Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III — The Complete Guide and Review

The complete guide to Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III and an in-depth review of its features, specs, problems and known issues.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III retro silver camera

This is the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III. It is a mirror-less camera with a micro four third sensor. It was released in November 2019.

Physical/Hardware Specs

• It has a weather-sealed body.
• It weighs 414 grams including the battery and SD card which is 55 grams lighter than its predecessor, the E-M5 Mark II.
• The previous version of this camera had a magnesium alloy body but this camera is made from plastic, which has contributed to its lighter weight.
• Also, this camera has a smaller and lighter battery than its predecessor which also contributes to its lower weight.
• The camera body alone weighs 366 grams.
• It is 12.53 cm by 8.52 cm by 4.97 cm, excluding protrusions, which is slightly larger than its predecessor — the E-M5 Mark II — in all dimensions.

Weather-sealed camera body of EM5 III under heavy rain

Firmware update

The current firmware version on my camera was version 1.0, however looking at the Olympus website it appears that there are a number of firmware updates available. Some of which have made important improvements aside from updates to support additional lenses.

• Firmware update version 1.1 provides more control over the use of the eye sensor to choose when the LCD panel is active and when the electronic viewfinder is active.
• Firmware update version 1.3 includes improvements to image stabilization when shooting video. This is important to me as I mainly use the camera for filming video clips.
• Firmware update version 1.5 is currently the latest update which was released on 9th of June 2021.

Firmware updates require Olympus Workspace, so I went to the Olympus website and followed the instructions to download and install Olympus Workspace, in order to update the firmware on the camera.

Olympus Workspace and Firmware update

Initially I tried to install Olympus Workspace on a Windows 7 computer which didn’t work.

I then installed Olympus Workspace on a Windows 10 computer and immediately had to update the Olympus Workspace software.

Once I completed that, I went on to update the firmware on the camera and could see the current version of the firmware on the camera and the attached lens. I updated the camera firmware to version 1.5 and checked again to make sure the update had taken effect and there were no newer updates to apply.

LCD screen on Olympus camera (OM-D E-M5 III)

Flip Screen / EVF

• The camera has an Electronic ViewFinder and an articulating flip screen. You can configure the camera so that as soon as you put the Electronic viewfinder against your eye, the screen will switch off and the Electronic ViewFinder will turn on.
• You have three options for how the eye sensor works:
• You can enable the eye sensor so that the camera automatically chooses whether to use the viewfinder or back screen based on proximity to the viewfinder.
• Alternatively you can choose for the eye sensor to only be enabled when the screen is in a closed state.
• You can also switch off this feature altogether and do it manually using the physical button on top of the camera.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ I ➡ EVF Auto Switch ➡ Off / On1 / On2]

• If you press and hold the LiveView button, it will take you to the menu item to configure the desired behaviour which is easier than remembering where in the menu, this option is buried.
• The flip screen can rotate 180° degrees to face the front of the camera for taking selfies or recording yourself. It can also rotate 90° degrees downwards, for using the camera above your head.
• The camera can be operated using the touch screen which is particularly desirable when the screen has been rotated to a selfie orientation. The camera has the option to mirror the image, when the screen is in selfie orientation. Also, the rotation direction of the focus ring can be chosen in the menu.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D3 ➡ Selfie Assist ➡ Off | On]
[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ A4 ➡ Focus Ring ➡ ↪ | ↩]

• The advantages of flip screens in comparison to tilt screens are that:
• It is easier to mount the camera on a tripod or place it on any surface to film yourself.
  Also, sometimes if the back of the camera needs to be close to a wall or something, it is still possible to use the flip screen.
• The disadvantages of a flip screen in comparison to a tilt screen is that:
• When in selfie mode, the eyes of the subject will be pointing to the right which looks like they are distracted by something happening to the right of the camera.
• Also, from the perspective of the camera operator a tilt screen means that the screen is on axis with the lens so it is easier to direct the camera accurately at the subject. Whereas the flip screen cannot be kept on-axis and tilt upwards.
• When using a camera on a gimbal a screen which flips to the side can get in the way of the gimbal rotating the camera but with a tilt screen, the camera takes up less width, so it doesn’t interfere with the rotation of the gimbal.
• If you are using the screen to compose your photo when doing flash photography, consider switching the Live View Boost “On” so that you can see the subject on the screen with reasonable brightness and frame your subject. Otherwise the screen will attempt to replicate the existing exposure of your subject which will be relatively dark considering the flash is not on yet.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D2 ➡ Settings ➡ Live View Boost ➡ Off | On]

• What information is displayed on the screen can be customised.
• The customisation will vary depending on what mode you are in, for example movie mode, or play back mode will have different information displayed on the screen than in still picture mode.
• Once you have configured what information should be shown on the screen, you can iterate through different levels of information being shown on the screen by pressing the “INFO” button, which will loop through your custom settings in addition to default camera settings.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Display Settings ➡ 🎥Info Settings ➡ Custom1 | Custom2 ➡ …]
[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D1 ➡ /Info Settings ➡ LV-Info ➡ …]

• You can take pictures using the touch screen similar to a mobile phone. You can also disable this feature or disable the touch screen altogether. If you use the electronic viewfinder to take pictures and are worried about your face touching the screen, it might be easier to close the screen so it cannot be accidentally activated instead of disabling the touch screen features. That way you can open the touch screen and use it when needed without having to re-enable it through the menu system.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ J1 ➡ Touch Screen Settings ➡ On | Off]

Super Control Panel

• In addition to the main menu system, it has two quick access menus for quickly viewing or changing camera settings for the most frequently needed settings.
• The Live Super Control Panel, and the Live Control menu.
• To view one of the quick access menus press the OK button and to rotate between them press the INFO button, assuming you have configured your camera to display both.
• You can use the buttons and dials on the camera to navigate and change settings using the Super Control Panel or the Control menu.
• To save current settings and exit the quick access menus, you can press the shutter button halfway.
• In order to be able to switch between the Super Control Panel and the Control menu using the INFO button, you need to configure this in the Video Menu for when in Movie mode. If you want both menus to be available then you have to tick both of them so that you can switch between them using the INFO button when in Live View mode.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Display Settings ➡ 🎥Control Settings ➡ ☑ Live Control | ☑ Live SCP]

• You need to do the same for still picture mode by going to the customisation menu D1, control settings and the relevant still picture mode for which you want to choose what menus should appear on the screen. Once you check the desired menus and options, you can bring up the menu by pressing the OK button and rotate through the various menus by pressing the INFO button.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D1 ➡ 📷Control Settings ➡ P/A/S/M/B ➡☑ Live Control | ☑ Live SCP]

• If you want to continue to monitor the subject in your scene through the screen while changing settings then using the Control menu which is displayed on the right and bottom edges of the screen will be more suitable, but if you want to quickly look at all settings at a glance then the super control panel is better and quicker to navigate to the settings that you want to change.

