I have been using mirrorless (Oly MFT/Nauticam) since 2018 but been focusing the same way as I used to focus DSLRs - last year, I picked up an R7 and 200-800 for my wife to use on an Africa wildlife trip, and have been blown away by how good eye/face recognition and subject tracking has become. Enough to get an R7 and Marelux system for myself.

Anyone have any experiences with how the AF systems of the various OM Systems bodies stacks up? Especially the OM5 II vs the OM3? Thinking i may as well upgrade my MFT system while i am at it.

Edited September 4Sep 4 by vkalia

A weak answer, but my OM-1 (I) is a huge upgrade from my EM-5 II. I just use basic C-AF so you may already see a lot of that upgrade in the OM5 II.

I have good experience with the OM-1, it locks on pretty well, the only thing I notice is that it sometimes won't focus on a close subject as it can see the background through it, but dealing with that becomes instinctive. I can't compare to the OM-5II/3 as I haven't used them but they are said to share the OM-1 AF.

14 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

I have good experience with the OM-1, it locks on pretty well, the only thing I notice is that it sometimes won't focus on a close subject as it can see the background through it, but dealing with that becomes instinctive. I can't compare to the OM-5II/3 as I haven't used them but they are said to share the OM-1 AF.

Oh, while I knew the OM1 and 3 shared the same AF, i didn’t realize the OM5 II did too - are you sure about this? Because i havent come across that in the various reviews i have read.

Based purely on what i have read online, the OM3 would be a good body as it also gives me 4k60 video, but no one seems to make a housing for it yet (Backscatter has a Nauticam housing listed as “coming soon” for it).

I don't know if the OM5-II really shares exactly the same AF capabilities, but it does have PDAF, which seems to be the key technical difference between the older EM-5-II and the newer OM-1.

Ah yes, it does have PDAF - but i think OM Systems may have removed some of the subject tracking algorithms from this model. Atleast, their own website doesnt push this so highly for the 5 series.

Now that i have gotten a taste of subject recognition/tracking and eye focus, i have to say that the whole “lock focus/recompose” dance is something i can happily do without. :).

8 hours ago, vkalia said:

Oh, while I knew the OM1 and 3 shared the same AF, i didn’t realize the OM5 II did too - are you sure about this? Because i havent come across that in the various reviews i have read.

Based purely on what i have read online, the OM3 would be a good body as it also gives me 4k60 video, but no one seems to make a housing for it yet (Backscatter has a Nauticam housing listed as “coming soon” for it).

not certain about it and the OM-3 certainly seems to tout the subject recognition.

How well does subject recognition work for underwater subjects? I imagine the subject at least has to have eyes for eye tracking to work. 😉

It works modestly well enough for sharks and other moving fish, atleast on the R7.

7 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

not certain about it and the OM-3 certainly seems to tout the subject recognition.

Reading some user feedback on the net, it seems OM-3 has a more complete and customizable AF system than OM-1 first version.

Manufacturers keep adding features forgetting to update previous models.

It would be nice if one could BUY the firmware update at least for the previous models. But there may be 1 million little hardware changes that we don‘t know about and that make it impossible. Or the profit margin is so much better when selling a new camera?

It might end in a subscription trap like Adobe…

Edited September 6Sep 6 by Klaus
Typo

1 hour ago, Klaus said:

It would be nice if one could BUY the firmware update at least for the previous models. But there may be 1 million little hardware changes that we don‘t know about and that make it impossible. Or the profit margin is so much better when selling a new camera?

It might end in a subscription trap like Adobe…

OM systems has been pretty good at issuing firmware updates for their cameras, bringing new features to the body. A lot of new features rely on more powerful processors and are only available on the latest models. They are also bring features from top line models down to models like the OM-3 fairly quickly.

I am curious to see if Nauticam releases a housing for the OM3 - if not, that’s a sign that they too think MFT is dying.

Unless the OM-3 gets significantly cheaper, I can't really see choosing it over the OM-1 for underwater use. Currently the OM-1 II is listed at CAD100 more than the OM-3. It's supposed to be a midrange model between the OM5 and the OM1, but the pricing does not really reflect that yet. Other than retro style and the jpeg control dial (neither of which seem compelling for underwater), I don't see any advantages of the OM-3 over the OM-1. It is a bit smaller, but once you get a housing (particularly a nauticam) you're not going to benefit much from that.

12 minutes ago, d2b said:

Unless the OM-3 gets significantly cheaper, I can't really see choosing it over the OM-1 for underwater use. Currently the OM-1 II is listed at CAD100 more than the OM-3. It's supposed to be a midrange model between the OM5 and the OM1, but the pricing does not really reflect that yet. Other than retro style and the jpeg control dial (neither of which seem compelling for underwater), I don't see any advantages of the OM-3 over the OM-1. It is a bit smaller, but once you get a housing (particularly a nauticam) you're not going to benefit much from that.

Have to say I agree.