OM System just announced the OM-1 Mark II together with the OM System 150-600 f/5.0-6.3 lens, strengthening the position of Micro Four Thirds for wildlife photography. The OM-1 Mark II gives you some small but meaningful upgrades to the original OM-1. Meanwhile, the 150-600mm lens gives a native 600mm lens to Micro Four Thirds for the first time.
The OM-1 Mark II
The OM System OM-1 Mark II is very similar to the original OM-1. It’s got the same sensor resolution, burst rate, and viewfinder. One thing that has improved is the buffer: the old OM-1 has a buffer of 96 frames at 50fps, whereas the OM-1 Mark II improves this to 256 frames, allowing for just over 5 seconds of continuous shooting before the buffer fills.
The OM-1 Mark II also gets some autofocus improvements with a human-detection mode and updates to its machine-learning algorithm along with faster AF calculations. This should improve the speed and accuracy of the OM-1 Mark II’s autofocus system.
The image stabilization has also been improved in the OM-1 Mark II to a theoretical 8.5 stops of stabilization, up from the OM-1’s 7 stops. Of course, in practice, you may not actually get 8.5 stops for a variety of reasons – nonetheless, it is likely to be a noticeable improvement. Like the original OM-1, this stabilization system can sync with compatible lenses to provide a very stable view indeed.
Also new is a simulated graduated neutral density filter, which builds on the simulated neutral density filter of the original OM-1. It remains to see how good it really is and whether you can “leave your costly and clumsy external filters behind and trust the camera,” as OM System claims.
At $2400, the OM-1 Mark II is a bit pricey but not much more than the original OM-1, which was selling for $2200 until its current discount to $2000.
OM System M.Zuiko 150-600 f/5.0-6.3
OM System also announced a 150-600 f/5.0-6.3 lens, which appears to be a modified Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG DN Sports lens. This is the first native lens for Micro Four Thirds that reaches 600mm without an external teleconverter (although the OM SYSTEM M. Zuiko 150-400mm f/4.5 TC Pro comes close, since it can reach up to 500mm with the built-in 1.25x TC – though at a cost of $7500).
Personally, I think the new OM System 150-600mm lens is a great idea for Micro Four Thirds. Long ago, I tried adapting a Tamron 150-600mm G2 lens to my Panasonic G9, and I found it worked very well for video. I can say that 600mm is definitely not too much on a Micro Four Thirds camera.
If there’s anything strange about this lens, it’s the price, which is $2700 (USD). To compare, the Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Sports lens for Sony E is $1500, the Nikon 180-600 f/5.6-6.3 is $1700, and the Sony 200-600 f/5.6-6.3 is $2000. In fact, this new lens plus the new OM-1 Mark II is only about $500 less than the Nikon Z8 and Nikon 180-600mm combo – which strikes me as a better value for photographers not already in the Micro Four Thirds ecosystem. It makes me wonder if the lens has any improvements beyond the Sigma version.
Regardless, a native lens that goes to 600mm is a welcome addition to the Micro Four Thirds ecosystem. Although the price is high, it will let you put more pixels on a distant subject than almost any other native camera + lens combination on the market today.
OM System M.Zuiko 9-18mm f/4-5.6 II Also Announced
The third announcement today from OM System is a rebranded version of the Olympus 9-18mm f/4-5.6, a lens from 2010. Although the OM System label is new, and the lens’s external design has changed a bit, it has the same optics and does not appear to add any new features over the previous version.
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