New OM systems (Olympus) OM-1 announced

I think you're still glossing over the part where most of the flash energy output is delivered at the beginning of its cycle. Yes, you may need a 1/40s exposure to eke out every last photon - this may be useful if you're shooting at night or in a cave and have zero ambient light. However, when you're balancing flash light and very strong ambient light, such as shooting into the sun, very short exposures limit your exposure time to when the flash is at its brightest, before it starts to dim. Yes, you lose part of your strobe output, but you can compensate for that by opening the aperture and/or increasing ISO.

Using made up numbers, if you go from 1/125s to 1/500s exposure, you lose two stops of light, but if three quarters of your strobe's output is delivered within the first 2ms - i.e, the 1/500th of a second - then you only lose a quarter of the strobe's light, or half a stop. Opening the aperture by half a stop, or increasing the ISO by the same amount, will compensate for that, and while it will admit half a stop more ambient light as well, it's much less than the two stops that you dropped by decreasing the exposure.

End result is that you keep the same foreground strobe exposure, but lose 1.5 stops of ambient light. An ND filter cannot do that; it will affect the strobe and ambient light equally.

The real question is will the new OM1 fit inside a housing designed for the EM1-2 or 1-3? I would be interested to see that and if not I wonder how many used EM1-3 housings will be on the market within the next year. This could let me upgrade from my EPL10 to the EM1-3.

11 hours ago, Barmaglot said:

As I understand it, the A1 owes its fast sync speed not to the sensor, but to an entirely new shutter mechanism, whereas Nikon Z9 omits mechanical shutter entirely, and thus it can only sync with strobes at 1/200s - a major feat for electronic-only shutter, but still far short of what mechanical can achieve.

The A1 also does 1/200th with electronic shutter FF and 1/250th in APS-C (21MP) the difference is that at the 30FPS the Sony is shooting in compressed Raw while the Z9 does Jpegs. The Canon EOD R3 does 1/180th electronic at 15FPS.

1 hour ago, Dann-Oh said:

The real question is will the new OM1 fit inside a housing designed for the EM1-2 or 1-3? 

It won't. Many of the controls are different

The depth of the new grip alone, much like the EM1-X-camera will require a new housing. 

I know, I know underwater photography is different and so on and so forth....

But I really appreciated the candor and pragmatic approach of this nature photographer.
I'm curious about the video he'll be posting next week.

On 2/15/2022 at 9:17 AM, ChrisRoss said:

This will be the thread for discussing the photo features on the new OM-1.  There is separate thread on the Video forum to discuss video features.

 

As promised the new OM-1 has been announced today and a few "reviews" are up already.  Still 20 MP but now a BSI stacked sensor which should allow an extra two stops on noise performance and one stop of dynamic range as well as facilitating improved frame rates and AF.    It is specced to allow 50 frames per second with full AF and AE.    It has 1053 x type AF points.

Not a lot for UW users but the improved sensor and AF will be welcome.  IT also has a improved resolution OLED EVF up from 2.36 M dots to 5.76 M dots as well as higher resolution brighter rear screen . 

Reviews here:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/om-system-om-1-initial-review/2

https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/om-system-om-1/om-system-om-1A.HTM

https://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/reviews/compactsystemcameras/om-system-olympus-om-1-review

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/au/reviews/olympus-om-1-review

among others.  I don't think I'll be rushing to upgrade - I'll wait as see what the testing sites say about the new sensor.  It's quite tempting for my surface photography, but I'll definitely wait and see what the reviews and tests say before I commit. 

Also released as was a 12-40 mKii, basically with improved weather sealing.  I would have liked to see a 10-40 lens even if it was an f4, that extra angle of view would make a big difference I think. 

An extensive video review: 

 

The claims about 1 stop DR and 2 stops better ISO performance are as a minimum optimistic and worse case dishonest

The spec sheet for the sony stock sensor has been out since one year the improvement compared to the previous generation is a double readout speed from 60 fps to 120 fps at full resolution.

Other changes:

1. Slightly less maximum saturation value (will clip sooner however this does not necessarily mean photographic dr will be less)

2. Higher sensitivity means it will work better in low light (how much to be seen)

3. Quad bayer cell (allows for HDR, Phase difference AF)

4. Higher gain from 24 to 27 dB (1 stop more analog amplification)

If you read on the US website go to Asia and finally europe you get an idea how wild is the world of marketing in each country

In terms of functionality very little will matter to the underwater shooter except photographic dynamic range. We need to see how this camera does it will take until mid March to get some scientific testing

And of course it won't fit in the housing if anyone was wondering

In addition it appears that OMS has implemented RAW noise reduction from ISO 16000 again this is not that interesting

One comment I have heard from land photography friends using this camera is that the control dials are more recessed. I’ve not tried one myself yet - but I hope this doesn’t impact on aperture and shutter speed gearing.

