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Cameras

Is the OM System OM1 Still a Good Fun Camera in 2026?

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 04/13/2026
06/10/2026
4 Mins read
A black Olympus camera with a lens and strap rests on a beige quilted blanket.
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A while back, I was saying that no one is making a bad camera. In fact, I was saying that since the early 2010s. I also have been saying for the past few years that all the newer cameras coming out don’t really have a good reason for many people to buy them. And after a while, I’ll even go back and revisit many of those older cameras to see if my thoughts have changed. One of those cameras is the OM System OM1 — the first camera that OM System put out after the separation from Olympus. Much of it had changed from the previous company. And while it’s very capable and even has computational tech inside that makes it stand out, much of those things can be done by other cameras.

The below text is an addendum added to the Phoblographer’s OM System OM1 review. But the entire article can be found here at this link.

The OM System OM1 in 2026

Before writing this update, I looked back at the review of the OM System OM1 that I did. And truthfully, I think that I’ve done the single most exhaustive test of the camera amongst the photography journalists who review cameras. A lot of it involved me going out to do wildlife, birding, photographing pets, street photography, live composites, etc. I’m amazed I didn’t try to use the damn camera to go ghost hunting or trying to cure cancer or something.

That’s a long way of saying that I’ve done a lot with it.

But what I never really did was document my daily life and took it out to just have fun. Everything I was doing with the camera really felt like work. So for a week, I took it around as my go-to camera with the 17mm f1.2.

OM System and Olympus never asked for this gear back, and so it’s still all within my possession. You may probably be wondering why I didn’t sell it. Well, there’s something called journalistic ethics — and that would be against our ethics.

So after charging up the camera battery, I tried to customize my own look from the website OM Recipes. The color creator isn’t as advanced as it is with the new OM System OM3. If anything, that’s a camera I should really test again.

I start playing with the white balance settings. Things have obviously come a far way from the famous Olympus blue — if you know, you know. Some of my earliest images on my Flickr showcase that look. But this is also where things have gotten weird. The OM System OM1 has this setting where it lets you keep a warm color in your white balance.

This is where I found myself comparing it to so many other systems. Nikon, Panasonic, Canon, and Leica end up giving me so much better color often. What do those all have in common? Yes, you guessed it. They’re full frame. So I end up wondering why OM System couldn’t do this too.

Ultimately, the white balance gets set to shade or sometimes auto. And when this camera gets the white balance right, it’s really something very nice.

These days, I’m a lot more of a JPEG photographer but I also set the camera to make RAWs. Most of the time though, I almost never touch the RAWs. RAW files take the fun out of photography because it can all be fixed so easily. I want a challenge.

So I take off the subject detection setting, use Single AF, single frame a second, etc. Essentially, I use the camera like I would a DSLR — except that this time around, I’m using the exposure simulation setting. Typically, I’d use simulated OVF. But not this time.

I also give myself another challenge, I can’t move the setting from ISO 200. So essentially, making images with this camera became a lot like shooting with film.

With it slung around my chest, the camera feels really good. It’s small, durable, and is everything that I’d want to carry around with me at all times. But the colors just aren’t there at all.

Despite this, I still have fun with it.

Cluster of white cherry blossoms on a tree branch with a blurred brick wall in the background.
A large green leaf in focus with a blurred sofa and patterned cushion in a cozy living room background.
A cozy, warmly lit tea room with wooden tables, bar stools, shelves, and a fish tank in the corner.
Nighttime cityscape with tall buildings, illuminated windows, and dark sky, viewed from an apartment window.
A person holds a large, layered sandwich as another hand gestures in front of a window inside a restaurant.
A lit aquarium with fish and plants sits on a stand in a cozy living room with warm lighting.
Blurry subway scene with reflections of people and benches on a train platform.
Blurry figures stand on a subway platform, seen through a foggy or moving window, with signs in the background.
Blurry figures wait on a subway platform as a train speeds by, creating a motion effect.
Blurry view of people standing and sitting in a subway car, seen through a moving window.
Dimly lit restaurant interior with empty tables, chairs, and sunlight streaming through an open door.
A chunk of compressed dark tea rests on a wooden dish atop a red patterned tablecloth.
A white teacup on a saucer and a paper plate on a wooden table with soft natural light.
A glass bottle of water sits on a colorful patterned tablecloth with various kitchen items in the background.
A man talks while seated in a cozy room with shelves of teapots, baskets, and tea sets behind him.
A sunlit living room with plants, a green sofa, coffee table, and cushions on a patterned rug.
Sunlight streams through a window with dark curtains, casting shadows on a green couch below.
Green potted plant on a windowsill beside an empty brown pot, with a blurred city view outside.
Poster for Halal Momo with images of dumplings, offering chicken, beef, and vegetable options.
A sidewalk beside homes, leafless trees, parked cars, and a wall with red graffiti on a sunny day.
Sunlight casts shadows through an overhead structure onto a city street and fence with graffiti.
A brick building with a mural reading “MOSAIC” on the wall and a leaning utility pole in front.
Tall beige building with ornate windows and a vertical Stanford Hotel sign in sunlight.
A city subway platform with people waiting, view of tracks and tall buildings in the background.
A man stands by subway doors while another man sits on an orange bench inside the subway car.
A cozy tea room with two men inside, one preparing tea at the counter and the other sitting by the window.
A person holds a piece of tea leaves at a tea table, wearing a red watch, with tea sets on the table.
Man in white shirt looking out of a sunlit window with partially closed blinds and wall stickers.
Four men sit and talk in a sunlit room with large windows and beige blinds during the day.
Minimalist meditation room with floor cushions, low tables, bamboo, and soft natural light from a window.
Wooden shelves with teapots, woven baskets, jars, and tea canisters against a warm yellow wall.
Exterior of Madani Masjid with a shoe rack by the entrance and a colorful after school program poster on the wall.
A tree with white blossoms stands in front of a brick building on a sunny day.
A street view with cars parked, a temple with a dome, and brick buildings under a clear sky.

Most importantly, I think that I’m able to make some solidly gorgeous photos with it. But the colors still just aren’t always there for me.

In 2026, the OM System OM1 original is still a very capable camera. But sometimes I just want to go take a nice, long walk, snap gorgeous looking frames, and not have to worry about editing those images afterward. Editing in software is nothing like editing images in a darkroom. And the truth is that I often feel like I get that more with full-frame cameras than I do with Micro Four Thirds. Most importantly, I really prefer retro-style ergonomics on mirrorless cameras unless they’re more minimal like Leicas.

Nothing has ever really appealed to me like the original OM5 and the Pen F. The OM3 is nice, but they didn’t lean hard enough into it.

And these days, there are too many good cameras out there on the used camera market to stick with a camera system that doesn’t bring me joy.

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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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