I want to address some of the popular comments here. 1. This is not a new product. Where in the video, title, or description did I say Olympus Air was a new product? If you have just watched 1 minute into the video, I mentioned this was released in 2015. I also mentioned it has been discontinued, and I was discussing the concept of the product, what worked, what could have been improved, and how it can be the future for photography. Why the hell would you want to comment to correct me saying this is not new? 2. Sony did this before Good. That means, Sony agreed with Olympus. Again, we are talking about the concept. Brands do not matter. Who did it first did not matter. Instead of comparing and brand worshiping, let's discuss the more important topic - the future of imaging products. The Sony products are extinct, I can't find one, if I have found a Sony instead of Olympus, I would have made almost the same video any way. So please, stop with oh Sony did this first - that does not contribute anything to this discussion at all. 3. This man is happy. Yes I am happy. Please Subscribe and Watch more videos here to be as happy as I am. That will make me happier too. 4. He has small eyes/cannot see his eyes/his eyes are closed Screw you. Racism is not tolerated here. I should just ban you. If you say you are joking, then you are the root cause of racism issues in the world. People laugh off racism and think the jokes are harmless, but it could lead to something serious, and people die from racism. Please be kinder and not contribute to racism. 5. Just use a cable to solve the connectivity issue What "Air" of the product did you not get? Using cable? Might as well just use a camera. In the beginning when smartphone's WiFI was not so great, cable is not the solution. You just work to improve the WiFi until it works. Same with wireless charging. Same with anything else wireless like Bluetooth Headphones. These days, many Bluetooth audio products do not even come with cable connections any more.
@@gregoripinturaautomotiva4993 vc nunca ouviu falar de Google tradutor? Vc escreve em português e espera que os outros traduz sua pergunta e te responde, eu poderia até te responder mas vc que tem que ter bom senso e largar a mão de preguiça e fazer a pergunta de novo em inglês
4. Always be proud of who you are! If anyone acts with racism with you, ignore them because if you care and retaliates then that’s when it becomes funny for the racist and escalates into a problem.
@@Toopeeneekeenho ignoring the problem won't make it go away. Staying silent makes things worse. We need to speak up, and take a stand to end racism once and for all. A lot of people "ignored" it for too long and see what happens today? People die literally, due to racism issues.
I’m not really interested in photography, I don’t even have a good smartphone; but this man’s excitement about the Olympus air makes me want to get one lol. Olympus needs to hire this man
@@pinoyreformat he was made ambassador for their cameras about 1-2 months before they sold the photography department!he even was here on yt saying Oly brand cameras wasnt sold or discontinuing!poor guy being lied to!
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Dear Robin, it is a real pleasure to discover you, you bring so much sympathy, empathy in this présentation, it so great. I've read horrible comments about mocking you, it is a shame to critizie a person on physical aspect, it is so mean, those people are jealous and poor in spirit. You have to continue, your are so gifted, so passionate, I hope they were more like you on the net, you are humble, nice, polite, and passionate about the art of photography and the mean to succeed with the best or the simpliest material. Dont listen bad people, continue to inlight us with your passion. Kind regards.
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This is not a review of sorts, just my experiences with the Air. I bought it as a stop gap between my E-5 and my E-5M.1, previously I had been using the E-P2. First thing is, most folks do not notice that it is a camera. So they ignore it. I took a trip to Vietnam (VN) with it, and TSA asked me “I see the lens where is the camera?” Well the Air was attached to that lens. I used it a lot in VN, with the 9-18mm and 14-150mm Both MFT lens. You can shoot JPG, RAW or a combination. I was hoping for some updates to OA (and there was an SDK for OA), but I never really noticed any updates. The latest version of the Air Firmware is 1.4, and the latest version of OA is 1.0.4. The OA software has a manual for the Air in it which is 21 pages. The OA software allows you to setup up the Air. It allows full control the mode dial. If you are in a high density WiFi environment, you will have trouble connecting to the Air. I kept hoping Olympus would fix this but they never did.. I learned to overcome this by learning to shoot without the connection. I actually got pretty good at this before I started using my E5M.1 exclusively.. the OA software has a auto level function. I always had a hard time keeping the Air leveled while it was not connected to my iDevice unless I put something in the tripod socket. DxO will not read Air RAW files. Unfortunately the Air JPG files dont contain Lens data that DxO can read. So you are stuck with basic processing in DxO. LR will read the RAW files to included the lens data. So you are basically limited to Workspace or LR to develop the RAW files. IDevices will read the RAW files. (However as of me writing this, iDevices will not read my EM1.3 RAW files) If you are connected to a Smart Device that has GPS, it will write that data to the image file, as long as it is connected to the Air. Your Smart Device becomes your view screen and control panel. Anything you could do with the camera controls on an OMD camera you can do through this interface. The slowest shutter speed is 4 seconds, and the fastest is 16000. ISO is 200-6400 on auto and Low-128000 on manual. Shutter actuation is single or sequential. It has Eye detect. Focus is either S-AF or MF. Aspect ratio is 4:3, 16:9, 3:2, and 1:1. Metering is ESP, Center Weighted, or Single point. There