Battery / charging

• It has BLS‑50 Lithium‑Ion Battery, which is different to its predecessor — the Mark II.
• The E-M5 Mark II had the BLN-1 Lithium‑Ion Battery, which is larger and heavier but will also last longer.
• According to Olympus, the battery on the E-M5 Mark II could last up to 150 minutes of video recording, whereas the battery on the E-M5 Mark III can only last up to 110 minutes of video recording.
• I managed to record 110 minutes of 1080p video at 60 frames per second until the battery icon started blinking.
• I was using aperture priority, and had the single auto-focus plus manual focus option selected which I frequently used the touch screen for activating the auto-focus function.
• I didn’t continue shooting once the battery icon started blinking but based on how much I used the camera afterwards, I think that I could have continued shooting for another 10 to 20 minutes.
• The BLS-50 battery which is used on the E-M5 Mark III is the same battery which is used for the E-M10 Mark IV.
• The camera comes with the BCS‑5 battery charger which lets you charge the battery externally. The charging time is around 210 minutes (or three and a half hours).
• You can also charge the battery while it is in the camera through the micro-USB connector, but the camera cannot be operated. So the camera has to be off when it is charging using a USB connector. The charging time using this method takes about 4 hours.
• The camera comes with a USB cable but not a power adapter to connect it to for charging. But since it supports USB charging, you can charge it using a power bank, or a smartphone charger, or a computer.
• Alternatively you can purchase the F-5AC USB power adapter separately.
• I have an F-5AC-2 USB power adapter which was included when I purchased an E-M10 Mark IV.
• The LED light on the back indicates that the battery is being charged.
• It will turn off once the battery is fully charged.
• If pictures are being uploaded to a smartphone via Wi-Fi using the background auto upload feature, the battery cannot be charged using USB, even if the camera is turned off.
• Olympus has this feature that allows pictures to be uploaded using WiFi in the background. This continues in the background even if you switch off the camera. Under this circumstance, you won’t be able to charge the camera until the background upload finishes or you disable this feature.
• You can turn this feature off, to avoid background upload of pictures through WiFi but then you could lose your photos if something happens to your camera or SD card and you haven’t completed uploading your pictures.
• One of the disadvantages of charging the battery externally as opposed to with the USB cable is that some settings may be reset if the battery has been removed from the camera for a while. [-manual page 28-]
• Whereas charging through the USB port could potentially damage the USB port which means you won’t be able to use the USB port for transferring pictures and videos.
• The USB port on this camera does not feel sturdy.

Connectivity

• In terms of connectivity options, it has
• Ports for Micro USB, Micro HDMI, microphone jack, and a remote cable terminal on the left hand side of the camera.
• It also has WiFi and Bluetooth
• The camera does not support EyeFi cards which is something that the previous version of this camera supported. But this makes sense because the EyeFi product and associated services were discontinued in 2018.
• In case you haven’t come across EyeFi cards, these were SD cards with WiFi capability. So a device that did not have WiFi but had an SD card slot could use WiFi with these cards.

Storage / SD cards

• The camera has a single SD card slot which supports UHS-II SD cards as well as older UHS-I SD cards. The previous version of this camera doesn’t support UHS-II SD cards.
• When purchasing an SD card or using an old SD card, it is important that you pay attention to its write speed, particularly for recording videos.
• If you don’t have a fast card, you can use IPB compression instead of All-I encoding which uses up less data hence a slower card will be sufficient.
• Also, you can change video settings to lower the video bit rate, by selecting “Normal”, or “Fine” instead of “Super Fine” depending on the speed of your card.
• To record video, an SD card with a speed class of 10 is necessary. But to shoot 4K video, or high speed video, or an All-I encoded video a UHS-I or UHS-II card with a UHS speed class of 3 or better is necessary.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Sepcification Settings ➡ 🎥<:- ➡ MOV🎥FHDSF60P ➡ …]

• It appears that Olympus has made informed decisions about how video bitrates correlate with the speed of SD cards that are available on the market.
• On this camera, DCI Cinema 4K video with IPB compression requires a maximum speed of approximately 237 Mbps which is within the range of U3 and V30 speed SD cards.
• 4K video with IPB compression requires about 102 Mbps.
• 1080p FullHD video with ALL‑I encoding requires around 202 Mbps.
• 1080p FullHD video with IPB compression and Super Fine video bitrate setting uses around 52Mbps, and when used with Fine as the video bitrate setting it uses 30Mbps.
• 720p video with IPB compression and SuperFine video bitrate setting uses around 26Mbps and around 14Mbps with the Fine video bitrate setting and around 10Mbps with the Normal video bitrate setting.
• There is an outdated list of compatible SD cards which Olympus provides on their website but other SD cards that are not mentioned there will also work.

Sensor / Processor

• The camera has a micro four thirds sensor, with 20.4 effective megapixels, or 20.37 million pixels to be exact.
• This is the same sensor which is used in the E-M1 Mark II, E-M1 Mark III, and the E-M1X. So the quality of images will be as good as those higher end cameras.
• It has a TruePic VIII processor. This is the same processor which is used in the E-M10 Mark IV, the E-M1 Mark II, and the E-M1X has two of these processors.
• It has a Supersonic Wave Filter which helps remove dust on the sensor.
• The Supersonic Wave Filter vibrates over 30,000 times per second to shake off dust or other particles on the sensor. And once they fall off, they fall onto an adhesive strip which stops them from making their way back onto the sensor or other parts of the camera.
• In 2004 Olympus announced the Olympus E-300 camera which used this technology, and at that time the supersonic wave filter would vibrate at 35,000 times per second.
• It’s also worth mentioning that Olympus dust reduction technology is known to be significantly better than the other brands.

In Body Image Stabilization on Olympus OM-D E-M5 III

IBIS/Stabilization

• The camera has 5-axis In Body Image Stabilization with 5.5 stops of stabilization, going up to 6.5 stops with compatible lenses.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C2 ➡ 📷 Image Stabilizer ➡ S-IS Off | S-IS AUTO | S-IS 1️⃣ | S-IS 2️⃣ | S-IS 3️⃣]

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥 AF/IS Settings ➡ 🎥 Image Stabilizer ➡ M-IS 1️⃣ | M-IS 2️⃣ | M-IS Off]

• In still picture mode, the image stabilization has more options, in that you can choose whether to perform image stabilization in all directions, or whether to limit it to horizontal or vertical stabilization only. However in movie mode, stabilization cannot be isolated to vertical or horizontal directions.
• So if you have stabilization switched on while recording video and you pan the camera, the stabilization system tries to counter the panning movement which results in a jumping effect.
• It is not possible to change the image stabilization while recording a video otherwise you could somewhat counter this problem by assigning a physical button on the camera for toggling image stabilization. That way you can quickly switch it off and back on again when necessary.
• Currently the recording needs to be stopped before image stabilization can be changed.
• The camera has digital stabilization for use in movie mode.
• When digital stabilisation is switched on in movie mode, there will be a slight crop to the size of the frame. I couldn’t find an exact number for the crop factor.
• Regarding the crop factor; what is displayed on the screen is what will be recorded, so you won’t need to change the framing after pressing record and there won’t be a difference in the recorded video.
• The reason I mention this is because I have come across some cameras that show a wider view on the screen and once the recording starts then the crop sets in which makes it difficult to frame a scene.
• If you are using lenses other than Micro Four Thirds or Four Thirds, then you will need to specify the lens focal length in order to get optimal result from the stabilisation. As these lenses will not communicate with the camera to relay information such as focal length.
• This information will also be used for keystone compensation and EXIF meta-data.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ H1 ➡ Lens Info Settings ➡ Create Lens Information]

• If you are using zoom lenses then the focal length should be set to the focal length for which you plan to shoot at, and if this is not practical because you will be using the zoom functionality then try using a number between the zoom range which you will use.
• When using a zoom lens you can also use the control menu to access image stabilization settings quickly and change the associated focal length. This might be a fast way to deal with various zoom levels but it cannot be changed while video recording is taking place so the recording would have to stop in order to change this value.

[OK ➡ M-IS2️⃣ ➡ INFO ➡ UP | DOWN | LEFT | RIGHT]

• When shooting still pictures, you can choose whether image stabilization should take priority or if shooting speed should take a higher priority in which case the sensor will not re-center itself after the first shot.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C2 ➡ ⬜Image Stabilizer ➡ Fps Priority | IS Priority]

• According to online reviews, Olympus still has the best stabilization system in the camera market as of 2021.

Image Quality

• The camera can take photos both in RAW and JPEG, or both at the same time. You can configure this on the camera.
• The JPEG setting has three options for size: Large, Medium, and Small as well as three options for the level of compression: SuperFine, Fine and Normal.

Image resolution size and compression rate on EM5 III

• In the top level menu item for detailed camera options under submenu G, there is a menu item where you can select up to 4 entries for JPEG size and encoding compression rate combination.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ G ➡ <:- Set ➡ <:-1 L SF | <:-2 M SF | <:-3 S F | <:-4 S N]

• The exact resolution of Medium and Small can also be adjusted in a separate menu item.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ G ➡ Pixel Count ➡ Middle ➡ 3200x2400 | 1920x1440]

• Once you configure those four entries, they will be available in the menu item for basic shooting options.
• In the still picture menu 1, you can choose which of the four options you want to use and whether that option should be accompanied with a RAW image file or not.