On 2/15/2022 at 4:21 PM, Phil Rudin said:

The new OM1 is advertised to have significant improvements for both stills and video over EM-1 III including higher readout speeds, better AF tracking in AF-C and weather sealing with several lenses that appears marker leading. This system also has a complete set of excellent lenses well suited for U/W use.

What I don't understand is why Sony seems to be the only manufacture that has taken advantage of the much higher readout speeds of the "stacked" sensors to  increase flash sync speeds using mechanical shutter. It appears that the smaller the stacked sensor area covered the faster the potential speed should be. With the stacked full frame sensor in the Sony A1 you can sync to 1/400th but in APS-C mode with a smaller area covered the sync increases to 1/500th. It seems that with this new M43 stacked sensor sync speeds of 1/500th or greater should have been easy to achieve adding another advertising bullet point. Canon has done the same with the stacked sensor in the new EOS R3 remaining at 1/250th. Why don't camera manufactures want to that advantage of this potential with these much faster sensor readouts. Are they all content to really on HSS flashes?  

When the camera uses electronic shutter Sync Speed = readout rate

When the camera uses mechanical shutter Sync Speed = mechanical shutter speed sync rate regardless of readout rate

So in order to increase Sync speed you need to increase mechanical shutter speed sync rate basically you need a better shutter box

HSS and Xsync are not related because with HSS the flash is controlled by small bursts of light while normally it is just a dump and then the mechanical shutter takes care of cutting out light. This is the reason with the right electronics on both camera and strobe side HSS is possible

On 2/15/2022 at 5:21 PM, Phil Rudin said:

The new OM1 is advertised to have significant improvements for both stills and video over EM-1 III including higher readout speeds, better AF tracking in AF-C and weather sealing with several lenses that appears marker leading. This system also has a complete set of excellent lenses well suited for U/W use.

What I don't understand is why Sony seems to be the only manufacture that has taken advantage of the much higher readout speeds of the "stacked" sensors to  increase flash sync speeds using mechanical shutter. It appears that the smaller the stacked sensor area covered the faster the potential speed should be. With the stacked full frame sensor in the Sony A1 you can sync to 1/400th but in APS-C mode with a smaller area covered the sync increases to 1/500th. It seems that with this new M43 stacked sensor sync speeds of 1/500th or greater should have been easy to achieve adding another advertising bullet point. Canon has done the same with the stacked sensor in the new EOS R3 remaining at 1/250th. Why don't camera manufactures want to that advantage of this potential with these much faster sensor readouts. Are they all content to really on HSS flashes?  

I have no expertise on this point, but isn't it just a software restriction by the manufacturer?  With the 'kit flash' on, the speed of my Olympus  is restricted to 1/250. With a Nauticam flash trigger on the speed can be increased till the end. Flash results are good at 1/400, after that the curtain starts to show on the image. All with the mechanical shutter. Does the flash trigger successfully hide itself as not being a flash? 

3 hours ago, Floris Bennema said:

I have no expertise on this point, but isn't it just a software restriction by the manufacturer?  With the 'kit flash' on, the speed of my Olympus  is restricted to 1/250. With a Nauticam flash trigger on the speed can be increased till the end. Flash results are good at 1/400, after that the curtain starts to show on the image. All with the mechanical shutter. Does the flash trigger successfully hide itself as not being a flash? 

The software lock is to prevent going beyond sync speed with their flashes attached.  There may be other issues at play as once you get much past 1/250 some flashes at full power have a flash duration that is longer than the time the shutter is open so you start to lose power.  Or it may be that sync is not reliable with TTL at speeds greater than 1/250, or the overhead of the pre-flash eats into the time the shutter is full open.    If it were that simple I think manufacturers would be boasting about the high sync speed as feature of the camera.

The trigger I assume is the manual trigger - it doesn't communicate with the camera, straight manual flash only needs a contact to close at the right time and it seems this is a separate circuit to the TTL communication.

On a side note taking advantage of that high sync speed is potentially problematic  1/250 is 4 milliseconds which is about the duration of common underwater flashes at full power.  If you shoot faster than 1/250 you don't get the full flash output.  You might be shooting at less than full power perhaps but quite likely if you are doing sunballs or split shots in bright daylight you might be pushing towards full power.  If you have a S&S YS-250 flash duration at full power is 1/50, so you will certainly eat into your flash power even at half or quarter power.

14 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

The software lock is to prevent going beyond sync speed with their flashes attached.  There may be other issues at play as once you get much past 1/250 some flashes at full power have a flash duration that is longer than the time the shutter is open so you start to lose power.  Or it may be that sync is not reliable with TTL at speeds greater than 1/250, or the overhead of the pre-flash eats into the time the shutter is full open.    If it were that simple I think manufacturers would be boasting about the high sync speed as feature of the camera.

