The OM System OM-3 uses the same 20 MP Stacked Four Thirds CMOS sensor found in the OM-1 Mk II, making it the most affordable interchangeable lens camera with a Stacked sensor that we've seen so far. It also offers most of the features and capabilities of the more expensive model.

OM System has packed everything into a retro-style body, featuring a dial for quickly switching between color modes and a button that, by default, provides quick access to the many computational photography features the company is known for.

Key Specifications

• 20 MP Stacked Four Thirds CMOS Sensor
• In-body Image Stabilization up to 6.5 EV
• EVF: 2.36M-dot electronic viewfinder with 0.69x magnification
• Continuous Shooting: Up to 50 fps with C-AF, 120 fps with locked AF/AE
• Pre-Capture Mode: Configurable pre-capture for fast action shots
• Video Recording: Up to 4K 60p with 10-bit Log option
• Color and Effects Dial for creative shooting modes
• Weather Sealing: IP53-rated dust, splash, and freeze-proof construction
• High-Resolution Composite Mode: 50 MP handheld / 80 MP with tripod
• Battery Life: Up to 590 shots per charge

The OM-3 will be available for sale starting on February 27th.

What's New

A new design

Unlike the OM-1 and OM-5, the OM-3 isn't a direct continuation of an existing Olympus camera line, which results in a camera that feels quite distinct from other models that carry the OM badge. There's still definitely a family resemblance: it looks a bit like a larger OM-5, despite being mostly an OM-1 II on the inside, but the OM-3 also very clearly takes inspiration from classic film SLRs.

This is most obvious when you look at it from the front. There's no raised grip to speak of, and black leatherette wraps around the silver body. The weight and substantial thumb rest on the back make the camera relatively easy to hold, at least for our testers, and the metal build feels reassuringly solid in the hand.

The camera is remarkably large, reminiscent of classic film camera bodies, and offers ample space for the battery.

Oltre alla forma, la OM-3 differisce dalle precedenti fotocamere OM System in diversi modi. Invece di essere integrato in una sezione circolare rialzata con due pulsanti in cima, l'interruttore di accensione è ora indipendente. I pulsanti sono stati sostituiti da una ghiera, che consente di passare rapidamente tra le modalità foto, video e video "lento e veloce". A proposito di ghiere, ce n'è una sulla parte anteriore che merita un'occhiata approfondita.

The "creative quadrant"

The OM-3 features a front control knob called the "Creative Dial." This will be familiar to fans of the PEN-F, whose similar dial distinguishes it from previous PEN models.

Like the PEN-F, the OM-3's dial has five positions; the center one lets you use the camera's standard color modes. Switching to Color gives you access to four profiles, designed to reproduce specific aspects of the film. Another click to the left brings up Mono mode, with four more profiles, this time in black and white. The other side of the dial gives you access to "Art" modes, which act as filters to add effects like pinhole camera or bleach bypass, and Color Creator mode, which lets you add a tint to your photos.

È possibile utilizzare i profili colore personalizzabili per creare effetti relativamente estremi.

The real fun comes from customizing the color and mono profiles. The OM System gives you the basic sliders (sharpness, contrast, vignetting), but it also offers finer control. In the mono modes, you can add a virtual color filter, a simulated grain effect in three intensities, and choose a sepia, blue, purple, or green tint. In the color profiles, you get a color wheel that gives you control over the saturation levels of 12 hues. You can also control the shadows, midtones, and highlights, increasing or decreasing them to get the look you want.

It's worth noting that most of these customizations aren't entirely new to the OM System; the OM-1 II also gives you a ton of control over how your JPEGs turn out, including control of shadows, midtones, and highlights. However, the OM-3 puts these features front and center, making them much harder to miss, and having four custom profiles instead of one makes it easier to create some spectacular looks without having to worry about using your custom slot.

Quick access calculation

Lately, we've seen a trend of camera companies adding physical controls to their signature features, like the Fujifilm Film Simulation dial or the Panasonic S9's LUT button. OM Systems has done the same with the OM-3's "CP" button, which allows you to easily access the camera's wide array of computational photography features without having to dive into menus. For those who don't know, these features are multi-shot modes, where the camera takes multiple exposures to achieve certain effects in-camera, without the need to stitch anything together via external software.

The modes available on the OM-3 via the CP button are:

• High Resolution (Tripod/Handheld)
• Live ND (1-6EV)
• Live Graduated ND (1-3EV)
• Stacked Focus*
• HDR
• Multiple Exposure

* Only available with selected lenses

It can be argued that these features are part of what sets the OM system apart from its competitors, so it makes sense to replace what was traditionally an AE/AF lock button with something that puts one of the camera's key strengths within easy reach.

This direct shot was taken using the Live Graduated ND mode to prevent the sky from being overexposed. Its availability at the touch of a button made it an obvious choice. System OM 12-40mm F2.8 PRO II | F4 | 1/250 sec | ISO 200 Foto: Mitchell Clark

A single press of the CP button activates the last used calculation mode, while a long press accesses the other available options. It is possible to limit this list in the menus so that even a long press brings up a list of only the modes you actually want to use. This approach slightly reduces the button's ability to help new users discover all the features, but it does mean that experienced shooters can get straight to the function they want.

