OM System OM-3 Hands-on Review
Summary Verdict
The OM System OM-3 is a thoughtfully designed camera that blends classic styling with modern features. Its all-metal, weather-sealed body feels durable yet relatively lightweight, making it a great companion for outdoor adventures. The innovative controls, including the colour profiles dial and CP button, encourage creativity during shooting, while the camera’s stabilisation and autofocus systems help deliver great results. However, the lack of a joystick and front grip may frustrate some users. Overall, the OM-3 is a robust powerhouse that puts creative control at your fingertips.
Score: TBC
Pros
All-metal body
Weather-sealed
New control arrangement skewed towards creativity
Cons
No joystick on the back of the camera
No grip on the front of the camera
What is the OM System OM-3?
The OM System OM-3 represents a new chapter for the camera brand, previously known as Olympus. It introduces some new features and a reorganised control system but also draws on the popular Olympus Pen-F and the more recent OM System OM-1 Mark II. As such, it balances classic design with some useful technology. Enticingly, the OM-3 is built entirely from metal with no polycarbonate, and its weather-sealed body has an IP53 rating for water resistance; it’s dustproof, splashproof and freezeproof down to -10°C. It also weighs less than 500g and is 25% smaller in volume than the OM-1 Mark II.
OM System OM-3 Price and Availability
The OM System OM-3 will be available from late February 2025, priced at £1,699.00 for the body only or £1,999.00 with the 12-45mm f/4.0 lens. Those who place a pre-order can redeem a five-year warranty and receive a premium leather strap as part of the launch offer.
The OM System OM-3 seen here is a similar size to the Olympus OM-1 film camera from 1972.
Specifications
Camera type: Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds
Announced: 6th February 2025
Sensor: 20.4MP Four Thirds type stacked BSI Live MOS
Processor: TruePic X Dual Core Processor
Stabilisation: 5-Axis in-body stabilisation giving up to 7.5EV compensation
Viewfinder: 2.36-million-dot OLED
Screen: 3-inch 1,620,000-dot vari-angle touchscreen
Focusing system: Hybrid AF with phase and contrast detection - 1,053 cross-type phase detection points
Subject detection: Human, Formula cars, rally card, motorcycles, Aircraft, Bullet Trains, Standard trains, Steam trains, Birds, Dogs, Cats
Sequential shooting: Sequential shooting 6 fps with selectable 1-6fps, Silent sequential shooting SH1 120fps with selectable 30, 60, 100, 120fps, Silent sequential shooting SH2 50 fps with selectable 12.5, 16.7, 25, 50fps
Weight: 413g body only
Dimensions (W x H x D): 139.3 x 88.9 x 45.8mm
Features
At the heart of the OM System OM-3 is a 20MP Four Thirds-type stacked Quad Pixel BSI Live MOS sensor paired with the TruePic X processing engine, that’s the same combination as is found in the OM-1 Mark II and its predecessor, the OM-1. This sensor and processor deliver an autofocus system with 1,053 cross-type points, advanced AI subject detection (which can be set to detect humans, birds, animals (cats and dogs), motorsport, aeroplanes and trains), High-Resolution Shot for creating larger images than normal and host of other great features.
As seen in recent OM System cameras, the OM-3 has two High-Resolution Shot modes. One is for use when the camera is on a tripod and delivers 80MP images, and the other is for handheld photography to give 50MP files. There’s also Focus Stacking to combine up to 15 images captured with different focus points, Live ND (Neutral Density filters up to ND32), Live GND (Graduated Neutral Density), Multiple Exposure and Live Composite, which takes the guesswork out of some long exposure photography easy.
As we have come to expect, the OM-3 has in-body image stabilisation. It offers up to 7.5 EV compensation when paired with compatible Sync IS lenses or 6.5 EV with non-Sync IS lenses.
In Pro Capture mode, the camera supports continuous shooting at up to 120fps with single AF or 50fps with continuous AF. That’s great for capturing split-second moments.
The OM System OM-3 uses the familiar BLX-1 battery and it has a life of approximately 500 shots per charge with the mechanical shutter or up to 1,500 shots with the electronic shutter. In addition, the battery can be charged in-camera or the camera powered by a UBS-C connection. That’s great news if you’re away from a mains power source because the battery can be charged via a power bank.
The OM System OM-3 has a vari-angle screen that can be folded against the camera body for transport and flipped round for use. It can also flip out to face forwards and be angle up and down for easy composition when shooting from awkward angles.
Build and Handling
If you look at the OM System OM-3 from the top or front, you could easily think its an old-school film camera. Look more closely, however, and aspects such as the stills / Video / S&Q dial indicate that it’s a digital camera. And of course, the screen on its rear is a dead give-away.
