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| Image: OM-System |
The OM System OM-3 gave users quick and easy control over its deeply customizable picture profiles with its control knob on the front of the camera. Now, the company has made it easier to find and download custom recipes made by others with its newly launched OM-3 Recipes hub.
When OM System launched the OM-3 in February, it iterated on the “Creative Dial” feature from the PEN-F, providing quick access to various color profiles for JPEG files. The camera came with several preset options, but also allowed users to customize various parameters, including sharpness, contrast, vignetting, virtual color filter, simulated grain, individual saturation control of 12 hues and more. Customizing those parameters to create a recipe can be time-consuming, though, especially if you’re trying to match a specific aesthetic.
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| Each recipe offers a brief description with the photographer’s name. |
The OM-3 Recipes hub, however, lets you download recipes uploaded by other users, allowing for creative looks without fiddling with individual settings. The new hub currently features six recipes, each developed by a different photographer and providing a distinct look. For example, Jerred Z’s recipe is a monochrome profile with soft midtones, deep shadows and some grain. Kyler Steele’s profile is described as a “vintage inspired recipe that focuses on vibrant greens and golden yellows while stripping away blues.” The hub also features a section to check out images taken with OM-3 Recipes to find inspiration and see what others are creating.
Installing still requires quite a few steps, but it is at least easier than inputting specific parameters (something you have to do with, say, Fujifilm’s recipe system). To install a recipe, photographers need to download the image associated with the recipe, plug the camera into a computer via USB-C and open the OM Workspace app. You aren’t able to install recipes using the OI.Share mobile app. Renaming the recipes is also not entirely ideal, as it can only be done on the camera itself after they’ve been installed. You can see the full installation instructions on the OM Recipes hub website.
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| You can submit your own recipes as well. |
Users can also submit their own recipes using a form on the hub. The form asks for basic information like name, email address and Instagram account, along with the recipe name and description. It also asks for a JPEG file straight from the OM-3 that used the recipe.
Using recipes is currently a big trend in the photography world. Panasonic’s take is the Lumix Lab, Ricoh says it’s trying to do something similar for the GR IV and Nikon is slowly rolling out something similar for its cameras. Additionally, while Fujifilm doesn’t have a hub for easily sharing recipes (one of DPReview staffer Mitchell Clark’s complaints with the X-E5), it’s giving you more control over them than it has in the past.
You can learn more about the OM-3 Recipes hub and download the available recipes at the OM System website.
Our DPREVIEW Tribute:
After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview closed on 10 April 2023. This difficult decision was part of the annual operating plan review that parent company, Amazon, shared earlier this year.
Over the course of 25 years, DP Review built up a reputation as being one of the most informative places to go for information about that new camera or lens you’re after. DP Review began as an independent reviews site based in the UK in 1998, the brainchild of Philip and Joanna Askey, but it was eventually purchased by Amazon in 2007 and relocated over to Seattle in the USA in 2010.
Cheers DPReview – thanks for the great work and content that guided photographers, videographers and techno junkies the world over!