The trigger I assume is the manual trigger - it doesn't communicate with the camera, straight manual flash only needs a contact to close at the right time and it seems this is a separate circuit to the TTL communication.

On a side note taking advantage of that high sync speed is potentially problematic  1/250 is 4 milliseconds which is about the duration of common underwater flashes at full power.  If you shoot faster than 1/250 you don't get the full flash output.  You might be shooting at less than full power perhaps but quite likely if you are doing sunballs or split shots in bright daylight you might be pushing towards full power.  If you have a S&S YS-250 flash duration at full power is 1/50, so you will certainly eat into your flash power even at half or quarter power.

Thanks Chris for the explanation. Now I am even happier that I just bought Z-330 Type2 flashes, it is claimed that they "can deliver full dump even at 1/1000 high shutter speed setting without cutting power".  When the water gets warmer again I will check at 1/400.

21 minutes ago, Floris Bennema said:

Thanks Chris for the explanation. Now I am even happier that I just bought Z-330 Type2 flashes, it is claimed that they "can deliver full dump even at 1/1000 high shutter speed setting without cutting power".  When the water gets warmer again I will check at 1/400.

Floris, I use the Inon Z-330 strobes all the time shooting at 1/400th full frame and 1/500th APS-C with the Sony A1 all of the time including full dumps so you should have no problems.

On 2/21/2022 at 9:49 AM, Interceptor121 said:

When the camera uses electronic shutter Sync Speed = readout rate

When the camera uses mechanical shutter Sync Speed = mechanical shutter speed sync rate regardless of readout rate

So in order to increase Sync speed you need to increase mechanical shutter speed sync rate basically you need a better shutter box

HSS and Xsync are not related because with HSS the flash is controlled by small bursts of light while normally it is just a dump and then the mechanical shutter takes care of cutting out light. This is the reason with the right electronics on both camera and strobe side HSS is possible

Interceptor,  I understand the process what I don't understand is why Canon R3 and the new OM-1 'WOW" camera would not have added  new shutter designs to take advantage of the new stacked sensor readout speeds to increase shutter sync speeds. I am not wowed by overlooking is possibility. It just seems that if Sony could bump speeds from 1/250th  to 1/400th that a much smaller M43 sensor could have had an even faster shutter sync.     

3 hours ago, Phil Rudin said:

Floris, I use the Inon Z-330 strobes all the time shooting at 1/400th full frame and 1/500th APS-C with the Sony A1 all of the time including full dumps so you should have no problems.

Interceptor,  I understand the process what I don't understand is why Canon R3 and the new OM-1 'WOW" camera would not have added  new shutter designs to take advantage of the new stacked sensor readout speeds to increase shutter sync speeds. I am not wowed by overlooking is possibility. It just seems that if Sony could bump speeds from 1/250th  to 1/400th that a much smaller M43 sensor could have had an even faster shutter sync.     

While readout rate benefits from lower data rate (so low pixel count and raw 12 bits help) the mechanical shutter is a separate matter

On land is relatively cheap to get HSS flashes I have 3 but our strobes are not compatible. The problem is there

When I use the Nauticam adapter I can shoot up to 1/400 with my GH5M2 before I see black bars so those value are conservative

Interceptor,

This thread is to discuss the features of the new OM-1 and I have merrily pointed out what appears to be a shortcoming rather than a plus. 

Interceptor,
This thread is to discuss the features of the new OM-1 and I have merrily pointed out what appears to be a shortcoming rather than a plus. 

On 2/15/2022 at 11:00 AM, Davide DB said:

It would be my all purpose dream lens too. My 12-35 is really too narrow and i don't need the extra fov of the 7-14.

Yep...I agree also. The 8-25mm would be a nice alternative maybe? But I guess it will not fit my N85 Nauticam system because of the outer diameter.

4 minutes ago, Rene Weterings said:

Yep...I agree also. The 8-25mm would be a nice alternative maybe? But I guess it will not fit my N85 Nauticam system because of the outer diameter.

You have to check the Nauticam port chart.

The new 10-25 mm F1.7 is a dream lens, really expensive and you don't need 1.7 underwater actually.

Dreaming of a cheaper 10-35 mm F2.8

13 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

You have to check the Nauticam port chart.

The new 10-25 mm F1.7 is a dream lens, really expensive and you don't need 1.7 underwater actually.

Dreaming of a cheaper 10-35 mm F2.8

Yes, the 8-25mm isn't on the chart. 
That Panasonic 10-25mm is way to expensive indeed. Not my budget... ;-)

Me too.

And as we wrote here many times not all the best land lenses work undewater and the contrary. Tokina 10-17 being the classic example.