OM System OM-1 Review | Photography Blog

Introduction

Ease of Use

The OM System OM-1 looks an awfully lot like its 3-year-old predecessor, the Olympus EM-1 Mark III, with most of the improvements being made to the inside of the camera rather than to the outside.

The OM-1 weighs in at 511g body only and measures 138.8 x 91.6 x72.7mm, a whole 7g heavier and ever so slightly bigger than the previous model. You can’t use the same vertical grip on both models, though, with the HLD-9 being superseded by the new HLD-10.

Just like the original E-M1, which was released way back in 2103, this new camera also boasts a tough dust-, drip- and freeze-proof magnesium alloy body, but it’s now even tougher as it’s rated in the more stringent IP53 dustproof and splashproof protection class, which means that it is protected against spraying water when tilted up to a 60-degree angle.

When used together with a similarly weatherproof lens, the OM-1 should withstand most things that you care to throw at it.

The OM System OM-1 is now equipped with independent AEL and AF-ON buttons, which is really the only notable external difference between it and the Olympus EM-1 III.

Otherwise, the two cameras are pretty much nigh-on identical in terms of their control layout.

The Olympus E-M1 III has a generously sized hand-grip which makes it easy to get a firm hold on the camera with three fingers whilst operating the shutter button with your right forefinger.

The hand grip and indeed most of the front of the camera is covered in a leatherette-like textured material. There are two buttons next to the left of lens mount. By default these controls are assigned to one-touch white balance and depth-of-field preview but, like almost everything else on the OM-1, they can be reprogrammed to perform different tasks if you so desire.

The OM-1 has an improved electronic viewfinder and vari-angle LCD screen combination. The new OM-1 carries over the 1.65x magnification of the E-M1X but significantly increases the resolution to an impressive 5,760K-dots. It also uses OLED rather than LCD technology. And whereas the older E-M1X and E-M1 III both have a 1,040K-dot resolution LCD screens, the new O-M1 has a slightly better 1,620K-dot screen.

On the top of the camera, to the left of the viewfinder housing (when viewed from above and behind) there is a cluster of controls comprised of two raised buttons and a power switch. Each of the two buttons provides access to two sets of settings.

Press the first one and you can adjust the camera’s drive modes and flash settings with the rear and front control dials, respectively. Hit the second and you can cycle through the various focus and metering modes offered by the camera. The placement of the on/off switch means that you need to use your left hand to turn on the camera.

Moving over to the other side of the viewfinder hump, we find a traditional shooting mode dial with a handy locking pin in the middle. On the OM-1 the mode dial locks with one press of the locking pin and unlocks with a second press, which is a clever idea.

The dial itself offers the usual P, A, S and M modes, plus a Bulb and dedicated Movie mode and separate positions for 4 separate Custom modes for quick access of custom settings banks, or Mysets in Olympus parlance.

The OM System OM1 inherits the still innovative 2×2 Dual Control system from its predecessors. This is comprised of two top-mounted control dials and a function lever on the rear that’s pretty easy to reach with your right thumb.

The function lever has two settings. In the first position, moving the control dial on the front of the camera adjusts the aperture while the dial on the back adjusts the shutter speed. On the second setting, the dials change the ISO value and white balance respectively.

You can also configure the switch’s operation too – for example, you can turn it into a handy AF/MF toggle if that makes more sense to you.

The remaining controls on the camera’s top plate include the already mentioned shutter release button, plus a dedicated Movie Record button and an Exposure Compensation button.

There’s a handy ISO button on the rear right shoulder and also a small but tactile multi-selector joystick that makes it straight-forward to quickly move the AF point using your right-hand thumb whilst holding the camera up to your eye.

The rear of the camera is dominated by a large, vari-angle rear touchscreen which can be tilted to the side and rotated to the front for easier selfies. This LCD panel has a higher resolution, 1,620K dots, than its predecessor, and capacitive touchscreen technology.

The Info, Menu, Playback and Delete buttons have all been carried over from the previous model in exactly the same locations. The Menu button is located over to the far-left of the viewfinder alongside the Display button.

The OM1 has a much improved menu screen configuration that has been completely redesigned to make it easier to find the desired functions, and make changing settings easier for first-time users. It even tells you why some menu items are greyed-out and unavailable!

