New Olympus unveiled
First look at OM-D E-M1X mirrorless powerhouse
IN OCTOBER this year, it will be 100 years since the founding of the company that’s now known as the Olympus Corporation. The firm is clearly determined to celebrate its centenary with a bang, and has kicked off with something of a statement model for Micro Four Thirds. The OM- D E- M1X takes all the things that Olympus’s current flagship OM- D E- M1 Mark II does particularly well – high-speed shooting, autofocus tracking, in-body stabilisation and durability – and cranks the dial up to 11! In technical terms it’s a really interesting camera, although at £2,799.99 for a professional-focused Micro Four Thirds model, it’s inevitably going to be a niche product.
In essence, the E- M1X is designed for shooting sports and action under demanding conditions, and everything about its design and specification reflects this. It’s one of only a handful of cameras to include an integrated vertical grip for portrait-format shooting, complete with a duplicate set of controls, alongside the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II and Nikon D5. Its mirrorless design means that it’s not as huge as these two behemoths, but it still weighs almost a kilogram. This feels like an odd choice from Olympus, which prides itself on the mobility of its system.
Olympus is making a number of truly eye- catching claims for the E- M1X. It says it has the world’s best dust-,
splash- and freeze-proofing for shooting in severe weather; the world’s most effective image stabilisation, with an incredible 7.5 stops shake compensation; the industry’s highest viewfinder magnification, at 0.83x equivalent; and a remarkable stamina of 2,580 shots, thanks to the use of two high- capacity BLH-1 batteries which can be recharged in- camera in approximately two hours via the USB- C port.
The camera is based around a 20.4MP Four Thirds sensor which, at approximately 17.4x13mm, is roughly half the area of APS- C, and a quarter that of full frame. It offers a standard sensitivity range of ISO 200-25,600, extending down to an ISO 64 equivalent low setting. Continuous shooting is available at a remarkable 60 frames per second in full-resolution raw although
, with focus fixed at the start of a burst. If you need the camera to track focus on a moving subject, it’s capable of doing so at 18fps. This spectacular performance is enabled by the inclusion of two TruePic VIII processors.
The body design is based on the E- M1 Mark II, but the integrated vertical grip means that there’s space for even more controls. Notably, there are dedicated ISO and exposure compensation buttons adjacent to both shutter releases.
Innovative autofocus
Perhaps the camera’s most interesting feature is its intelligent subject- detection autofocus, which allows it to track specific subjects. It can be configured for trains, planes or motorsports, at which point the camera will outline any object of the correct type in the viewfinder, and ignore everything else. If this works as promised in the real world, then it could signal a revolutionary approach to autofocus, as the camera shouldn’t get confused by anything that temporarily obstructs the desired subject.
Aside from this, the standard AF system has also been uprated. As with the E- M1 Mark II, it still uses 121 cross-type points arranged across the entire frame, but it’s now possible to select from a wider range of grouping options. Olympus has finally embraced the use of joysticks to move the focus point, and says the camera can focus in vanishingly low light of - 6EV when using an f/1.2 lens.
The E- M1X also has a strong focus on video. It can record in Cinema 4K (4096 x 2160) resolution at 30fps, with a new OM- Log400 profile available to provide footage that’s suitable for colour grading in post-production. It’s even possible to set different levels of image stabilisation for handheld recording.