The OM-5 is the first leftover Olympus camera to be branded OM System, and I get sad looking at it

When Olympus marketed its camera division and reformed as OM Procedure, it hyped up a push toward computational images with its new mirrorless cameras — this is not that digicam. Today, OM Method is asserting the new OM-5, a $1,199.99 mirrorless digicam that launches late up coming month and seems to be like a zombified husk of Olympus. I’m guaranteed it will be a high-quality digicam, but I simply cannot help emotion depressed when I glimpse at it.

Certain, the OM-1 was technically OM System’s to start with camera release, but it was nevertheless branded Olympus. Now, with the OM-5, it’s proudly putting on the OM Procedure identify on its forehead, a thing that’s absolutely sure to only please a handful of people in a internet marketing assembly somewhere.

Except, nicely, this nonetheless just looks like an additional holdover from Olympus improvement. Let’s operate by means of a very little checklist.

It’s not that this camera has almost nothing likely for it, nevertheless the record of new attributes is so sparse that a single of the most important additions is aid for vertical video — so you never have to manually alter the orientation of the file later. The new OM-5 is also IP53-rated for weatherproofing, matching the OM-1, and it is the initial OM Procedure / Olympus digicam you can use natively as a webcam with just a USB cable. But beyond all that, I’m squinting my eyes to look for far more factors to locate the OM-5 interesting for any one other than the Olympus trustworthy who by now have a bunch of compatible Zuiko lenses and are overdue for an economical improve.

There’s practically nothing completely wrong with acquiring some of Olympus’s sound functions trickle down to a reduced selling price level, but in a time exactly where much of the excitement all-around cameras is targeted all over devices with larger sized sensors, this digicam feels like a a bit unpleasant inflection stage. 

The joint Olympus and Panasonic-developed micro 4-thirds program is a camera line that looks like it could slowly and gradually fade away, specifically with Panasonic’s interest seemingly a lot more centered on market box cameras and its entire-body offerings in dire will need of refreshes.

I’m hoping we’re just about to operate out of these aged Olympus leftovers in the development cycle, and we’ll quickly see some really intriguing matters from OM System. We will need anything amazing to distract ourselves from that cringe-inducing wordmark atop the digicam simply because, right now, I worry it only can make me mourn the legacy of Olympus cameras that’s at possibility of slipping away.