On the right is a separate AEL button encircled by the afore-mentioned function lever, with the new AF On button alongside it, which is the main ergonomic change when compared to the EM-1 III.

The OM-1 makes do without a built-in pop-up flash, and sadly no longer comes bundled with the tiny FL-LM3 flash unit which clips into the external flash hotshoe.

You can still use more powerful system flashes with the OM1, such as the powerful FL-900R, the FL-36R, the FL-600R or the FL-50R, but these are of course sold separately.

The OM System OM-1 uses a new BLX-1 battery which is different to the BLH-1 used in the previous E-M1 III camera, so you can’t carry on using all of your old batteries if you upgrade. This provides up to 520 still images or 160 minutes of video, an increase of 25% compared to the E-M1 III.

The OM1 also provides the ability to charge it on the go via the USB port and also power it using an external power bank, two features that we’re seeing more and more of on recent cameras.

Note that there is no external battery charger included in the box, so the only way to charge it is via USB with the battery in the camera, unless you purchase the optional OM System BCX-1 Battery Charger which can charge two batteries at once.

There is enough room for dual memory card slots on the OM-1, and thankfully both of them now support the fastest UHS-II standard, which should help the camera keep up with all those high-speed bursts.

The OM System OM-1 is equipped with a brand new image sensor which focuses on out and out speed.

It continues to offer exactly the same 20-megapixel resolution as the EM-1 Mark III, which will likely disappoint those looking for an increase in resolution, especially as Panasonic have recently made the jump to 25 megapixels in their GH6 model.

The main upgrade is the sensor technology that the OM1 uses. With a stacked, BackSide Illuminated (BSI) sensor at its heart, the OM-1 can shoot much more quickly than its predecessor, which was itself no slouch, whilst also offering greater dynamic range and improved noise performance.

This is the first ever Micro Four Thirds camera to use a Stacked BSI sensor, a design that several full-frame cameras also use, notably the Canon EOS R3 and Nikon Z9 and Sony Alpha A1.

The native ISO range of both the E-M1X and E-M1 III was 200 to 25,600, which could be expanded down to ISO 64. The native ISO range of the new OM-1 is 200 to 102,400, which can be expanded down to ISO 80, so it has a slightly higher base sensitivity than the older models but significantly offers two stops more at the high end.

The OM1 has a brand new image processor, dubbed TruePic X, which as well as enabling significant improvements to the camera’s speed, also enhances its AI computational features. This new camera can now recognize formula cars, motorcycles, airplanes, helicopters, trains, and birds, as well as animals (dogs and cats).

In addition to being able to recognise and track a wider range of subjects, the OM1 has a greatly enhanced AF system which OM System have dubbed as Cross Quad Pixel AF.

The new sensor has a quad-division photo diode configuration which allows for on-chip Phase Detection AF in both vertical and horizontal directions. This provides a whopping 1053 all-cross-type points that cover 100% of the frame and is capable of working down to -8EV low light at F1.2, with the ability to choose from all points to setup your own custom AF layouts.

The new system is claimed to be 2x more accurate and 3x faster than the one on the E-M1 III.

The Olympus E-M1 III could shoot an impressive 18 full-resolution frames per second with continuous autofocus/autoexposure when using the electronic shutter, or 50fps with AF/AE locked to the first frame of the sequence.

The new OM System OM-1 takes things to another level entirely, providing 50fps blackout free continuous shooting with full AF/AE tracking at full resolution, and up to 120fps with the AF/AE locked at the first frame, making it one of the fastest, if not the fastest, cameras on the market.

Note that those impressive speeds are only achievable when using the electronic shutter. If you want to use the mechanical shutter, you’re more limited to a still very rapid 18fps, which is slightly faster than the EM-1 III’s 15fps.

Additionally, the OM1 has an improved Silent mode, in which it uses an electronic shutter capable of high-speed continuous shooting at up to 20fps with full AF/AE tracking, although there is some blackout between frames.

The shutter life is rated at 400,000 actuations, exactly the same as the previous model. Note that this is for mechanical actuations, not electronic, so if you shoot at 50fps when using the electronic shutter, it won’t actually affect the shutter count.

The OM System OM-1’s further improved 5-axis in-body image stabiliser works in tandem with the in-lens stabilisation system incorporated into certain lenses to provide a claimed 8-stop advantage when shooting hand-held, surpassing most other cameras that we’ve ever tested, including the previous Mark III model.