[MENU ➡ 📷1 ➡ 📷<:- ➡ LSF + RAW]

• For the best quality photo choose the Large size option with SuperFine compression. This JPEG setting will consume the most amount of storage in comparison to the other JPEG settings but not as much as the RAW file.
• The RAW setting does not have any options as all data is captured from the camera’s sensor and will take up even more storage space than any of the JPEG options.
• I use the “RAW + JPEG” option so that I can have the RAW image format for post processing but also the Large SuperFine JPEG file for ease of use and distribution.
• If you are using art filters, the JPEG will have the effect applied to it but not the raw file. So if you have chosen to store both, you will be able to get the original picture content without the art filter applied to it from the RAW file.
• This means you can apply any art effect to your image at a later time and decide which art filter you want to use.

If you look at the bottom right hand side of the screen you can see two numbers:

• The number on top represents how much video recording can be done with the current level of free space on the memory card
• And the number on the bottom represents how many pictures can be taken with the current level of free space on the SD card.
• If you change the settings for the size and encoding of how images or videos are stored, then this number will change to reflect the required amount of storage.
• So you can see, if you move between the available options for photos, this number goes up or down depending on the amount of required storage.

High Resolution mode

• The camera has a high resolution mode.
• This feature allows creation of an image with a resolution substantially higher than what the camera’s image sensor can produce with a single shot.
• Using the Tripod High Res Shot function, the image sensor is shifted in half a pixel increments while the camera takes 8 sequential shots which are then combined into a single 50 megapixel picture with substantially higher quality in terms of resolution, colors and reduced noise levels.
• This mode is ideal for product photography, or taking high quality pictures of still subjects.
• This feature can only be used when the camera is mounted on a tripod, in order to minimise any movement of the camera between the shots.

[MENU ➡ 📷2 ➡ High Res Shot ➡ High Res Shot ➡ Off | 0sec]

Exposure/Metering/ISO

• The camera has a base ISO of 200 but can go lower to a setting almost equivalent to ISO 100, and it can go up to ISO 25,600 which is adjustable in 1 stop or 1/3rd increments.
• The real ISO range of this camera is between 200 and 6,400. However the camera processes images to produce equivalent ISO settings that are out of this range.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ E1 ➡ ISO Step ➡ 1/3EV | 1EV]

• You can configure the default and upper limit for ISO settings, when auto-ISO is used. So the camera can stay within bounds defined by you. The maximum ISO that the camera will use with the auto-ISO setting is 6,400 whereas if you control the ISO manually, you can go up to 25,600.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ E1 ➡ ISO-Auto Set ➡ Upper Limit / Default ➡ Upper Limit | Default]

• You can also define the shutter speed at which point auto-ISO should start to raise the ISO sensitivity instead of slowing down the shutter speed. This option is only valid in “Program” mode and “Aperture priority mode”.
• So let’s say you are using Aperture priority mode, and you want to take a picture. If the camera determines that the scene is too dark, the camera has two options to fix this, it can either slow down the shutter speed or it can increase the ISO.
• By configuring the shutter speed here, you are instructing the camera to continue to slow down the shutter speed in order to let in more light until the configured shutter speed is reached. Once this shutter speed is reached then the camera will start to increase the ISO until the ISO can no longer be increased before it reverts back to slowing down the shutter speed further.
• And if there is too much light in the scene, the shutter speed will increase until it reaches the configured number, then the ISO will start to decrease until it can no longer be decreased further, at which point the camera reverts back to speeding up the shutter speed to reduce incoming light and gain the correct exposure.
• At any point in this automated process if the correct exposure level is reached, the camera will stop changing the shutter speed or ISO and take the picture.
• This feature is only available for still pictures and not in movie mode.
• In my opinion this is a really good feature which I haven’t seen in other cameras. The reason I like this feature is because you can shoot in Aperture priority mode but also have some control over how exposure is adjusted so that you don’t end up with motion blur because the subject was moving nor do you end up with unnecessary noise from high ISO settings even though the subject is stationary.
• I think this feature could even be used for sports photography because you could set the desired slowest shutter speed and the shutter speed would be kept when possible which means you have one less thing to worry about, and can think more about picture composure and the required depth of field.
• I wish this setting was also available in movie mode, particularly since Auto-ISO is not available for Manual mode in movie mode.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ E1 ➡ ISO-Auto Set ➡ Lowest S/S Setting ➡ Auto | 1/250sec ➡ ]

• The camera has Highlight Spot metering and Shadow Spot metering to make it easier to get the correct exposure for your pictures. Highlight spot metering has the same effect as increasing exposure compensation by one stop when using spot metering and Shadow Spot metering has the same effect as reducing the exposure compensation by one stop when using spot metering. These two metering modes are essentially an abstraction on top of spot metering to make it easier and quicker to change the settings without changing the exposure compensation.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ E3 ➡ Metering ➡ …]

• The spot metering modes use up about 2% of the frame for evaluating the correct exposure.
• You can change the metering modes through the Super Control Panel, or via the customisation menu under the E3 sub-menu.
• The letter E stands for exposure, hence the naming for E1, E2, and E3 menus which contain exposure related settings.
• You can only select metering modes for still photography whereas in movie mode, only the default metering mode is available which is called Digital ESP Metering.
• So if you are recording video the best way to judge exposure of your scene is by looking at the histogram.

AutoFocus

• The camera uses both Phase Detect and Contrast Detect Auto-focus with 121 cross-type focus points.
• It has single auto focus so you press the shutter button halfway down while the focus point is on your subject and the camera locks focus then you press the shutter button all the way and a photo is taken.
• It also has continuous auto-focus which lets you continuously focus on the subject as long as the shutter button is half way down, until you decide to take a photo and press the shutter button fully.
• It also has an option for a combination of single auto focus with manual adjustment whereby you press the shutter halfway to focus on your subject or use the screen touch focus to get focus on your subject then you can turn the focus ring on the lens using your hands to further adjust the focus manually or leave it as it is.
• This feature is more useful in movie mode as opposed to photography, but if you are working with old lenses or lenses that don’t lock focus accurately this might be useful.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ A1 ➡ 📷AF Mode ➡ S-AF+MF]

• When using touch focus, you can choose the size of the focus area as well as the location of it.
• In picture mode there are more sizes available for the focus area than in video mode.
• In addition to touch focus, the camera also has a matrix grid of target points, from which you can choose a single square, a small square, a 5-square target group in the shape of a cross, or a 3 by 3 group of nine squares arranged as a large square, as well as a 5 by 5, 25 square target group or use the entire grid as a target group of 11 by 11 squares that take up 121 squares.
• These types of focus areas can be used with single focus as well as with continuous focus.
• The camera has focus tracking which locks on the subject and follows it, refocusing between shots. This feature is even more useful when recording video to keep the subject in focus.
• The stickiness of the tracking option is not good for high movement scenes but works well in studio scenarios or when the background and the subject are separated or if the subject is distinct and takes up a large portion of the frame.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ A1 ➡ 📷AF Mode ➡ C-AF+TR]

• The camera has Face Priority and Eye Priority Auto Focus. You can choose whether the camera should focus on the eye which is closest to the camera, or on the left eye, the right eye or only use face detection.
• When face priority or eye priority is used in conjunction with the default metering mode which is called “digital ESP metering” on Olympus cameras, exposure will be weighted according to the value measured for the face. Which means, not only will the correct subject have focus but its exposure will also be correct.
• The camera has an LED in the front which helps with the autofocus feature in low light situations. You can turn this off in the settings.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ A3 ➡ AF Illuminator ➡ Off | On]

• The camera has a focus peaking feature and the colour of the focus area can be chosen. So if the subject has a lot of red then you can change the focus peaking colour to a different colour like yellow or black.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ A4 ➡ MF Assist ➡ Peaking ➡ On | Off]
[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D3 ➡ Peaking Settings ➡ Peaking Color ➡ Red | Yellow | White | Black]

• It has a feature called Super Spot Auto Focus where you can zoom into the image preview and then focus on the exact desired spot, before taking the picture. This is useful if you want to be very precise with the focus point or when the subject is very small and difficult to isolate on a small screen.
• Prior to using this feature effectively, you need to assign this function to one of the buttons on the camera, by going to the Customisation Menu, and choose submenu B followed by the “Button Function” item. There you can choose the desired button, and assign the “Magnify” feature to it.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ B ➡ 📷Button Function ➡ … ➡ Magnify]

Preset Manual Focus

• The camera has a feature called “Preset Manual Focus” whereby you can pre-configure a default focus distance for the camera to automatically adjust focus for that distance when shooting.
• This option is available for both still pictures and video.
• This feature is particularly useful for recording video when the majority of time focus needs to be on a specific location or distance but occasionally you may need to change focus using the single touch autofocus or manually with the focus ring on the lens.
• Although you will not be able to change this while recording a video. So the recording has to be stopped before toggling between focus modes.