is a magnify function for focusing. There is a self timer, which counts down on the screen of your Smart Device. It will warn you if you have an EZ lens attached, that the lens will extend. There is also a separate setting for setting up the Air when it is not tethered.. On Sequential mode the Air will do from 6 - 10 fps. You can have the Air save to only the on board Sim or the on board sim and the smart device. However you cannot save RAW files to the Smart device from here. The Air body will get warm with use. The power light will flash orange if the battery is low, the lens is not extended or there is no sim in the camera So this is just a quick and dirty of the AIR. I still use my occasionally, and I am actually thinking of getting the 14-42 EZ lens for it. It charges through the USB port. I have had mine since 2015 and the battery is still going strong. The battery is not user replaceable. So how does it compare to Phone cameras of today? Quite frankly they are better at their limited optical ranges. However if you are going to shoot something equivalent to the 14-150, the Air will beat them every time, even at 16MP. The 4:3 sensor is still bigger, than what will be in most phones. In my opinion, this was a brilliant idea for the time it came out. However most folks outside of the FT community did not know it existed. And it seems Olympus gave up on it very quickly... BTW, Thanks To Robin for his review and Photos..
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Air! Let's hope they come out with a Mark II one day. This could be a way to stem the tide against smartphones: "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!"
I watched it for a long time hoping that Olympus would develop the concept further but unfortunately they gave up on it when they realised it wasn’t looking like it could be a commercial success. The compromises were too much and other more practical options were / are available in as small a package
Here's my public vote to bring that concept back to life 👍🏻! Having the phone as software accelerator for apps could increase the Olympus MFT market share and even end up in new business cases. In times of Corona and home office 1...n Olympus Air could be a perfect replacement for webcams taking benefit of existing prime lenses.
I look at this (and similar products- there was one doing the rounds on kickstarter a year or so ago) and my first thought is that it's just asking for either the phone or the lens/air to fall and break. I usually carry my camera one-handed, and I can't see that I'd ever not want to have control of both the phone and the lens module. The first thing I'd want to do with this is get the most secure phone-holder available and bolt the two components together with some sort of Smallrig system. Kinda defeats the object? Well kinda, but actually there's a lot to be said for using the computing power of phone, and the potential for customisation, to have this set up just how you want. How many custom settings on a top of the range body? 3? 5? With a smartphone interface you could potential have as many as you like, organised as you like, and with interactive functionality. 17mm lens detected? Default to MyStreetPhotography1/2/back for more. Art effects? MyFaves/All/search on line for more. All with touchscreen interactivity, with buttons, menus and hierarchies arranged just how you want them.
I own one, and have had the same buggy connection problems. It's a nice tiny real camera to throw in your backpack as a back up in case something happens to your main camera, but having to reconnect every few minutes is a hassle. I likewise agree on the need to add image stabilization. Hopefully JIP will give it another go w/ an improved version.
Finally you've answered the question. All the rest is about a smile. I feel like I'm on another planet with all these personality comments. Well done Cheers Jason
I didn’t even know a product like this existed until I stumbled upon your video. Your enthusiasm sold me on exploring this product even more. Awesome video
@@JerryWoo96 Thanks, seems nice, it has a bad review for video though, but probably has the same conectivity issues, I saw a comment that said it would improvie if the y allow a kind of connection through USB
looks cool, not sure I could put up with the screen freezing though, will stick to my em1 for now. thanks for the review Robin and nice to see you back as an Olympus ambassador.
I feel like relying on wifi/bluetooth is a mistake. Robustness of the user experience would be much better served by a cabled connection to the smartphone.
First german Oly embassador Frank Fischer, now Robin. Pretty much the confirmation that a product with strong smartphone connectivity is in the pipeline.
I LOVE this idea my guy! Keep this up! Love the attitude you present as well. You're the man brother and this product looks like it could go a LONG ways.
I tried one out a few years ago. Really wanted to love it, but only liked it. I think it shows the potential for putting some of Olympus's wonderful features in smart phones.
Thanks for the review! Very knowledgable. This product is actually how I thought mobile phones would evolve. Different add on modules for different needs: - a camera module for high quality photos - a speaker module for playing quality sound - a battery pack module for a week of usage - an outdoors module for rough usage - a sports module for measuring essential body parameters - a computer module to use it as a full desktop system - a health module for monitoring critical conditions, such as for elderly people, or those with chronic illness
Still have mine... I don’t use it as much as I use to... I did use it exclusively on a trip to Vietnam. I used it with my IPhone and iPod. The iPhone Geo marked the photos. I did not have the connection issues I have when in the US. The screen very rarely froze. I normally have the 14-150 on it. I am thinking of getting the 14-42 EZ for it. A lot of the time I just point and shoot with it. I actually bought as a stop gap between my E-5 and my E-5M.. However I just about always have it with me.. hence the need to get the 14-42 EZ..