The majority of Four Thirds lenses don’t feature sync IS, but the OM-1 still uses its in-body stabilization to offer a whopping 7.0 stops of compensation, still surpassing most other cameras.

It can also use its excellent 5-axis sensor-shift image stabiliser whilst shooting video, which translates into surprisingly smooth hand-held footage, even when using a medium telephoto lens.

The OM1 is markedly better than its predecessor in terms of video performance. It can now record video at C4K/60p quality, compared with C4K/24p on the older E-M1 III and E-M1X models, whilst Full HD now goes up to 240fps (up from 120fps).

The OM-1 finally also supports H.265 (10bit) as well as the H.264 (8bit) standard that the E-M1X and E-M1 III supported, as well as RAW data output up to 12 bit 4:4:4 to external devices and a new HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) mode.

Manual exposure can be enabled for videos, although you do have to rotate the mode dial to the Movie position to take advantage of this. You can start filming in practically any other shooting mode too, but in that case, videos will always be recorded with auto exposure.

The OM-1 offers the flat OM-Log profile for more flexible colour grading in post-production and editing. It also has a dedicated 3.5mm mic jack on the body for better sound recording as well as a headphone jack for monitoring the audio.

The clever High Res Shot shooting mode has been retained, with the OM-1 capable of shooting 50 megapixel images in the Handheld High-Res Shot mode and 80 megapixels in the Tripod High Res Shot mode. It’s now faster than the previous model, though, taking about 5 seconds to merge the images, and noise has been reduced by approximately 2 stops.

Another clever feature that can also be employed handheld is Live ND, which uses a similar method of merging multiple exposures together, but this time to capture images using a slower shutter speed in daylight.

Traditionally you’d need to fit a glass ND filter in front of the lens to achieve this effect, but here it’s as simple as selecting the Live ND option and choosing from the 6 levels on offer, running from ND2 (1 step) to ND64 (6 steps), which is 1 stop better than the E-M1 III.

It’s not quite as powerful as fitting something like a Lee Big Stopper 10-step filter, but being able to achieve much longer exposures simply by choosing a menu option whilst hand-holding the camera and even previewing the effect in the viewfinder or LCD screen before capture is extremely liberating.

Note that it doesn’t work with flash, though, so you’ll still need a glass ND filter to overpower the sun when shooting outdoors.

As its name suggests, the Starry Sky mode helps to avoid errors that are commonly made when manually focusing on the night sky, with the OM-1 using luminance information gathered by the sensor instead of relying on its phase detection or contrast AF systems to achieve accurate focus.

Using this mode, you can even dispense with a tripod altogether if you wish, with focusing sensitivity down to -3.5 EV, while the new night view mode makes it possible to view subjects even in dark environments.

The OM-1 continues to use the same very effective supersonic wave filter for dust reduction as employed on the E-M1 III, which vibrates at a speed of more than 30,000 times per second to instantly remove dirt and dust from the image sensor.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20M Superfine JPEG image size option, which produces an average image size of around 12Mb.

The GH6 is the first OM System Micro Four Thirds camera to push past the 20 megapixel barrier, utilising a brand new 25.2-megapixel Live MOS Sensor with no low-pass filter.

The OM System OM-1 produced images of outstanding quality during the review period. It produces noise-free images at ISO 100 to 1600, with limited noise starting to appear at ISO 3200. ISO 6400 and 12800 exhibit quite visible noise and loss of fine detail, while the fastest setting of 25600 looks much better on paper than in reality.

The various Photo Styles and Filters allow you to quickly and easily customise the look of the camera’s JPEG and Raw images before you take them. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 60 seconds and Bulb mode of up to 30 minutes allowing you to capture plenty of light.

The High Resolution Mode successfully creates much larger 50 or 100 megapixel images and can be employed when the camera is mounted on a tripod and also hand-held. It’s still best reserved for use with non-moving subjects.

