Welcome back deep TV viewers it is Chris Nichols here and today we are taking a Final look at the OM system om1 now like All of our second looks we have a Pre-production version that we did do a Lot of testing on you should definitely Check out that video if you want to see More of the handling controls features I Mean today we really want to then take a Look at now that we've used this camera For quite a while what are our Experiences overall with that now I want To mention today of course I'm shooting On an om1 but Jordan is also shooting The episode on an om1 completely Handheld today and we've updated both Cameras to the latest firmware it is now Version 1.3 and this problem is just to Make the autofocus quite a bit stickier And more effective so we have a revised Autofocus test for you guys today you Won't want to miss that we also have a Lot to cover when it comes to video now Because of the needs for my job I often Only have access to a camera for a week Or two and then it's getting sent back And whatever the next camera is that's What I'm going to review that day so you Know it's always this constantly Changing thing but the om1 I've actually Had for quite a long time and I use it For my work with trout Fitters where I'm Producing fly fishing videos and we've Also used a lot for travel so it's gone
To the Northwest Territories with me but Also recently we took it to Japan we had A press event there and so got to take That along as well and so first off one Of the major strengths that I really Love about this system is just how easy It is to travel with I mean compact body Compact lenses I don't need to take a Tripod in a lot of situations because of All the computational options that I Have like live ND and just the fact it's Got an incredibly stable in-body image Stabilization system so overall I just Find it very convenient to go around With now having handled an old one now For quite a long time I the grip is Still one of the best I've ever used on A camera it fits my size of a hand Really well I will say the camera's got A lot of customizable buttons and that's Great because frankly there's a lot of Features that you want that are in the Menu and unless you can set them up to a Customizable button it can be a little Slow to access them I highly recommend Going in and setting up your my menu System with a lot of those features so You can easily find them now formerly All the Olympus cameras and the OM System cameras do usually have have this Mode one two selector switch right Around the autofocus on button and you Can use that in really handy way to Basically have two different kinds of
Camera you click it to one you get Different Auto focusing features and Drive modes and things like click it to Another and you can have it change over Completely I honestly don't use that Very much I I maybe have a little bit Slower but I just like to have a binary On off toggle switch now you can do that To literally turn the camera on and off But I wish I could also use it for you Know toggling between subject detection On and off for example I mean that would Be really handy but you know maybe we'll Have that added in the future but really Overall it does handle very well from a Physical standpoint the only thing I Would complain about the actual Autofocus joystick it's a little bit Small and I do sometimes find it hard to Do diagonal directional changes it's Easy to create all the way to the right Or left side of the frame or go up and Down but sometimes when you go diagonal It's just a little bit tricky those Ducks take pictures okay fine but They're just they're just ducks like Everybody's seeing Everybody's seen a million Ducks from us Now there it's the best duck shots I've Ever taken you happy So now you've just seen Jordan forcibly Make me take pictures of the Ducks which You've seen thousands of in the sample Galleries at least it does make sense to
Talk about these subject detection modes One of which is Birds you've also got Animals you've got Planes Trains and Automobiles and you got a whole Suite of Them but what I really wanted to see Change with the former update which Unfortunately hasn't changed the entire Interface of the autofocus first off in Case you don't know uh om system cameras Their continuous autofocus works great But the tracking autofocus specifically Is really ineffective I never use it but You don't really even need to use the Tracking because the fact of the matter Is the way these cameras are designed if You have subject detection on in this Case a bird and you point the camera at It if it sees a bird it will focus there By default I mean you don't really have Control over that you can touch the Screen to make the camera Focus Somewhere else and that's a great quick Way to do it or you have to turn the Subject detections off so I can Certainly set up some custom buttons one For you know turning on and off subject Detection another for turning on and off Face detection but that ties up to Button and really what I want is a quick Way to just go right into the subject Detection menu so I not just simply turn It on and off but actually be able to Choose what subject I want to track and I really want humans in there as I've
