The answer to the question in the title of this post is yes, but with some qualifications. I've been taking solitary walks in local quiet places for exercise as per the UK's Covid-19 guidelines and have taken my Olympus E-M1X camera with me. And I've been shooting in the 50MP hand-held high-res mode for the majority of my pictures. Now this facility is very useful, but the question I posed myself was 'Is this some kind of gimmicky techno trickery or is it a genuine route to high-res, high quality images to rival those high pixel count full-frame mirrorless cameras or DSLR's ?'
The answer to this is, as I indicated a qualified yes. And very similar to the tripod mounted versions of the same idea on Olympus and Panasonic cameras. Because of the multiple exposures any significant movement has a blurring effect and sometimes this can be quite unpleasant. The shorter the exposure time however, the better the results. Several of the images above were shot in wind, but as you can see they have worked well.
Another 'problem' is that the images are slightly softer than those taken with a 'genuine' hi res sensor. Now it really isn't that much and can be easily compensated for with some sharpening in Photoshop. The tripod mode isn't any better so this softness is a result of the process.
Thirdly, after taking a shot you have to wait several seconds for the images to 'stitch' together to get the final result. So a number of images taken in a short space of time isn't possible.
However, taking into account of the above caveats it is a very useful facility and ideal for my kind of stock work. This is usually slow, considered and involves landscape or architectural subjects. And for that it is a good way to get 50MP hi res shots from a m4/3 sensor. It does obviously depend on the kind of material you shoot whether it will be useful for you. The camera also seems to make it's own decision as to whether a shot will work or not. If there is too much movement or if the camera thinks it cannot produce a decent image it simply won't do it. Fortunately, it also produces a normal 20MP image at the same time.
This leads to the camera producing this single shot as an .ORI file. If you use an alternative to the Olympus software it won't get recognised, however if you change the file to a .DNG that solves the problem and Photoshop recognises it.
I'm sure that over time Olympus will improve this facility, but even as it is, being able to shoot these hi res stacked images in raw or jpg makes using m4/3 much more versatile. 7/10 for me, but I expect to see a more complete option turning up on future Olympus cameras.
