Olympus OM1-2

Does the Olympus OM1-2 give you an advantage over a Full frame camera. I would say yes. They say you cannot crop on a 4/3 camera and still get a quality photo

Using Pro capture & 50% crop

                                                                           50% crop
 

Full size image before crop

Crop from above 75% so photo about 5m pixels

ISO 25600 1/4000 F5.6  using pro capture

ISO 25600 1/4000 F5.6 using pro capture

some of the features of the OM1-2 

• Pro capture
• Live ND filters built in
• Starry sky focus
• Focus Stacking
• IP53 weather sealed 
• 8.5 stop stabilisation
• Double buffer size
• Black out free shooting
• High resolution up to 80mp
• Live composite
• Super sonic wave filter
• Improved AF
• Dynamic range

Pro capture- this is great for action shots such as the Black Redstart above, 1/2 press the shutter and it remembers a number of photos, press it fully down and you get these and a number of photos after pressing the shutter. so say 50 photos- 15 before and 35 after pressing the shutter. Be prepared to have 1,000's of photos from a photo outing. Make sure you shoot in silent mode so it doesn't record on the shutter count.

Live ND Filters. No need to carry around a number of filters and holders, this can be set up to ND128 and you can see it live.

Starry Sky Focus-  focusing on stars is a big problem but this automatically focuses on the stars, a massive bonus for Astro photographers, and it works.

Focus Stacking- If you are into Macro this is an automatic focus stacking system to ensure the whole subject is in focus. Takes 15 photos at various points then combines them in camera.

IP53 weather sealed which is great if you are in Shetland and you can go down to -10

8.5 stops of stabilisation, the best on the market as far as I know. Don't forget you need a speed to freeze the action. This is good to reduce camera shake, no need for a tripod

double buffer size. - this has doubled in size so when taking lots of photos in can download onto card and hold the remainder in the buffer with out stopping the shooting sequence.

Black out Free sequential shooting. In addition to the existing 25-120fps, they have added 12.5fps and 16fps for better shooting of static subjects

High Resolution shooting @ 14 bit, 50mp hand held or 80mp on a tripod

 

Live Composite in camera stacking, great for star trails and light painting using a series of photos and combining into one photo.

Super Sonic wave Filter dust is a pain for all camera users with inter changeable lens. The OM system combats this with the filter vibrating the sensor 30,000 per second 

Improved AF system This works great for birds in flight and is even stickier than the Sony system. Human AF has also been introduced. Auto focus is super fast even with the teleconverter in use, ease to track birds in flight. The bird eye focus is excellent with around 99% in focus.

Dynamic Range out performs several FF cameras

I am pleased that it performs reasonably well in poor light (Black Redstart) we don't get much more than a couple of hours good light in Shetland during winter. Looking forward to a sunny Spring.

You can still use a high ISO, the Black Redstart photos were taken at ISO 25600 and using noise reduction is very usual. Again using a high ISO is a no, no with a 4/3 camera some people said don't go above ISO1600 the noise will kill the quailty. Not true !

The three photos above of the Black Redstart are around 60% crop taken at ISO 12800 on a slightly better day and closer views, using Pro capture.

Still plenty of features to try out.

I will provide full details of my settings on the next blog