High Res OLYMPUS test: OM1 mk2 v Z7ii v EM1X

So I'm a landscape photographer, mostly. However, lately I've had a desire to photograph different genres. I have had a few great days photographing wildlife and lately I have really enjoyed macro photography.
The Z7ii is not great for wildlife, I've struggled to use it photographing kestrels as the auto focus is not great and to get close I would need a big bit of glass which is expensive. The Olympus system is sooo much better at this, the lenses are smaller, lighter and cheaper and the autofocus works brilliantly. But what about landscapes?
My issue with the Olympus system is two fold. 1) Is 20mp enough considering I crop a lot? Will I still be able to print up to A2?
2) Is the colour range deep enough?
To help with this the Olympus camera system offer a 'High Res' mode. This offers a file of 80mp when needed. Surely this will be good enough?
Well, not quite! In the previous two tests I have not managed to get a High Res image from my E-M1X that is sharp enough. Why? Plenty of you have offered solutions which is why I have repeated the test twice. However, even that has not worked. So to solve this once and for all in this video I have borrowed a kit from OM Systems. I have an Om1 mk2 and another 12-40mm (I own one of my own) and I carry out the test twice more. The first test is done away from the ocean, at Glencoe in Scotland and then, once more I shoot a seascape of Cromer.
The good news is I have solved the problem! Come and find out what the problem was.

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[reinervenegas]

I can't help but notice that you had the most stable tripod on the Nikon, an average tripod on the OM1 along with the fact that it had a neck strap flailing in the wind, and a crappy tripod on the EM1x., those factors alone invalidate your set-up. Another fact, 1 second delays are not enough to let the vibration settle down before the shot is taken with the OM and EM1x. A minimum of 4 seconds would be the ideal delay. Sensor shift HiRes does micron movements of the sensor(on any camera) so tripod stability is utmost. You need more consistency with your testing. You clearly had the best tripod on the Nikon.
The tripod assignments alone, favors the Nikon, which is your baby. This was not a level playing field.

[jeffslade]

Yes, the slightest movement in the subject will blur the 80Mp hi-res shots as it combines multiple exposures; we need to use a fast shutter to counter movement blur. Trees blowing about or waves moving will do that. I always seem to get three seagulls from nowhere. The 50Mp "hand held" can yield better results, less frames shot. 80Mp is good for still life, indoors with light stage.
The sturdy tripod, "cable" release, and shutter delay.
There is a very good case for using FF for landscape as it produces a wider vista. If we use an "equivalent" lens on MFT they "push the mountains away", so to get the same perspective on MFT we need to use much the same focal length. You say you crop FF landscapes, the MFT has already done the crop, we need to frame MFT before we push the shutter. The OM-1 Mark 2 has improved focusing and processor, it is probably better at macro (and everything else) than the E-M1X.
Dunno why we get obsessed with pixel count; there's only 8Mp on a UHD screen, and 16Mp can print a 6x4-ft bus stop poster.

[_systemd]

this is a good test with usable outcomes.

while the tripods are not the same and the strap >could< introduce shake to the system, there was a sharp photo in the comparison by om1 so we can assume that at least in some cases the comparison here is valid. As a note - I use 3sec delay w my nikon or any camera but that is also down to the tripod sturdiness of course. I did use 3sec for olympus and it's high res in the past.

what we can also see is what I commented in the past - it may get impractically challenging to produce a good flawless high-res shot with m43 pixel shift whereas a z7 just does it time after time perfectly. That alone does say something . We don't only need great results, but also repeatedly reproducible results .

having watched the video briefly, the one test I focused at - the white distant cottage - the nikon output is more contrasty. the resolution looks about the same on ytb. you mention dynamic range - you are shooting the nikon at iso200 which removes it's huge advantage of iso64. you are also shooting a great but not the sharpest lens and you are at f11 - at this f-stop while the performance is balanced across the frame, gradually towards center you are loosing approximately 30% of the lens's max resolution capability. Which may not be ideal in comparison to sharp pro zoom on the oly shot at f5.6

note - I see people in the comments mentioning selling AI upscaled prints etc - Besides really not enjoying using 3 AI tools to improve low quality files, also I hope I never become one to buy that crappy print somewhere.

[paulmuadibatreid]

The HighRes mode RAWs require (and love) more sharpening in post. To get the sharpest result, I use the OM Workshop to produce a neutral tiff which I can then edit in C1.

[MrKreweesti]

It would be of great help when you set the em1x on a 4 second delay with high res. Then the tripod can stabilize before the sequence begin.

