Olympus OM-D E-M5, E-M1, E-M10 - Mk1, Mk2 & Mk3 Owners Thread

Took my E-M1 to my cousins wedding today...


Mr & Mrs by thebloater, on Flickr


Best Man by thebloater, on Flickr


Bride & Groom by thebloater, on Flickr


Wedding by thebloater, on Flickr


Just Married by thebloater, on Flickr

My thoughts?

  • I like the E-M1 layout, grip and it's comfortable and feels good to hold.
  • The Olympus 75mm renders a lovely bokeh wide open and is incredibly sharp.
  • The 12-40 is another sharp lens and the zoom is useful at constant f2.8.
  • Even at ISO2000 I am starting to see noise creeping in and the muddy loss of detail is worse than I'd expect.
  • I was really struggling with the AF - for example people walking towards me down the aisle and my nephew moving about.
Overall the E-M1 and 12-40 / 75mm / 20mm lenses performed well, but I got quite a number of mushy detail shots in the church and a lot more OOF shots than would have liked.

Any tips for setting up the AF and maybe adjusting the high ISO NR please?
 
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I've got an em10, and just bought the 45mm f1.8. I've only played around a little bit, but straight away noticed af struggling in low light (the last 8 weeks with kit lens it never crossed my mind) . It seems much better on af-s. Af-c is almost unuseable, since it just hunts constantly. All this in quite low lighting indoors, but the kit lens didn't struggle in the same conditions, and I would expect a faster lens to be better in these situation. From experience with the kit lens, the face detection works great for focusing on people moving around, it really works pretty well (is this classed as cheating?!)

I've also got a d610 and do notice the lower ISO performance, so I'm maybe I'm spoiled a little. It's not a BFO dslr after all.

Obviously I've got the little brother, but should be comparable?

Some great shots there(y)
 
Does it do it when the lens is stopped down? F1.8 could be too shallow a dof for it to lock onto something? Is there plenty of contrast? Interesting comment for sure. Hope it improves for you.
 
seventythree said:
I've got an em10, and just bought the 45mm f1.8. I've only played around a little bit, but straight away noticed af struggling in low light (the last 8 weeks with kit lens it never crossed my mind) . It seems much better on af-s. Af-c is almost unuseable, since it just hunts constantly. All this in quite low lighting indoors, but the kit lens didn't struggle in the same conditions, and I would expect a faster lens to be better in these situation. From experience with the kit lens, the face detection works great for focusing on people moving around, it really works pretty well (is this classed as cheating?!)

I've also got a d610 and do notice the lower ISO performance, so I'm maybe I'm spoiled a little. It's not a BFO dslr after all.

Obviously I've got the little brother, but should be comparable?

Some great shots there(y)
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It's not cheating I use it all the while on kids and candid shots.;)

CAF as never been terribly good on MFT and still is not, I tend to use SAF most of the time.

As for the 45mm f1.8 and 75mm f1.8 I in SAF I find on static subjects in low light focus is nearly always instantanious and I tend to shoot them both wide open.

 
I raised the saf/caf question on a m43 forum and they all said the same, basically caf is next to useless but saf is so quick it doesn't matter and I have to agree, and that from someone who always uses back button focus and caf almost exclusively on my DSLR.

I've the em10 too and find it great because of its portability, sort of like carrying a tiny low end SLR.
 
minnnt said:
Does it do it when the lens is stopped down? F1.8 could be too shallow a dof for it to lock onto something? Is there plenty of contrast? Interesting comment for sure. Hope it improves for you.
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:agree: This is exactly what I find if at use my nikon 85mm at 1.8 on moving subjects, it will just miss the focus most of the time.
 
Interesting, thanks for the responses. I was on S-AF the whole time.

I will Percy Veer as I love the whole system and the E-M1 is a great body - I got some really nice keepers in amongst the missed focus and mushy low light ones - typically most of the shots I like to take are of static subjects or people standing still so using lower ISO and longer shutter speeds wouldn't normally be an issue.

I didn't have any issues with hunting and focus lock was snappy as usual - just appears as though the subject had moved out of the shallow DoF area by the time the shutter had gone off.

Maybe my technique needs a polish too :)
 
good to know the above. I might try slowing down the aperture and see how that fairs, it might be the DOF that's not helping the focus.

I'll steer clear of C-AF, and any issues otherwise I would think is down to my technique also.

Great little camera's. They have their their limitiations that's for sure, especially when compared to higher end DSLR. (owning both, I disagree with general comments around the forum that m4/3 camera's are equal to and sometimes exceed DSLR's) however it doesn't distract from being a fantastic little camera, especially once you get your head around the features and menu systems.
 
