Photography News Issue 37

Photography News | Issue 37 | absolutephoto.com

News

Next-gen Olympus OM-D For the latest top-of-the-range OM-D, Olympus had to go back to scratch and develop whole new systems to enable it to fulfil its lofty ambitions, including shooting at 18fps

New lenses, too!

Also new from Olympus is a fleet of fast aperture lenses; the M.Zuiko 30mm f/3.5 Macro, M.Zuiko 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro and M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.2 Pro. Starting with the 25mm f/1.2, this (equivalent 50mm) lens should produce some jaw-dropping bokeh and, as a Pro lens, it’s also dust-, splash- and freezeproof. It'll be available in October 2016 with a guide price of £1099.99. Also weather sealed is the 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro (equivalent 24-200mm). This versatile and fast optic has an IS feature that twins with in-camera IS for an effective 6.5 stop shutter speed advantage. Also priced £1099.99 it’ll be available in November. Finally the small, light 30mm f/3.5 Macro boasts a powerful 2.5x magnification, and a class- leading close-focus of 9.5cm. This, combined with its fast and near- silent focus mechanism should make it a top pick for wildlife and nature photographers. Available now, it’s priced £249.99.

Olympus users, the wait is finally over. Ending months of fevered speculation, the new OM-D E-M1 Mark II was officially announced at Photokina, and piles more high spec features onto an already successful body. The OM-D E-M1 Mark II ramps up the speed and performance, to meet the demands of sports, wildlife, action and travel photographers, both in terms of AF performance and burst shooting, while improving image quality, from its 20.4-megapixel chip and TruePic VIII processor, too. The focusing features a brand new, super-fast all cross-type on-chip phase-detection autofocus system, so locking onto moving subjects and those in low- light should be a cinch. It’s precise and versatile, too, with 121 points at your disposal and a high-speed algorithm powered by the new TruePic VIII AF processor, while a separate moving-subject algorithm aids tracking performance. Backing this up is an eye-watering 18fps burst mode in C-AF mode, rising to a phenomenal 60fps in when focus is locked in S-AF mode. What’s more, shutter lag should be eliminated thanks to a 14 frame buffer that starts recording when the shutter button is half-pressed. It all boils down to a camera that’ll stop you frommissing the moment. Developments in the OM-D E-M1 Mark II’s design also means it’s ready to go anywhere with you, no matter the conditions. The body is splashproof, freezeproof and dustproof, with tough metal exterior, but, like it’s predecessor, it’s still compact enough to fit in a bag or a large pocket. The camera’s grip has also been tweaked to offer the maximum shooting comfort, and, as before an optional battery grip with matching controls can be added for increased power and easier vertical framing. Battery life is also improved, with Olympus stating the increase at up to 40% and the charging time of only two hours is around twice as quick as its predecessor, while there’s also a

Ending months of fevered speculation, the new OM-D E-M1

Mark II was announced

handy new battery display, showing the percentage of juice left. To keep you shooting the OM-D E-M1 Mark II is also the first in the series to offer dual SD card slots, one of which is UHS-II compatible, emphasising OM-D’s growing appeal to professional users. The dual card slots mean you can use a second card as an overflow, or split file types between them, such as Raw files to one and JPEGs to the other. As you’d expect, there’s a full suite of video modes, too, with ultra- high definition 4K at 30fps and 102Mbps bit rate. Movie buffs will also welcome the addition of a 24p frame rate and a 237Mbps bit rate to the OM-D repertoire, meaning footage can be shown in authentic widescreen 4K format. Finally, the in-body Image Stabilisation has also been improved and the E-M1 Mark II’s 5-axis IS mechanism now compensates for the equivalent of up to 6.5 stops, at a focal length of 100mm (with the M.ZUIKO 12- 100mm f/4 Pro lens). The images We got the chance to get hands-on with an early sample of the OM-D E-M1 Mark II at Photokina, and to chat through some its cutting technologies with Toshiyuki Terada, general manager, Imaging Global Marketing Division, Olympus Corp (pictured right). olympus.co.uk

Will Cheung

at Photokina

The new OM-D flagship has a great, very solid feel and even though the handgrip is deeper by 3mm compared with the previous model the benefit is clear – at least for my hands – and the result is a lovely camera to hold. I didn’t get a chance to try shooting at 18fps or 60fps with the electronic shutter but there is no doubt of the AF system’s speed and sensitivity. With 121 focus points, all cross-type, and coverage of over 75% of the image area, my sample camera zipped into focus in the low light of an exhibition hall with no problem. The EVF has a refresh rate of 120fps so just panning the camera around the hall meant there was barely any perceptible lag. The OM-D E-M1 Mark II has the potential to be a stunning camera and my money is on Micro Four Thirds users being in a for a treat if they commit to this new body.