Why this could be your next camera
Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III
Whenever someone’s asked me which camera to buy in the past two years, my answer has been to get the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. And now, here comes the new E-M10 Mark III. You should know right off the bat that the new version hasn’t changed a lot — the 16MP sensor inside is still the same 16MP sensor as the Mark II’s.
However, the Mark III still ships with the same features that made the Mark II so compelling, like its small size, beautiful design, a large lens family, and a 5-axis optical image stabilization system. Plus, it now shoots 4K video and has a redesigned UI for easier use.
Think of the Mark III as a facelift of the Mark II — both the chassis and the UI get re nements that make them easier to use. For example, there’s a new Advanced Photo (AP) mode, which has a dedicated space on the Mode dial, and activates a menu that lets you easily select shooting modes like Live Composite and Live Time.�
Besides re ning the user experience, the biggest spec bumps to the Mark III would be the TruePic VIII processor, which the E-M10 Mark III inherits from the agship OM-D E-M1 Mark II. AF points have been increased from 81 to 121, and is the second Olympus mirrorless camera to shoot 4K video, with 30/25/24p frame rates, and Full-HD at 60/50/30/25/24p.
For most everyday situations, like people, landscape and still life, the E-M10 Mark III performs well. The photos’ colors are beautiful, especially if you use the Natural color setting in Program mode. I’d skip the using the i-Enhance color pro le in Auto mode, which looks overly saturated to me. If you don’t pixel peep, you should be satis ed with images shot up to ISO 3,200, and even ISO 6,400, if all you do is share on Facebook and never print your images.
The 5-axis OIS manages to reduce camera shake while shooting video.�But the OIS does introduce an odd parallax and sudden jerkiness when panning. Disappointingly, AE doesn’t seem to work in video, exposure settings remain when you transit between bright and dark areas.�
The Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III isn’t the best-specced camera on the market, but it is one of the better cameras for most people to use.
It shoots decent images and video with advanced features like a 5-axis OIS, comes in a small and light body, is easy to use, and sells at an affordable price.
CONCLUSION A good all-rounder for most people.