Some more interesting tidbits about the new OM-1II hardware

OM-1II at Amazon US&CA&EU, BHphoto, Adorama, Om Digital, FotoErhardt, Calumet, WexUK. OM Germany, OM UK, OM, Italy, OM France.

A German reader told me about an interesting news he read on a German blog. Sadly he forgot to send me the link to the blog and I couldn’t find it. So please send me a message if you know this!

He did send me the translated text that is very interesting:

The OM-1 II is faster, it does have more than just a double size buffer:

The OM-1 II has been modified in a few places. The double buffer memory allows you to buffer twice as many images, that’s what we knew already. This is a prerequisite for the ND128. It can therefore not be retrofitted via a firmware update.

However, the decisive difference is somewhere else. The intermediate memory between the Sony pre-processor and the TruepicX has been replaced by a memory that is twice as fast.

Problem: this requires more power and gets hotter. So the camera’s thermal management had to be changed. The camera has a new motherboard and supposedly a new, more energy-efficient display. From the outside, that doesn’t show, but there’s one difference: communication between the sensor and Truepic is twice as fast all of a sudden. And that is what makes the new AI-AF possible. A firmware update for the old OM-1 cannot deliver this performance. So if you think that a firmware update could raise the OM-1 to the level of the OM-1 II, that will not be possible.

Nevertheless, a firmware update can implement the new AF algorithm in the OM-1, even if the OM-1 cannot achieve the speed of the OM-1 II. And of course the GND – it’s a pretty simple piece of software.