OM SYSTEM OM-1 Mark II Mirrorless Camera with 12-40mm f/2.8 Lens

A Refined OM-1
Wrote my first Amazon review ever to say that people are being silly about the free battery thing. I wrote about the camera first and battery promotion second, so people can skip that if they just want to read about the camera. Maybe I’ll write a full review of the camera someday, and include some pictures, but all you really need to know is that the OM-1 II is superb. If you want more than that, here’s some more to consider:If you are coming from another camera manufacturer:Ergonomics are some of the best out thereWhile being around the same size as many full-frame competitors, the OM-1 is usually ~0.5lbs lighterAutofocus and tracking is a step behind the best from other companies, but is still very capable, the best of any Olympus / OM product, and many Olympus lenses have the wonderful pull-back manual focus ring in case you need or want to take overImage stabilization is amazing, I can handhold a 600mm full-frame equivalent with only body IS, in the middle of a hike, and not have much trouble keeping it steadyImage quality is good enough for most professional uses; biggest downside is a lack of detail and size from only being 20MP, but if you can use the high-resolution modes, 50 and 80MP hi-res shots will get you ~80% of the quality of an actual high megapixel cameraBattery life is great; if you leave it “on” on, the battery will drain much faster because of the screens, but quick sleep greatly increases the amount of time, and if you are actively shooting tons of bursts, you can expect thousands of pictures on one battery. I managed ~5 hours and ~4,000 pictures on a battery before realizing later that Bluetooth On was keeping the camera from quick sleeping the whole time.And lastly, the computational features are what makes this camera truly unique. Maybe you still want to use neutral density filters, a macro rail, or a tripod, maybe you still want to take multiple exposures to process in post; you can still do all that. The OM-1 makes it possible if you don’t. If you don’t want to carry a tripod, you can still get long exposure shots. If you do, you can focus stack in camera. If you don’t want to carry or switch out neutral density filters, you can still benefit from the effect. If you do, you can even combine them; ND filter on lens, GND on camera. It’s very freeing to be able to casually go out with only a camera and a few lenses, and shoot however you want without feeling, “man, I should have brought this or that.” And if doing professional work, maybe it’ll make your life a little easier. If you still want to use and carry all your gear, that’s fine! But you might also try these features out, and realize this is good enough for this shot or that shot, maybe I can spend a little less time switching out some gear, or lining a tripod up, or this one less step in post. How much benefit you get out of what this camera can do will absolutely vary, but what I think makes this camera special is that it just makes it easier to be creativeIf you are coming from an OM-1:Rubberized dials are great; maybe slightly easier to turn accidentally, but much easier to turn when you do want to turn themStabilization is a little better; I struggled at times to handhold the 75-300mm on the OM-1, but find it much easier to do on the IIAutofocus and tracking is a little better; C-AF+TR is actually useable now, and with subject detection on, C-AF has tracking completely integrated into it to where there is no option anymore to have C-AF or C-AF+TR with subject detect on, only C-AF; you may or may not like this change, but it makes it easier for me, because I normally used C-AF for no subject and C-AF+TR with subject, now I can just leave it on C-AF instead of switching every time there was or wasn’t a subject (personally, it feels like the AF slows a tiny bit if you leave subject detect on, but there is no subject, as if it’s spending a little more power “looking” for one, in case you wondered why I don’t just leave it on all the time;) still can lose a subject or eye, but better and most importantly stickier in generalBuffer is much improved; you can still fill it easily using super fast bursts, but you will get twice as long before that happens, and if you shoot on the slower ProCap modes like 5,12.5, 25fps, you’ll probably be held up more by your SD card speeds than the bufferLive GND is very nice and intuitive if it’s applicable to the type of shooting you doOM has stated that some II features aren’t able to be ported to the OM-1; What could and couldn’t work on the older camera is tough to say without being OM and knowing all the technical details, but they have also said that besides increased RAM, the memory system has also changed, so while some features might be possible, it may be extremely difficult or impossible to get them to the same level as on the II, like the improved AF performance and Live GNDAfter spending more time with the II, it does drain the battery faster than the Mark I; this is reflected in the CIPA rating (520 vs 500 shots,) and is also noticeable to someone who has extensively used them both; battery life is still very good, but this does seem to give some more credence that the initial amount of RAM was holding OM’s cameras back somewhat, like the processors were always powerful enough, but the data they had access to at any given time was so limited, that they weren’t working as hard as they could beIf you are coming from an older Olympus camera:Just about everything will be improvedBetter stabilization, autofocus, tracking, battery life, high ISO performanceNew menu system which can still be a little labyrinthine, but is sorted out much betterMuch faster sequential shooting speedsHi-res shot is much faster to process and hand-held if it was only tripod before, stronger filter effects for Live ND, some computational features entirely depending on what Olympus you’re coming fromHope this proved worth your time reading in some way, and maybe even helped you make a decision on your next camera purchase.———————————————————————————————————-About the free battery promotion:On Amazon, you don’t just order the camera and expect an extra battery to be in there. You needed to add both the camera and battery to your cart in order to qualify for the free battery promotion. If you did this, the battery isn’t actually free; Amazon discounts you the majority cost of the battery OFF THE CAMERA (mine was also split into two separate orders: -$3.24 off battery / -$86.54 off camera when I purchased it.) The promotion is no longer going on, but if you did read it, it did in fact say to add the battery to your cart as well.If you did do this, and didn’t receive the battery, then yes, Amazon is at fault for not sending something that shows up in your Order page as being properly ordered, and should rectify the situation by sending a battery.If you didn’t do this, then understand that this is how Amazon handles their promotions. You can try contacting OM, and if they are nice about it, they might send you one, but they are in no way obligated to, because this promotion is being handled by Amazon. OM doesn’t have anything to do with it except telling retailers, “if they order the camera during this timeframe, offer them a free battery however you do that sort of thing.” You can try contacting Amazon, but it doesn’t look like people have had much luck with that, and if you didn’t follow their procedure, they’re really not obligated to help either. If you try to take advantage of a promotion like this on Amazon again, just double-check that there is something in the order that does look like you’re getting the item and for free (it is in your cart and $0 or some part of it is discounted,) and don’t expect that Amazon is randomly throwing in an extra battery on their own in the package. OM isn’t sending them a pallet of batteries with every pallet of OM-1s, and Amazon has one bajillion warehouses, they might not have any of the batteries in the same warehouse as the cameras, if they could even tag order pickers to grab a battery for every order of this camera during X amount of time.