Olympus turns focus towards video – RAW over HDMI coming soon to E-M1X and E-M1 III

Just a few days ago, Japan Industrial Partners, the company taking over Olympus’ Imaging division stated that they were going to start putting more of a focus on video. Well, it seems their focus has shifted sooner than anybody expected.

Today, Olympus has announced the development of a new firmware update, being created in collaboration with Atomos, to allow the Olympus OM-D E-M1X and OM-D E-M1 Mark III mirrorless cameras to output RAW over HDMI, allowing them to take advantage of ProRes RAW recording in the Atomos Ninja V.

Development of firmware that enables the RAW video data output from Olympus Mirrorless Cameras to the ATOMOS NINJA V HDR Monitor Recorder

Olympus Corporation (President: Yasuo Takeuchi) is pleased to announce the development of firmware that enables output of RAW video data from Olympus OM-D E-M1X and Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III mirrorless cameras to the ATOMOS NINJA V HDR monitor recorder. Development is under way in collaboration with ATOMOS. Data is recorded to the ATOMOS NINJA V as Apple ProRes RAW for flexible image editing. This lends greater flexibility to professional video production post-processing tasks such as adjusting exposure and color grading recorded footage. The firmware is scheduled for release in winter 2020.

Olympus will continue supporting authentic video production and further improve hand-held high-definition video recording via compact, lightweight system thanks to unrivaled portability and powerful in-body 5-axis image stabilization.

Beyond “winter 2020”, there’s no word on exactly when we’ll see the firmware, nor if Atomos and Olympus will release both of their respective firmware on the same day. Sometimes the Ninja V is ahead of the camera, sometimes the camera’s ahead of the Ninja V and sometimes they do both come at the same time. So, we’ll see.

We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.