The Magic of Micro Four Thirds in the Mountains - OM System OM-3

It's currently a beautiful summer's day out here in the North Cascades and I gotta be honest with you guys, we're long overdue for a nice day here in the mountains. There's been a lot of wildfire smoke these past few weeks here in Washington and if you know anything about summer in the Pacific Northwest, it's that it's short-lived and we try and appreciate every day. So when things like wildfires happen, it's a major bummer on all accounts. Luckily, it's looking like today the smoke should stay away for the most part and I'm really excited to be out here to explore a little bit. Today is another episode of the How It Feels series and I brought along a new camera that I've never tried out before and it's actually my first time using the system at all and that is the OM System OM3. For those of you who don't know, OM System is formerly known as Olympus. Olympus is a super iconic camera brand that was around for nearly 100 years. They made some really gorgeous cameras over the years and about a year ago, Olympus rebranded as OM System. And what makes OM System very unique these days is that their cameras use a micro four-thirds sensor, which is much smaller than a full-frame sensor. And right off the bat, what stands out to me about this camera is its aesthetic. This thing is really beautiful in your hands. It's modeled after like vintage cameras of old. It's got the all-metal body, some big dials on top and a lot of new tech in a very compact form factor. And I think there's something to be said about being inspired simply by how a camera looks and feels in your hands. With how far technology has come these past five years, there's really not as big of a difference in how each camera system performs anymore. Instead, it's more about how a camera can actually inspire you to go out and create and also how a camera lends itself to your own personal use case. So that's what I'm going to do these next few days. I'm going to take the OM3 out here on the trails in Washington and film a little vlog, take a few photos and just see how this camera feels and fits into my own personal shooting style. These mountains here in Washington are about as wild and as rugged as it gets. Most trails start tucked away in thick evergreen forests before breaking out into the alpine where the views finally open up. Out here, the beauty is undeniable but you've definitely got to earn it. So I'm running a little bit behind right now. I got to the trailhead a bit late, got distracted by the beautiful views at Diablo Lake for a little bit longer than I expected to and I love this trail. It's just so beautiful. Like the entire six, seven miles that here on the trail here you just have changing views. I mean just look at that behind me right there. So stunning. But gonna get out of the trees here soon and see some alpine views which I'm really excited about. One of the first things that I noticed about the OM3 here is just how small and lightweight this camera is compared to some of the other cameras that I typically bring out into the mountains. And when you pair that with the Micro Four Thirds system, you do get this unique advantage over full-frame cameras. On a Micro Four Thirds system, you actually double the focal length and the aperture of whatever lens you're using to get the full frame equivalent. So today I'm using a 12 to 40 millimeter f2.8. And on a full-frame camera, this would be a 24 to 80 millimeter f4. And this is a pretty small lens right here. You can actually see the Helinox filter makes this lens seem a whole lot bigger than it actually is. And apparently if you graduate to some of the longer focal lengths in the Micro Four Thirds system, that's where you're going to see some of the biggest advantages. Where you can get like 600 millimeter lenses that are like the fraction of the size of the full-frame equivalent. But with this size advantage also comes a small disadvantage with a Micro Four Thirds camera. Being that these sensors are smaller, so low light performance isn't as good. And you don't get that shallow depth of field look that you'll get on a larger sensor. So like while you can shoot at f1.2 on some of the lenses for this system, the look and feel of the bokeh from those images is not going to be as creamy as say the same lens on an fx3. But for me, I want to use that disadvantage to my advantage. Like this camera does have a lot of use cases out here in the mountains. And the biggest upside here is this is a great landscape camera. If you're trying to capture images or videos where everything is in focus, this camera is really going to shine. Because you don't have to shoot at like f14 to get an image where it's sharp from the foreground to the background. Instead you can probably get the same result at f5.6. This trail has been one of my favorites over the years. I've probably hiked this at least a dozen times with so many friends. I actually brought my parents up here like seven or eight years ago and yeah it's a really special place to me. So getting to make some new memories with this camera right here is a real treat. I'm just hoping that conditions prevail so that way we can stay up on top of the ridge for sunset. Unfortunately sunset plans didn't work out too well, at least from where I was standing. But it happens and you just gotta roll with it. The aerial views on the other hand were pretty magical. Honestly one of the best displays I've ever seen in this mountain range. But the following evening I was able to get out on the trail again for some redemption and this time things worked out perfectly. Filming with the OM-3 has been a really refreshing experience. It's definitely different from shooting on full frame but there's a big upside for adventure photography and filmmaking. The freedom to shrink down your kit. Less weight means less hassle and less hassle usually means a better creative flow. Personally I lean toward the smaller lighter weight lenses in this system. I'm not chasing shallow depth of field here but for landscapes and trail life this setup felt pretty great. Like any camera the OM-3 has trade-offs but I think that's kind of the point. No camera is perfect. It's about finding the one that fits how you want to move through the world and this one feels playful, inspiring, and honestly just fun to pick up. And at the end of the day it's not about specs. It's about how it feels and today it felt pretty good. Thank you so much for watching all. I'll see you again soon.