Olympus’ High-Resolution Mode

Inspiration to shoot Hi-Res mode

I’m thinking about Olympus’ High-Resolution Mode as I pack for my upcoming six-week adventure to the Faroe Islands in the North Pacific. There should be bird opportunities, but most of our pictures will be landscapes. With that in mind, I thought about purchasing the Fuji GFX 100, which is a medium-format digital camera I rented a while back that produces incredible results. But I’ve hesitated due to the size and cost of the body and the equally sizable cost of the two lenses I would want to pair with it.

One of the many computational features housed in the new Olympus OM-1 camera body is the high-resolution mode. High Res allows us to capture original raw files as large as 80 megapixels from the camera’s 20-megapixel sensor. How does it do this?

OM-1 Industry Leading Image Stabilization is the Key

OLYMPUS’ class-leading image stabilization technology is the key to the high-resolution mode. OLYMPUS was the first to pioneer image stabilization on the image sensor. They realized that moving the sensor could also give the camera the ability to create a larger image.

Merging four or more images into one

By adjusting the 20-megapixel OM-1 sensor ever so slightly in all directions, then taking those separate images and merging them into one, taking the 20-megapixel sensor and turning it into the equivalent 80-megapixel sensor. There are three different sizes you can get with high-resolution mode, which include 25, 50, and 80 megapixels. To get the largest size of 80 megapixels, you need to be on a tripod and in Tripod mode.

The video I have embedded at the top of this blog post does a great job of explaining all the intricacies of high-resolution mode. It’s quite detailed and very well done.

Let’s See How This Goes

The Faroe Islands will be a great opportunity to try this technology out. Stay tuned to see how well high resolution works. I’m hoping it does a great job.