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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Our Olympus EM1 Mk III Review Got an Important Update

Chris Gampat
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08/11/2022
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Olympus OMD EM1 Mk III Review product images 5.61-50s6400 1

Back in 2020, we reviewed the Olympus EM1 Mk III and awarded it four out of five stars. Since then, it’s received a few firmware updates, so we’ve updated the review of the camera. It has since been succeeded by the OM System OM1, which we really love. While it’s it’s not great at everything, there are a few things about the EM1 Mk III that still make it a great camera. The trend these days is that so many cameras can be great at everything. But if you’re an owner of the EM1 Mk III, we think you’ll like some of the updates.

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Overall, the EM1 Mk III is a great camera that works best when you tell it where to focus. For a lot of Olympus and some OM System users, that may sound weird. It will even sound odd to Fujifilm and Nikon users. However, if you pick up a Sony or Canon mirrorless camera you’ll see just how effortless the autofocus experience is. This is true of older cameras like the Sony a7r III and the Canon EOS R. I still use these cameras nearly weekly and am amazed at how intelligent their autofocus system is despite not having the most advanced ones on the market.

Would I buy the Olympus EM1 Mk III today? For the durability, and if I’m more of an old-school style of photographer, then yes. But quite honestly, the OM System OM1 blows it out of the water in nearly every category. The OM System just isn’t that great at street photography. I even dove into Instagram to look for images shot with the 17mm f1.2 PRO lens, and couldn’t find much candid or street photography.

Some folks will say the system is really just good for landscapes and wildlife. And I agree that the system is great for that. But why can’t it do everything well?

Below is the excerpt from our EM1 Mk III review. Click here to see the entire review. And if you’re looking for great portrait lenses for the system, check this out.

Update August 2022.

One of the newest updates to the Olympus EM1 Mk II brought an improvement to autofocusing with single-focal length lenses. Basically, it’s supposed to improve the precision of the focusing. So to really see what this can do, we used the EM1 Mk III with the 17mm f1.2 PRO, one of my favorite lenses for the system. Here are my notes from the testing:

  • It’s frustrating that it never got the AI update the Olympus EM1x and the OM System OM1 have.
  • Going back to this menu is such a blast from the past.
  • Precision seems very accurate even with the smallest AF point.
  • C-AF is very, very good once it locks onto a moving subject. If only it were better at seeing faces, then this camera would be amazing for street photography.
  • Canon EOS R and 50mm f1.2 seem better still.
  • Face detection is not so great for street photography, and using it isn’t reliable. The “cluster AF” as former staffer Robin Wong states in his own videos, isn’t all reliable for something like this. You’re much better off telling the camera exactly where you want it to focus.
  • Faces need to take up around 1/4 of the frame for the best results.
  • The precision of the autofocus is still very good even with the smallest autofocus points and in low light.
  • Disabling the simulated OVF setting and the Live View boost settings don’t dim the screen a lot in underexposed conditions. So the autofocus will still work well except in the areas with super low contrast.

Overall, using the EM1 Mk III is a major difference between the EM1x and the OM System OM1. What I’m still shocked by is that the AI autofocus algorithms never made it to this camera. But if you’re into manually selecting autofocus points and all, the EM1 Mk III is an excellent camera.

17mm F1.2 PRO ai autofocus autofocus EM1X firmware olympus Olympus EM1 Mk III OM SYSTEM om1 review update
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Chris Gampat

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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