Olympus E-M1X arrives: Hands-on with the most high-end, high-performance Micro Four Thirds camera yet

by William Brawley

posted Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 2:02 AM EDT

Click here to read our Olympus E-M1X Hands-On Preview

If you thought 2016's E-M1 Mark II was designed for professional photographers, wait until you check out the all-new Olympus E-M1X. Essentially an E-M1 Mark II on steroids, the new E-M1X sports an all-new body design with an integrated battery grip, a bigger EVF, incredible weather-sealing, souped-up performance thanks to two processors, improved image stabilization, two UHS-II SD card slots and much more!

Building upon the foundation of the E-M1 Mark II, the new E-M1X sits alongside the Mark II model as an additional flagship OM-D camera, but one that feels even more professional-grade, and more tailor-made towards sports and wildlife photographers, in particular. Borrowing the same 20MP Four Thirds sensor and impressive 121 all-cross-type on-chip phase-detect AF system from the E-M1 Mark II, the E-M1X builds upon the Mark II's impressive image quality and AF performance thanks to its dual True Pic VIII image processors. The E-M1 II had excellent AF performance, but the E-M1X goes further with a new A.I.-based subject detection system. Dubbed "Intelligent Subject Detection AF", this new C-AF tracking system has preset AF algorithms designed for detecting and tracking automobiles, airplanes and trains. As with the E-M1 II, the new E-M1X also features the same fast sequential shooting rates, at up to 60fps with S-AF and up to 18fps with C-AF as well as the super-fast Pro Capture continuous shooting mode.

Handheld shooting is also improved across the board thanks to the E-M1X's all-new gyro sensors. The camera's 5-axis image stabilization system now offers up to a record-setting 7.5-stops of correction. Combined with the additional processing horsepower, the E-M1X's improved IBIS system allows for additional functionality including a 50MP Handheld High-Res Shot mode and a new Live ND multi-shot feature that can eliminate the need for physical ND filters. For videograpers, the E-M1X now offers improvements such as Log (OM-Log400) video recording, as well as better handheld 4K UHD and Cinema 4K recording thanks to the more powerful IBIS system.

Despite just being announced, our Olympus E-M1X review is already underway. We were fortunate to get early access to an E-M1X with beta firmware, and we have both an in-depth hands-on video tour of the all the features and specs of the camera as well as a detailed Hands-On Shooting Experience writeup and some (beta) real-world images.

Click here to see our in-depth video tour of the E-M1X!

Just recently, however, we received production-level firmware for our E-M1X, and as such, we have our customary First Shots series of standardized sample images as well as Performance Testing Results. Of course, stay tuned for a lot more in-depth testing as we put this new Olympus flagship camera through its paces!