Review - OM-Systems OM-1 II and 150-400mm for bird photography

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Nice review! I am an OM-1 shooter (former Canon shooter) who bought, and returned, the OM1ii after 2 weeks. I took many thousands of images during that time. I liked most of the minor changes like the increased buffer and the stickier AF. Also there are a few settings that have a bit more range like the available shutter speeds in SH-2. I found that the upgrades didn’t necessarily make much of a difference for me. The thing that caused me to return it was I had good shots on 3 different birds that I have never photographed before near the end of Spring migration here in central Texas. For whatever reason the camera couldn’t “see” the birds. All 3 landed within 10-15 feet of me looked around for 2 or 3 seconds and left. Small, fast moving birds who don’t sit still very long. I was quickly losing the light but it should have worked. It was almost as if the AF Scanner setting was not tuned on. The body focused on nothing. I was punching the BBF button repeatedly but got no results. It reminded me of my Canon days where the cameras with dual pixel AF will sometimes get confused with horizontal lines. In my experience the OM-1 does not have this issue and I have always given credit to the quad pixel AF. In all 3 cases the body was not able to focus on the bird before it departed the area. I know from hundreds of thousands of images taken with my OM-1 that it likely would have gotten images of all 3 birds. I was already having doubts about the value of the upgrades before it missed the 3 birds. I have been back to the same spot with my OM-1 using the same lens (300mm F4 Pro) and I have gotten numerous tries of small birds in very similar situations with no issues at all. FWIW my OM-1 has not crashed at all in 2 years. It will possibly act weird if I change a lens and forget to turn the body off. Can’t blame the body for that. So I sent it back. There are people in forums having similar issues. My findings were that the AF is generally better but sometimes slower and sometimes it just seems to stop trying. The OM-1ii is a nice upgrade but I suspect that it may take some additional firmware updates to really refine the AF. I will likely buy it again at some point.

I always look forward to seeing your reviews. Very thorough, very honest and your videos are logically arranged and extremely easy to follow. And beautiful images are always a part of the package, whatever you review. Please keep up the excellent work!

So glad to see that you made this review Fabian! I remember commenting about this lens on your channel a year ago. Although, I was interested in hearing more about your thoughts on the lens. Considering there are near-equivalents for Nikon, Sony, Canon, I read that one of the biggest benefits of this 150-400mm was the handling, weight distribution, and build quality. Was hoping to hear detailed insights. Cheers!

Stunning images Fabian, especially the Swallows in flight, not easy to do!

Preburst is a Nikon /Canon attempt at catching up to ProCapture of Olympus which has been on their cameras since the E-M1 Mk II, Mark III before the OM line

Good review, but if you're going to compare it to the Canon R8 with the 600mm f4 - I suggest also showing the size and weight difference so it will be a fair comparison. Personally I think that there is no better combo for wildlife photographers on the market (in any system). There is just nothing that can compete with the 150-400 lens. It's an engineering marvel. Thanks for the honest opinion!

I am a Canon shooter. The adaptation of EF glass to MFT bodies is of interest. I don’t know how well this works, but it is of interest for macro or additional reach perhaps

Excellent review! The OM-1 II (with the OM System macro lenses) is an AMAZING macro camera. Unfortunately, as you noted, full frame beats it on most other genres where dynamic range and ISO become issues. Even though the price is reasonable, a separate camera body and kit for macro alone is a bit of an extravagance. But the OM-1 II is so very good with macro, I'm tempted to buy it, anyway . . . just for that.

I've been a m43 shooter for around 8 years now and it's my belief that's it's the most complete system for wildlife photography right now if you can live with the decrease in low light image quality. I would really love to see a complete APSC camera and system as that would be my perfect mid ground but sadly it doesn't look like any manufacturer is interested.

hi Fabian thank you for your honest and good review. every camera brand and system has its weaknesses. it's good to name it. but if you are aware of the weaknesses and can deal with them, every camera system is a nice system, including the M 4/3 from Om-system.