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There's always the option of manual focus too. The other day I was using my 12-40 and found the manual focus quite useful in an aquarium when the AF kept misfocussing/selecting the wrong target. The distance scale is very useful.
 
Llamaman said:
There's always the option of manual focus too. The other day I was using my 12-40 and found the manual focus quite useful in an aquarium when the AF kept misfocussing/selecting the wrong target. The distance scale is very useful.
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Absolutely the M10 has a wonderful zoom through the viewfinder which gives much greater accuracy than the AF - of course you need a static subject (of at least a pretty still one) and its a bit odd at first but its really good.
 
Focus peaking is excellent to if you are going manual, only slight negative being the slow down in refresh.
 
Slow to refresh plus on my kit lens the peaking was much wider than the final focus seemed to be, that's why (after a recommendation) switch to magnify and manual adjust.
 
Using contrast-detect autofocus such as we have on the E-M1 or E-M10 it will be more accurate than your DSLR at all apertures. The downside of contrast-detect is that it doesn't have target position (in front of, behind the focus position) information available as phase-detect does and therefore has a lot more trouble tracking.
 
minnnt said:
Doesn't a DSLR have both?
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Any SLR with live view, yes. But it's much slower than the equivalent in mirrorless cameras. Firstly because mirrorless manufacturers have spent a lot more time perfecting it than the main SLR manufacturers, but mostly because SLR lenses are not designed for the small rack-back-and-forth movements that contrast-detect requires.
 
Yeah I'd seen that, so what are you moving too and what did you find wrong with the m1 (and I guess m43 as you sold then lenses too)
 
JohnN said:
Yeah I'd seen that, so what are you moving too and what did you find wrong with the m1 (and I guess m43 as you sold then lenses too)
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Still got a GX1, P14, P20, P14-42, S7.5 fisheye and an O45.

The E-M1 was a great camera and coupled with the 12-40 it produced very sharp images but it is too big !

For me, it is clear (yes I change my mind like the weather) that the camera system needs to be as small and light as possible or I won't take it out of the cupboard.

So I'm probably going to stick with the above and maybe add a P12-35 2.8 or get a GM1 and 12-32.

Whilst I love fast sharp prime lenses, and am fussy about image quality, for the most part it is more important to just have a camera with me so ultimate IQ takes second place.

M43 still factors in my future :)
 
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Oh, I just figured as you'd sold the 75 1.8 (which if I'd had the cash or you'd wanted a 24-105 I'd have had), which people keep telling me is just about the best lens going that you were abandoning the format.

By the way great to see someone with worse gas than me
 
bl0at3r said:
Still got a GX1, P14, P20, P14-42, S7.5 fisheye and an O45.

The E-M1 was a great camera and coupled with the 12-40 it produced very sharp images but it is too big !

For me, it is clear (yes I change my mind like the weather) that the camera system needs to be as small and light as possible or I won't take it out of the cupboard.

So I'm probably going to stick with the above and maybe add a P12-35 2.8 or get a GM1 and 12-32.

Whilst I love fast sharp prime lenses, and am fussy about image quality, for the most part it is more important to just have a camera with me so ultimate IQ takes second place.

M43 still factors in my future :)
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What you need is an E-M5 :):D
 
Could be an interesting time for you E-M1 video types out there, looks like 4K video just from a firmware update may actually be real! - Link
Thats a pretty good way to breath life into a camera :)

Doubt it will come to mine, but hey thats at least one more thing to separate the expensive bodies from the cheaper ones - plus it'll give Panasonic a bit of a scare.
 
JohnN said:
Could be an interesting time for you E-M1 video types out there, looks like 4K video just from a firmware update may actually be real! - Link
Thats a pretty good way to breath life into a camera :)

Doubt it will come to mine, but hey thats at least one more thing to separate the expensive bodies from the cheaper ones - plus it'll give Panasonic a bit of a scare.
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4K and IBIS = Nice
 
As its an import you could just get it grey anyway brand new for the exact same price (well actually less if you do the bank transfer thing)

Edit: Or the above - only £4 more and new.
 
dd1989 said:
How would the warranty work?
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bl0at3r said:
Anyone else got experience of Olympus warranty?

Got my camera from HDEW but the serial number was accepted just now on Olympus UK product registration page and apparently I now have a UK warranty.

Either;

  • their website does not know what country the serial number originates from and this would be checked/picked up in the event of trying to make a warranty claim in the UK.

  • they honour cameras in the UK for warranty work that have originated from overseas
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Annoyingly Fuji won't post an item over £500 to a non billing address. Bummer! That's 500 miles away from where I stay now.
 
minnnt said:
Take a look at Panamoz.
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Interesting. Had a Google around and t's a bit unclear about where they are sourcing stuff from? I know they supply their own warrant but what about manufacturing warranty?
 
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