OM System OM-1 – Electronic Viewfinder and Live View Expert Guide

Finally it got to me! And now I look at all your videos!. Absolutely Indispensable 😊

Hello there, Thomas.
I've recently bought the OM-1 and I was really dissapointed reveiwing the images on the viewfinder when I'm out in the field. I'm a macro shooter and I'm always reveiwing my images through the viewfinder and they are simply horrendous, very soft and pixelated even at 3x tines.
I remember with my MK2 revewing the mages magnifying them at 14x and they looked very sharp and you can easily judge if your shot is sharp enough or not.
On my OM1 even with those amazing 5.74 dots the reviewed images magnified doesn't looks great at all.
Any advice on this issue will be appreciated.
Thanks a lot,
Remus

Hi Thomas and many thanks for important insights into how OM-1 works.
I wonder why the histogram shows differently in standard LV and in S-OVF? Can I avoid it?

Did you have any adjustment period upon first starting to use an EVF Thomas? I’m 3 days into using my OM-1 and am feeling a bit uncomfortable with it so far. I’m trying adjusting a few settings to simplify the view and darken the screens a bit, and I’ve got S-OVF enabled quite often and mapped to a button. I’m a bit worried that I’ll be stuck with this slight motion sickness feeling. I was concerned this might happen and is what put me off getting a VR headset. I don’t think the high frame-rate makes that much difference, and maybe not worth the extra heat and presumably battery life hit.

S-OVF is a feature is missing on the Panasonic G9. Shooting portraits with electronic flash is maddening as the room lighting is very tungsten, and the electric flash custom white balance is very blue. The resulting image on the live view is horrible and distracting.

👍👍👍

Grüße aus Niederösterreich
Greetings from loweraustria :)

There doesn't seem to be a way to make the OM1 displays use red light only for doing astro (like the G9 does). Seems a pity when the camera has starry focus etc.

I’m going to give the S-OVF (super optical viewfinder) a trial with the OM-1.
I’ve assigned it to a button to toggle.
the snag…
S-OVF will not toggle/activate in SH2 (on the OM-1).
it does toggle in the slower speed non SH1/SH2 burst e-shutter modes.
Any ideas as to why this issue exists?

My viewfinder is very bright and I don't think is representing what's real, probably will need to send the camera for service at some point.

I am at a loss. Night vision is set to off, but my camera still always displays brightly even when the exposure is too dark. I just went out shooting and thought I had the right settings because it showed properly exposed on the evf... Only to find all my images are way too underexposed. Even indoors at f22 and shutter speed 4000 my evf still shows a clear and lit up image.. And night vision is off, evf is standard..

With my Sony a7iii the viewfinder just works .. no manual no research it just works...OM didn't need to make it this way.

Hi. Thank you. What about seeing nothing in the viewfinder? I only see what I am shooting on the screen? Why doesn't the viewfinder work? Why would om make this sooo complicated?

Hi Thomas , I really appreciate your tips about this camera since I have the om-1 also . I have one question that has been bugging me for a long long time but can not find the answer. Let say I use the manual mode to take a picture of the street at night , I set the speed the aperture the iso manually . I try to make the scene look dark . The EV shows - 3 , the LCD show the street and street light . I keep trying to make it darker so the only thing I could see is the light ONLY ( by setting faster shutter speed or lower the ISO or close down the aperture ) . The EV now show - 4 or - 5 ..... BUT the LCD or viewfinder does NOT go darker . Only after taking the shot then I get a darker picture as I intended , but not before the shot as in LIVE view ( under normal light ) . So my point is the Live view mode show only the live view brighter and darker when the EV is between -3 and + 3 , and not beyond or under , before taking the shot !! I have a Fuji and a Sony a7 before . I could set those cameras manually and see a live view of a really really dark scene as I intended even before taking the shot ( EV might go down to - 6 ).

I hope you or anyone who read this post can help me . Cheers :)

the OM1 is the gift that keeps on giving , just as your videos are. Thank you, Thomas

Thank you for the helpful guide. I think OM-System should scout you as an OM Ambassador😉. First time for me that I used the Nightvision LV. It worked well during night photography of city scapes. I also found out that in combination with the drive modes SH1/SH2 and Procap1/2 the S-OVF and NV LV can not be selected. I guess somehow S-OVF takes more processing power than the standard VF mode.

Hello, video very usefull. I own an OLympus OMD EM1X , is it worth to upgrade to an OM1 ?

fantastisch wie immer! Hier lerne ich am meisten :-)

Thanks for this very professional insight. I’ve had the pleasure of owning the OM-1 for almost 4 months and keep getting pleasantly surprised by it’s capabilities.

Also thanks for putting the chapter marks in your video. That helps a lot. I’m going to save this one in case I need a reminder.

I was out shooting sunrise photos this morning. I sure could have used these tips! I’m going to go explore how to make those changes right now so I’m better prepared next time. Thank you for this video.

Great stuff Thomas! Another subject which lacks coverage is 1. the stabilization (surprisingly as thats 1 of the biggest selling points of olympus...cant find a decent video about it) like longest shutter speed handheld at what focal lenght and 2. Long exposure noise (with LENR disabled) i know with my canon 800d if go for 2 minutes there will be hot pixels and specks in the shadows

I get a green dot when evf is set to high, but disappears when set to normal... Is that normal?

Thank you 👍

Thomas you have shared invaluable information about the OM-1 to us that own it where this information has not typically been available. Please do keep up the GREAT work. We are enjoying it

These videos are very helpful. You get into the details and explain them clearly. Thanks!

I wish I had seen this video before i sent my OM-1 in for repair. I noticed that when i put the flash on the camera and tried to use the viewfinder or live view in low light, the display got very slow and "dreamy" like. The reason i sent it in was because it was noticeably worse than with my EM1 Mk3 under the same conditions. Anyway, they have had my camera for about 3 weeks and no return date in sight. I probably should have switched to S-OVF and left it at that. A very good video. thank you.

I discovered that the shutter is not the most important component. After my shutter died on my D200 is just ripped the whole shutter mechanism out of it. And it still works if the shutterspeed is not faster than 1/60. I recommend that you do not try this on your own cameras by the way😁

Very helpful video. I've learned to look to you for technically rich, but clear descriptions of the OM-1 (and other Olympus camera) features.