At 139.3mm wide, 88.9mm high and x 45.8mm deep, it’s actually similar in size to a classic 35mm film camera such as the Olympus OM-1 from 1972, which measures 136 x 83 x 50mm. And when you pick it up, it feels like a classic camera because, while only 413g in weight, it feels dense and durable. That’s the impact of the all-metal body.
OM System takes weatherproofing seriously and the OM-3 has an IP53 rating for dust and water resistance. That’s the same rating as the OM-1 Mark II.
There’s also a dust-reduction system that vibrates the sensor at 30,000 cycles per second during power-up. It’s hard to quantify these things, but ask an Olympus or OM System mirrorless camera user how often they clean their camera’s sensor, and they’re likely to look smug because it won’t be often, if at all.
I was disappointed to see that the OM-3 doesn’t have a front grip; its front is flat. However, there’s a textured coating on the front of the camera that gives it some purchase. And on the back, there’s a small but effective thumb rest. They make the OM-3 feel reasonably secure in my hand, but I’d always carry it with either a regular strap like the Peak Design Slide Lite or the slimmer Leash or a wrist strap.
Also, while I have used the OM-3 one-handed when shooting with a small lens, it really requires two hands to keep it steady.
Another disappointment with the OM-3 is that it doesn’t have a joystick on its rear. Yes, you can set the AF point by tapping on the screen or using the navigation pad, but a joystick makes it quicker and easier. It’s a small niggle, but a niggle nonetheless.
The rear of the OM System OM-1 Mark II (left) and OM System OM-3 (right). The two cameras have different control layout on the rear, with the OM-1 Mark II benefiting form a joystick.
One of OM Systems’ key aims with the OM-3 is to encourage creativity and make it easier to be creative at the shooting stage rather than post-capture. With that in mind, the camera reintroduces a feature loved by many Olympus Pen-F users: a dedicated colour profile dial. This allows photographers to switch seamlessly between four colour profile options: Mono, Color, Art and CRT. Each gives you access to a collection of profiles, for example, with Mono there are four black-and-white settings: Standard, High Contrast, Infrared, Classic Low Contrast, while the Color option gives you the choice of Natural, Chrome Film Rich, Chrome Film Vivid, Chrome Film Soft. Meanwhile, the Art setting gives you access to the popular array of Art Filters seen in Olympus cameras over the years.
The colour profile dial is on the front of the OM-3 is within easy reach of your right hand when you hold the camera in your left hand, but, at least in the early days, you’re likely to want to turn the camera to check which setting you are selecting. That settings is, however, shown on the camera’s screen.
Each of the profiles is customisable. With Mono, you can adjust the colour and strength of a filter effect, the tone curve, vignetting, sharpness, contrast, grain effect and tone colour. There’s control over the saturation of 12 different hues in the Color profiles, plus the tone curve, vignetting, sharpness and contrast are adjustable. There are several effects that can be applied to images when the Art setting is used. The number and type of effect varies depending upon the filter that’s selected, but there are effects such as soft focus, pinhole, white edge and frame.
Helpfully, a small star indicates if any profile or parameter has been adjusted away from its default settings, and you can press and hold the OK button to reset the individual parameters or the whole profile to the default values.
CRT gives access to the Color Creator, which allows you to adjust the image hue and saturation using a colour wheel and a kind of saturation slider. I like to use these to reduce the saturation of my images but give them a warm tone. Again, pressing and holding the OK button returns the Colour Creator to its default settings.
The OM System OM-3’s Colour Creator control makes it easy to adjust the saturation and hue of the image.
There’s a fifth unnamed setting on the colour profiles dial. This gives a route to the eight Picture Modes, including i-Enhance, Vivid, Natural, Muted, Portrait, Monochrome, Custom and Underwater.
I like the colour profile dial, however, its position on the front of the camera means you either have to rotate it blind, or turn the camera around to check the settings. I think it would work better on the top plate, perhaps stacked above under the stills / video/ S&Q dial.
As I have mentioned in passing, the OM-3 also introduces a new stills and video dial, making it easy to swap between photo and video modes. This dial also has Slow & Quick motion settings, which support frame rates from 1 to 120fps. There are also two new video modes, OM Cinema 1 and OM Cinema 2, that apply unique colour grading styles in-camera.
The CP button is with easy reach of your right thumb when you’re holding the camera. It’s easy to press it while rotating the front dial to change the mode.
In addition, there’s a new button on the back of the OM-3 marked CP. This stands for computational photography, and it allows photographers to use high-res shot mode, ND, graduated ND, HDR, and multiple exposure modes. The options are accessed by pressing the button and rotating the front dial. Once an option is selected, is can be turned on and off by pressing the button. A long press of the CP button brings up the menu controls for the selected mode.
OM System should add Live Composite to the list of features accessed via the CP button.
