Olympus OM-1

[kye]

5 hours ago, Amazeballs said:

I could imagine MFT holding its ground (for video makers), if they would implement some key innovations, like:

- build-in nd

- some sort of super IBIS that combines their awesome mechanical stab with digital and creates a gimbal-like stabilization 

- big bright 5 inch display, so you don't need to fiddle with an external monitor

- DJI like focusing system

But that is just my imagination 😁 nobody gonna implement that. 

P. S. And I personally am OK with FF-like size, if they would do something like that

Is there room in an MFT mount for an eND?  I have no idea how thick those things are.

That would be a great addition for stills as well as video.

4 hours ago, Amazeballs said:

I kept thinking what could a great MFT product and I got an idea that I think has some potential:

What if.. DJI would make a much more compact a stripped-down version of their Ronin 4D in MFT format?

Like a middle-ground between their tiny Osmo and huge and expensive 4D. They already done it actually with their Zenmuse drone gimbal. Now just update it with Ronin 4D tech, make it as compact as possible and that would be a very intresting product. 

Now DJI is a company that could surpise everyone. 

DJI could really easily make an MFT camera.  

They've shown they're not afraid of shaking things up - the design process for the 4D seems to have been them brainstorming every crazy idea they could think of and then implementing every one of them they could get to work into the final product.

It's a pity that it's the camera equivalent of carrying around a live duck, but a great testbed for the tech.

[BTM_Pix]

5 minutes ago, kye said:

DJI could really easily make an MFT camera.  

They made a RAW shooting one five years ago so they do have form.

[Video Hummus]

13 minutes ago, kye said:

Is there room in an MFT mount for an eND?  I have no idea how thick those things are.

Canon has a physical ND in the 20mm RF flange of C70. I think its pretty clear they can put NDs (especially an eND) into typical mirrorless flange distances when the shutter is removed.

Sony will do it first.

[BTM_Pix]

32 minutes ago, kye said:

Is there room in an MFT mount for an eND?  I have no idea how thick those things are.

JVC LS300 in an MFT mount with a physical switchable ND behind it so no reason (patent issues aside etc) why there couldn't be an electronic one.

[MrSMW]

1 hour ago, kye said:

Is there room in an MFT mount for an eND?

Ask Fuji's X100.

He/she/they will respond, "well I have one and I may be APSC, but I'm pretty dinky" 😬

[ac6000cw]

I had a brief play with an OM-1 today (my local camera store had an 'Olympus Day' with an OM Systems rep in attendance).

Nice camera - feels very much like an E-M1 mk2/mk3 in the hand - as expected.

The new EVF is lovely - larger/sharper/smoother and nicer looking/less obtrusive graphics.

The new menu system looks good too (and is a long overdue redesign, I think).

It had the new 12-40mm 2.8 mk ii lens on it, so I tried it recording 4k60p with 'medium area' C-AF, shutter priority and (I think/assume) auto-ISO selected. I panned it back and forth between close focus inside the store to infinity outside in sunshine - nice smooth refocusing and exposure changes every time and the IBIS seemed very good - basically as expected.

I was a bit disappointed that (in video mode) it only appeared to offer a choice of four sizes of rectangular focus areas (centre, small, medium and full area) - I was expecting it to offer the same choice of focus areas & shapes as in stills mode (i.e. like my Pana G9 does). Asked the rep about this and he confirmed the limitation and that he'd pass my comments on to OM Systems. Note this is for the basic video C-AF - AFAIK touch-AF, tracking, subject recognition etc. can all be used for video, but I didn't try those.

Overall - based on a 10 minute play with it, of course - I think OM Systems have a very nice camera in the OM-1, and (particularly if you need a weather sealed, relatively small and light hybrid camera system) it feels probably worth the price.

Question is - do I really *need* to replace my G9 + E-M1 mk ii combo with an OM-1, or am I just suffering from GAS? 😀

[Andrew Reid]

3 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

JVC LS300 in an MFT mount with a physical switchable ND behind it so no reason (patent issues aside etc) why there couldn't be an electronic one.

It doesn't take up a huge amount of room either, the diameter of the front of the camera is only a bit bigger than your average EF lens.