@@ridealongwithrandy killed the app? Mine still works, unless you mean they do not do any development after the 1.0.4 version of OA... 😁 Oh, you mean it’s not available in the App Store anymore...
Ok so I’ve stopped the video after 12 seconds.. I just want to say, I love this guy and I’m gonna subscribe to his channel just because he looks like the happiest guy ever and I love home already..
This could save micro 4 3rds. Android and apple flagships are more powerful than laptops and dslr, they only need the software to work with the micro 4/3 lens, and updated hardware mounting and it's a win win, especially with great support.
Even though there may be connection problems remaining …. but this seems to be the future for quality bounded fotographie, keeping in mind, that quality cameras are at about the 6000 $ range. Good lenses and a good sensor are still important and the phone is degredated to the user interface and the memory …. that’s fine.
Interesting.. very interesting...! I would say that there would be little demand for this product because the camera market is now divided into Smartphone Photographers and SemiPro/Pro photographers. Smartphone users would not be enticed by the small difference in quality delivered by the mft lenses and just couldn't be bothered with this system....and semipro or pros wont touch this type of product. So who will buy this? I wonder?? Love the idea tho... it's awesome to see Olympus pushing boundaries with these great ideas!
I've has one since 2015, great little remote control camera. I use it with an iPad (with no cellular connection built in) and have very few communication issues. Most of my comm errors come from exceeding the bluetooth range which seems to be only 15-20 feet. I've mounted it on remote control cars, small boat (made from a cooking pan), and long pole to get sunset shots above tree tops. Teenagers love playing with this camera and trying things out.
This is next level. Futuristic AF! Lens and no more bodies! Honestly I think the future shouldn't be wireless. When the device is this close to the device, use a 90° angled usb C. When the consumers stop demanding good accesories to their phone, the usb C port will disappear just like our beloved 3.5mm jack did
SONY DSC-QX10 y QX100, i have one on top of my desktop, because the other day i was trying to make it work as a webcam. No luck, but great camera for its time.
I owned one of these in 2017. I wish I still had it. It's useful for lots of situations. With a wide, fast lens stopped down a bit, you could walk around taking very stealthy street shots using just the big button.
In the past, I tried several photographic devices that connect like the Olympus AIR to the smartphone trough WiFi (Toshiba FlashAir SD cards, GoPros, Ricoh Theta Cameras, Insta360, SkyWatcher Star Adventurer Mini), and my feelings were always the same: WiFi is not the right way to connect a device like a camera to a smartphone. Not because of speed, but because smartphones (both iOS and Android) are programmed to stay connected to the Internet as much as possible. IMHO nowadays WiFi speeds are more than enough to frame, control the shot and download JPEGs. But this is useless if your smartphone drops connection to your camera to check if you received new mail. Indeed, smartphones expect a Wifi network to be connected to the Internet, and if not they route communications to the mobile network, actually dropping the connection to your device. There are some workarounds, but they depend on the specific smartphone model you are using and are not very robust, at least not in my experience. Perhaps the best way would be to use Bluetooth, which's designed just to connect external devices to a smartphone or a computer. If you ever used Bluetooth mice, keyboards or headsets, you know that those connection are very robust and with minimal latency, as required for photographic applications. And they are not shared with different applications, such as Internet networking. Unfortunately only the most recent Bluetooth standards (Bluetooth 5.1) provide enough bandwidth (~1Mbps) to support a video stream useful to frame a photographic scene, and afaik only a small number of smartphones support Bluetooth 5.1 at the moment. This is why I think that something like Olympus AIR won't be really usable until new standards are fast and common enough. Maybe not before 3-5 years from now.
That's excellent troubleshooting! Think if I have a spare phone with no SIM card, will the connection be more reliable? Think I'll try it next time on my QX30... Another overlooked advantage of this system is that you can pair it with a big screen iPad like device. I remember being envious of iPad when I first saw someone shooting with it, they have bigger screens than us even though we have real cameras- this simply isn't how the world should be!
@@himeccms893 You can simulate a missing sim turning off mobile network while connected to the camera. I did some experiments, and found that results depend on the device you're using. In my experience, newer Android devices (Android 10 and 11) seem to try harder to look for an actual Internet connection, and drop connections more often than older ones (Android 4 and 5). Unfortunately old smartphones are also less powerful and so less useful. I've mixed feelings about the idea to use an iPad to frame a camera, mostly because of the bulk and the annoying reflections you get on such a big screen. Nevertheless, it might be useful in "static" photography situations, such as still life, studio and landscape photography.