Viewfinder and Screen
With 2.36million dots, the OM-3’s OLED electronic viewfinder doesn’t match the 5.76-million-dot resolution of the OM-1 Mark II’s viewfinder, but it’s still nice and clear. Crucially, like the rear touchscreen, which is mounted on a vari-angle hinge, it gives an accurate preview of the captured image. This means you don’t need to worry about changing the metering mode in most situations, you can rely on what you see in the viewfinder when you set the exposure, white balance and colour settings.
The OM System OM-3 has no shortage of dials, they make selecting and adjusting settings quick and easy.
Performance
OM System hasn’t made any changes to the imaging hardware of the OM-3 compared to the OM-1 Mark II, which means there aren’t any surprises with the image quality. For a 20MP camera, the OM-3 captures an impressive level of detail at the lower sensitivity (ISO) settings. This is maintained well up to around ISO 3200. Even ISO 6400 produces some excellent results, although some out-of-focus areas details look a little smudged at 100% on-screen. I’d aim to make ISO 12,800 my upper limit, and depending on the subject, I wouldn’t stress too much if I went a little higher.
The OM-3’s default metering system does a good job, but you can expect to need to dial in some exposure compensation now and then. When the scene includes a lot of bright, overcast sky, for instance, you’ll likely have to increase the exposure slightly, usually less than a stop, but that’s pretty common.
I haven’t been able to test all of the OM-3 subject detection modes, but it works well when set to detect humans, animals (dogs) and vehicles. In motorsports mode it quickly spotted a tractor moving across a field and it did a great job of detecting and focusing on one of my dog’s eyes. That’s very useful, especially if you’re photographing an uncooperative dog that won’t stay still or look at the camera.
OM System’s image stabilisation has a strong reputation, and with past Olympus cameras, I’ve been able to shoot hand-held exposures of a second or more and got sharp results. The lowest shutter speed I’ve used so far with the OM-3 is 1/13sec at the 12mm end (24mm equivalent) of the 12-40mm F/4 Pro and every image is 100% sharp. I will push the boundaries more when I have the camera back for further testing.
While it’s clear that the OM System OM-3 can capture natural colours with pleasant vibrancy, I’ve concentrated on exploiting the new controls to create images that please me. It depends on the subject, the lighting and my mood, but generally, I like quite low-saturation images with warm, earthy tones. And when I’m working in monochrome, I tend towards relatively high contrast. With the OM-3, I find it easy to create the looks I like in-camera before pressing the shutter button. I also like the fact that I can switch between these two different styles with a turn of a dial.
The OM System OM-1 Mark II (left) and OM System OM-3 (right)
OM System OM-3 Sample Images
These images were captured using a production-sample OM-3.
In animal detection mode, the OM-3 does a great job of detecting this dog and getting his eye sharp even though he refuses to look at the camera. The colours are rendered life-like by the Natural Picture Control.
This image was captured at ISO 6400 and some of the finer details of the dog’s fur, where they start to go out of focus, look slightly smudged at 100% on screen.
This ISO 20,000 image lacks a little more detail than the previous image, but it’s still very respectable. As with the previous image, I reduced the saturation using the Colour Creator tools and warmed the image by using the shade white balance setting.
I like how shooting with low saturation seems to emphasise the linear nature of these tree trunks.
Thanks to the colour profile dial, you can switch quickly between shooting in colour and monochrome.
This scene suits a high-contrast monochrome treatment.
The low saturation of this image reflects the overcast, misty feel of the day.
The OM-3’s vari-angle screen is very useful when you want to shoot from above or below head-height.
Another low-saturation image that reflects the mood of the day.
A low-saturation approach emphasises the misty conditions rather than fighting against them with high saturation and contrast.
This image require 0.7EV positive exposure compensation to bring out the dteail of the dark foreground below the bright but overcast sky.
I could see in the viewfinder that the OM-3 was recording the tonal gradations in the sky without losing the detail of the foreground in this misty landscape.
Early Verdict
I want to shoot more with the OM System OM-3 before I pass my final verdict, but so far, I like it a lot. I would like a grip on the front of the camera and a joystick on the rear, but overall, it feels great in your hands. It’s solid and robust, plus with an IP53 rating, it should survive a fair amount of rain, as well as dusty conditions. It also has an excellent feature set and a worthwhile revision of the control arrangement compared to earlier cameras.
While I think there’s potentially a better location for the colour profiles dial, I like the fact that it’s there and that it’s easy to adjust the various settings to get a look that you like. It would also be nice to be able to save a few ‘recipes’ for quick access, perhaps via some custom settings on the dial. The CP button is also a good addition that pulls together some great features, but I’d like to see Live Composite added to that list to make it quicker to find.
I’ve long felt that Olympus, now OM Systems, camera menus were getting too long, making some of the ground-breaking features hard to locate. The new dials and the CP button change that, making some of those compelling features quicker and easier to use. I also like how they put creativity at the heart of the experience of the OM-3. You can dive into the menus to change settings if you want, but it’s easy to forget about them. The new dials and buttons draw attention to them and make the easier to use, encouraging creativity.
