OLYMPUS OM-D E-M1X GEAR
OLYMPUS OM-D E-M1X
By designing a pumped-up OM-D aimed at sports stills shooters, Olympus has produced a fine all-round video camera
WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
W hile the rest of the camera world zigs, Olympus zags. In the never-ending quest for ever-larger sensors in more compact bodies, the new OM-D E-M1X bucks the trend with a much bigger body and the Micro Four Thirds sensor – a quarter the real estate of many of its rivals’ full- frame chips. Aimed squarely at sports and wildlife stills photographers, the new Olympus also has a huge swathe of welcomed improvements for video shooters who are less put off by the small sensor. The technology builds on what was already in the more compact OM-D E-M1 Mark II, and improves on it with an even better image stabilisation system, faster autofocus, better audio, Log shooting with proper Rec.709 View Assist gamma, longer battery life and less issues with heat. That provides a seriously good video spec that should have filmers sitting up and taking note.
But for all that, there are some quite obvious downsides once you interrogate the spec. Such as Cinema 4K at 237Mbps, but only in 24fps. To record in 4K at 30 or 25p, that drops to just 102Mbps. If you want super slow-motion, then in Full HD you get 120fps, but the image is cropped. And in all cases the signal is 8-bit whether you record to the internal cards or an external recorder. With an asking price of £2799/$2999 body only, it’s up against some serious competition such as the latest Sony and Panasonic full- frame cameras. So often the case, a camera is far more than its spec might suggest and the Olympus is definitely a camera that does things its own way. It looks like a pro DSLR with its big, integrated battery grip that takes two batteries for double the shooting time of the E-M1 Mark II as it uses that camera’s BLH-1 cells. And there’s USB-C socket so both batteries can be charged in-camera in around two hours.
“A seriously good video spec that should have filmers sitting up and taking note”
ABOVE In movie mode the rear screen shows basic information. There are no waveforms but the histogram is a useful tool to nail exposure
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PRO MOVIEMAKER SUMMER 2019
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