Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV Clean HDMI out?

Hi all

I just purchased the new Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV yesterday, and my primary need is to use it as a fancy web camera. The Mark I had the "record mode" in HDMI settings to remove the overlay from the HDMI settings, and you could long-press the Mark II and III info button to achieve the same thing. I obviously thought that they had just kept this functionality in the new version, but I just connected it to my computer, and the long-press on the info button does not remove the overlay. There is nothing in the manual that describes how to make this happen. With the USB charging, it seemed like the perfect upgrade to use as webcam/streaming camera, but now I'm afraid that Olympus has killed this functionality.

Does anyone know how to remove the overlay on the HDMI output of the new mark IV?

mksl wrote:

There are menu settings to remove all items on the mIII which does work for the LCD, but sadly in the same display mode the HDMI output still *does* show the battery level indicator.

Same goes on my Mark IV. The least cluttered HDMI display shows the battery state and the grid I selected, same choices as on the LCD in shooting mode.

The original post is old, but I feel it is worth reviving.

Henry

Olympus has omitted the OM-D E-M10 IV from the compatibility list for its beta Webcam software. The higher-priced cameras which are supported have a USB C port, but this is not a question of USB speed. The Mark IV micro USB port has enough speed to support the undemanding  data rates of web conferencing.

This is a perplexing situation. There are $29 web cams which one can select and position on a mini-tripod which are a better choice than an $800 camera body with no connectivity support.

Why should I spend over $1000 for an Olympus camera which is supported on the beta Webcam release? The Mark IV is an incredible value, and is in my experience the best choice under $1200, regardless of format. I would suggest that Olympus product managers look again at their position relative to competitors who do support webcam use in their $600-$700 cameras: Sony, Fujifilm come to mind.

I tried the beta software on an M1 MacBook Air connected with an Apple USB C to B converter, with the original Olympus charge cable into the camera micro USB port. With Cisco Webex Enterprise conferencing, the choice of Olympus camera appears. But when selected, the image is black.

Fixing this situation with a firmware release is an easy solution; support for clean HDMI out is just as easy. If there’s an under 30-minute limit on video recording, override it as well. No need to record to SD media on a web conference; recording is a feature of good conferencing anyway.

I look forward to Olympus advertising that tells customers about its newest under-$1,000 out-of-the box, ready for premium web conferencing super camera!

Oh, and fix the lack of audio support, too. And then pair this body with the new LS-P5 recorder for the best solution in web conferencing at any price.

I suppose there’s a way to use video output from the camera’s micro HDMI output, but this requires an additional purchase of something like a BlackMagic HDMI to USB C converter.

Anyone with experience using the micro HDMI for conferencing? Is the output clean? If not, why not? More expensive cameras support the rear LCD for exposure and power display. It’s a software feature and Olympus should get behind it.