The focus distance can be set in three ways:

• You can set it manually by turning the focus ring on the camera.
• You can set it by pressing the shutter button halfway, or
• You can manually enter a numeric value for the distance in meters or feet.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ A1 ➡ 📷AF Mode ➡ Preset MF]

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥AF/IS Settings ➡ 🎥AF Mode ➡ Preset MF]

OK ➡ PreMF ➡ INFO ➡ turn focus ring or press shutter halfway to set distance value

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ A4 ➡ Preset MF distance ➡ xxx.x meters]

Shutter

It has three shutter types:

• mechanical shutter,
• anti-shock mechanical shutter,
• and silent electronic shutter.
• The anti-shock mechanical shutter option reduces camera shake caused by the movement of the mechanical shutter.
• The mechanical shutter speed ranges between 1/8,000 of a second, all the way up to 60 seconds in increments of 1/3 stops.
• The Electronic shutter can shoot from 1/32,000 of a second up to 60 seconds.
• If you are photographing fast moving subjects, it is better to select the mechanical shutter as it is less likely to produce a rolling shutter effect, in comparison to using the silent electronic shutter.
• The camera has a silent mode which disables all camera sounds. It will use the electronic shutter and by default turns off:
• camera sounds,
• the autofocus illumination LED, and
• the Flash.
• You can change the settings for silent mode to choose whether camera sounds, Flash, or AutoFocus assist LED should be switched off or not.

[MENU ➡ 📷2 ➡ Anti-Shock[♦]/Silent[♥] ➡ Silent[❤]Mode Settings ➡ 🔊 ➡ Not Allow | Allow]

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III top view

Bulb

• The camera has a bulb mode with a dedicated bulb mode option on the mode dial.
• Bulb mode allows you to do long exposure photography which can be useful for shooting dark scenes.
• In bulb mode the shutter speed can be set to a maximum of 30 minutes.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ E2 ➡ Bulb/Time Timer ➡ 1min — 30m]

• The camera allows you to do long exposure photography using a number of options. For example there is an option called “Live Bulb” where you can preview the photo updates in near real time on the screen and end the exposure when the desired results have been achieved.
• You can configure how often the camera updates the preview image during the exposure.
• The camera has two similar options for long exposure photography one is called “Bulb” and the other is called “Time”.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ E2 ➡ Live Bulb | Live Time]

• The only difference between these two modes is that when using the Bulb option you have to hold down the shutter button while taking the long exposure photograph and release the shutter button to end the exposure, whereas using the “Time” option you press the shutter button once to start the exposure and press the shutter button again to end the exposure.
• When taking really long exposures it might be more convenient to use the “Time” option instead of “Bulb” because your hand won’t be tied to the camera by having to hold down the shutter button for the full duration of the exposure.
• Also, when using “Live Time” photography, you can press the shutter button halfway down to refresh the preview on the screen to check on the interim results. This is something that cannot be done when using “Live Bulb” photography.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ E2 ➡ Live Time ➡ Off — 60sec]

Drive modes

• The camera has 18 drive modes. The three main shooting speeds are:
• Single shot, Sequential High speed shooting, and Sequential Low speed shooting.
• Single shot means you have to press the shutter button once for every photo you want to take.
• Sequential High speed shooting means you can hold down the shutter button and the camera will continue to take photos as fast as it can without changing the focus, exposure and white balance after the first frame.
• So focus, exposure and white balance are locked at the first frame.
• Using he mechanical shutter, the camera is able to take 10 frames per second in sequential high speed mode and with an electronic shutter, it can take 30 frames per second.
• Sequential Low speed shooting means the camera will continue to take pictures as long as the shutter button is held down but the camera will adjust focus, exposure and white balance in between shots. Hence it will be slower than the Sequential high speed mode.
• Using sequential low speed shooting, the camera can shoot 6 frames per second using the mechanical shutter and 10 frames per second using the electronic shutter.
• You can choose the drive mode and shooting speed by pressing the button on top of the camera above the on/off lever.
• Alternatively you can access the same options by pressing the OK button which will take you to the control menu or to the Super Control Panel both of which will have the option to change the drive mode.
• After pressing the “OK” button, you can press the “INFO” button to change between the Super Control Panel and a two level menu being displayed on the right and bottom of the screen.
• You can also access the same options through the main menu system by pressing the “MENU” button, then go to the basic shooting options indicated by a camera icon adjacent to the number 1, then select the bottom menu item which contains the various options for drive mode.

[MENU ➡ 📷1 ➡ ⬜/🕙/🅾 ➡ ⬜/🕙 ➡ …]

• You can also choose which options should be displayed in this menu. So you can reduce the number of visible options for the drive mode to make you more efficient in the field when accessing these settings. You can do this by going to the customisation menu, D1.
• There are 18 possible drive modes, but when you are planning for an event you might only need to change between a few of those quickly. For example if you are doing portrait photography, you are unlikely to need the sequential high speed shooting mode, or if you are doing sports photography or wildlife photography, you are less likely to need to quickly switch to single shot drive mode. So by configuring this, you can operate the camera faster under time constraints that are imposed on you by external factors.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D1 ➡ ⬜/🕙Settings ➡ …]

• You can change the settings for the maximum number of frames taken at each of the sequential shooting modes. This is useful if you don’t want to end up with too many images every time you press and hold the shutter button or if you want to save space on your memory card.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C1 ➡ ⬜HSettings ➡ ♥⬜ ➡ Max fps ➡ 30fps]

• The memory card you use can have an impact on how fast you can continue to shoot at the maximum rate and write the images to storage. If the memory card being used is slow then the buffer needs to be cleared, so the shooting speed might be reduced.
• The camera also has self-timer options which let you delay taking a picture for a pre-configured time after pressing the shutter button.
• This could be used for scenarios when the camera operator wants to move to the front of the camera to be included in a picture.
• The self timer option could also be used to minimise camera shake from handling the camera while pressing the shutter button. Typically this is used when taking pictures with a very long shutter speed while the camera is placed on a tripod, such as for product photography.
• Using the self-timer, you can set how long the delay should be before pictures are taken as well as how many pictures should be taken once the timer expires and what the delay between those pictures should be, and whether the camera should obtain focus between shots.

[MENU ➡ 📷1 ➡ ⬜/🕙/🅾 ➡ ⬜/🕙 ➡ 🕙C ➡ …]

• In addition to the self timer option, the camera provides a function for interval shooting for creating time lapses.
• You can configure the camera to create a time-lapse video from the pictures, in addition to storing the images files separately.
• There are various settings that can be configured in this menu in relation to resolution and timings for shooting time-lapses also known as interval shooting.

[MENU ➡ 📷1 ➡ ⬜/🕙/🅾 ➡ Intrvl. Sh./Time Lapse ➡ Off | On ➡ …]

Bracketing

• The camera supports various bracketing functions, such as:
• Exposure bracketing,
• White balance bracketing,
• Flash bracketing,
• ISO bracketing,
• Focus bracketing, and
• Art Filter bracketing.

