OM SYSTEM announces the OM-1 flagship camera

OM SYSTEM has announced a new flagship camera, the OM-1, with 4K 60P and up to 50fps stills with AF tracking.

OM SYSTEM, the company that now owns the Olympus camera brand, has announced the OM-1, a Micro Four Thirds mirrorless system that will act as the company's flagship camera. The OM-1 will also be the last camera to carry the Olympus name branding.

Whilst full-frame fanatics can look away now, those with a more open mind will find a lot to like here. Stills are most definitely the main focus, with computational photography making a prominent appearance, with high-resolution images up to 80MP being possible, along with focus stacking, Live ND (to simulate ND filters in-camera), and HDR merging.

A large portion of features on the OM-1 are designed to improve the user experience. For example, there's functionality to assist astrophotographers to focus on the stars.

Image: OM SYSTEM.

OM-1 sensor and general specifications

There's a new 20MP stacked BSI Live MOS sensor coupled with the latest TruePic X processor, which the company claims is three times faster than previous models. Maximum ISO in normal sensitivity mode is ISO25600, whilst an expanded mode gives access to up to ISO102400. Stabilisation looks impressive, with up to 7-stops being possible using the in-body stabilisation alone. Up to 8-stops is possible used in combination with M.Zuiko lenses own built-in stabilisation system.

The idea of blackout-free 50fps stills shooting up to 20.37MP with AF tracking is intriguing. The ability has been made possible with a quad-division photodiode configuration, allowing for on-chip phase detection in horizontal and vertical directions of 1053 points. Furthermore, with the AF locked, 120fps shooting is possible. Both of these are possible with raw images up to 90 odd photos. Note that this high-speed shooting is only possible with select Olympus M.Zuiko lenses. Whilst flash cannot be used with such high speeds; the flash sync speed is pretty fast at 1/250th of a second.

As you'd expect, the autofocus system features face and eye tracking, but it can also recognise objects and vehicles such as planes, trains, and automobiles (couldn't resist, sorry). Animal recognition is also here, identifying dogs, birds and cats.

The main viewfinder has a 5.76m dot resolution with a framerate up to 120fps with a latency of 0.005 seconds. The company has also spent a lot of time redesigning the entire menu interface for the camera to make things much easier to navigate and to set up.

Environmental protection would also appear to be first-class, with an IP53 rating for dust proofing and splash proofing. The OM-1 is also freezeproof down to temperatures of -10c.

Image: OM SYSTEM.

Video functions

Needless to say, the OM-1 is fully capable of 4K video at both UHD and DCI resolutions with a maximum framerate of 60fps. It's no slow-motion monster, but 240fps in FHD is possible. Internally the OM-1 can record to H.264 and H.265 with 4:2:2 colour resolution and 8-bit precision. However, you can output, drum roll, ProRes RAW to an Atomos recorder via the HDMI connection, as well as 10-bit Rec.709. The internal bitrates are a little low at around 102Mbps in H.264 for 24, 25, and 30fps, and 77Mbps for H.265 at the same framerates. These bitrates generally double for the higher framerates.

No price has yet been given, but the OM-1 is expected to be available in March.