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The OM System OM1 Has Greatly Improved Continuous AF

Chris Gampat
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08/04/2022
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer OM System OM1 review product images 41-1000s400 1

Last Updated on 08/05/2022 by Mark Beckenbach

With firmware 1.2 coming to the OM System OM1, we decided to update our review. The OM System OM1 still has our Editor’s Choice Award due to the versatility, computational photography, and build quality it delivers. What’s more, it recently had a boost to the continuous autofocusing abilities. So we figured we’d test it out. 

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Here’s the updated copy within our OM System OM1 review for your convenience; be sure to check out the entire review if you’re considering making a purchase. This section can be found specifically under the Bird AF heading of the review.

Update July 2022

According to the OM System website, here are the new changes that came with the firmware updates. Mind you, firmware 1.1 can’t be done using the OI share app. You have to do it through OM Workspace.

OM-1 Version 1.2
C-AF performance is improved for still image shooting.
Stability of movie shooting is improved.

OM-1 Version 1.1
Improved stability of operations when shooting while utilizing the EVF.
Stability of connection with ATOMOS products has been improved.

Considering that we’re a photography website, we’re going to skip the stuff around video production. So instead, photographers got better stability and improved C-AF. I used the new firmware update and tested it doing bird photography. Here are my thoughts and notes:

  • It’s better for sure, but it degrades a bit when scene detection modes are on. Granted, Bird AF is pretty essential technology for a camera like this.
  • OM System lets you prioritize either the spot you tell it to focus on or the scene detection. And the scene detection for birds isn’t that great unless the bird is taking up 1/4 of the photo if they’re in shadows. An example of this is birds hiding in trees. But if they’re in full sunlight it’s a different story. The camera just needs to see the head to detect that it’s a bird.
  • Eye detection for birds is still not the best compared to Canon. Right after using this, I tried the Canon EOS R7, which did a much better job.
  • In C-AF with the 2x teleconverter and the 40-150mm f2.8, I was able to track birds in flight pretty easily when setting the autofocus to the whole area of the frame or to a large area in the center. The images aren’t incredibly sharp, but I blame that on the teleconverter. I’ve never got photos with it that I’m very satisfied with.

So overall, the C-AF ability has improved. And I’m glad to know that my earlier critiques of it were looked at seriously. Would I use this in the forest or for serious bird photography? Totally! But I also really prefer other lenses. The camera does a great job otherwise. And it’s still the lightest and smallest system in the hand that you can use for birding.

autofocus bird photography birds camera continous autofocus OM SYSTEM om system om1 om1 review review update
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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