[MENU ➡ 📷2 ➡ Bracketing ➡ Off | On ➡ … ]

• Bracketing is a feature whereby the camera takes a series of shots but changes the settings in between each shot. So if you used exposure bracketing, and took three shots, the exposure level of those three shots would differ.
• So you could pick the best one out of the three pictures.
• This can be useful if you are unsure of the best settings to use or don’t have the time to change settings while shooting, or want to combine the pictures later in post processing to create a HDR image.
• Each of the bracketing functions supports a certain use case where the functionality is beneficial.
• And each of the bracketing options provides settings for how many shots should be taken and how much the settings should vary with each shot.
• For example with the Exposure Bracketing function, you can choose to increment the exposure by 0.3, 0.7 or 1 stops between each shot. As well as how many shots should be taken such as 2, 3, 5, or 7.

[MENU ➡ 📷2 ➡ Bracketing ➡ Off | On ➡ AE BKT ➡ … ]

Focus Bracketing

• Focus bracketing let’s you take multiple pictures at different focus positions. The camera will move the focus point slighter further with each shot.
• You can configure how much the focus point will move with each shot as well as how many shots should be taken.

[MENU ➡ 📷2 ➡ Bracketing ➡ Off | On ➡ Focus BKT ➡ … ]

• As part of post processing, the captured images can be transferred to a computer and combined into a single picture with a large depth of field using software such as Olympus Workspace or Adobe Photoshop as well as other software applications that support focus stacking which is the term used to describe combining pictures taken with different focus positions.
• Focus bracketing and focus stacking is typically used for macro photography because the depth of field is very shallow when taking photos of objects that are smaller than the image sensor but are magnified to cover the entire image sensor and resulting picture.
• Focus bracketing is also used in landscape photography to increase the depth of field, so that both subjects close to the camera and far from the camera remain in focus and sharp.
• Any time where you have subjects that are a great distance away from each other but you want them both to be in focus and remain sharp, then focus bracketing and focus stacking could be a potential solution.

Olympus Workspace

Focus Stacking

• In addition to using focus bracketing and performing focus stacking as part of the post processing flow, the E-M5 Mark III has an in-camera focus stacking feature that lets you take 8 photos at different focal positions and automatically combine them into a single photo.
• There will be a 7% crop on the final image created by the in-camera Focus Stacking function.
• There are a limited number of lenses that are supported for this functionality. These are mainly from the “M.Zuiko Pro” series lenses.
• The lens I am currently using with this camera is not compatible with this feature so the menu item is disabled.
• There is more flexibility with using focus bracketing and doing the focus stacking in post processing but it is also substantially more time consuming. So keep that in mind when you decide to choose your approach.

[MENU ➡ 📷2 ➡ Bracketing ➡ Off | On ➡ Focus BKT ➡ Off | On ➡ Focus Stacking ➡ … ]

HDR (High Dynamic Range)

• The camera has a HDR function whereby it takes a series of pictures at different exposure levels and combines them into a single high contrast image.
• HDR stands for high dynamic range which fits the produced output of these images. As these pictures can produce high detail in both shadows and highlights due to having varying exposure levels followed by combining the series of images into one.
• In addition to the in-camera HDR function, the camera also allows you to take a series of pictures for combining in post processing instead of on the camera for producing the HDR image.
• You can configure the number of shots and exposure differences for taking the photos then combine them using appropriate software on a computer.
• It is recommended to use a tripod when taking HDR photographs, as a series of shots need to be taken with the exact same framing.

[MENU ➡ 📷2 ➡ HDR ➡ Off | HDR1 | HDR2 | … ]

Pro-Capture

• The camera has a feature called pro-capture which pre-captures images before the shutter button is fully pressed.
• Pro Capture starts capturing photos from the moment the shutter button is pressed halfway down, and captures up to 14 frames prior to the moment the shutter button is fully pressed.
• While the shutter button is half way down, the last 14 frames will be temporarily stored in a buffer, if the shutter button is pressed fully then those images will be saved to the memory card, otherwise they will be discarded.
• This feature helps capture unpredictable and fast moving subjects such as birds taking flight or for sports photography when the exact moment an action happens is unpredictable.
• So using this feature you have the chance to go back in time, to get the exact shot you want.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C1 ➡ ⬜LSettings ➡ ProCap ➡ Pre-shutter Frames ➡ 14]

• You can limit the total number of frames that you wish to capture when using Pro-Capture.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C1 ➡ ⬜LSettings ➡ ProCap ➡ Frame Count Limiter ➡ 99]

• There are two settings for Pro-Capture:
• A high-speed mode and a low speed mode.
• The high speed pro-capture mode allows taking 30 frames per second but the camera will only auto focus on the first shot when the shutter is pressed halfway. The same is true for exposure and white balance in the high speed mode. So in the pro-capture high speed mode, focus, exposure, and white balance are locked at the values when the shutter button is pressed halfway.
• Hence the high speed mode is good for scenarios where the distance of the subject to the camera does not change.
• Whereas the low speed pro-capture mode allows taking 10 frames per second, but auto focus will function between each shot. So if the subject is moving away or towards the camera then this option might be more appropriate to keep the subject in focus throughout the frames. As well as for scenarios where there could be a change in exposure or white balance.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C1 ➡ ⬜HSettings ➡ ProCap ➡ Max fps ➡ 15fps | 20fps | 30fps]
[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C1 ➡ ⬜HSettings ➡ ProCap ➡ Pre-shutter Frames ➡ 14]
[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C1 ➡ ⬜HSettings ➡ ProCap ➡ Frame Count Limiter ➡ Off | 25➡99]

Video

• The camera can shoot video both when the camera is in movie mode as well as when the camera is in one of the still picture modes using the record button on top.
• It has a 4:2:0 chroma subsampling rate with 8 bit colour depth for internal recording to the SD card and a 4:2:2 chroma subsampling rate with 8 bit colour depth for external recordings via HDMI.
• [4K DCI at 24p in 8bit 4:2:0 (internally to SD card) at 237Mbps (H.264)]
• [4K DCI at 24p in 8bit 4:2:2 (Output via HDMI)]
• It lets you shoot 4K video at: 24, 25, and 30 frames per second.
• The camera also supports DCI cinema 4K which has the slightly wider 17:9 aspect ratio in comparison to the normal 16:9 4K footage.
• The 17:9 aspect ratio is not available for lower resolutions.
• The frame rate for cinema 4K is fixed at 24 frames per second. This is recorded internally in IPB compression with a maximum bitrate of around 237 Megabits per second.
• All 4K video footage is encoded with IPB compression, and have a maximum bitrate of 102 Megabits per second.
• And the maximum bitrate for Full HD 1080p when encoded with IPB compression is 52 Megabits per second and if the 1080p video is encoded in All-I then the maximum bitrate will be 202 Megabits per second.
• Although the camera supports both IPB and All-I compressions. All-I cannot be used for 4K video at any frame rate and it can not be used for frame rates above 30 FPS for 1080p videos.
• You can shoot 1080p video at 24, 25, 30, 50, and 60 frames per second. Although a matching 180 degree shutter angle is missing for video shot at 60 frames per second. There is a 1/100 shutter speed and a 1/125 shutter speed to choose from, instead of 1/120 which would match the 180 degree shutter angle rule. You can overcome this limit by enabling Flicker Scan in movie mode and then adjust the exact shutter speed to your desired number at increments of less than one. So it is possible to set the shutter speed to 1/120 but it is less straightforward.
• The flicker scan feature is only available in Shutter Priority and Manual mode since those are the only two modes where you have control over the shutter speed, whereas the camera will automatically manage the shutter speed in the other modes.
• When using Flicker Scan, the increments at which the shutter speed can be changed are not constant. In my experience, the smallest increment is 0.1 and the largest increment is 1.
• Due to the varying increment size sometimes the shutter speed might not land on the exact number that you want. For example it might land on 120.1 instead of 120 exactly. In this case you can go up and down to the maximum or minimum shutter speed or use a different dial to adjust the number again. In my experience this has worked and I managed to get the exact shutter speed but maybe the time spent doing this isn’t worth the effort.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Mode Settings ➡ 🎥Flicker Scan ➡ Off | On]