[roycejohnson]

I have both, the Z7 ii and the OM-1. I have found using the handheld high res ( 50 mpx ) on the tripod the best. I do not use a center extension tripod, i got rid of them as there can be movement . I always take off my neck strap when placing the camera on the tripod and in your video the strap was moving. I use a heavy duty carbon fibre tripod made by Artcise and it is very rigid. Z7 ii for landscape and the wonderful OM-1 for Birding and Macro and general photography eg swimming sports, athletics etc. Cheers from New Zealand

[jeffslade]

Thought - the OM-1 Mark 2 has more processing power than the E-M1X and so is able to shoot the 8 frame sequence and process them more quickly. Each frame might be exposed for the same time as the Nikon, so if the Nikon is set to 1/80 then the sequence takes 8/80 = 1/10 which is like taking a slow-shutter shot on the Nikon. Use an eight time faster shutter speed and let the ISO go up. Even so there is a slight delay between frames and we might want to go to ten times faster. Of course this works in good light but not so well at dawn and dusk, a limitation of the Hi-Res, it needs fast shutter to avoid motion blur.

[kevinharding]

Thanks for the testing Dave. I'm not sure if the other claims (tripod etc.) have any validity or not. I shoot a number of genres with both Sony (A7r5) and OM (OM1 v1) and I prefer the Oly for most genres I shoot (travel, land+cityscapes, street and model portraiture) except for model shoots / portraits where I may want/require more isolation (BG blur) where I'll usually use the A7r5 and an 85/1.4 (the option is my much loved OM 45/1.2 Pro but the Sony wins in that instance for the bokeh).

However when it comes to (selling) prints I'm more than comfortable with upscaling (software nowadays is brilliant in this regard). Whether it's Gigapixel, PS or I most commonly use ON1 Photo Raw, the output is excellent and I have no problems with sharpness in prints up to 1.2m on the long side. It's just ticking one more box on export.

I've just upscaled 20 of 24 photos (20 from Oly and 2 from a Sony A7r5, 2 from a 12MP DJI drone) for an exhibition. There is virtually no difference in the 1:1 files after upscaling, so long as you used quality glass in the first place, which would define the finer details far better than average glass. Of course if you pixel peep even deeper then there are differences, you can't beat resolution, however for most people that's not required or necessary. YMMV.

It's important to note though that if you don't print large or sell large digital files (and the vast majority of people don’t) but mostly post to social media for family/friends, or have smaller prints made, produce books or sell to stock agencies, even sell for billboards, then you absolutely don't need large files and 20mp (and even 12mp cameras such as the Nikon D700 or D3s or the revered Sony A7s range) are more than you'll ever need.
To endorse that I'd suggest anyone to check on a high quality print shop's website for their file requirements. The file vs print sizes may surprise some.
For example, outstanding print quality (for 1 to 1 sales) would be :
12mp = 16 x 24”
20mp = 20 x 30”

It would be very interesting to see you produce a comparison between systems/cameras using upscaling as an alternative to either of the OM's Hi-res modes (neither of which I ever use, as upscaling works great for me). Liked and subscribed (waiting for that upscaling video) !

Happy Xmas to one and all !

[tdekany]

I refrained from replying to your previous videos, but this time I want to say a few things. 1 - the 80mp version can’t have any movement. You will never get the best out of that feature if there is any camera movement. I’m surprised that you don’t know that. The moving strap alone, is interfering with getting a sharp result. Plus the wind. Of course the Nikon shot is going to be sharper. 2 - if you want to take a hi res shot in windy conditions on a tripod, switch on HHHR. it works on a tripod. 3 - for sharpening in Lightroom, use these settings:
Sharpening - 75
Radius - 2.7
Detail - 3
Masking - 50
The Nikon may still be sharper, but at least give the Olympus a chance by using it properly. You went from driving an automatic transmission to a manual transmission and blamed the car.

[chrispatmore]

There is one important thing about getting the sharpest HR files from Olympus/OM System files; you have to process them with OM Workspace as it gives the best interpretation of those RAW files. Workspace isn't the fastest or most intuitive software, but it is the best for ORF files, especially OM's proprietary formats such as High Res. Once processed you can export them to another format such as TIFF for further editing in Photoshop, if you want. NR shouldn't really be necessary as the sensor shift actually reduces any inherent noise.

[philliplivingstone]

Just a question - why do you say that Nikon f8 is equivalent OM f5.6 - isn't aperture aperture?

[wessmith]

You must use OM workspace to pre-process the Olympus high res raw. Just open it and then save as a tiff to be further processed in your editor of choice. No other Raw processor works well on the HR ORF raw files. Or just shoot HR JPEGs. They are nice and sharp right out of camera.

