Olympus E-M1 gets handsome new body color, new firmware features including tethered shooting

Among the many cameras we reviewed last year, Olympus' flagship OM-D E-M1 stood proud as one of our favorites, thanks to best-in-class performance and the highest JPEG image quality we'd ever seen from a Micro Four Thirds camera. Now, that camera gets even better thanks to a firmware upgrade bringing several significant new features, plus the addition of another body color that lets your sense of style shine through.

The Olympus E-M1 Silver will ship this September priced at US$1,400, making it no more expensive than the existing black model. It will be identical in feature-set to that camera, too, but will come with the new firmware already installed straight out of the box.

And what will that firmware add? The most important new feature in our opinion is support for USB tethered shooting, a change that will make the new model more useful both in the studio, and when distancing yourself from your subject is important but you can't rely on the camera's Wi-Fi radio. (The addition of tethered shooting will be doubly significant in South American markets where the camera's Wi-Fi radio is disabled for regulatory reasons.)

Architecture photographers, meanwhile, will appreciate the ability to compensate for keystoning without post-processing or a tilt-shift lens, thanks to a new Digital Shift function that operates using the camera's stabilization system. While you won't get the same range of correction that you would with a tilt-shift optic, you won't need to be quite so precise in adjusting your camera position, as there's now latitude for correction on the camera itself.

Sports and action shooters will appreciate reduced 16ms viewfinder lag when shooting high-speed bursts,.The new E-M1 firmware will also add the Live Composite Mode of the E-M10, great for fireworks or star trails, and a variety of new creative options. These include New Vintage and Partial Color art filters, a Panning scene mode, Shade art effect, Old Film movie effect, plus two new Photo Story themes plus the ability to pause Photo Stories during creation and return to them later. Olympus' OI.Share app will also be update to allow remote self-timer and interval shooting.

Expected to be available from September 24th at 10:00pm Eastern time, the new firmware version 2.00 will be provided free of charge. Its arrival will be accompanied by the new Olympus Capture Studio Tethering Application, also provided free to E-M1 owners.

Find out much more about the camera itself in our in-depth Olympus E-M1 review. Want to get your hands on the E-M1 Silver? Preorder from our affiliates at the links below, and help support Imaging Resource at the same time!

• Olympus OM-D E-M1 Silver, body-only: Adorama | Amazon |  B&H Photo Video