How it compares

The OM-3 is the least expensive ILC we've seen using an expensive stacked CMOS sensor. Internally, it's very similar to OM System's flagship OM-1 Mk II, with the same sensor, burst shooting speed, automatic subject recognition, computational photography mode, and weather sealing. The more expensive model has a faster mechanical shutter, more buttons, a chunky grip, a deeper buffer, a larger, higher-resolution viewfinder, and dual card slots. However, we suspect that looks and size, rather than capability, will be the deciding factor between the two for most people.

Using an expensive stacked sensor puts the OM-3 in an interesting position. There are more full-frame cameras available for this amount or less, offering a substantial increase in light-gathering power at the cost of larger, heavier lenses, much slower shutter speeds, and generally fewer features. But if you want a larger sensor that’s still stacked, you’ll have to pay for it: the Fujifilm X-H2S’s MSRP is 25% more expensive.

At this price, the OM-3 is available in a few markets. You might consider high-end models like the Panasonic G9 II, Canon EOS R7, or Fujifilm X-H2S as its peers, but it also competes with style-conscious options like Fujifilm’s X-T5 and Nikon Zf. We’ve included a selection of both.

The Nikon Zf and Fujifilm X-T5 have similar aesthetics, but while the Nikon is relatively small for a full-frame camera, the same can't be said for the lenses you'll have to attach to it. Fujifilm's lens ecosystem is the only one that's as comprehensive as Micro Four Thirds, though its autofocus system isn't as good as OM's in many situations and is well off the pace from the state of the art.

Only Panasonic's G9 II comes close to offering the range of in-camera multi-shot computational modes, and even then, the OM-3's faster readout gives it an advantage.

Body and contro

Il design retrò dell'OM-3 è uno dei suoi maggiori punti di forza rispetto all'OM-1 Mk II. Sostituisce i quadranti incassati in gomma con quelli montati in alto con zigrinatura spessa e accenti argentati posti sulla piastra superiore. Nonostante la gobba prominente, il mirino è in realtà relativamente piccolo, anche se di solito fa il suo dovere.

È chiaramente un ritorno alle vecchie reflex, con la sua base e le piastre superiori in metallo e la gobba reflex. Ciò potrebbe deludere coloro che hanno visto la Creative Dial e speravano in una rinascita della PEN-F in stile telemetro, ma dato che le fotocamere a forma di reflex hanno venduto di più di quelle in stile telemetro, la sua inclusione qui suggerisce che questa potrebbe essere la cosa più vicina che arriveremo a un successore diretto.

The OM-3 is not as compact as the OM-5, but takes up less space than the OM-1 II.

The OM-3 isn't as much smaller than the OM-1 as we initially expected; several DPReview staffers noted how large it felt when they first picked it up. This does, however, add to the film camera aesthetic and give it room for a large battery, and the lack of a grip makes it easier to pop into a bag, especially without a lens attached. However, you still probably won't be able to pop it into a pocket or bag like you might with smaller Micro Four Thirds bodies.

During our testing, we found the camera's controls to be well laid out, with all the essential buttons easy to reach. It has several customizable buttons that you can map to your favorite functions, as well as the traditional OM System function lever, which lets you quickly change an unfortunately very limited selection of dial functions or autofocus settings. The Lock Mode dial also gives you access to five custom shooting modes, which can call up a much wider range of settings, providing a generous number of configurations that most photographers would likely struggle to fill.

It’s generally easy to use with one hand, although the lack of a grip can make things a little more difficult when you have to hold down a button and operate dials at the same time. Depending on how you’ve set up the camera, its user interface will prompt you to do this relatively frequently. The lack of a joystick to control the focus point also means you’ll likely need to use two hands when moving the focus point, whether using the D-pad or the touchscreen.

Battery

The OM-3 uses OM System's large 17Wh BLX-1 battery, the same one found in the OM-1 Mk II. It's rated to deliver around 590 shots on a charge when using the LCD. That's an impressive capacity for a camera of this size, and it paid off in our testing; we didn't find ourselves reaching for a charger often, even during long weekends of shooting with frequent use of the compute modes. That's good news for those hoping to use this as a travel camera.

As always with CIPA ratings, the exact number isn't a literal indicator of how many images you can expect to get from a charge, and we find that you can generally expect to get at least double the rating. However, it does serve as a common point of comparison between cameras, and 590 is a very good rating.

Autofocus

To select an autofocus point, you can use the touchscreen or the four-way controller. There are a variety of target mode settings, including the option to select a single point, small, medium, and large areas, a cross-pattern area, and a wide area that allows the camera to analyze the frame and choose what to focus on. You can also create four custom-sized zones.

The OM-3 has several autofocus modes, including the ability to recognize and track several types of subjects: Humans / eyes, cars and motorcycles, airplanes / helicopters, trains, birds and dogs / cats. It also has a specialized star autofocus mode for astrophotography.

The OM-3 lets you engage subject recognition mode, and use it with your chosen AF target type. The camera will focus on whatever's under your AF point and will track it if it's a recognized subject, but it won't jump off to recognized subjects elsewhere in the scene. However, unlike many contemporary cameras, you can't combine AF Tracking mode with subject recognition: if you want your camera to track something it's not been trained to recognize, you'll have to switch to the dedicated Tracking mode. This means you can't just leave it in a single mode and expect it to use the selected recognition mode only when appropriate; instead, you have to constantly turn subject detection on and off.