subscribe 0330 333 1113 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I 11 April 2020 43
The remarkable image
stabilisation allows you to
shoot inconceivably long
exposures hand-held for
creative blurring effects
Olympus 12-100mm f/4 at 28mm,
3.2sec at f/8, ISO 64£150 less than the Sony Alpha 7
III. As always with Micro Four
Thirds, the question we need to
address is whether it offers
suffi ciently high performance to
offset the inherent image-quality
disadvantage of its smaller sensor.
Features
On the whole, the E-M1 Mark III’s
core specifi cations are unchanged
compared to the previous model.
Olympus has stuck with the
familiar 20.4MP Four Thirds
sensor, which is about half the
area of APS-C sensors, and a
quarter that of full-frame. It
provides a standard sensitivity
range of ISO 200-6400, and
extended settings covering
ISO 64-25,600, but with the
risk of highlight detail clipping at
the lower end. On-chip phase
detection supports 121 autofocus
points covering most of the frame,
all of which are cross-type.
The camera also boasts the
same blistering speed as its
predecessor, being capable of
shooting at 18 frames per second
with continuous AF using its silent
electronic shutter, or at a
phenomenal 60fps with focus
fi xed, and with a vast 286-shot
raw buffer. In its Pro Capture
mode, it can continuously buffer
35 frames when the shutter
button is half-pressed, then record
them to card when it’s fully
depressed, allowing users to
record fl eeting, unpredictable
moments when they usually
wouldn’t have time to react. Even
when using the mechanical
shutter, it’ll shoot at 15fps with
focus fi xed, and 10fps with C-AF.
The mechanical shutter affords a
fastest speed of 1/8,000sec,
increasing to 1/32,000sec with
the electronic shutter.Dual SD card slots are included,
allowing fi les to be backed up on
important shoots; however only
one is of the high-speed UHS-II
standard. It’s possible to confi gure
the slots to work in pretty much
any way you might need: either
sequentially, as a backup, or
record different kinds of fi les to
each. It’s really easy to switch
between cards in playback, too- simply hold down the play
button and spin the front dial.
One of Olympus’s most
noteworthy features is its 5-axis
in-body image stabilisation.
Thanks to the use of the same
gyrosensor as the E-M1X, this is
claimed to be world’s most
effective, being rated to a barely
believable 7.5 stops with the fi rm’s
optically stabilised lenses, and 7
stops otherwise. This counts as an
improvement of up to 1.5 stops
over the Mark II, which was
already a standout performer.
The IBIS unit also enables an
80MP tripod-based multi-shot
mode, in which the camera takes
eight frames while moving the
sensor fractionally between each,
enabling both full-colour sampling
at each pixel location and a
higher-resolution image to be
constructed. Thanks to the TruePic
IX processor, the Mark III also
gains the 50MP hand-held
multi-shot mode from the E-M1X.
This works on a different principle
known as super-resolution,
whereby tiny differences between
multiple frames are used to
construct a higher-resolution
image. It’s not quite as effective
as the tripod mode, but it is
more practical.
In addition, a huge array of
useful features is on board. Focus
bracketing is available with
selected lenses, and it’s