Its small size and somewhat vintage look really is appealing. It’s a timeless design. Despite the OM-1 being out now, it still looks timeless and not out of date. It fist my hands great. I would say I have somewhat larger hands, but that’s preference. The viewfinder looks nice enough, I could really care less about resolution as long as I can comfortable get the shot. JPEGs look great and the art filters are all there in their glory (who buys an E-M1 for the art filters?). The weight is nice too. It feels heavier than it is, yet doesn’t hurt my back to use. The camera, lense, and everything else slots nicely into my bag for the most part. I actually find it not to fit as snugly as I would like. I guess it’s new bag time after all.
The shit that does matter!
The good stuff
Speed
The camera is stupid quick. Like 15FPS quick mechanical. 60FPS if you use the electronic shutter. Ironically you will run out of shots in less than a second at 60FPS… so I have never used it. As for AF, you get it at 15FPS, not so much at 60FPS. Keep this in mind if you are using it for continuous tracking. When shooting insects, wildlife, or sports it’s like a laser. Just fires off like the world is ending.
Autofocus
It’s great. Single point locks on quick and the face and eye detect work well even with wide aperture primes. The system has a joystick that was missing from its predecessor, which makes it that much faster to get the AF point where it needs to be. It’s super customizable too. You can set up groups or sizes that you can work with and it covers everywhere that matters on the frame. I’ve never needed that area on the edge of the sensor so it’s not 100%. Where the 121 AF point cover are perfect for me though, I’ve never needed more and it’s quick to dart around the screen without slogging through tons of AF points. Face and Eye detect is also great. It does a good job and getting the iris in focus.
Size
The camera is compact, and most of the lenses from Olympus are much smaller to get the same focal range as a full frame lens. This is a massive size drop. I thought I would drop half the wait in my bag, but I found it to be much more. My 85mm f1.8 EF lens weighs over 3 times what the 45mm f1.8. The field of view is similar but the weight is less than 3 times of the 85. Sure I won’t have depth of field but I’m only getting 2 times more depth of field while saving 3 times the weight. This doesn’t mean I’m not still getting depth of field. Indeed I am. It just isn’t as… obliterated. I’m fine with that.
Lenses
Olympus makes a damn good lens. Even the cheaper lenses I have are still pretty sharp, sharper than what I had on my Canons of past. Their consumer telephoto (40-150 f4-5.6 R) is much better than canon’s latest option (EF-S 55-250 f4-5.6 STM) in sharpness and chromatic aberrations.
There are 4 different lenses for macro on micro four this, with another one from Olympus coming soon as of writing this. There are telephotos all over the place too. 3 different 40-150 options from Olympus, the 300mm f4, the 150-400 f4.5, and a 70-300 and 100-400 consumer telephoto. They know their target market is wildlife, and they have lenses for everyone.
But what really sold me is the Pro lineup. All of them are fantastic performer with fantastic image quality. There are 5 primes and 8 zoom lenses. I’m not double checking that I’m missing anything, because I’m sure I am, but it’s got all the bases covered.
17mm f1.2
20mm f1.4
25mm f1.2
45mm f1.2
300mm f4 IS
7-14 f2.8
8-25 f4
12-40 f2.8 (there is a version 2 out now)
12-45 f4
12-100 f4 IS
40-150 f2.8
40-150 f4
All of these lenses are optically fantastic. They focus quickly and perform well. I use the F2.8 12-40 and 40-150. I do plan on getting the 17mm and 45mm lenses soon though. I do mostly portraiture. Now it’s not just that these lenses are fast, they are fairly affordable for pro glass. The cheapest option here is f4 12-45 at 700 bucks. that’s a steal for an optically fantastic pro lens. Canon has their 17-40 f4 but it was never as good of a performer like the 12-45 f4 I tried was. Each of these lenses are fantastic, but there is a lens for everyone in their pro lineup.
Durability
Pro cameras are often touted as being weather sealed. Olympus takes it a step further, it’s rated IPX1. That rating has been tested by me, and honestly I’m fine with dragging these lenses out in the rain or snow. I got this to get back into shooting OCR racing without the bulk and I’m quite happy with what options I have and how they perform. They withstand most outdoor bumps and dings well, and the camera is still in fantastic shape.
Image Quality
It’s good. 20.4 megapixels of good. Its quality is there and performs quite nicely. It’s not the newest sensor, but it wasn’t a bas sensor to begin with. It produces good result and enough dynamic range that I’ve never wanted for more. it’s good, nothing more needs to be said. Granted that has a lot to do with lenses, but dynamic range performs well. ISO is useable in most cases up to 1600 and in some cases even 3200. I’ve gone up to 6400 in extreme conditions and it did just fine. It’s fantastic.
