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Full-frame sensors have been stealing the limelight for what feels like an eternity. There has been a seemingly endless flood of great-on-paper full-frame mirrorless cameras hitting the headlines in recent years, and not just high-end options like the Nikon Z9, Canon EOS R3 and Sony Alpha 1, but also more-affordable choices like the Nikon Z5, Canon EOS R6 and Sony a7 Mark IV. You could be forgiven for thinking that nobody’s making cameras with smaller sensors anymore.

That’s not quite true, of course. Apparently, the APS-C size sensor (~1.5x crop factor) is not dead: We have the brand new Canon EOS R7 and EOS R10, the Nikon Z50 and new Z30, and Sony’s “venerable” a6000 line, including the flagship a6600 (which is overdue for a refresh). And then we have Micro Four Thirds with its 2x crop factor. That’s alive and kicking, too: February this year saw the release of two top-end bodies—the very-long-awaited Panasonic Lumix GH6 and the first camera under the OM System brand, the OM-1.

It’s the OM-1 that’s the target of Backscatter’s latest gear review coming out of the recent Digital Shootout, and reviewer Jim Decker wastes no time addressing the sensor size question. In short, yes, resolution takes a hit, but there’s one huge benefit for traveling underwater shooters—a much smaller lens lineup, and correspondingly, a much more compact, lighter rig overall. But the real question is, of course: How well does the OM-1 perform underwater? To answer that, Jim considers all the usual points of interest, including image and video quality, subject tracking, and white balance performance. For Jim, it’s a mixed bag, but for stills, the OM-1 impresses, with Backscatter crowning it “the best 4/3 camera that a photo shooter can have right now.”

Read the full review to find out the details.