3rd Update: On high ISO and also HHHR
I think the benefit of HHHR is more than just 2 stops theoretical if you are going to share in resized down medium to 2000x pixels on the long edge, or even 4000x or full 20MP down from 50MP. It maybe 2.25-2.75 stops better because of the resampling.
4th update- going about at night
General JPEG engine comments
- Quite good JPEG engine noise control. I can see why they upped the limit to ISO 25600 for regular shooting. The JPEG engine does a great job at suppressing chroma noise, keep the color up (along with the modest benefit this sensor brings over say the OM5's), maybe losing detail a bit but in an homogenous way that converts to some digital grain in a pleasing way while still keeping overall tone, generally speaking.
I am quite frankly pleasantly surprised here for those who want to convert in-camera to JPEGS and share in the field, or have a JPEG workflow
HHHR-low light in the situations it can work is outstanding. I saw a color shot in quite low light ISO 25600 and I was pleasantly surprised.
A photography domain case for this camera
- if you are photographing still landscapes
- if you are doing one-off portraits (this means you shoot and the next shot is at 12-15 seconds, not continuously posing/shooting like a modeling session)
- If you are doing static product shots
I think HHHR works wonders on these cases. Same applies for OM-1. OM-5 takes a bit long to do this but it also works with a longer cadence (1 shot every 25-30 seconds)
Recommendation on how to think about HHHR
A big issue of HHHR is that it doesn't work in all situations- it can have issues with movement, may create some weird artifacts. I also find distracting to have your camera in these special modes... but what I found is conceptually what I would recommend this this:
- Think of you caring two cameras in one-
1) One is for general photography. This is your general non HHHR m43rds camera
2) The other picture it as a "large view heavy camera that will be annoying to use in general, and has a narrow domain of operation." But where it can work it works GREAT.
Mentally when you get an idea to photograph something picture what kind of "camera" you need best for that job and switch gears as you switch your camera to think of it that way - "limited in the domains I can use it but in the ones it works, it works great."
I find speaking for myself if I don't make this sort of mental separation, it's distracting to focus on doing the photography.
Raw conversion using OM Workspace
- Using OM Systems Workspace AI noise reduction works pretty well overall, and avoids some of the AI "painted artifacts" one often can see with Dxo Prime if one is not careful and over noise reduces. This is not easy to get right and I feel OM Systems while perhaps not the "bestest" noise reduction with the AI, it's still pretty good at striking a balance between helping while keeping results look "natural."
AF at night
- Face detect is a bit unreliable at some mid to further distances, camera fails to detect/track it. I do feel some of this happens in daylight also.
- I am finding the AF a bit confusing with face detect if you have a somewhat small points for selection (small area, tiny square, cross square area options) because it looks like you have to point to someone's face and that will start tracking it but if it loses it, normally it tends to track/detect in the area you hae selected in general? So basically it seems while the big area square can detect a face and start tracking it, when you have a small area square you have to point to the face first. At least seemed that way but I am not even quite sure that's how it works.
- I feel it def. improved over say the OM5/EM5.3 class camera
- Using the smaller square can present some challenges at times in lower light- this probably combines with the so called "low contrast issue" a bit
- There's some aspects that require a bit more use to get a better feel for how well it's performing. Overall I would rank it as reasonable though I did get some misses
- I honestly don't understand the whole "oh Fuji is so behind in AF vs m43rds"- I think the issue is Fuji had some issues through 3-4 firmware updates for AF in video mainly, and while they deserve all the flak they got for doing such regression in a newer firmware update, well that's fixed. I wouldn't put Fuji's AF at the rank of current "Canikony" but I am not seeing the big advantage of the OM-3 here over current Fuji so far. But I would have to really use the OM-3 more to gain more confidence where this all lands.
Going to check some images now to see I post something.
Handling comments
The camera ergonomics after some use started to get annoying. That color/B&W knob in front gets in the way of some fingers and while initially trying to hold with one hand can help with support, that dented metal wheel starts to hurt a bit on my right hand-angular finger.
Because the camera is "wide" it starts to also feel a bit unbalanced. I was using the Olympus 25mm F1.8 small prime (original, not new weather sealed one).
Banding in e-shutter in mixed light with fast shutter
The stacked sensor refresh seems to help here and I tried to push into fast shutters to get banding but couldn't see any obvious case. I think I saw one case where there was some very very mild banding but hard to see.
Trivia
- A guy that stopped next to me with some photography enthusiasm said "wow, that's a nice looking DSLR.. old school right? " And I was like "well, it's actually a new digital camera, but it was made to look like that. Looks like they accomplished that goal

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