Review of Olympus EM10 Mark III 2017

[wonglp]

Launch of the Olympus EM10 Mark III camera
Olympus Imaging is pleased to announce the third generation of entry-level OM-D cameras, the OM-D E-M10
Mark III. This new model features the image processor of the OM-D E-M1 Mark II - TruePic VIII which helps improve lowlight shooting performance and Olympus renowned 5-Axis In-Built Image Stabilisation (IBIS). With 121 AF points as found in the OM-D E-M1 Mark II and 4k handheld movie recording, the new OM-D E-M10 Mark III is feature packed for first-time SLR owner, enthusiastic travelers, and families.
The E-M10 Mark III’s 5-Axis IBIS lets you shoot with greater mobility and freedom than you can with other entry-tointermediate class interchangeable lens cameras. Its compact and lightweight body provides convenient handheld shooting flexibility for photography novices with a wide-range of subject interests. From wide-angle landscapes, portraits, social snapshots, travel, movies, macro close-ups to exciting telephoto action sports, Olympus’ advanced 5-Axis IS effectively counteracts camera shake to a maximum of four shutter speed steps of compensation1 performanceto deliver brilliantly sharp handheld imaging results.

Silver Body with kit lens 14-42mm F3.5-5.6


Black Body with kit lens 14-42mm F3.5-5.6


With onboard flash


Top View


Rear View

 

[wonglp]

EM10 series has strongly established their most popular series since about 3 years ago EM10 was launched. This 3rd iteration, what improvements can we expect, and features that would be worthy of a class of its own?

The difference from the EM10Mark II
- 4K/30P video with stabilizer
- Ability to extract frames out of 4K video to give an output of about 8MP on playback.
- Ability to do frame clipping in camera, as a new file or simply overwriting it.
- Full HD with 120FPS, i remember doing this on EM10arkII it was fun but the quality was just 640x480 good to see this being improved, shall have a play again.
- New Art filters Bleach Bypass (I and II) I simply call it modern (colder) and vintage (nostalgic)
- A souped up grip, much better to handle some Pro Lenses (not the big ones like 40-150/300). But I do think 12-100/7-14 would be fine. There's a caveat though, the tripod screw is in the middle of the lens centre and very front which means one need to be careful on handling large lenses with camera plates, I will show some shots later. With this integrated grip it means also there won't be an optional ECG grip like the previous models had. Good/Bad depends on the needs I suppose. If it helps, perhaps the leather grip will be useful to extend the height of the camera or wait till a 3rd party to launch an L bracket for this camera, that will satisfy some landscape photographers (me included)
- The sensor is still 16MP but processing engine is now similar to EM1 Mark II. MOst of my shots will be out of camera unless otherwise stated.
- 121AF points instead of 81 on EM10.2
- Lastly, there's a new AP mode which has the following quick selection (Live Bulb, Live COmposite, multiple exposures, HDR, silent shooting, , panorama, keystone compensation, AE bracket, Focus Bracket). I will touch on this on a separate post.

 

[wonglp]

Camera Handling


A major plus with EM10.3 is the bulged grip. Contoured well outwards enough to allow fingers to to be placed without being trapped on bulkier Pro lenses - I had tried on both Olympus 7-14 and 12-100 Pro. With this nice grip though, Olympus had decided not to provide a optional ECG grip, like previous iterations. This might not affect most people and is indeed a good move as it saves some money. While it won't be as ergonomically as good as EM1 Mark II or Em5 Mark II with grip, it's better than not having one.

For those using camera plates, do take note of this small potential issue though, the middle tripod screw is placed quite in front, hence if using bigger plates, it may scratch or obstruct lens changing. If using longer ones, just orientate the long end to be parallel to camera body. This happens only for larger Pro lenses, if using smaller lenses no issue at all.



Lens is Olympus 7-14m Pro, the plate isn't a big one.

 

[wonglp]

Some pictures using Bleach Bypass Art Filters Mode I(modern - shining, silver texture to metals, a cooler mode) and II (vintage), personally like Bleach Bypass and will be using it quite a bit in near future, I do hope they give this to other cameras on a firmware update too.

