Olympus OM-D EM10 with Power Zoom Pancake M.Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 EZ Lens - Silver/Silver (16.1MP, Live MOS ) 3.0 inch Tiltable LCD

Product Information

The earlier EM10 Mark II offered a wealth of configuration options, including the number of frames from 3 to 999, and the focus differential from one to 10. Now on the Mark III it’s much-simplified: the camera will take eight frames, no more, no less with just the choice of whether the change of focus between shots is large or small. The goal remains the same as before though, to attempt to capture a sequence where the first and last frames are focused on the nearest and furthest points you’d like to be in focus, while also including a bunch inbetween. These should then be loaded into third-party software for assembling. Aside from these features, there aren’t other big spec or physical changes of note from the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark III. It’s a sensible update, one that focuses on improving the camera’s stills capabilities. Like the Mark II before it though, the EM10 Mark III feels a lot more solid and comfortable than you’d expect for a camera of its size and mid-range positioning. There’s no formal weather-sealing nor tough credentials at this price, but the EM10 Mark III’s build quality feels very solid, dense and reassuring in your hands, and the slightly enlarged grip allows you to hold it securely and comfortably. I keep m4/3 for using my 75-300 II as a "poor man's 600mm", and as a satisfactory remote flash combo; and

Olympus OM-D E-M10 Review - Digital Photography Review

Switch the power on and the lens extends by a couple of centimetres with the camera ready for action in less than two seconds; it’s actually not much different to the cold power-up time with a prime or non-collapsing zoom. The zoom operation on the lens is motorised only, using a spring-loaded ring on the barrel – it’s not as tactile as a mechanically-linked ring, but that’s the price of miniaturisation. Meanwhile a thin ring at the end offers manual focusing and while it’s narrow, the damping makes it a lot more usable than the loose ring on the Sony 16-50mm kit zoom. So at what given sensor size / lens aperture it stops to matter for you? It improves until 4/3 and then stops when getting better? There is a real world requirements when a quality of something is "good enough" and when it is "not good enough" and that line is little dynamic, but not much, but it is set. Nearly always I have the 12-40 lens on the camera, a relatively heavy lens. For that reason I bought the accessory grip; it is a great help. My fingers now come to rest in exactly the right place and I can hold the cam-lens combo in a comfortable and steady grip. This implements electronic first curtain below 1/320 sec shutter speed, thus reducing vibration, in theory, from the shutter.With the launch of the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III, we compared the three latest OM-D models to see which is best If you’re more concerned with photography, though, the E-M10 Mark IV’s focusing system is capable of handling a range of moving subjects, including wildlife, field sports and planes. Although it’s worth noting that its top continuous burst mode speed of 15fps (electronic shutter) can only perform at such speeds with fixed focus. My Nikon V1 is ancient but it came with a mechanical as well as an electronic shutter. So, I was always able to shoot in silent mode if I wanted to. The sequence below is typical of a cyclist approaching at fairly modest speed. I set the camera to continuous low speed and fired-off 11 frames in just under three seconds, but only the last three were in focus; I’ve pictured them below. Considering I set the camera to its slower speed and the subject wasn’t particularly demanding, this isn’t a great result. The five-axis image stabilisation system inside the E-M10 II is very good. When shooting with the 40-150mm lens mentioned earlier, I was able to get images that look sharp at 100% when shooting at the longest point (equivalent to 300mm) and using a shutter speed of 1/8 sec. Rising to 1/15 sec produced more consistently sharp images.

Olympus OMD EM10 Mark III review | Cameralabs Olympus OMD EM10 Mark III review | Cameralabs

As before, the Silent mode employs a fully electronic shutter with the benefit of extending the maximum shutter speed to 1/16000, giving you two more stops of exposure control over the mechanical shutter – handy if you’re shooting with large apertures under bright conditions or want to freeze the fastest action. Electronic shutters are great for silence, avoiding vibrations and achieving fast shutters, but due to the readout speed of most sensors, they’re not suitable when the subject – or camera – are in motion as the image can suffer from undesirable skewing artefacts – something I still noticed on the EM10 III with only modest motion. They can also suffer from banding under some artificial lighting, but if you’re careful they can still prove useful in discreet environments. The Mark IV also features a compact in-body image stabilization unit with up to 4.5 EV steps of compensation and 15 fps high-speed sequential shooting. There’s also improved Continuous AF precision for continuous focusing on moving subjects. Meanwhile, the Face Priority/ Eye Priority AF is now able to focus on faces in profile or looking down, which should help ensure that users can capture sharp portraits even at unconventional angles. The OMD EM10 Mark III, like all Olympus OMD and PEN bodies, features built-in sensor-shift stabilisation that works with any lens you attach. The EM10 Mark III inherits the same five-axis stabilisation of its predecessor, which in turn took it from the original EM1; in theory this should offer four or five stops of compensation with almost any lens you mount. I wanted to refresh myself about the details of what was lost, control-wise, between the EM10ii and iii, so came here to DPR. The Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV also has a variety of shooting modes, including AUTO, SCN (Scene), AP (Advanced Photo) and Art Filter. The AP mode brings challenging shooting techniques to a beginner’s level, such as panoramas, HDR and more. Meanwhile, the Art Filter mode includes a variety of filters that, while not particularly useful for more serious shooting situations, are great fun for families and friends to play around with.

It’s light, portable and powerful – but does the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV tick all of our boxes?

Here’s an example of Live Comp used for light painting, which I took at an Olympus event using the earlier EM5 Mark II, although the functionality is essentially the same here; the artists were Zolaq. The mode was set to a five second cycle at f8 and 100 ISO, and the entire process took about five minutes to complete.