I wish the camera companies would recognise the importance of this mechanism and put it in.

Canon C70 manages it.

FS5 does it.

It's the Japanese obsession with small widgets that stops it from going into mirrorless cameras.

Just make them 10% bigger and be done with it.

[BTM_Pix]

46 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

It's the Japanese obsession with small widgets that stops it from going into mirrorless cameras.

Just make them 10% bigger and be done with it.

Particularly in the context of how much MFT cameras have bulked up beyond all recognition - not to mention arguably beyond all rational raison d'être of the original concept - in the past few years.

Its all very much in the Fiat 500 envelope.

On that basis, they might as well be just go and add a bit more to make it infinitely more useful.

I don't buy cost as being a factor either as the cameras have bloated so much price wise along with the physical size as well so if people are willing to €2500 on an MFT body then I don't see it being a barrier to spend €200 more to get internal ND.

[webrunner5]

Well I have a Lot of experience of riding around Naples late at night in a Fiat 500 taxi, and you will notice the one in the picture has no mirror and that is for good reason, they would not have fit in the street going 65 kilometers or more at night with their lights off. Even drunk it was some damn scary stuff I tell you.

[jsandas]

I just went back and checked, and saw that Andrew raised the question of built-in ND filters in his interview with Panasonic's Yosuke Yamane last year, and if I understand the reply correctly, Yamane basically claimed that a built-in filter would negatively affect either the image quality (if it's always there?) or the size of the camera (if it can be moved aside?). This is probably true in itself, but I think they underestimate how many people would be willing to make that tradeoff.

As for the OM-1, the live ND function is entirely done through software, isn't it? I know that it only works for stills, but I wonder how far away we are from that sort of thing being viable for video.

[Video Hummus]

3 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

I wish the camera companies would recognise the importance of this mechanism and put it in.

Canon C70 manages it.

FS5 does it.

It's the Japanese obsession with small widgets that stops it from going into mirrorless cameras.

Just make them 10% bigger and be done with it.

I bet if they just took the S1H body, swapped the sensor with MFT one, and removed the shutter they would have plenty of room for a ND. Call it the GH6S. It would probably sell like crazy.

[hoodlum]

This video compares the out of camera JPEGs but also the RAW files in Adobe, CaptureOne and OM Workspace between the OM1 and the EM1iii at ISO 25600.  The RAW file comparison clearly shows less color noise and greater DR with the OM1 from all 3 RAW editors. 
 

 

[Andrew Reid]

6 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

Photo is the perfect analogy for GH1 / GH6!

Even down to the colour scheme.

6 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

I don't buy cost as being a factor either as the cameras have bloated so much price wise along with the physical size as well so if people are willing to €2500 on an MFT body then I don't see it being a barrier to spend €200 more to get internal ND.

At the very least they should make a motorised tray that retracts into the grip, and slides out over the sensor when in use. The tray will have the ND glass in it. The glass could be of the E-ND type. If a Fuji X100 can do clever things like sliding an EVF into an optical viewfinder, and it costs under £1000, I am sure it must be possible to do a similar thing with the sensor glass!

[ND64]

4 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

If a Fuji X100 can do clever things like sliding an EVF into an optical viewfinder, and it costs under £1000, I am sure it must be possible to do a similar thing with the sensor glass!

The thing is they want to get rid of all mechanical parts, not adding new ones. They even thinking about abandoning IBIS and do the stabilization, even for still image, with software. 

[kye]

3 hours ago, Eric Calabros said:

The thing is they want to get rid of all mechanical parts, not adding new ones. They even thinking about abandoning IBIS and do the stabilization, even for still image, with software. 

That's an interesting possibility and, although being hugely processor intensive, would unlock things not currently possible with the current setup.

For example, if they took a huge number of short exposures and then stabilised and then combined them they could simulate a 180 shutter (eg, 1/50s exposure) that was stabilised DURING the exposure (which current EIS tech cannot do), but also they could do things like fade-in the first few images and fade out the last few creating motion trails that don't stop abruptly.  They could even have adjacent frames overlap..  ie, if you imagine a point on a spinning wheel they could have frame one going from 12-oclock to 3-oclock, and frame 2 going from 2-oclock to 5-oclock, etc.

