The OM System OM-1 is the first high-end Micro Four Thirds mirrorless camera from OM Digital Solutions, the company that bought Olympus’s camera business. It is a tough, image-stabilized 20MP camera that can shoot at a fast rate and has a number of computational photography modes.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a camera that is better made or feels better in your hand than the OM-1. It looks a lot like Olympus’s OM-D E-M1 cameras, which are small DSLRs with a big hand grip that always seems to fit in the hand better than most other cameras of the same type. If you’ve shot with a camera from the E-M1 series, the OM-1 will feel and look very familiar to you.
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo hide=price]The body has been made better by adding smooth, rounded edges, a new shutter button, and concave AF/Drive mode buttons, which are likely meant to make it less likely that you’ll press them by accident. The OM-1 is a tough little camera as well. The IP53 rating makes it official that the weatherproofing is better than the norm in the industry.
We didn’t mind shooting with the OM-1 in downpours and on London’s rain-soaked streets as long as we had a PRO lens on it. However, we can’t say what the effects of long-term exposure to extreme weather are. Both screens have gotten a big resolution boost, which is a good thing.
The electronic viewfinder (EVF) now has 5.76 million dots, and the 3-inch touchscreen that can be used at different angles has a good 1.62 million dots. The EVF refreshes quickly at 120fps and makes shooting a dream. We’d like the touchscreen to work for menus, too. It seems strange that it doesn’t, but other than that, it’s easy to use and good for touch focus.
When the mechanical shutter or anti-shock shutter (electronic first curtain) is chosen, the OM-1 can shoot at 10fps in continuous mode. With the electronic shutter (silent mode), the speed is much faster, with a maximum of 50fps with C-AF and AE Tracking or 120fps with focus and exposure locked on the first frame. All of the speeds work with the highest resolution RAW files.
A new BLX-1 battery gives the OM-1 power. It’s a 17Wh unit that gives the camera enough power to take 520 pictures on a single charge when using the back screen. No number is given for the viewfinder.
Always, these numbers are likely to be a lot lower than the number of shots you’ll actually get, but they can help you compare cameras. No external charger comes with the camera but it can be charged or operated over its USB-C socket.
If you use a powerful enough USB-PD power source, you can power and charge the camera at the same time. There is an external battery charger that can charge two batteries for $149 or $219 with a battery.