Said before to simplify the whole Process or at least I want to have Subject detection as an option in the Quick menu so they can then quickly Adjust it in there but overall when the Subject detection is chosen right it is Very effective so we wanted to redo our Running test well I wanted to redo the Running test I don't know if Jordan Really wanted to do it winter boots but Anyways it's for you guys so we thought We would try it again neither firmware Promises that the autofocus should be Stickier on your initial subject not Lose focus and go to the background or Anything I honestly never really noticed That to be that big a problem on the Original cameras and even the Pre-production cameras before the Firmware but you know we wanted to do Another test just to see also the last Time I shot Jordan running with an om1 I Was using the 40 to 150 F4 and you're Getting a fair amount of depth of field At F4 so we want to give it a more Punishing test so the camera store as Always helping us out let us borrow an Olympus 75 millimeter F 1.8 now this is An older lens the autofocusing motor is Not that advanced and much shallower Depth of field for the test and we got Jordan running and whether I was in Mechanical shutter mode or electronic Shutter mode the OM system 101 actually
Handled that really nicely I mean There's a couple shots where it's a Little bit off especially more when Jordan gets really close to the camera But frankly overall throughout the Course of the range it's still tracking Him on his face and eyes very Effectively even with that shallower Depth of field so it's nice to see that It's still holding true and if anything The new firmware just improves that Experience so when I'm shooting a video On the om1 doing fly fishing vids as I Mentioned earlier I like the fact that I Can hand hold it very easily without Having to have any additional support I Find that the video autofocus is quite Sticky on people's faces so I really Like that I also though generally just Shoot in h.264 not h.265 shooting 8-bit I generally use the flat profile not om Log I don't necessarily need to grade Too much unless there's a lot of Contrast I'm using DaVinci Resolve and I'm a cheapskate and I don't get the Full version and so that's where I have The 8-Bit access and frankly the video Looks very similar to what I was getting On the Olympus EM1 Mark III before that It's basically identical so there is a Big Improvement on the om1 and that is That it now shoots 10-bit videos let's Go to Jordan and talk about his findings About that all right Jordan here to talk
About video and when the om1 was Initially announced it really looked Like the gh5 with good autofocus that Everybody was really asking for but it Also came out at the exact same time as A bunch of like really impressive video Cameras that push the bar forward and I Kept holding off on doing the full Review for the om1 because I really felt Like it was like two firmware updates Away from being an amazing hybrid Mirrorless camera and we've got a few Firmware updates and I still feel the Exact same way it needs two more Firmware updates to be a great camera For starters the new h.265 10-bit Recording not only gives you a lot more Color information than the h.264 8-Bit Recording but it's also dramatically Sharper now this could be a real problem For someone like Chris who doesn't want To deal with the hassle of working with Hlg or log footage but still wants to Get the best out of the camera not only Are they going to have less color Information but they're also going to Have noticeably softer footage now even If you're comfortable working with log Video there's some weird quirks in this Camera you need to be aware of I touched On this in the previous video but there Is a function called The View assist and If your recording log it'll show you a Roughly graded image which is nice you
Can easily check your color the weird Thing is the histogram is wrong if you Enable the view assist so what you'll Actually have to do is shoot in the log Mode without the view assist check your Meter you'll see how much highlight and Shadow information you have then turn The view assist on it's suddenly going To look like you have reduced dynamic Range when you turn it on but it's not It's just showing you a histogram for The preview I really recommend set up The view assist to a custom button you Can meter the scene with the view assist Disabled then click it on for a more Comfortable shooting experience there's Another really weird Quirk if you're Recording log with this camera and That's that the log recordings are in a Rec 2020 color space and it might not Seem like that's a big problem because The official Lut is called the OM log Rec 2020 to rec 709 conversion should Put it in a nice usable color space and It absolutely does if you're editing in DaVinci Resolve however I do most of my Cutting and Final Cut and I couldn't Figure out why my skin tones looked so Terrible even after applying the Official Lut and eventually I figured Out I actually need to go and manually Change the color space in every clip From Rec 2020 direct 709 in addition to Using the lot and that'll give you