@@gerlosv thank you for the reply. Turning off mobile network would cause the phone to look for connection through the WiFi? I seem to remember an option to turn off a sim card. I think mounting a phone on the clamper at the back of the phone is too rigid. I envision mounting a rectangular piece of acrylic there and have the phone mounted on an articulating arm attached to the acrylic piece. I mean, clamping a phone where it was intended by the manufacturer is simply trying too hard to turn the design into yet another camera when the concept has other possibilities.
@@himeccms893 yes, in my experience thread what happens on most devices. Interesting idea to design a custom clamp. Still, I think I'd prefer a full-fledged camera with hardware buttons and dials I can use even with eyes closed and that's independent from my smartphone, so I can use it for other purposes (e.g. maps, calculators, messaging...). Anyways if be more than happy to see a tighter integration between smartphone and camera. For example images could be automatically transferred to the phone without any internet connection disruption for editing, backup and sharing. Or we could use the smartphone as an advanced trigger. Or to help culling, for example automatically finding shots including your daughter or son. Unfortunately, I think that such a tight integration needs some sort of permanent connection you can't achieve at the moment with WiFi, since it's designed for different purposes. It's not practical to always be connected to either the camera or the Internet, to make the most interesting things you should always be connected to both. Moreover, WiFi uses too much energy, since it's designed for distances of tens o meters. Perhaps we need to wait for a next generation of devices including some more advanced Bluetooth tech, that's designed to connect your smartphone to "something" that's less than 3 meters away. 🤷
Cool concept! One thing that'll help with connectivity would be to add the option to hardwire. Wireless is cool but still has the potential to disconnect out of nowhere
This was such a fantastic concept. I really wish they'd kept up with it. It's such a nice package! fits in a backpack no problem, and basically gives you a camera. So so cool
This is actually an excellent idea, which reminds me of astrophotography cameras - those are just sensors without any displays, attached to standard telescope tubes or threads. Olympus could find synergies for this kind of product in specialised areas, such as microscopy and astronomy. It makes sense to forget the camera body and focus on the optics and the sensor - cutting edge BSI sensors. Go with the flow.
@@btb300 That's true, especially for Olympus with medical optics. The strength of the camera manufacturers is the optics - in my opinion they should look for specialised applications, and simplify integration with other devices such as smartphones and tablets. Mainstream photography is now almost taken over by smartphones. Advanced photography still requires good optics.
Just came across this video, I have one of these, and don't generally have connectivity issues with it. And it is a cheap Chinese phone I am using. The hardest thing is actually getting hold of the software these days. Performs brilliantly, but complicates using the phone as a camera. Still I like it and take it out on a regular basis. I believe the internals are basically an OM-D EM-10 mk II. The problem lurking in the future is battery replacement. The camera was designed as Open Architecture with Olympus publishing all the details and an SDK for users to develop their own software. There are a number of third party apps for use with the Air.
I have olympus camera for years. I love this company. You seem so happy to show this incredible camera ! thank you for sharing it ! if it's for sell I'll run to buy one ! thanks much !
What makes you think Olympus isn't in the camera game? They have just launched their latest pride 150-400mm F4 PRO lens which has sold out everywhere in the world and is in serious back order. Demand for Olympus is sti going strong, and they will continue to make amazing products.
Your stuff is interesting, practical and informative. I can't figure out why I left you but I'm back and happy to have your Olympus treasure trove to reference....
I bought my olympus air 2nd hand a couple of years ago on a business trip through the US just for fun. I am not using it on regular basis, but most of the time with the Laowa 4mm f 2.8. It's the best tool for that tiny fisheye lens, no need to worry about fingers in the frame. I haven't been able to get it connected to olympus oi share app, so I am using 3rd party apps. Connections issues appear, but not that often. The most I miss is a bulb mode to shoot stars. Putting it on a small tripod and taking the picture remotely. For my em1.2 I always need a bigger tripod, which is not my favourite to carry abroad.
I found one of these at a great price and got it as a curiosity. I agree with everything Robin noted. I did, however, figure out a nice use for this, despite the negatives Robin noted. Slap a fisheye or super-wide on it, ditch the phone, and use it for "grab shots!" Together with the 9mm Body Cap Lens, this will easily slip into a pants pocket, and you can do some interesting candid street-shooting just by pointing and clicking - no chimping required!
I remember that Sony had too such a Only Sensor Camera with Emount, it can mount to every System Lens and connect to the big Touchscreen from a smartphone. Its the same System....
I had no idea this thing ever existed. Now I want one. And I can't have it. Bloody twenty-first century. You teased me with flying cars and robot butlers before whisking them away. Now you tease me with the Olympus Air.