IIRC RED did some things with using an eND filter to fade-in and fade-out each exposure, but of course they couldn't overlap the exposures like this.

The whole research into 24fps being the threshold of continuous motion and the 180 shutter rule being the most natural amount of motion blur could be revisited as the limitations that they were working with in the film days would no longer apply.  

[MrSMW]

Decision made: S1H + S5 (plus some lenses) outbound, pair of OM-1's inbound.

Sticking with Panasonic S1R/L Mount for at least the time being until I can test the stills capability of the OM-1's.

Of course they are not going to match, never mind beat, the 47mp FF S1R, but how close can they get and is that 'close', good enough...

For my video needs however, I just need that 'well above average' and reliable AF.

The fact that it will come in a lighter and more compact package, is a bonus.

I've had 2 absolutely shitty years financially and perhaps more importantly, creatively.

The work I have booked in this year is an absolute opportunity to make a massive dent in the latter and I really don;t wish to be going into it with compromise.

Not 100% decided on lenses yet, but pretty sure it will be the Panasonic f1.7 pairing of the 10-25 and 25-50, plus the Olympus 17mm f1.8 for gimbal work.

Just need to find some used versions of all the glass in good nick.

EXTREMELY sad to see the S1H and S5 go.

The S5 less so because despite it's excellent photo and video output (plus nice size and weight), I wasn't 100% happy with various other aspects. Great bit of kit, but not quite good enough for my needs.

The S1H has been the best camera I have ever owned. For video at least. Could have been a bit smaller and lighter and the only real 'deal-breaking' issue for me has been the less than decent AF and the wrestling & fudging I have had to do to get around it.

Obviously, the new boys have not arrived yet and won't until March, but they tick all the boxes for my needs and the only criticism I could level at this time is that they are maybe a little over-priced and something more like 1950 euros might have been more appropriate.

I believe it's the right decision for me and my needs.

The S1R is going to be a tougher one to replace, NOT THAT I AM LOOKING TO!

By divorcing my video needs from my stills needs totally going forward, it does give me a few other options and my preferred one would be to keep it all 'in house' with 3 matching bodies and cross platform lenses.

Absolutely zero rush though as anything that isn't the S1R would need to be a bloody good option!

[kye]

3 hours ago, MrSMW said:

The S1H has been the best camera I have ever owned. For video at least. Could have been a bit smaller and lighter and the only real 'deal-breaking' issue for me has been the less than decent AF and the wrestling & fudging I have had to do to get around it.

A BIT??????

[John Matthews]

Mike Lane is a wildlife photography who has some interesting thoughts regarding photography with long lenses and image quality.

 

[Video Hummus]

4 hours ago, MrSMW said:

Decision made: S1H + S5 (plus some lenses) outbound, pair of OM-1's inbound.

Nice! Looking forward to hearing your experience with the OM-1.

From what I have seen, the video AF on the OM-1 is pretty solid. Honestly, the OM-1 has been made 3x more interesting BECAUSE Panasonic didn't put PDAF in the GH6. It's still a pulsing mess from the leaked video.

I still think OM Systems could capitalize on this by releasing a more video focused camera that has PDAF. I'm sure a lot of GH5 users would take notice.

[Jimmy G]

2 hours ago, John Matthews said:

Mike Lane is a wildlife photography who has some interesting thoughts regarding photography with long lenses and image quality.

 

It will be interesting to see his follow-up video next week with the viewer's voting results, thanks for posting that link!

 

19 hours ago, webrunner5 said:

Well I have a Lot of experience of riding around Naples late at night in a Fiat 500 taxi, and you will notice the one in the picture has no mirror and that is for good reason, they would not have fit in the street going 65 kilometers or more at night with their lights off. Even drunk it was some damn scary stuff I tell you.

OT - Oh my! Seeing that 500 made me laugh! LOL After filming the 7-second annular eclipse across the water from Clemson University back in '84 my brother and I barnstormed and hot-dogged our way through the Smoky Mountains in his "Fix It Again, Tony" 500 on our ride home! Talk about a youthful sense of personal indestructibility! Ahahahah!