Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III Summary

Olympus E-M1 Mark III

Olmpus released the third-generation E-M1 with highly similar specifications to its predecessor which makes it seem incremental change and indeed it is. Crucially though, this new revision makes substantial fixes to take the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III to the next level, earning it an Excellent rating once more as the original E-M1 managed.

A new processor extracts a stronger performance from the 20 MP Ultra-High Speed Four-Thirds CMOS sensor in this mirrorless. It keeps the top speed of 60 FPS at full-resolution and 18 FPS with reliable continuous autofocus and tracking, plus Cinema 4K and Ultra-HD that finally operate without any lag. Its hybrid shutter mechanism offers 15 FPS in mechanical mode and spans ultra-fast shutter-speed to unique Live-Bulb and Live-ND modes.

Image quality from this mirrorless is very good. It produces images with low image noise until ISO 3200 and reasonable dynamic-range, contrast and color. Automatic White-Balance is not entirely reliable yet the metering system is. Exposures are bright with very little clipping of major areas. There are tons of options to fine-tune color, contrast, gradation, white-balance and exposure as needed.

What makes the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III hold its own against competing mirrorless that rely on a larger sensor is its class-leading 5-axis image-stabilization system that compensates for up to 7-stops of camera shake. This gives it a 1½-stop advantage over the best stabilization among APS-C cameras which narrows the image-quality gap while using a substantially smaller form-factor when including lenses.

Ergonomics of the Mark III were refined for efficiency. The camera is comfortable to operate and features a huge number of customization points that result in great use of its dual control-dials and numerous buttons. There is still a learning curve and some modality that require attention but, overall, this E-M1 Mark III is very usable. The new EVF is still not Exposure-Priority but is not usable down to very low light, the biggest issue of the previous Mark II.

This mirrorless digital camera offers a truly complete feature-set for professional photographers. It adds a number of bonus features such as multiple types of bracketing, focus-stacking, an interval timer and multiple exposures. Olympus greatly broadened video features on the Mark III, making it their first 4K Ultra-HD capable mirrorless. It includes full manual controls over exposure and many options for sound when shooting video.