• The camera has a high speed movie mode that shoots 1080p video at 120 frames per second and stores the encoded video as a slow motion clip with your desired frame rate.
• You can configure the frame rate at which the high speed video should be encoded for slow motion playback, in order to match the rest of your normal speed video footage.
• You can choose 24, 25, 30, 50, or 60 frames per second to slow down the footage accordingly.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Specification Settings ➡ 🎥 <:- ➡ FHDHighSpeed120fps ➡ 60 | 50 | 30 | 25 | 24]

• The high speed video has a 1080p resolution and produces a maximum bitrate of 50 Megabits per second.
• The high speed video doesn’t have audio. So if you want to record the sound, you need a separate device.
• The High Speed video mode does not have an exact matching 180 degree shutter angle equivalent shutter speed, so you can use 1/250 or 1/200 of a second shutter speed.
• Alternatively you can use the Flicker Scan workaround to get the exact shutter speed of 1/240.
• One of the reasons why the shutter angle might be important to some people is because they want to mix video footage which has been shot on different cameras while keeping the same look and feel.
• The camera has a Micro HDMI connector ehich lets you output a clean video signal at 8 bit colour depth and 4:2:2 chroma subsampling rate. You can choose to use a clean video output signal or include on-screen information for monitoring purposes.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥HDMI Output ➡ Output Mode ➡ Monitor Mode | Record Mode]

• The menu item for changing the HDMI output mode from showing or hiding on screen information is disabled when 4K or Cinema 4K is selected as the recording resolution.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Specification Settings ➡ 🎥<:- ➡ MOV🎥4K30p]
[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥HDMI Output ➡ Output Mode ➡ Monitor Mode | Record Mode]

• It doesn’t output raw video via HDMI [-demo menu item for HDMI-] but you can output a flat movie picture mode and apply a LUT to it in post processing for colour grading tasks using Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Specification Settings ➡ 🎥Picture Mode ➡ Off | On]

• The LUT can be downloaded from the Olympus website.
• Sound will also be recorded via HDMI.
• The camera can be operated by a TV remote control when connected to a TV that supports HDMI control.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D4 ➡ HDMI ➡ HDMI Control ➡ On | Off]
[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D4 ➡ HDMI ➡ Output Size ➡ C4K | 4K | 1080p | 720p | 480p/576p]

• The camera has a maximum recording time of 29 minutes.
• So the maximum length of video that the camera can record in one continuous shoot is 29 minutes.
• This is an artificial limit put in place to comply with an EU law which meant cameras that could record videos longer than 30 minutes would be classified differently under EU import tax regulations and therefore would need to pay a higher import duty fee which would mean a more expensive camera for the consumers.
• Hence why camera makers opt to include this limit, to be able to provide their cameras at a cheaper price.
• This regulation has been abolished but camera makers are still abiding by this old regulation, even though it is no longer necessary.
• The maximum file size is 4 Gigabytes so if you record a long video clip, it will be broken down into multiple files, even though the camera will shoot continuously. The 4 GB limit equates to:
• 10 minutes and 41 seconds of 60 FPS 1080p video, or
• 5 minutes and 21 seconds of 30 FPS 4K video
• If you use audio quality of 24bit with 96kHz sampling rate then the duration of the videos will be slightly less. For example the 1080p 60FPS video will last 10 minutes instead of 10 minutes and 41 seconds.
• When using manual video mode, Auto-ISO can not be used. So if you set the aperture, shutter speed and frame rate, the camera cannot automatically adjust ISO to get the right exposure.
• You can switch to one of automatic modes for video such as Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, or Program Auto and that will let the camera adjust exposure automatically but it is not clear whether the camera uses ISO to adjust exposure or if it also changes Aperture and Shutter Speed which could impact how the video footage looks.
• There isn’t a nice practical way to get around this limitation, but keep in mind that if you are using a fixed aperture lens such as the 9mm F8 fisheye lens, then you can achieve Auto-ISO without changes to your aperture by using the Shutter priority mode while knowing that only the ISO can change.
• Extended ISO settings cannot be used when in video mode, and the menu option is disabled. So the ISO range in movie mode is strictly between 200 and 6,400.
• The reason that ISO settings for video are limited in comparison to still pictures is that the camera only supports ISO settings between 200 and 6,400 natively.
• In still picture mode where ISO levels of 25,600 are available the camera performs post processing on the image after capture to make this possible however due to high frame rate and intensive processing required for videos, it is not possible to perform this much processing while also recording video and audio.
• Some settings are shared between video mode and photo mode, such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. So switching them while in video mode, will also be visible if the mode dial is rotated to still picture mode.
• The camera has interval recording for stitching multiple pictures into a video clip, or to store images for later conversion to a clip on a computer.

[MENU ➡ 📷1 ➡ ⬜/🕙/🅾 ➡ Intrvl. Sh./Time Lapse ➡ Off | On ➡ …]

Flicker

• The camera has an Anti-Flicker Live View feature that helps reduce flicker when under lights that pulse at similar frequency to the electricity power supply.
• The camera can automatically detect the flicker and adjust accordingly, or you can manually set it to 50Hz or 60Hz depending on the power supplies of the shoot location.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C1 ➡ Flicker Reduction ➡ Anti-Flicker LV ➡ Off | Auto | 50Hz | 60Hz]

• The camera also has a slightly different option for dealing with flicker called Anti-Flicker shooting, where the camera automatically detects the flicker frequency and times the shutter release accordingly. This functionality will only work when the mechanical shutter is being used in still picture mode.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ C1 ➡ Flicker Reduction ➡ Anti-Flicker Shooting ➡ Off | On]

• The camera also has a feature called Flicker Scan, which can be used in movie mode and for still pictures when using the silent electronic shutter.
• Once you enable this feature, it allows you to check the striped patterns caused by flickering light sources on the camera screen, so that you can adjust the shutter speed to a number where such patterns can not be seen.
• I have tried this by filming my monitor.
• In movie mode, you can enable Flicker Scan and then adjust the shutter speed in small increments. The size of increments vary between 0.1 and 1.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥 Mode Settings ➡ Flicker Scan ➡ Off | On]

• You can enable Flicker Scan in video mode as a trick to overcome the lack of certain shutter speeds.
• For example when shooting video at 60 frames per second a 1/120 shutter speed doesn’t exist as a default value but you can use Flicker Scan as a workaround to set the shutter speed to 1/120.

Audio

• The camera has stereo on board microphones located on the top of the camera.
• It also has a microphone jack on the left of the camera.
• You can connect an external recorder such as the Olympus LS-100 to the camera and sync the start/stop of the video recording with the audio recording.
• The camera doesn’t have a headphone jack but if you are using an external recorder, this might not be an issue.
• On the previous version of this camera — the E-M5 Mark II — you could purchase a grip which had a headphone jack on it. But the grip for the E-M5 Mark III doesn’t have a headphone port.

