Tag: ProResRAW

  • New lens and Firmware – 150-400mm f4.5 Pro is here!

    Olympus has launched the much-awaited telephoto zoom lens, the 150-400mm f4.5 Pro. The lens was first announced in January 2019. The same time when E-M1X was launched. Then of course it was a product development announcement. Now the lens reality and first real-life test have been done. The lens is available in January 2021.

    Jari Peltomäki tells us about the lens

    I have not had a chance to test it yet. It has been mainly tested by bird photographers here in the Nordic. I did have a chance to talk to a Finnish award-winning bird and nature photographer Olympus Visionary Jari Peltomäki. He has been testing the lens a few days. In the video, he also tells us what he had to with the production of the lens.

    New Firmware

    Four Olympus OM-D bodies got a new firmware. The new firmware includes Bird recognition to E-M1X and ProResRAW-video for E-M1X and E-M1 MKIII.

    Both of these new features are very interesting and make both bodies even better than they are now.

    Subject recognition in E-M1X

    Olympus E-M1X has subject recognition AF. It “knows” what motorsports, trains, and airplanes look like. Now the Ai-driven algorithm has been improved to include also birds. This one I had the chance to test. In the video below I give a sneak peek of the feature. A full video about it coming up next Friday.

    ProResRAW gives better video quality

    ProResRAW is compared to H.264 that Olympus camera records internally the same as the difference between shooting raw vs. jpg. That is the simple and quick answer to what raw video is. ProResRAW is compatible with Atomos Ninja V only. An external recorder is needed if you want to shoot raw-video.

    I have a blog post about ProResRAW. There is some more info about that. There will also be a dedicated video about ProresRAW on my channel.

  • ProRes RAW is coming to Olympus!

    Olympus has just released a new development announcement. Olympus E-M1 MKIII and E-M1 X will get Apple ProRes RAW by the end of this year. The recorder that will be able to record Apple ProRes RAW with these cameras is Atomos Ninja V.

    Screenshot 2020-09-13 at 11.51.12.png

    What is ProRes RAW?

    In short ProRes RAW is quite a similar idea as raw formats in photos. The quality is the best the sensor can capture. There are Apple ProRes RAW capable cameras where for example white balance or ISO that will be used can be chosen after the shoot. ProRes RAW is developed by Apple and if you are interested in reading more about the Apple ProRes RAW there is a white paper (.pdf-file) released by Apple.

    Another similar raw format for video is for example Blackmagic RAW.

    Apple ProRes RAW features

    It is not totally clear what features ProRes RAW from Olympus E-M1 MKIII and E-M1X will be available. Their press release about it says:

    “This lends greater flexibility to professional video production post-processing tasks such as adjusting exposure and color grading recorded footage.” 

    This is promising and will make Olympus E-M1 MKIII and E-M1X even better video cameras than they are now.

    Combined with IBIS and great AF

    I am very excited about this new development. ProRes RAW combined with Olympus great IBIS and very good AF in the video will make E-M1 MKIII and E-M1X very interesting video cameras. The quality of the footage is excellent as it is now. Lack of some features like vectorscopes etc. are things that I would really want to see in an Olympus body. Apple ProRes RAW will make some of that up. It will interesting to see the final version when it is out later this year.

    Final Cut Pro X is the best option for editing, at least for now.

    If I have understood correctly Apple Final Cut Pro X is the best editing software right now that can handle ProRes RAW. Adobe Premiere and DaVinci Resolve can also handle ProRes RAW. You need to download video format 2.1.1 to later from Apple in order to be able to use Premiere Pro for editing ProRes RAW format. Let’s see if I need to switch to Final Cut Pro X when the codec is available in Olympus cameras.

    All in all very good move from Olympus. In a recent interview with JIP (the company that will buy Olympus imaging business) said:  “JIP also plans to focus on the “video business” which so far Olympus hasn’t really focused on: “We are considering various markets such as consumer products specialized for video and business such as surveillance cameras” (from m43rumors.com)

    Let’s hope that this means new features in video specs for new Olympus cameras.

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