Celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the original Olympus OM-1 film SLR, there’s a new digital flagship bearing the same name. With a nod towards the Olympus heritage, the Micro Four Thirds new OM System OM-1 also marks a bittersweet transition since it’s the last model to feature the Olympus name on the camera body. Future releases will be solely under the OM Digital Solutions (OMDS) brand.

Built around a new 20-megapixel stacked CMOS sensor and featuring a more powerful image processor, the OM-1 is designed to deliver faster performance. Many of its features, such as handheld multi-shot high resolution modes, Live Composite, AF and tracking options as well as weather sealing and a fully-articulated touchscreen, will be familiar to Olympus shooters albeit with some notable improvements.

On the performance side, the multi-shot handheld high resolution mode—one of the camera’s several computational modes—takes less time. This is not only a time saver so you can move on to the next shot but suggests that even small movements in the scene won’t be noticeable.

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Continuous shooting is extremely fast—up to 50 frames per second (blackout free in the higher resolution viewfinder) with autofocus and autoexposure, although you’ll need one of the Pro lenses to make this happen. Lock AF and AE on the first shot and the OM-1 can blast up to 120fps.

Although not new, the OM-1’s suite of AF detection modes has been expanded with choices ranging from various means of transportation (cars, airplanes, etc.) to birds as well as larger animals such as dogs and cats. Of course, there’s face and eye-detection as well as subject detection. According to OMDS, AI detection AF will be twice as accurate and 3x faster than before.

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And, with improvements in the OM-1’s in-body image stabilization (IBIS), handheld Live Composite is possible. IBIS is now up to 8EV steps so handholding static low light shots won’t be a problem either.

A new battery promises 25 percent more shots (estimated at 520 images) and about 90 minutes of video. There’s no wall charger but in addition to standard USB charging, you can charge and run the
OM-1 when plugged into a power bank.

Keep that in mind when shooting video since OMDS promises the ability to shoot more than two hours of video when using an external power source. The OM-1 is capable of shooting 4k video up to 60 with raw video output to Atomos Ninja V or Ninja V+.

The OM System OM-1 body is even more weatherproof than previous models and is rated IP53 (when used with an IP53 lens like the new, compact $999 M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO II or the $900 40-150mm f/4 PRO lenses) so you can take it out in more unsettled weather conditions than before. The body measures 5.3 x 3.6 x 2.8 inches and, with the battery and a single SD card (there are dual UHS II slots), the camera weighs about 21.1 ounces—it’s not tiny but certainly compact enough to travel well.

The menu system has been revamped a bit, although I’ve always found the Olympus menu structure to be pretty straightforward and easy to navigate. One improvement may seem small but it’s not insignificant (and I wish all camera companies would follow suit): if a menu item is greyed out, you can press OK and find out why it’s not available so you can correct the conflicting settings.

There is much more to this camera; to find out about additional features and specifications, go to
om-digitalsolutions.com or getolympus.com. The OM-1 will be available in March 2022 for $2,300.