Landscape battery grip ECG-5 for Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

• It has an onboard speaker which is located above the menu button.
• The audio is recorded in stereo mode, and can be set to record at either:
• 16 bit depth and 48kHz sampling frequency, or
• 24 bit and 96kHz sampling rate.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ Movie 🎤 ➡ Off | On ➡ Recording Rate ➡ 48kHz/16bit | 96kHz/24bit]

• The higher the audio quality settings will consume more storage and use up slightly more of the SD card transfer speed bandwidth. So keep that in mind if you have slow SD cards or limited storage.
• If you are using the onboard microphone to record audio when filming make sure you switch off wind noise reduction, because it really damages the audio quality of your clip while trying to suppress wind noise.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ Movie 🎤 ➡ Off | On ➡ Wind Noise Reduction ➡ Off | Low | Standard | High]

Buttons

• The camera allows you to customise the functionality of physical buttons and dials of the camera to your liking.
• To re-assign functionality of various buttons for still picture mode, go to the customisation menu, then choose sub-menu B — which I believe stands for Button — and there you will find all customisation options that relate to buttons and dials.
• There is a menu item named “Button Functions” which contains a list of buttons that can have their functionality customised, and what functionality can be tied to each button.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ B ➡ 📷Button Function ➡ …]

• The same feature exists for movie mode but the Button Functions sub-menu is located in the Video menu.
• I mainly use my camera for video recording so I have configured the buttons in a way that will allow me to easily view or change settings that I am most concerned about when shooting video or frequently change.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Button/Dial/Lever ➡ 🎥Button Function]

• It is even possible to assign multiple functions to a single button, whereby you would hold down the button and use a dial to scroll through its functionality. You can also configure which functions should appear as part of that list by checking or unchecking them in the customisation menu tab, under D1. I don’t use this feature but it is an interesting concept.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D1 ➡ Multi Function Setting ➡ ☑]

Mode dial includes “C” option (E-M5 III Olympus OM-D camera)

Custom Mode Dial

• The camera has a single custom mode entry on the mode dial but there are three custom modes that can be saved and used. So the first custom mode can be used by rotating the mode dial as well as through the menu.
• The other two custom mode settings can be recalled by going to the menu instead of using the mode dial.

[MENU ➡ 📷1 ➡ Reset / Custom Modes ➡ Assign To Custom Mode ➡ Custom Mode C➡ Set ➡ OK]

[MENU ➡ 📷1 ➡ Reset / Custom Modes ➡ Recall from Custom Mode ➡ Custom Mode C➡ Yes | No ➡ OK]

• The custom mode functionality does not work for movie mode.

Depth of Field Preview Button

• The camera has a preview button in front akin to depth of field preview buttons which are found on SLR cameras.
• You can configure what function this button should perform, or leave it on the default setting which is depth of field preview.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ B ➡ 📷Button Function ➡ 🔘Function ➡ Preview]

Art modes / etc.

• The camera has a number modes which help the novice photographer learn more about photography and have some fun, such as the “scene mode”, “art mode”, and “auto” modes.
• It has 16 Art Filters in addition to 10 picture profiles.
• If you set the mode dial to Art, the art filters will be presented on the screen with a live preview of the art effect.
• You may need to press the OK button if the art effects are not presented on the screen.

[MENU ➡ 📷1 ➡ Picture Mode ➡ …]

• You can access these art filters from the menu as well, and they can be used in other modes.
• The art filters can also be used in video mode. Although some art filters and movie effects may result in a dropped frame rate.

Olympus Art Filters effects on OM-D E-M10 IV demo

• In addition to the art filters, there are five movie effects available for when shooting videos. For example there is a movie effect called “Old Film” which randomly applies damage and dust-like noise similar to old movies.

[MENU ➡ 🎥 ➡ 🎥Display Settings ➡ 🎥Info Settings ➡ Custom2 ➡ ✔Movie Effect]

• The camera has a Scene mode with various pre-set options that help users to take good photos without having to configure camera settings, or use the manual mode.
• The scene mode has 6 themes that contain a total of 22 Scene Modes which helps the novice user select an appropriate option while checking sample images.
• For example, it has a panorama mode where you can take up to 10 pictures that can afterwards be joined on a computer using Olympus Workspace to create a panorama.
• The camera provides on screen guides to help align the frames, as well as direction for the next frame to be taken.
• Direction of movement can be changed using the arrow buttons.
• You can also switch from horizontal to vertical mode using the arrow buttons.
• You cannot create the panorama picture on the camera, so this is something that you have to do afterwards on a computer using Olympus Workspace software or an alternative software application.
• Comparing the panorama mode on this camera with the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV;
• The panorama mode on the E-M10 Mark IV is far easier to use as you only press the shutter once then move the camera along with an on-screen guide arrow until the end of the scene is reached.
• And the E-M10 Mark IV also stitches the photos together on the camera.
• Also, on the E-M10 Mark IV you can use the touch screen in scene mode for selecting a scene mode or returning to the list of scene modes. Whereas on the E-M5 Mark III you have to use the arrow buttons and the OK button.
• I recommend holding the camera vertically so that you get a wider view from the ground to the sky, when taking panorama shots.

On-camera post processing

• One of the interesting aspects of Olympus cameras is that they provide a lot of tools on the camera for post processing images, which other camera brands don’t provide.
• You can do some editing of photos and videos on the camera.
• For example you can trim the beginning or end of a video.
• It is possible to save a frame from a movie clip as a picture on the camera.
• You can fix red-eye in pictures taken with a flash.
• You can crop an image.
• You can adjust the brightness and saturation of pictures, and
• You can create a black and white or sepia (see-pee-uh) copies of an image on the camera or you can use art bracketing to apply any art filter to existing pictures, all on the camera.
• The camera has a feature called Multiple Exposure whereby you take two frames and overlay them into a single picture.
• Alternatively you can take a picture and combine it with an existing picture on the camera.
• You can overlay up to 3 pictures into a single image.
• The camera has a function called keystone compensation which corrects a type of distorted perspective that can result from proximity to a subject or lens type and focal length.

[MENU ➡ 📷2 ➡ Keystone Comp. ➡ Off | On]

• For example when taking pictures of a building, it might appear that the building is falling backward. Or when taking pictures of a notepad it may seem that it is getting narrower towards the top.
• Keystone compensation can fix these issues in camera.
• There will be a slight crop to the image when this feature is used.
• To use this feature you switch on keystone compensation from the menu and use the front and back dials to correct the keystone effect.
• The camera allows you to enter copyright details to be included in the metadata of pictures. So all your images will be automatically tagged with details that you enter in this setting such as your name, website or contact details.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ H1 ➡ Copyright Settings ➡ Copyright Info. ➡ Off | On]
[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ H1 ➡ Copyright Settings ➡ Artist Name ➡ …]
[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ H1 ➡ Copyright Settings ➡ Copyright Name ➡ …]

• You can configure the camera to allow wireless connectivity when the camera is off. This will allow your camera to complete uploading photos even if you have switched off your camera. But it will consume more battery power when this mode is enabled.

[MENU ➡ 🔧 ➡ Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Settings ➡ Power-off Standby ➡ Off | On | Select]

• You review pictures and videos by pressing the button with the “play” icon on it.
• While viewing a photo you can press the “info” button to display more or less information.
• Also you can view two pictures side by side for comparison. This is referred to as Light-Box display.
• You can choose how many pictures and video clips should be shown on a single page when viewing photos by using the back dial to zoom in or out.
• You can configure how many levels this zoom functionality should have by going to the customisation menu D1.

[MENU ➡ ⚙ ➡ D1 ➡ /Info Settings ➡ Settings ➡ 4 | 9 | 25 | 100 | Calendar]

• There is also an option to view content based on the date they were taken. This calendar view is something I find useful when going through a lot of content and wanting to find the right item.