All below shot with kit lens and ooc jpeg

Mode I


Mode 2 same scene


You could certainly shoot in Raw and edit it in camera to have bleach bypass too, though I prefer that instantaneous moment of effect.

Here's one that left quite an impression, maybe due to this is Hungry Ghost month?
Mode I. some crop and levelling done.


Mode I


Mode 2

 

[wonglp]

Some images sharing before continuing review. All with kit 14-42 lens.

Just some crop+rotation in Lightroom. 28mm,F4.9, ISO800, 1/100s


OOC jpeg, 14mm,F9,ISO200,1/250s, without editing the jpeg engine TruePic VIII still comes out well with good dynamic range. I set vibrant picture mode, and auto gradation which helps to boost some shadows.



Crop on Lightroom only. 18mm,F7.1,ISO200,1/100s,


OOC jpeg. 14mm,F7.1,ISO200,1/500s,


Square crop in Lightroom, 42mm, F6.3, ISO200, 1/1000s

 

[wonglp]

ISO Tests

A side by side ISO 3200 (42mm, F5.6) tests between Kit lens 14-42mm (right) and Pro lens 12-100mm F4 Pro (left) at almost same settings (I couldn't zoom accurately to 42mm on 12-100, so it's at 41mm otherwise all settings same). Not a marked difference, perhaps a little better contrast and colours with 12-100mm Pro lens.



But if we crop 100% comparison. There's a marked difference now. Not too surprising of course, though it does illustrate ISO performance can vary quite a bit with zoom lens and if you zoom in to pixel peep...


Here's 2 more shots at ISO 6400, ISO 12800 with Olympus 12-100mm Pro just for illustrations. Good or not, depends on individual.

ISO6400


ISO12800

 

[wonglp]

Catering to more beginners

There are quite a few tweaks to the new EM10 Mark III interface that indicates Olympus is trying to shape this line of OMD for beginners.

Fn2 button reassigned
One of that is seemingly the complete omitting of "Multi-Function Tool" at Fn2 button, a feature that I really liked using on the original EM10, however, I realized over the years, this isn't quite as popular with many other users especially beginners or even some amateurs didn't seem to know how to activate the multifunction feature (it's done by pressing Fn+rear scroll to switch around 5 functions). Fn2 is replaced now with 2x Digital Zoom function, which is more suited for beginners who wants a quick zoom in function without changing lens for both stills or video.

While it's understandable that beginners would welcome this new implementation, I would have hope that it's a hidden menu function that can still be activate for more serious amateurs like myself.

"Restructured Menu pages"

The menu had gone through an overhaul like the EM1 Mark II structure. So there's only 1 page per submenu instead of several pages perviously and unless you are very familiar with the hidden settings in the menu, as a beginner, you would definitely fine it easier to navigate the new structure.

 

[wonglp]

Perhaps the biggest interface change to guide beginners apart having usual 3 assisted photography mode (Auto/Scene/ART filter) is the addition of the 4th (AP - Advanced Photo)

There's also an addition of a quick menu button on bottom left (diagonal arrow in a box).


A quick view below shows the photo modes, there's also a short description which is very useful for beginners.


Live Composite (for more information what this mode does click here)
Live Time
Multiple Exposure
HDR
Silent Mode (This is the only mode that has silent shutter)
Panorama (note this requires Olympus Viewer 3 to stitch)
Keystone compensation
AE Bracket
Focus Bracket (not shown in picture)

So all this mode means instead of trying to dig into menu to use it, it's right out of this neatly centralised mode.

Also, they do make settings easier for beginners to understand.

Example: Live Composite normally requires to go to Manual mode, dial to 60secs and beyond, set the live composite setting (base frame) and you will need to shoot the first shot that takes the base exposure, then press again to start the live composite. Easily 30-60sec to get kickstarted.
Using AP: Just Press start and that's it. The camera calculates the exposure for base shot required and does the rest of the metering for you to ensure you get a well exposed enough shot. Max 5sec to get kickstarted. Easy level x 10.
Though this ease of use comes with a price. I found the camera will max the composite setting at 1/2s fastest (this is same if using in manual) and 2s slowest. 2s is a problem as the camera will increase the ISO to match 2s, so if the scene is very dark and 2s is max out, the ISO will increase (max of ISO 800).
I really like the idea of this mode for one who uses Live Composite and Live Time a lot to shoot. If they can have this similar quick setting, but open up all other settings for advanced users, I think this will be very useful. Especially the part u have to press twice to initiate a Live Comp.