Image Stabilizaion
It offers IS, in body! You might have noticed that most of the pro lenses don’t have stabilization. The reason being is the E-M1 has 5 axis IS built in. it’s good too! I think it’s seven stops without Sync IS (this is where in body and lens stabilization works together). In real world use, I believe the 7 stops. It’s stable, and many times I’m shocked how well it works in almost any situation. There are tweaks you can make to it for different situations, but I never found a reason to. This camera has to have the best IS around, No questions asked.
The Bad
Autofocus
So though it’s fast and accurate, it’s not perfect. The tracking sucks. I’m not putting it any other way. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, but it’s not competitive. Continuous AF is fine if the AF points are predetermined and you keep it on your subject; the camera just struggles with tracking and it’s really as shame. I used a DSLR before and honestly I had to use group AF and keep my subject in the grouping to keep them in focus. It’s nothing new for me, but I was hoping that this iteration would have been an improvement that I could finally use tracking AF.
The Menus
The menus are confusing. It’s like rocket science. Insane. That being said it’s because there isn’t really much you can’t do with this camera. If there is a setting, then it can be adjusted. It’s just a shame how confusing they have made it. Now there is the SCP (Super Control Panel) which is activated by hitting the OK button. The SCP has every feature you probably need to access in most situations, which is great. You can use the control pad, the joystick, or touch to command it. Speaking of touch…
Touch interface
This is not a multi touch display. There is no pinch to zoom. It’s not a deal breaker as someone who rarely uses the touch screen. It is a bit of getting used to, and not as in depth as the menus. It’s nothing major, but it’s something to be aware of. Still a better implementation than most of the earlier touch Sony cameras, but the keyword is the “older" Sony cameras.
The things I didn’t mention because I don’t care about them!
Some of these things will matter to you and some won’t. I can only report on what I know about the camera from my uses, but these are some nice things to note.
Hi Res Shooting
The camera has 3 high res modes. 50 Megapixel tripod, 80 Megapixel tripod, and 50 Megapixel handheld. These three modes let you shoot static items and create a super high resolution image. In practice it also cleans up the image’s noise as well. These produce a Raw file as well, making editing quite effective. I have tried this once, but it was when I first got it. If get back into still life I’ll let you know how everything works out.
Crop Factor
I didn’t write about this because it’s irrelevant to the review. It’s a micro four thirds camera. There is a crop factor. This means that the focal length has to be multiplied by 2 to get the same field of view as a 35mm- or full frame- camera. This doesn’t mean it’s the same as a full frame camera. The depth of field will be like 2 stops different. The Olympus 45mm f1.2 will perform more like a 90mm f2.5. For me, this doesn’t matter. I like to incorporate backgrounds into my subjects as opposed to remove the background so I generally shoot around f2.8 to f4 on my micro four thirds camera. This means I shoot closer to 5.6 to f8 for a lot of my portraits when I shot full frame. It’s not a deal breaker in my book, but it’s something to consider.
Computational Photography
This camera has a few cool tricks up its sleeve: Live ND, Live Bulb, Live Time, and Live composite. I’ve never used these, so I’m going off what I figured out playing with the camera in the process of writing about this. Basically I’m saying google it. I don’t know enough to really cover it.
Live ND is like it sounds. It simulates an ND filter by taking many long exposures of your scene. You can set up to 5 stops of ND. This combines these images to create a RAW file.
Live Composit leaves the exposure open but only adds brighter components to the frame. This makes light painting easier because the exposure of the scene can be set and only the added light will take effect. Think of star or light trails. You can see the scene building out on the camera as this goes on.
Live Bulb and Live Time are similar except they keep exposing the scene. Bulb keeps the shutter open while the button is pressed. Time keeps the shutter open until you hit the shutter a second time to close it. Same as live composit it builds the scene and you get to watch it. Think star or light trails but a different way of doing it from live composition.
Video
It does 1080 at 120p and 4k at 30p. I don’t know more about it. It’s a camera to me, not a camcorder. That being said there is a lot of of good information out there about it. I’m just not experienced enough in videography to tell you if this is good or not. I think there are probably better cameras out there for video in terms of features. That’s all I can say on that.
In Closing
Basically it’s a solid little camera. It’s fun to use and versatile, but it’s complex and a real photographers camera. it’s the perfect camera for me. But it may not be the perfect camera for you. That’s okay! But at least you know more first hand how this camera works for me. It’s a fantastic camera, but there are a lot of cameras. Hopefully this helps you decide if this is a good option for you.