Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III Released

[Pluttis]

I’m very happy with Olympus and think this is an ok upgrade. However, when you look at it from a competitive standpoint I’m not sure they are doing enough. Fujifilm has the same or better AF, much better EVF, Better sensor, dual slot UHS-11, 4K 60, and is $1700 with kit lens. AND the xt4 is about to be announced with rumored IBIS. This camera is roughly the same size with their small weather sealed primes and 2.8-4 zooms.
Those of us shooting Olympus know and love the camera but those unfamiliar with the system would struggle to buy into Oly when compared to competition. Oly HAS to keep up.

True, from a competitive standpoint its not good as its the main and obvious specs that sells and is compared to each other.

Personally i take E-M1 MarkIII over any current Fuji offerings...for mee HHHR, Live ND, IBIS and other unique Olympus futures that makes my photograpy easier and more fun outweighs the better EVF, slightly better sensor performance and 4K 60p that Fuji offers.

Should be interesting to see what Fuji brings to the table with the X-T4

 

[Serhan]

Bird photographer perspective:
http://www.sulasula.com/en/olympus-e-m1-mark-iii-in-costa-rica-1/

 

[pdk42]

Man people do like to moan and groan for sure. Yeah it doesn’t do your dishes and it’s not a radical rethinking of what MFT has been capable of. But ?‍, people need to freaking relax. I get it if you don’t like the EVF, but Panasonic has the same obsessions over old EVF’s, just look at the GX7/GX85/GX9 line. It’s not like the EM1’s EVF sucks. And so what if the sensor is the same, do you need 50 megapixels with 450 phase detect points that can crop at 200% so you can shoot the license plate numbers on cars 2 miles away? The 20 megapixel sensor is totally fine. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next, but if you *need* to be able to make 20x40 foot prints, go buy a Sony or Hasselblad. Olympus does need to make the money back on their R and D with the current gen sensor and have time to develop the new one.

I guess it's all about expectation management. For my taste this represents a lukewarm makeover, nothing else. Look to the EM1 to EM1.2, or XT2 to XT3 or A7ii to A7iii, or G7 to G9 - in all cases the evolution was much more significant - new sensors, new EVFs, ... So, yeah, I'm disappointed. I may end up buying the EM1.3 for its LiveND and HHHR - but I'll be in no hurry. A new EVF or an uprated sensor would have hurried that spend.

 

[Sleepy Capybara]

Launch price seems okay, I was expecting $2000.

 

[11GTCS]

I guess it's all about expectation management. For my taste this represents a lukewarm makeover, nothing else. Look to the EM1 to EM1.2, or XT2 to XT3 or A7ii to A7iii, or G7 to G9 - in all cases the evolution was much more significant - new sensors, new EVFs, ... So, yeah, I'm disappointed. I may end up buying the EM1.3 for its LiveND and HHHR - but I'll be in no hurry. A new EVF or an uprated sensor would have hurried that spend.

I think that’s a good thing. Why be in a rush for a new body? We are such gear hogs in photography. People still make award winning, pro quality shots with 8mp sensors and ancient tech, and even with film of all kinds.

 

[drd1135]

As the DPR preview points out, this is a very capable camera. The problem is that Olympus should have fixed the little things, like a better EVF and dual UHS-ii slots, etc. Not new tech, just all the bells and whistles of an $1800 body. It's not a deal breaker, but Olympus just has to try a little harder given that it can't seem to offer the big reward, i.e., a new sensor. Still, the promise of 7 stop IBIS is amazing and I'll be curious to see if they really pulled it off.

 

[ijm5012]

I don’t have any investment in m43 anymore, but as a previous E-M1 II owner, this is a pretty underwhelming “upgrade”. It has the same essential hardware (sensor, EVF, rear LCD) as the 3.5 year old E-M1 II.

Sure, there’s a new processor that’s brought some features down from the E-M1 X, but is that enough to justify the price and remain competitive against similarly priced cameras? I’m not so sure, and I really wonder what’s going on at Olympus’ camera division, since their last three releases haven’t seemed to set the world on fire (E-M1 X, E-M5 III, E-M1 III).

 

[ijm5012]

As the DPR preview points out, this is a very capable camera. The problem is that Olympus should have fixed the little things, like a better EVF and dual UHS-ii slots, etc. Not new tech, just all the bells and whistles of an $1800 body. It's not a deal breaker, but Olympus just has to try a little harder given that it can't seem to offer the big reward, i.e., a new sensor. Still, the promise of 7 stop IBIS is amazing and I'll be curious to see if they really pulled it off.

The thing is, if somebody goes in to a camera store and looks at an X-T3/X-T4, a Nikon Z6, etc., and then looks at this camera, they’re going to notice things like the significantly lower resolution EVF, rear LCD, etc.

It’s the little features that end up making a big difference to the feel of the camera (especially one as high end as the E-M1 II).

 

[GBarrington]

It looks quite nice. I'm watching Robin Wong's review right now.

But it pisses me off. I bought an E-M5 MkIII on preorder, so I put my money down in November. Barely 3 months later... they now have a camera with a new processor and a USB C port, that can power the camera while it's on.

3 months. Was that enough to massively cannibalize sales of the E-M1MkIII by putting the new hotness processor in the 5MkIII?

So now either we wait for 3+ years for the 5MkIV to get a better processor and USB C... or Olympus brings the 5MkIV out sooner, reducing the lifespan of the MkIII.

Well, we all knew the E-M1 series was due for an upgrade and within the 8-12 months timeframe. Having it come a bit early isn't the worst thing that could happen. In the meantime, you have had the fun of using Olympus' latest (It was fun, wasn't it?)

