The OM System OM-1 in nature photography test

Goodbye Olympus

When Olympus announced the sale of its camera division in 2020, a small outcry went through the photography world. Olympus cameras and lenses had been respected and valued by photographers since 1936 and the sale was seen by many as the beginning of the end for Olympus. My equipment at that time consisted of the Fujifilm GF system (for landscapes) and Olympus (for everything else), most notably the OM-D E-M1X, which for me remains one of the best digital cameras ever produced.

The OM-1: The wait is over

Like many others, I was naturally excited to see what the new owners JIP would do with the Olympus brand. The first thing they did was change the name and Olympus became OM Digital Solutions. The first camera under the new ownership was then announced in early 2022, after a months-long publicity blitz that raised high expectations.
The OM-1 (the name is an homage to one of Olympus' classic film cameras) unfortunately seemed a bit disappointing at first glance, appearing more like a logical evolution of the E-M1X rather than the new "super camera" promised in the advertising. I won't bore you with the detailed specifications now - you can see them here - but go straight into practice.

The first impression

What disappointed me personally was the lack of an integrated portrait grip, one of the best features of the E-M1X. The aspect ratio of the M4/3 system is great for portrait photography, especially in plant but also wildlife photography, and a portrait grip makes this much easier. Of course, there is a screw-on portrait grip for the OM-1, but it costs extra. What was also missing was a battery charger, which you also have to buy separately. While I can understand the omission of the integrated portrait grip, a missing battery charger seems like a desperate attempt to pull more money out of the customer's pocket.

The OM-1's battery is also new, which can be seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage. The disadvantage is that you can't continue to use your old Olympus batteries, the advantage is that the new battery lasts much longer: 25% longer in theory, in practice this has been roughly confirmed and one battery charge is usually enough to shoot through a whole day. OM-Systems has given the OM 5 a new autofocus that ensures that all images are even sharper and clearer. The autofocus works very solidly and also features face detection among other things. If several people have been detected by the autofocus, you can switch back and forth between them.

The build quality and feel is as you would expect from Olympus and, if that is at all possible, the OM-1 is even more solidly built and better sealed against dust and water than the E-M1X. The camera feels very good in the hand and all the controls are where you'd expect them to be. In other words, Olympus photographers don't have to get used to a completely new camera, and Olympus newbies should get to grips with the camera quickly. That brings me to one of the OM-1's innovations: the menu. The old Olympus menu was often criticized for being too complicated and confusing. The new menu, on the other hand, is extremely clear and sensibly designed, but you have to invest a little work if you are used to the old system. In the menu you still find all the nice and useful features that make Olympus so special:

• Pro Capture,
• Keystone Compensation,
• Live ND,
• Focus Stacking,
• Live Composite,
• HDR
• and a High Resolution Mode.

The new sensor

The two biggest additions to the OM-1, which should especially improve results in sports and wildlife photography, are a new sensor (which also comes with a new processor) and an improved autofocus system.

The sensor has the same 20MP resolution as its predecessors, but unlike them is a modern, so-called Stacked BSI sensor, a sensor design already used in many other cameras. The advantage of this new sensor design is that data can be processed as well as forwarded faster (the OM-1 therefore offers continuous shooting up to 120fps). In addition, the sensor should also offer improved noise performance at high ISO settings. In practice, however, this all puts things into perspective a bit. The OM-1 is certainly faster in data processing, but I could not detect any significant difference in noise performance. For me, ISO1600 is still the upper limit (in emergencies, it's just fine up to ISO6400), as it gets harder to preserve details in feathers and other fine structures at higher ISO settings (one of the biggest drawbacks of the smaller Micro 4/3 sensor). What has improved, however, is the recovery of detail in highlights.

The wonder of AI (artificial intelligence) autofocus

The new autofocus system provides 1053 focus points covering 100% of the sensor (the E-M1X had 121 focus points covering 70% of the sensor), which is especially beneficial when the main subject is near the edge of the frame. Far more important, however, is the AI Motive Detection, which was first introduced with the E-M1X. This feature has been expanded and significantly improved in the OM-1. To be honest, this makes wildlife photography in general and bird photography in particular far too easy. In the 6 months I worked with the OM-1, there were hardly any moments when the camera did not spot the bird, even if it was half obscured by branches or leaves. Once the camera has identified the bird, a box appears around the animal, and in many situations the camera even recognizes the eye, which is then also surrounded by a box. A small problem arises when more than one bird appears in the viewfinder. Here it helps to manually set the focus point on the bird you want to have in focus, otherwise the box jumps from one bird to the next and it becomes difficult to get a sharp image.

So far, so good. The camera recognizes the bird, but is it then also sharply imaged? Unfortunately not always. If the background is clear, the success rate is close to 100%, but if the background is more turbulent, the viewfinder will show the boxes, but the AF will, for whatever reason, focus on objects directly behind the bird. It is recommended to manually set the focus point on the bird in these situations. An interesting and very welcome side effect of the subject detection for birds is that the same setting also detects insects and some other animals (there is also a setting for dogs and cats, but I didn't try it on). All in all, the OM-1's AF system is very impressive and one of the best on the market.

Image quality of the OM System OM-1

Last but not least, a quick look at the image quality of the OM-1. As already mentioned, not much has changed in the noise performance and the sensor still "only" has a resolution of 20MP, but there is a High Res Mode that allows resolutions of 50MP and 80 MP, but is only suitable for static subjects (in High Res Mode, the camera takes 8 or 16 frames, between which the sensor is slightly shifted and which are then merged into one file). A little tip on the side: High Res Mode is very well suited for coastal landscapes. Here, High-Res Mode acts as a gray filter at the same time to lengthen the exposure time, resulting in the popular velvety appearance of the water.

In most situations, though, 20MP is more than enough, especially considering that these days you can enlarge files in post-processing with almost no loss of quality. The OM-1 RAW files tolerate this procedure very well (I use Lightroom or Topaz Gigapixel AI), provided the subject is perfectly focused.

Like all previous Olympus cameras, the OM-1 produces near-perfect image files with beautiful and correct colors and good contrast and detail (no doubt due in part to the fantastic Olympus Pro lenses), eliminating the need for labor-intensive post-processing. Shadows as well as highlights can be restored well, even if the possibilities are a bit less compared to full frame cameras.

Conclusion (from a nature photographer's point of view)

The big question now, of course, is whether it's worth investing in the OM-1. For Olympus (nature) photographers, the answer is a resounding "yes." The camera is probably the best that Olympus OM Digital Solutions has ever produced, even if it is not the "miracle camera" that many expected. For nature photographers looking for a smaller, lighter alternative (as I did a few years ago), the answer is also a "yes". The OM-1 combined with the Olympus 300mm/f4 (600mm full frame equivalent) is an affordable and lightweight alternative to the heavy and unwieldy full frame monsters and makes wildlife photography an enjoyable experience.

About the author: Carsten Krieger

Carsten Krieger lives and works as a freelance photographer and writer specializing in nature and landscape in Ireland. Carsten is also an editor for the Crossbill Guides Foundation, for which he also wrote the Crossbill Guide to Ireland. More information about Carsten and his work can be found on his website www.carstenkrieger.com

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