Menu system organisation on Olympus cameras

• The menu system might seem overwhelming at first glance but one you understand the logic behind the menu layout and categories, it becomes much easier to find what you are looking for.
• There are three menus — also called tabs — which are meant for regular use:
• Still picture shooting 1 menu which contains basic settings for photography,
• Still picture shooting 2 menu which contains advance settings for photography, and
• the Video Menu which contains settings for movie mode.
• In order to use these three menus effectively, you need to customise the options within them to your liking.
• You can do this by going to a fourth menu, which is the customization menu. The customisation menu has a long list of sub-menus designated by a letter which is sometimes followed by a digit for example A1. The letter used for these sub-menus seem to relate to the content that it contains; for example,
• sub-menus A1 to A4 contain AutoFocus related functionality, with the letter A referring to the first letter in the word AutoFocus.
• Sub-menu B refers to Buttons and dials, with the letter B referring to the first letter of the word Button.
• C1 and C2 refer to camera 1 and camera 2 customisations. So camera customisation for still photography is contained in these two menus.
• D1 to D4, refer to Display and Data related customisation that are mainly geared towards still photography. So this includes what information is displayed on the screen and how data is transferred through USB or HDMI ports.
• E1 to E3 refer to Exposure related options.
• F refers to Flash options.
• G refers to Gamma or Graphical processing output settings.
• I couldn’t work out what H1 and H2 refer to, but they contain options about file settings. Maybe “Host”?!
• I believe “I” refers to the human eye which correlates with the EVF. So options about the electronic viewfinder will be in this menu.
• J is used for utility functions, but I could not think of why the letter J was used.
• Maybe all the letters are not intuitive but at least some of them are, which helps me when I navigate the menu system.
• It is worth mentioning that even though I refer to everything as menus and sub-menus, the Olympus terminology for the top level menus is “tabs” and for the sub-menu letters they use the word “Menu Group” and the menu items are called “functions” with the available options being called “settings”. So the menu system hierarchy is tab, menu, function, and setting.
• On some of the higher end cameras such as the EM1X, the appearance of tabs is actually more apparent than on this camera.

Manual

The basic manual for this camera has an English part. The English language part of the manual is 13 pages which has been translated to 33 languages, to make up the 332 pages of this basic manual.

There isn’t any useful information in this basic manual but there is a more detailed instruction manual for this camera which you can download from the Olympus website. The instruction manual is 258 pages of useful content but to my knowledge it is only available in an electronic format.

Olympus also provides a function guide on their website.

Olympus Image Share — mobile application

There is a mobile app called Olympus Image Share mobile app.

I haven’t used this app myself because my phone is running an old version of Android which isn’t supported. At the time of this review, the supported operating systems are:

• iOS: 11–14, iPadOS: 13–14, and Android: 6.0–11

The app allows you to control your camera remotely.

• You can see the camera’s Live View on your smartphone screen.
• You can specify the autofocus point.
• It lets you control the zoom for electronic zoom lenses.
• You can release the shutter to take a photo.
• It lets you adjust the shooting mode such as Manual mode or the Art mode
  (iAUTO, P, A, S, M or ART)
• It also lets you change the drive mode, to choose between:
• Single shot
• Burst
• and Self timer

The App uses both WiFi and Bluetooth and it requires scanning a QR code to pair the devices.

I don’t know how easy the integration is to tag photos with GPS coordinates coming from your phone but it is mentioned in the documentation, so it can be done.

But as I haven’t used the App, I can’t provide comprehensive information about the app and its features.

Broken tripod mount screw-hole on E-M5 Mark III

Problems and Issues

This camera meets the requirements that I had for a camera but I will summarise the problems with this camera for awareness of others:

• The camera is currently not supported for use with the Olympus webcam software, so you won’t be able to use the camera as a webcam, even though the previous version of this camera — the E-M5 Mark II — works with the webcam software.
• I assumed that the E-M5 Mark III would function with the webcam software so I wasted some time trying to get it to work until I looked up the website which clearly states that the E-M5 Mark II is supported but there is no mention of the E-M5 Mark III.
• The neck strap eyelets on this camera make noise which is captured in videos. I have removed them but the part that they connect to protrudes, which makes it marginally more difficult to fit into a small pocket or bag.
• The camera doesn’t have a headphone port and neither did its predecessor the E-M5 Mark II. But the E-M5 Mark II had a compatible external grip which could be purchased separately that provided a headphone jack.
• There is an external attachable grip which you can purchase separately for this camera, named ECG-5.
• This grip provides a larger grip for holding the camera as well as a shutter button and a front dial. However it does not provide any other functionality such as extra batteries, headphone jack or the ability to run the camera from another power source.
• The previous version of this camera — the E-M5 Mark II — had a compatible grip which provided an extra battery, a headphone jack, and could be plugged into an AC adapter for infinite power. In addition to providing portrait grip with shutter button, front dial, and two buttons on the back.
• So even though this camera is better than its predecessor, the battery grip accessory is definitely a step backward. I think it would make more sense not to create a battery grip for this camera rather than creating one which is inferior to the one available for the previous version of this camera.
• If you had an E-M5 Mark II camera, you could get a significant upgrade by purchasing the HLD-8 battery grip. As the additional hardware and features would bring it on par with the E-M1. However with the E-M5 Mark III, the only way to upgrade would be to purchase a new camera such as the E-M1 Mark III or the E-M1X.
• The option to charge the camera through the USB port wasn’t available in the previous version of this camera the E-M5 Mark II, but it could run infinitely from an AC adapter whereas powering the E-M5 Mark III using USB power does not allow you to operate the camera at the same time so you have to switch off the camera to charge it from the USB port, which makes the previous version of this camera superior for scenarios when you want to run the camera for a very long time such as for a timelapse.
• The previous version of this camera had a magnesium alloy body whereas this camera is made from plastic. The advantage of a plastic body is that the camera is lighter as a result.
• While browsing online photography forums, I encountered a few instances of people breaking the tripod mount of this camera, particularly when hanging their camera from the tripod mount using a strap or while carrying a tripod with the camera hanging from it.
• The previous version of this camera had a larger battery, which in theory could have provided more lifetime if it was used for this camera. However the advantage of a smaller battery is that it is lighter.
• In movie mode, you cannot select Auto ISO in manual mode. This means you cannot explicitly set both the shutter speed and aperture and let the camera dynamically adjust ISO when recording a video.
• The camera doesn’t have OM-Log400 but you can output a flat movie picture mode and apply a LUT to it in post processing for colour grading tasks using Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve.
• The camera has a flip screen instead of a tilt screen which I find more difficult to work with, but this is a personal preference and depends on the type of work that you do and how you use the camera.
• Focusing modes cannot be changed while video recording is in progress, so the video recording needs to be stopped prior to changing focus modes.
• Movie Stabilization cannot be changed while video recording is in progress, so the video recording needs to be stopped in order to change the stabilization setting.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III silver retro with 14–150mm M.Zuiko lens

Review

Overall I am impressed with the features of this camera, particularly given its size and weight.

• It is the smallest and lightest Olympus OM-D camera which still retains all the features and functionality of a professional camera.
• The E-M10 Mark IV is slightly smaller and lighter but lacks a lot of useful features, such as pro-capture, high res mode, microphone jack, high quality audio and 1080p high speed video.
• The more expensive E-M1 Mark III and E-M1X have some minor advantages such as better ergonomics, dual card slots, bigger batteries, and some additional features and capabilities. However in terms of basic functionality and image quality in real life practical uses this camera matches the higher end OM-D cameras at a lower price point and substantially smaller and lighter form factor.
• It even shares a lot of the same hardware with those cameras such as the image sensor.
• I already own the E-M10 Mark IV which satisfies almost all of my requirements but I decided to purchase this camera because it had a microphone port.
• Having purchased the E-M5 Mark III, I have benefitted from some other features such as:
• better menu system and user experience,
• better image stabilization,
• higher quality high speed video,
• clean HDMI signal output,
• DCI Cinema 4K,
• higher quality audio,
• faster and more accurate auto-focus,
• separate compartments for battery and memory card,
• more customization options,
• and weather sealing.

This camera and the E-M10 Mark IV have the same battery which means, I have ended up with a spare battery as well as an external battery charger in addition to the USB charger which came with the E-M10. So I can use these peripherals with either cameras and treat E-M10 as a backup body since the lenses are already compatible.

When it comes to small and light cameras that still have an interchangeable lens mount, I have not come across any cameras that are better than the E-M5 Mark III and the E-M10 Mark IV.

Aside from the camera bodies there are some really small and light lenses that go with these cameras that make them portable without sacrificing too much on features.

Videos on Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL42hO7UHafKsyFnOpxuWhAxPwFXNVOOKZ

Anyway, please let me know if you have any questions about this camera or if you would like me to provide more information about a feature or functionality.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 III vs E-M10 IV vs E-M5 II

Olympus OM-D E-M5 III vs E-M10 IV vs E-M5 II