Anyways, here's a shot of a star trail using Live Composite, with the traditional method.

Using 14-42 mm Kit lens at 14mm,F4.5, 25sec, ISO200. Total about 45minutes.

 

[undergrd]

Wow... I am impressed with ISO12800. Looks good and acceptable to me.

 

[wonglp]

Wow... I am impressed with ISO12800. Looks good and acceptable to me.

Me too bro If processed in raw would be even better details.

 

[wonglp]

5 axis stabiliser...

EM10 Mark III's stabiliser is supposedly same as it's predecessor, which is capable of 4 stops of stabilisation. From my test it actually exceeds 4 stops easily. I seem to be able to get as good results as Pen F which is supposed to have 5 stops stabilisation...though certainly not to EM1 Mark II which I can more consistently better/longer shots. I think it's still a winner here.

Here's some of the handheld shots.

1sec at 15mm, 14-42mm lens


1/6s at 19mm, 14-42mm lens


2s at 42mm, 14-42mm lens. 1 success out of 2 shots.


2s at 42mm, 14-42mm lens, 1 success out of 2 shots.

 

[blurboiboi]

Me too bro If processed in raw would be even better details.

is the em5ii lagging behind a lot in this aspect leh??

 

[wonglp]

is the em5ii lagging behind a lot in this aspect leh??

Don't have one side by side to test, but it shouldn't be far. EM5ii though has that really nifty 64MP high resolution mode that EM10III don't...the shot above was by TruePic Engine 8, so probably in jpeg of EM10iii vs EM5ii jpegs, the EM10iii might be cleaner. Details wise Raw files shouldn't be that far. Raw should be able to get more details though in any case. At this point, no Raw support in Lightroom so just looking at jpeg if that clarifies.

 

[blurboiboi]

Don't have one side by side to test, but it shouldn't be far. EM5ii though has that really nifty 64MP high resolution mode that EM10III don't...the shot above was by TruePic Engine 8, so probably in jpeg of EM10iii vs EM5ii jpegs, the EM10iii might be cleaner. Details wise Raw files shouldn't be that far. Raw should be able to get more details though in any case. At this point, no Raw support in Lightroom so just looking at jpeg if that clarifies.

thanks bro!... seems like the newer processing engine is good..

 

[wonglp]

thanks bro!... seems like the newer processing engine is good..

Welcome bro

 

[wonglp]

A few more shots from recent photowalks, mostly briefly massaged using Lightroom...

With 14-42, 14mm, F6.3, 1/40s, ISO200


With 14-42, 42mm, F6.3, 1/40s, ISO200



With 14-42, 15mm, F7.1, ISO200


With 14-42, 15mm, F7.1, ISO200, heavy crop



2sec handheld, 12-100mm F4 Pro

 

[wonglp]

A long exposure using 12-100mm F4 Pro, stacked with 10+3 Haida Nanopro ND for cutting the light

The Jpeg came out with pretty good dynamic range. Would expect the Raw files to be even better.
Lightroom adjusted.
12mm, F6.3, ISO200, 25sec.

 

[wonglp]

4K video.

Not really a videographer, so the review would be limited in this aspect. Here's a new feature in camera, frame capture. you can view playback of camera and pull out a frame that you like in that frame, result is an 8MP file.

[video=youtube;3uRvGRXoe1Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uRvGRXoe1Q[/video]

Here's the frame captured and saved in camera. Very useable.

 

[wonglp]

There's an updated HS 120fps mode in video, slightly more useable than previous iterations as it's now 1280x720p, previously it was 640x480.

Here's a clip of how it looks like.

[video=youtube_share;HaTmbCdtiis]https://youtu.be/HaTmbCdtiis[/video]

 

[wonglp]

A 4K video short clip to show the quality of the camera. Recorded in 4K/30P. As before, EM10 Mark III does not have mic input.

[video=youtube_share;UskSod4Nv9c]https://youtu.be/UskSod4Nv9c[/video]