The best Olympus cameras represent everything that's best about the brand's 84-year heritage: iconic style, immaculate image quality and impeccably compact design. From beginners to pros, for both stills and video, they are formidable imaging machines.
Of course, the big news in the camera industry is that Olympus has agreed to sell its imaging division. We've taken in-depth look at what the Olympus sale means elsewhere, but you might be wondering whether you should still consider buying an Olympus camera. Well, as far as we're concerned, you definitely should!
Olympus still makes some of the very best bodies in the business, across multiple categories; the E-PL9 and E-M5 Mark III are among the best cameras for vlogging, the E-M10 Mark III is our pick for the best travel camera as well as one of the best cameras for beginners, the E-M1 Mark III is arguably the best professional camera for general practice photography, and the Tough TG-6 is the best waterproof camera.
Those cameras are still every inch as good, regardless of who owns the brand name. And the Micro Four Thirds lens ecosystem is one of the richest out there, meaning that you'll have shortage of outstanding optics to choose from.
Since Micro Four Thirds sensors are a little smaller than APS-C sensors, this means that the whole system – both cameras and lenses – is lighter, more compact and more affordable than rival cameras set-ups.
Olympus cameras fall into three categories. The flagship OM-D bodies, harking back to the OM film cameras, aimed at professional and enthusiast photographers. The PEN line of cameras are particularly stylish, making them coveted by the fashion-conscious, and are ideal for social shooters and content creators. Finally there are the Tough cameras, which don’t have interchangeable lenses as they're designed to be near-indestructible cameras for use in any environment.
We've included all three lines in our list of the best Olympus cameras, so you're sure to find something to suit your needs…
The best Olympus cameras in 2020
The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III is an exceptional camera and a worthy successor to the highly regarded Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II. This new camera uses Olympus's latest 20.4 megapixel Micro Four Thirds sensor, and while this might put some people off – these sensors are smaller than APS-C – the image quality is very close, and it allows Olympus cameras and lenses to be especially small and portable. This new camera's abilities are amazing, including excellent 5.5EV in body stabilization, an amazing 30fps Pro Capture mode with 14-shot pre-buffering, C4K and 4K UHD video, Live Composite and Live Bulb modes and more.
Read more: Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III review
The Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV's predecessor, the Mark III, was a great camera with plenty to offer. However, with a 16MP sensor and mediocre AF tracking for moving objects, there were definitely improvements to be made. Luckily, the Mark IV is a great update to this line of Olympus cameras, featuring a new 20MP sensor and improved Continuous Autofocus.
While some of the other improvements are incremental, the Mark IV does bring some interesting new offerings to the table, including a zippy 15fps continuous burst mode. We're also a fan of the tiltable screen – which is capable of flipping all the way down to create the perfect selfie screen. This would be particularly useful for vloggers.
Whether you're a smartphone snapper who's curious about using a 'proper' camera, or you're looking for a do-it-all camera that's perfect for anything from family snaps to travel pics, make sure you consider the Mark IV.
Read more: Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV review
If anyone thought Olympus couldn't compete on the professional stage, the OM-D E-M1 Mark III well and truly put them in their place. There are many dedicated cameras that can do various things better than the E-M1 Mark III, it's fair to say. However, there are very few that can do everything it can do. If you're a professional who shoots a lot of different types of images and finds yourself in lots of different shooting situations, it's an amazingly good choice.
Industry-leading 7.5-stop image stabilisation? Check. 60fps continuous burst shooting? You bet. 80MP high-resolution shooting? Oh yes. Let's imagine a hypothetical day of photography: you get up early and trudge up a hill to shoot a gorgeous landscape in the morning light, making use of enough megapixels to make for a gorgeous print. You then travel to a sport event to get some fast-action shots, needing both a fast burst rate and an AF system that can keep up. In the evening you finish off with some astrophotography, and do it handheld since you accidentally left your tripod on top of the hill in the morning. With the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, your day will be a resounding success as the camera will produce sublime images in all of these situations. There are very few other cameras we can say that about.