Access to more usable skin tones but It's something that I would have never Thought I would have to do and it took Me months to figure this thing out I do Find that it tends to over saturate Reds And you get a little bit too much Magenta on the skin tones but this is All easily correctable not like those Horrible skin tones I initially thought I was dealing with before I knew about The rec 709 conversion okay but what if You shoot like Chris who has just Switched us over to 8-bit h.264 using The flat profile on it right now well as I mentioned you are going to have softer Results than the 10-bit recording but on Top of that I've found that you have to Absolutely nail your exposure and your White balance if you're using this mode Chris has handed me some footage where It just minor tweaks to the white Balance the skin tones completely fall Apart so make sure you're paying careful Attention to both white balance and Exposure if you're using this mode so This puts you in a position where you Really have to shoot 10 bit if you want To get the most out of this camera and I Think an easy feature for them to add to The om1 would be the ability to record The flat profile in the 10-bit h.265 Recording modes for things like this Where we've got very controlled lighting We don't need the flexibility of log or
The extended dynamic range I think that Will make a lot of sense now this isn't Going to help Cheapskates like Chris who Aren't willing to Pony up for the full Version of resolve Studio to be able to Work with 10-bit files but I mean that's A niche case for the majority of people If you want the best out of this camera Shoot 10 bit one of the main advantages Of moving to a stacked sensor is much Faster readout and we definitely do see That in terms of the Rolling shutters And you can see extremely good in 8-bit Mode but even 10-bit mode is plenty fast I don't think you're going to notice a Lot of weird diagonals anything like That it is worth pointing out that if You're shooting in 10-bit mode and You're recording 4K 60 there you won't See the detail increases but if you want The sharpest possible footage 4K 30 and Under in 10 bit mode just like in Stills The video autofocus is very very Responsive and consistent if you're Recording human subjects so if you're Doing pieces to camera like this this is A great option that's also why Chris Uses this camera quite a bit now I wish It had a modern tap the screen to Initiate tracking on other subjects or a Specific person unfortunately that isn't Available in this now as well the In-body image stabilization is something That Olympus and now om system cameras
Are famous for and that does definitely Carry through with this especially if You using one of the few sync is lenses Where the lens stabilization and body Will work together but I do want to Point out the other manufacturers are Making huge strides and companies like Panasonic and Nikon are getting pretty Close to this performance this is Definitely the best out there but not by The huge margin it used to be so yes I Do definitely have some irritations with The om1 but if you've been paying Attention you might have noticed that Basically all of these are software Issues the hardware here is actually Fantastic so if they can add like a Proper histogram when using the view Assist you know give me the option for a Flat profile when I'm recording 10 bit And release a new Lut for Final Cut Users or even let me add my own Lut to The camera this would just be an Incredibly capable tool now I could be Very cynical and say like it's a real Shame that they missed out on that Opportunity with this camera but I am Choosing to remain an optimist and Positive and I think om system will fix This so you know what I love the om1 and I love using it but it is a fiddly Camera but it's still serves a really Interesting purpose as a compact camera That's very stable handheld that also
Has small lenses and that's also quite Rugged and weather sealed and so for What I'm doing for the fly fishing stuff Where I'm Riverside and I need to pack Other gear and I need to be compact I Think it's a great tool and also for Traveling I mean would this be my first Choice as a photo only camera probably Not you can get more capable Photographic cameras with better image Quality for a similar price point but Can I get all that with small lenses and The handheld capabilities and the Ruggedness and the ease of travel not Really so I think this is still a really Interesting camera but definitely let us Know in the comments below what you Think or if you have any questions Further on check out our updated sample Gallery you can see that at Deepyoureview.com Link in the Description below otherwise Please Subscribe please like the Channel please Watch us again we will see you shortly With another episode of deep your vtv And we hope to see you there Foreign [Music]