So sell "The Five", I suspect that it will sell for a nearly new price, and it will make the upgrade to the latest E-M1 III easier. As for me, I'm pretty happy with the E-M5 III. Coming from the E-M10, size and weight are as important to me as the latest set of bells and whistles. (makes me wonder what the E-M10 IV will be like!)

I think it is clear, to me at least, that the E-M1 is not the top of the line camera anymore. The E-M1X is, and new whiz-bang features will start there. I wouldn't be surprised if the E-M1X doesn't get a name makeover and a more separate identity.

To those who dream of consumer-grade versions of the Pro lenses, I don't think that is likely to happen. I can see a time where camera bodies are sold like inkjet printers, sold at below cost in order to promote the sale of ink cartridges. Possibly with the ability to pay for ROM upgrades for new features. The era of computational photography is not that far off and our cameras could wind up as just pieces of a larger "image capture system".

I think m-43s could be a major player in something like that. You wouldn't need FF any more to match FF performance. Leaving FF to be the province of Pros and the very wealthy. Considering how good photos are from my Google Pixel 3a are, I would love to see that level of computational photography performed on an m43s sensor.

 

[mrjoemorgan]

Does anyone know if a software update is due for the EM1.2?

A big thing for me with the m43 system is improving the AF system. And I actually quite like the EVF, but I wish it has 0 lag.

 

[Mack]

Does anyone know if a software update is due for the EM1.2?

A big thing for me with the m43 system is improving the AF system. And I actually quite like the EVF, but I wish it has 0 lag.

There is an update for the E-M1 II today, but it is very minor and just a fix for the annoying LCD-to-EVF changeover. Same thing for the the E-M1X which seemed a very minor patch.

 

[hoodlum]

There is an update for the E-M1 II today, but it is very minor and just a fix for the annoying LCD-to-EVF changeover. Same thing for the the E-M1X which seemed a very minor patch.

Olympus usually implements other minor fixes that don't get published. I will still update in a couple of weeks even through the highlighted fix doesn't affect me.

 

[Mack]

Olympus usually implements other minor fixes that don't get published. I will still update in a couple of weeks even through the highlighted fix doesn't affect me.

True. They added the ability to fine tune the WB in both the E-M1 Mark I and E-M1X when one selects a Manual WB. I have my E-M1 Mark II Manual WB set to a +5 Amber and a -1 Green, and the E-M1X needed a +5 Amber and zero on Green to help the SOC JPEGs and for those of us who manually meter the WB.

When Oly first sneaked it into the E-M1X, it also stumped their tech chumps in the USA's main office as it was a "quiet addition."

Maybe they did some sneaky refinements to the AF since that was touted in the E-M1 Mark III.

 

[moonhawk]

I just preordered on Amazon. The EM1 M3 will pair nicely with my Zuiko 300 for my bird and wildlife imaging and I'll keep my EM5 M3 mounted to the 14-150 for family/portrait work.

I can't find it on Amazon. Do you have a link? I want to order it too.

 

[SteveAdler]

Since most people show their photos on the web, HHHR is kind of not important to taking good photos. This camera is a boring update and shows the olympus developers are getting risk averse. But what would we expect from camera makers in a declining market? In 24 months our smartphones will have these features too...

 

[moonhawk]

Joystick, better IBIS, in-camera ND,HHHR 50 Mp, better face and eye detection. Better AF? hopefully. New processor. USB charging.
Anyone hear of any improvements in video capabilities?

 

[JonSnih]

• Assume improved AF over the Mark II?
• TruPic IX Image processor

According to Robin Wong the processing power of TruePic9 equals to the dual TruePic8 CPUs, which indicates the E-M1X AF capability.

I guess it's all about expectation management. For my taste this represents a lukewarm makeover, nothing else. Look to the EM1 to EM1.2, or XT2 to XT3 or A7ii to A7iii, or G7 to G9 - in all cases the evolution was much more significant - new sensors, new EVFs, ... So, yeah, I'm disappointed.

To some extent you are right. On the other hand the E-M1iii brought more things than the A9ii over the A9i (or the A6600 over its predeccessor). Also some ppl hope for the G9ii but I am afraid there is not much to add as well.
I really like small refinements like: USB charging, a joystick, MyMenu, custom target modes or autoISO in video. Not to mention the updated Face+Eye AF modes or in general AF on the 1X level. Dual UHS-II slots would be great though.
+ we can expect more features in 2021 as an FW update (4K60p?, updated AF-C+TR mode?)

 

[pondball]

Not sure if this one has been linked yet, but I always enjoy Chris’ videos... and this one is just a lot of fun, all the while giving a pretty good take on what’s up with the new em1.3

Chris Eyre-Walker

 

[Sleepy Capybara]

is EVF on EM1.2/3 so bad? I find it muchly better than Sony A7 III / R III. I think the best one is Z 6/7 and I felt Oly's (EM1 series') EVF is right up there with Z series.

 

[zanydroid]

is EVF on EM1.2/3 so bad? I find it muchly better than Sony A7 III / R III. I think the best one is Z 6/7 and I felt Oly's (EM1 series') EVF is right up there with Z series.

The A7m3 and A7r3 do not have the same EVF. R3 (which I have) is better spec in several dimensions. The EM1mkII EVF was surprisingly good for an LCD when I tried it, close ish to the R3. I liked it better than GH5’s.

I am not that shook about the mkIII LCD, but I feel that EVF is a useful tool, and contributed to the WOW factor when you first try a camera. Same with solid AF. It is great that the face/eye stuff seems to work a lot better now going by the videos (not the best datapoint to use). The Tracking looks as drunk as ever.

The A7m3 and A7r3 do not have the same EVF. R3 (which I have) is better spec in several dimensions. The EM1mkII EVF was surprisingly good for an LCD when I tried it, close ish to the R3. I liked it better than GH5’s.