Olympus E-M1 iii Handheld HiRes

A question I see being asked time and time again on social media is whether or not the Olympus E-M1 Mark III is worth the money. Either people are considering upgrading the Mark II’s to the III or else they are considering buying an E-M1 for the first time and trying to decide which version to get.

It is very true that the differences between the two versions is not at all great. There are subtle improvements, nothing radical. Both cameras share the same sensor, same EVF and same LCD, image quality will be the same and so will video quality. But the Mark III has a much more powerful processor inside and this allows it to perform processor-intensive tasks that the Mark II is not capable of.

One such processor-intensive task is Handheld HiRes mode, for me very personally it is a very compelling capability of the E-M1 Mark III and in this video I attempt to explain why.

This video was shot in 4K and I recommend you watch it at the highest resolution your display device supports in order to see the details of the images that I discuss and compare.

HiRes shooting modes are nothing new, Olympus were one of the pioneers of this technology and have included it in a number of their cameras over the last few years. But until the release of the E-M1X and E-M1iii, HiRes shooting was something that you could only do with the camera held very still, preferably on a robust tripod. The requirement to hold the camera so still really limited the potential uses of HiRes shooting.

The handheld HiRes shooting capabilities of the E-M1X and now E-M1iii really open up the possibilities of this technology, but is it really worth it? That is another question I hope to answer in my video.