Read more: Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III review
Wait, this isn't the newest 'PEN' fashion camera from Olympus. Why is it here? Well, while the E-PL10 is a really good camera in its own right (as you'll see when we get to it below), the fact is that it's a disappointingly minor upgrade over the E-PL9, so much so that the older camera arguably offers better value for money. A highly capable street, vlogging and fashion camera, the E-PL9 comes with a 180-degree selfie/vlogging screen and 4K video, though on release we were a little disappointed that Olympus has stuck to its older 16.1-megapixel sensor instead of swapping to its latest 20.4MP sensor. The Olympus E-PL9 has excellent build quality despite its compact, lightweight construction; the diminutive build is ideally suited to travel photography, especially when the body is paired with the remarkably small Olympus 14-42mm EZ ‘pancake’ kit lens. Better still, this camera is a thing of beauty in its own right, as well as being able to deliver beautiful image quality. Always get this with the Olympus 14-42mm EZ 'pancake' kit lens if you can.
Read more: Hands-on Olympus PEN E-PL9 review
Let's make something abundantly clear – the Olympus PEN E-PL10 is an excellent camera. It shoots at a super-fast burst rate of 14.1fps; it can produce 4K video at super-slow 120fps HD; it's got manual silent shooting; and there's also 3-axis in-body image stabilisation. But, as mentioned above, the reason it tucks into this list beneath its older sibling is because it's simply not that much of an upgrade, and that makes it more difficult to justify its 2020 price tag. It's got the same 16MP sensor that we were a little disappointed not to see upgraded on the E-PL9! If you're a do-it-all content creator who wants a camera that'll shoot great stills and pristine video, and ideally look good while doing it, the E-PL10 is all of the above. At the same time, we wish it were a little more.
Read more: Olympus PEN E-PL10 review
Olympus raised a few eyebrows when it launched the OM-D E-M1X, a big new professional camera aimed squarely at the sports market, but with what looked like very similar specs to the existing E-M1 Mark II. But dig deeper and you find the E-M1X is a very different beast, with an integrated grip for bigger battery capacity and duplicated horizontal/vertical shooting controls and a dual processing system that dramatically ups the game for autofocus tracking, with a new AI system for recognising and tracking subjects. What many won't realise, too, is that Olympus has a very compelling pro lens line-up, especially for telephoto lenses, and while the Olympus MFT sensor is smaller than the full frame sensors used by Canon, Nikon and Sony pro cameras, it will cost a lot less to build a full professional system – and it will be a lot lighter to carry around. Sure, the camera has been a little superseded by the E-M1 Mark III, but it's still a highly capable machine.
Read more: Olympus OM-D E-M1X review
Olympus PEN film cameras date all the way back to 1959 and have followed a long evolutionary path. The Olympus PEN-F is a homage to the original PEN cameras, which grabs many of the best bits from the range-topping OM-D E-M1 Mark II and shoehorns them into a more compact PEN-style build. You therefore get a 20-3MP image sensor, 5-axis image stabilisation, advanced controls and, for the first time in a PEN digital camera, a built-in electronic viewfinder. The result is a truly enthusiast-level PEN camera with terrific performance, functionality and handling, adding real clout to its stylish good looks. There are just two reasons it's not right up near the top of our list. The first, is that it doesn't offer 4K video capture (not a deal-breaker, to be honest), the second and most important is that it looks like Olympus has decided to stop making it. That's a huge shame – though it can still be found new if you look around.
Read more: Olympus PEN-F review
At first glance, the Olympus Tough TG-6 seems indistinguishable from its predecessor, the TG-5. However, with a screen that's double the resolution, high speed video options and a new underwater mode, the TG-6 packs some worthwhile new features. They may not warrant an upgrade if you already own the TG-5, but if you have an older Tough or you're looking for an outdoor camera that can go in the sea, get covered in sand, be dropped onto concrete, and still take pictures and video even in freezing temperatures, this is the best everything-proof camera out there.
Read more: Olympus Tough TG-6 review
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