Beautiful images with good and fair reviews. A few comments. Stabilization, I don't think you will see any different shooting at 1/30 between R5 and OM1. Try 1/10 SS and/or lower and see what you can get from both systems! Secondly, on AF interesting that you have found R8 to be better, this means R5 would be better as well. But my friend who have been using R5 for years, got different results on AF when he adopted OM1.2 moths ago with this 150-400mm F4.5 lens. One AF aspect bothering him is the BBF implementation of OM1. Lastly, yes, I would have liked a third wheel on any camera bodies. Don't think it will happen anytime soon with OM System. Cheers.

Nice, honest and clear review I am quite happy with the OM-1 but I am tempted by the improvement, even if minor, of the AF system. I hopes that improved also in low light but looks like it is not the case. In my experience also low contrast scenes can give some trouble to the AF even if light is not loo low. Ste

Thanks for the review. I am stuck in deciding if to upgrade an mft body (already have the g9 and panasonic 100-400) or if to get the Canon r8 with the rf100-400. I think for now at least the upgrade path I’ll limit to the g9ii, I don’t really shoot at anything fast enough to need the om-1.

Hello Fabian ! Great honest review. OM system stuff is good but doesn’t justify the price and weight. I currently use Nikon D500, Nikon 300mm f4 and 1.4 TC the entire set cost me $1500 USD I am amazed to see the results of Canon R8 but RF zoom lenses are slow at tele end. I heard Nikon ZF is capable for bird photography and it too has pro capture (limited though) Both Canon and Nikon set up costs around $US 3500 Nikon ZF + Nikon 180-600 Canon R8 + Canon 100-500 And OM system cost even more though it’s MFT 😮 I did some ground work and found a used Pro 300 f4 So if I buy OM1 new and used Pro 300 f/4 the cost is again $3500 US So this way OM, Nikon and Canon all costs me same everyone has its advantages Being Nikon user I can continue using Nikon 300 f4 on Nikon ZF and cut down the cost but I might loose advantage of using native Z line 180-600 One thing I noted the smaller MFT is good for Macro though Let me know your thoughts/views. Should I jump to OM system? Others are also welcome to comment Thank you 🙏🏾 - Rahul Deshpande

Can you perhaps do a OM-1 Mii + 300mm F4 review/comparison with the OM-1 Mi? Or maybe a comparison with 300mm F4 vs 150-400mm F4.5? Would be awesome. Cheers, Levi.

If you shoot in very low-light, switch to S-AF. You will gain 1-2 stops more AF sensitivity compared to C-AF. So the focus is much better with S-AF in very low light. Nice video, was interesting to find out your opinion&experience with OM-1 MK II.

How is the wireless microphone you got to review a year ago?

one of my worries about using Panasonic lenses on OMs is the OIS and IBIS. how do you see the differences? when you use your Panasonic 200mm f2.8 on OM1-II do you find it less stable on G9II or vs Olympus 300mm f4?

As you say, with lenses like 300 mm f4 / 150-400 f4.5, and so excellent IBIS, YOU CAN GO WITH SHUTTER SPEED from1/15th to 1/8000 of a second (!) People forget how much light gathering those leneses have. There is no lens even close to these. I am fullframe user, I will be honest at the f6.3 on my tele lens, I am ONE STOP higher than M43 camera could do at F4.5, that means if you reached ISO 12.800 at F4.5 are equal to ISO 25.600 on the F6.3 ! In addition you can lower shutterspeed in M43 system where in Fullframe, you need tripod or go home, because you will have blurry images! In darker scenarios, M43 sensor shines. I really wish to have two systems. I can't imagine my 200-600 f6.3 Sony which is ridiculously big gun, to go slower than 1/80 with less than 15% hit ratio on A7-IV. It just can not be. While OM-1 + 150-400 is really EASY to handhold 1/40th at f4.5 with focus accuracy like what? 60% or so? that's 2 stops of ISO difference! So if you hit ISO 12.800 on Sony 200-600 with 1/80, and pray for at least one image sharp, you have just only ISO 3.200 on 150-400 with 1/40th of shutterspeed. That's amazing system to wildlife.