[dennis.oosthuizen]

Just another comment following my previous comment, The image of the house using the OM-1 was a sharper image compared to the image where there were moving waves. Could a faster shutter speed and higher ISO help sharpen the ( I will try this myself, but I am not a YouTube content provider, so I am not going to be making any video of that.) I still believe the in-camera computations are causing the lack of sharpness due to the moving waves and multi-image stacking. The Nikon does not need this, giving a sharper image as it only takes one image. With perfectly still subjects, the OM-1 could still deliver excellent results. So the learning for me is that I will not use the Om-1 for high res shots where the subject or scenery is moving, then the Nikon Z8 would be a better option.

[robertandrelczyk]

Nice comparison and test. Like others so I have same thoughts about stability of tripods and straps used under shooting, EM1x its prosessor is much slower than OM1M2 so for sure it will not brings same or close results as well. 1 sec delay its not enough to avoid movements, camera is to big to stay steady after button pressing. I'm not using OM Workspace so often, mostly for HR shots but results for sharpening and DR are a way better than in LR. Trick for LR when editing HR shots is to push up sharpening like someone mentioned and file looks much better IMO. Learning by doing :) Good luck with your M43 journey and wish you to stay with this system because its more powerful both for big prints or professional work etc than we can even imagine. Will always be some disadvantages, but there is no perfect system in any area.
BTW - when You're going to Lofoten? I live here so if You need any tips about spots or something just let me know, or maybe some day will be time to meet in the field. Anyways wish you a wonderful trip, this is the most beautiful place I ever lived and never ever moved from here :) 
Greetings from Leknes/Lofoten.
Robert A.

[lensman]

I have D810, D800 and Canon and Leica digital cameras as well as film. I also have an EM1 MKII, and EM5 MKII. For still life and controlled macro shots the EM1 MKII in High Res Mode does match the D800, but not the D810 in resolution. The difference is small but it is there. I would never use the Olympus for any landscape shots with any moving subjcet or in the wind in the high res mode. I used to do a lot of proper long exposure deep sky imaging using astrographs and peltier cooled CCD imaging devices more than a decade ago, and there was a complicated process called 'Drizzle' which NASA came up with for correcting the undersampling of the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary cameras which we sometimes used. Undesampling in normal human language means that the resolution of the active matrix array mirror of the telescope was higher than the sensors that were used in the cameras. I wrote this to make it clear that I know how Drizzle suppose to work. I am not going into the software and hardware routine of Drizzle, but it is very very similar to this High Res mode that now all the mirrorless cameras seem to employ. This has been made possible by huge advances in the IBIS and the microprocessors inside these cameras where the sensor could be precisely moved by one pixel dimension. When the camera takes 8 shots with one pixel offset, these images will have to be registered to each other by the microprocessor to produce a detailed image. If there is subject movement or the minutest camera shake ( we are talking of the order of microns here not tenths of millimiteres), the process could fail as the images will not be registered correctly to each other and a blur will result. I have heard that the newer Olympus or OM cameras have done away with the requirement of the camera needing the most stable platform. You findings seem to indicate that this is not exactly true. Perhaps the use of AI within the camera could remap the pixels and sort out the blur problem, or perhaps not. Interesting test, though.

[JohnAdamthwaite]

F5.6 on M43 is equiv to f11 full frame in terms of depth of field. Always difficult to get sharp images with centre column raised as was the case with the 2 oly cameras. Oly high res files can take a lot of sharpening and best to downsize the 80mp file to about 50mp using bicubic sharpener.

[oIIIIo]

Wind movement clearly compromised this test.

[TysonCatharine]

Thanks for the forecast! A bit off-topic, but I wanted to ask: I have a SafePal wallet with USDT, and I have the seed phrase. (alarm fetch churn bridge exercise tape speak race clerk couch crater letter). How can I transfer them to Binance?

[davidmantripp]

Seems to be a degree of black magic involved in hires mode. I sometimes get stunning results, sometimes terrible. But for me, movement, including water, is not an issue apart from local blurring. I do get much better results from the OM-1 than the E-M1iii, in outdoor context. But honestly, I’d never rely on HiRes. If you actually need more than 20Mpx, use the Nikon.

[georgebowden]

Hi Dave, my thoughts are that if the handheld Olympus was better, was the ibis turned on for the handheld & then off for the tripod shot?.
The same theory goes for the OM-1, also I couldn't help but notice the flapping camera strap which could cause the motion blur.
I do know that I haven't had any similar issues with my Olympus set-up when changing the ibis & I do not use a camera strap.
Merry Xmas to you All the Very Best for 2025.