Noise

There are 12 different ISO settings available on the OM System OM-1 which you can select at any time if the camera is in one of the creative shooting modes. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting for both JPEG and RAW formats.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 80 (100% Crop)
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)
ISO 12800 (100% Crop)	ISO 12800 (100% Crop)
ISO 25600 (100% Crop)	ISO 25600 (100% Crop)
ISO 51200 (100% Crop)	ISO 51200 (100% Crop)
ISO 102400 (100% Crop)	ISO 102400 (100% Crop)

File Quality

The file quality settings available on the OM System OM-1 include Normal, Fine and Superfine for JPEGs, and you can also shoot in Olympus’s proprietary ORF raw file format.

Superfine (12.6Mb) (100% Crop)	Fine (7.7Mb) (100% Crop)
Normal (4.9Mb) (100% Crop)	RAW (17.9Mb) (100% Crop)

High Resolution Shot

The OM System OM-1 can create an 80, 50 or 25 megapixel JPEG or RAW file in the High Resolution Shot mode, achieved by shifting the sensor in half-pixel steps and capturing eight images over a period of one second.

There’s also a handheld 50 or 25 megapixel High Resolution Shot mode, so don’t have to mount the camera on a tripod or other stable surface to obtain sharp results.

Off (100% Crop)	On/Tripod/80M (100% Crop)
On/Handheld/50M (100% Crop)

HDR

Off

HDR1

HDR2

Multiple Exposure

Off

Picture Modes

Olympus’ Picture Modes are essentially pre-set combinations of saturation, contrast and sharpness, except for the i-Enhance mode that aims to optimise each photo individually. You can tailor each Picture Mode to your needs.

i-Enhance	Vivid
Natural	Muted
Portrait	Monochrome

Art Filters

The Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III offers 16 ‘art filters’, which allow you to quickly apply an artistic effect to a photo before taking it.

Night

The OM System OM-1 offers exposure times as long as 60 seconds in a metered exposure or up to 30 minutes in bulb mode, which is excellent news for anyone seriously interested in night photography.

Live Bulb mode allows you to view the progression of exposure during a bulb exposure in real-time and a live view histogram shows how the exposure is built-up across all points of the image.

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the OM System OM-1 camera, which were all taken using the 20 megapixel Superfine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The OM System OM-1 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We’ve provided some OM System RAW (ORF) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movies & Video

Product Images

Conclusion

Many neutral observers and devoted Olympus fans alike may well have wondered just what the new OM Digital Solutions company would be capable of delivering when Olympus sold their camera division in late-2020.

Well, wonder no more, as the new OM-1 is the best camera that OM Digital Solutions or indeed Olympus have ever produced, marrying the speed of the E-M1X with the proven handling of the E-M1 III. If this is a sign of things to come, then Olympus fans certainly have no need to worry.

Whilst outwardly the OM1 seems to be identical to the EM1 Mark III, offering just a few enhancements including the much improved viewfinder and LCD screen and the welcome AF-On button, inside there are a whole raft of improvements that focus mainly on one thing – speed.

It may not offer any more resolution than the previous model, with the new owner of Olympus cameras resolutely sticking to 20 megapixels, but thanks to the new stacked image sensor and faster processor, the new OM-1 can shoot a lot more frames per second, detect a lot more subjects and focus on them more quickly and reliably, and process images faster than ever before.

The video specs and all-round performance have also seen a welcome boost, and the already class-leading image stabilisation and weather-proofing are even better than before.

The new OM Digital Solutions have seemingly addressed almost every criticism that was levelled at both the E-M1 III and E-M1X, with the notable exception of the number of megapixels, but that’s something that we’d happily accept given all the other improvements that have been made.

They do come at a literal price though – £1999 / $2199 body-only in the UK and US makes the OM-1 £200 / $400 more expensive than the previous E-M1 Mark III model was at launch.

OK, so quite a lot has been going on in the three years since the E-M1 III was released, but even so and even with all of its many improvements, the new OM-1 is undoubtedly expensive for a Micro Four Thirds camera.

It certainly faces some very stiff competition at this price-point, most notably from the full-frame Sony Alpha A7 IV, the APS-C sensor Fujifilm X-T4, and the MFT Panasonic Lumix GH6, not to mention the likes of the Canon EOS R6 and the Nikon Z6 II.

Overall, though, if you can look beyond the sensor size, the OM System OM-1 is one hell of a camera, one that will certainly please current Olympus owners and which also deserves to expand the system’s appeal.

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the OM System OM-1.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the OM System OM-1 from around the web.

Specifications

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