The absolutely mega Olympus E-M10 III - Oversampled 4.6K no crop 5 axis IBIS for $500!

[Alt Shoo]

While a good camera, personally I’ll forget the Olympus and go with a more feature rich Z Cam E1. Don’t sleep in that little beast of a tool!

[TiJoBa]

I was hoping Andrew would get around to looking at this camera.

The thing I immediately liked about the MKIII was the highlight roll-off. I'm not too fussed about DR but more interested in how a camera deals with the highlights. The roll-off is really nice - hardly a hard edge to be seen. Just lovely. I'm also not fussed about the lack of mic input. Many videos end up edited with no natural sound anyway. Sunny and Cloudy white balance give this camera a nice subtle teal orange look. Camera has only 24p, 25p and 30p in UHD 4K. It has 50p and 60p in HD.

Compared to GH5
Pros
Better highlight roll-off but slightly less dynamic range
Cleaner noise in shadows
Noise is more organic
Less moire and aliasing
Cadence somehow seems more cinematic
More interesting colours straight out of camera
More effective sharpness reduction in camera
Smaller body
Cons
Viewfinder not as good
No way to save custom settings
AWB sometimes noticeably shifts during recordings

[PannySVHS]

@Alt Shoo would love to see your footage with your beast:)

[fuzzynormal]

On 10/6/2018 at 9:07 AM, Leica50mm said:

I’m used to shooting with a red dragon so maybe I don’t know what I’m doing . But, I can’t get the stabization to work very well.

Oly stabilization has always been awesome for me.  Not sure what lens you're putting on it, but if it's a manual lens you'll need to tell the camera what focal length it is or the IBIS won't function accurately.  Sounds like you need to delve into the manual and menus of the cam.

[lucabutera]

In Olympus have limited this camera depriving it of some useful features for professional users to not damage its flagship model OMD-E-M1.
There are some Olympus hacks around the web, it seems the firmware is hackerable.

[thebrothersthre3]

21 minutes ago, lucabutera said:

In Olympus have limited this camera depriving it of some useful features for professional users to not damage its flagship model OMD-E-M1.
There are some Olympus hacks around the web, it seems the firmware is hackerable.

Anything interesting? 

[mnewxcv]

what codec does this use? Specs show 102Mb/s for UHD.

[TiJoBa]

Some footage shot last month. After shooting with this little camera for a few days - my GH5 feels like a brick.

Camera Settings
Picture Profile - Muted, Sharpness -2, Saturation +1
White Balance - Sunny
IBIS - Sensor shift only
No grade - file straight out of camera

Lens - Olympus 17mm f1.8

[Timotheus]

3 hours ago, TiJoBa said:

Some footage shot last month. After shooting with this little camera for a few days - my GH5 feels like a brick.

Nice shots mate. I love the form factor, but no mic jack is a deal breaker for me.
In its current feature set it compares a bit to a GX85 (or am I missing something critical?).

[mercer]

7 hours ago, TiJoBa said:

Some footage shot last month. After shooting with this little camera for a few days - my GH5 feels like a brick.

Camera Settings
Picture Profile - Muted, Sharpness -2, Saturation +1
White Balance - Sunny
IBIS - Sensor shift only
No grade - file straight out of camera

Lens - Olympus 17mm f1.8

Great video!

My friend has the E-M10iii and I set his up with the same settings and he’s getting very similar SOOC results. Olympus color, and Fuji, is really impressing me lately. The image has a very organic look that I think is missing from Sony and Panasonic.

[TiJoBa]

5 hours ago, Timotheus said:

Nice shots mate. I love the form factor, but no mic jack is a deal breaker for me.
In its current feature set it compares a bit to a GX85 (or am I missing something critical?).

I've had this camera since it came out - had the MK1 and MK2 as well - nice little stills cameras. To be honest - haven't used it much until I discovered the subtle teal/orange look with sunny/cloudy white balance and the filmic -2 sharpness. AWB shifts pretty badly. Agree about the lack of mic input, although I only use this camera for family video. Every camera decision purchase based on mic or headphone input resulted in me rarely using either. Just have to somehow add a micro-muff and I'm set. For more serious filming I'll still reach for the GH5. That said, I've been using V-Log a lot because I hate the GH5 highlight roll-off without V-Log. IMO it's even worse than the GH4. Highlight-roll off on the Oly means I rarely ever see a highlight "puddling" effect where highlights clip along a visible outline. This camera hides it really well - plus I like the image straight out of camera more than the GH5 - somehow the edge detailing is less severe. It's worth having a look at Johnnie Behiri's review over at Cinema 5D - that's what ultimately sold me on this camera. Be aware - you can't save video settings. Otherwise a fun camera.

 

[Alt Shoo]

On 10/8/2018 at 6:51 PM, PannySVHS said:

@Alt Shoo would love to see your footage with your beast:)

Here are some screen grabs from a project I worked on using the Z Cam E1. This camera actually has the same sensor as the GH4. 

[mnewxcv]

3 hours ago, Alt Shoo said:

Here are some screen grabs from a project I worked on using the Z Cam E1. This camera actually has the same sensor as the GH4. 

that looks clean, denoised? I just got one of these cameras last week, still no lens though.

[Alt Shoo]

@mnewxcv it is a very slight denoise, but it really didn’t need it. I just like that look on my images. 

[Mattias Burling]

It looks a little like a "beauty" filter or like the A7s waxy skin thing. Is there a way turn it down somehow?

[Alt Shoo]

@Mattias Burling I don’t see the “beauty”, but I guess I can understand what you are alluding to. Yes, if I wanted to it can most definitely be turned down!

[Mattias Burling]

Yeah I don't know what its called really but that thing smartphones do when taking selfies so the skin looks all smooth and doll like. Not a fan.
But great if its adjustable in camera some how.

[mnewxcv]

2 hours ago, Mattias Burling said:

Yeah I don't know what its called really but that thing smartphones do when taking selfies so the skin looks all smooth and doll like. Not a fan.
But great if its adjustable in camera some how.

That is what I was referring to as well. I think it may be the denoising in post, not an in camera setting. 

[Alt Shoo]

3 hours ago, mnewxcv said:

That is what I was referring to as well. I think it may be the denoising in post, not an in camera setting. 

Yes this is in post with Neat. It can most definitely be reduced. 

[TiJoBa]

On 10/10/2018 at 5:57 PM, mercer said:

Great video!

My friend has the E-M10iii and I set his up with the same settings and he’s getting very similar SOOC results. Olympus color, and Fuji, is really impressing me lately. The image has a very organic look that I think is missing from Sony and Panasonic.

Thanks mercer. Have to agree. A nice Lumix firmware upgrade would be to provide the ability to turn sharpness down further. I'd like to get something more organic out of my Lumix cameras. Also, I hate grading. If I can get the look I'm after without fiddling around in post then that's my camera.