We took the Olympus E-M1 III to the south island of New Zealand for 2 weeks. Find out our thoughts on this new Micro Four Thirds camera.
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Intro - 0:00
Body - 1:00
Sensor & Image Quality - 3:09
Image Stabilisation & Live ND - 4:13
Autofocus - 5:40
Astrophotography Features - 7:07
Video - 8:11
Other Features - 9:14
Conclusion - 9:34
Today we’re looking at the brand new Olympus E-M1 III. Now this is a bit of a special video as I was able to take the E-M1 III with me on a 2 week holiday to the South Island of New Zealand.
Physically speaking this is almost identical to the E-M1 II body. We have the addition of a joystick, which is great. We have a fully articulating LCD touchscreen, dual SD card slots, mic, headphone, HDMI and USB ports.
The camera has a nice grip that is slightly larger than on the Mark II, and it balances well. Of course it’s a fully weather sealed camera. We’ve got the same BLH-1 battery from the Mark II. The battery life is about the same - over the course of the trip I shot just over 2000 photos and close to 20 GB of video on about 2 ½ battery charges. You can also charge the battery by USB, including via a powerbank. I’ll say one word about lens options here, I used the 12-100mm f/4 lens for the entire trip and it was fantastic. It’s an excellent pairing for this camera, the focal range is so broad I can use it for almost any kind of shot, from astro to super telephoto, it has a constant f/4 aperture, it’s sharp, built well and weathersealed, and it has image stabilisation.
-The E-M1 III has a 20 MP sensor. So you’re not going to see much of a difference in picture quality here, but as you’ll see from the images I shot, 20 MP is plenty. If you do need higher resolution, the E-M1 III has a multishot mode that takes up to 16 photos and blends them into a 50 MP image. The new wrinkle here is that now you can do this handheld - you used to have to do it from a tripod. It also has a new processor, the TruePic 9.
As in every Olympus review, I’m going to praise the in-body image stabilisation system here. The E-M1 III matches the E-M1X with 7 stops of in-body image stabilisation, and when you pair it with the 12-100mm lens like I did that increases to 7.5 stops. I won’t go on too much here as I always talk about Olympus’s IS, but this is hands-down the best system on the market and is an absolute dream for anyone shooting video, with a long lens, or with a slow shutter speed. Somewhat related to that is the LiveND feature which was on the E-M1X but not the Mark II. This gives you an electronic ND filter for photos which can be particularly handy when shooting long exposures.
A big feature on the E-M1 III is the autofocus system, and this is taken from the E-M1X, meaning it has a 121-point all-cross type phase detect AF system that covers 80% of the frame. They’ve made significant improvements to the high-speed face and eye detection, even over the E-M1X.Overall It’s a super robust system that deals very well with lots of different types of subjects and on my trip I found that it consistently did an excellent job.m It’s not exactly the same as the E-M1X system. as it doesn't have the subject recognition features the E-M1X has, but that's a minor difference. The camera also has extremely high burst shooting speeds of 18 fps with AF tracking or 60 fps with AF lock. Of course Olympus’ ProCapture mode is here
For low-light and astro shooters the E-M1 III has the same excellent Live Time and Live Composite modes that Olympus has had for some time. To add to this though, new on the E-M1 III is Starry Sky AF, which makes it easier to focus when shooting the night sky. This has two modes, Speed priority which is used with wider angle lenses, and Accuracy priority which is for highly detailed telephoto shots.
Video-wise the camera is very competent, being able to shoot Cinema 4K with Olympus’ OM-LOG400 profile for a flat option that is great for colour grading. You can also do 1080p at 120 fps. The biggest benefit to video is the image stabilisation. You can achieve tripod-like shots handheld, and can do all kinds of movements that normally require extra gear. Plus the light weight of the camera means you can take it anywhere.
Overall I was a really big fan of the E-M1 III. It’s a very powerful camera in a compact package. The E-M1X was undoubtably a powerhouse camera, but I think it’s bulk deterred those who would otherwise be interested. With the E-M1 III offering all the best features of the E-M1X in a smaller body that mirrorless shooters can get behind, I think it’s a very promising camera, particularly when paired with the excellent 12-100mm lens.
I thoroughly enjoyed my 2 weeks spent with the camera and would highly recommend it.
25 июл 2024
