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

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Didn't venture far yesterday, what with the snow and general freezing conditions, but this was from the end of our footpath.

Settle Weir by Stephen Lee, on Flickr
 
I visited an area tha has lots of red kites yesterday morning and got this image.
I'm still learning to use the camera, and in an effort to improve focus, I tried stopping down to F9. I won't bother doing that again as it didn't seem to improve my "hit rate". This image is at ISO 2000, 1/2000s, and I am fairly sure that it could have been taken at about ISO 500, 1/800s.

RedKite2TPB286011.jpg
 
Don153 said:
I visited an area tha has lots of red kites yesterday morning and got this image.
I'm still learning to use the camera, and in an effort to improve focus, I tried stopping down to F9. I won't bother doing that again as it didn't seem to improve my "hit rate". This image is at ISO 2000, 1/2000s, and I am fairly sure that it could have been taken at about ISO 500, 1/800s.

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You don’t mention body or lens used , but assuming your using one of the 1 series bodies and a long reach lens ,you will find no benefit in stopping down ,my 100-400 lens has rarely gone beyond f6.3 and I find no loss of sharpness using that . In fact the majority of Olympus lenses are sharp wide open only needing stopping down to increase dof .. third party lenses do need a degree of stop down though .
When you switch from a DSLR to Olympus basically you have to re.learn how to use it .. and play around with the myriad of settings till you find what suits you .. I.e a lot of advise says to use low speed burst as it refocuses every shot ,but I find I get better results using high speed , others users also tend to shun the silent shutter modes preferring the feedback you get from the mechanical shutter , personally I also prefer single front shutter button use rather than back button focus .
Lots of different ways to skin a cat
 
the black fox said:
You don’t mention body or lens used , but assuming your using one of the 1 series bodies and a long reach lens ,you will find no benefit in stopping down ,my 100-400 lens has rarely gone beyond f6.3 and I find no loss of sharpness using that . In fact the majority of Olympus lenses are sharp wide open only needing stopping down to increase dof .. third party lenses do need a degree of stop down though .
When you switch from a DSLR to Olympus basically you have to re.learn how to use it .. and play around with the myriad of settings till you find what suits you .. I.e a lot of advise says to use low speed burst as it refocuses every shot ,but I find I get better results using high speed , others users also tend to shun the silent shutter modes preferring the feedback you get from the mechanical shutter , personally I also prefer single front shutter button use rather than back button focus .
Lots of different ways to skin a cat
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I forgot to put camera and lens details - now added!
I'm fairly new to photography, and I was wondering if an increased depth of field would help with focus. It didn't - for me at least. ( I'm not at the stage yet where I would see a difference in sharpness by using the lens at optimum aperture.)

I've really been struggling with the autofocus, but as you say I've been playing around with the settings, and I'm beginning to improve things. I'm getting about 20% in relatively good focus, which is a vast improvement on a month ago!
 
Don153 said:
I forgot to put camera and lens details - now added!
I'm fairly new to photography, and I was wondering if an increased depth of field would help with focus. It didn't - for me at least. ( I'm not at the stage yet where I would see a difference in sharpness by using the lens at optimum aperture.)

I've really been struggling with the autofocus, but as you say I've been playing around with the settings, and I'm beginning to improve things. I'm getting about 20% in relatively good focus, which is a vast improvement on a month ago!
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not sure what you are using , but try the smallest single point a/f for bird on the ground and cluster focus (all points) for b.i.f . high or low speed burst and CAF on its own .do not use tracking . I find the other focus point groupings 5/9/ etc tend to miss target and the large single can sometimes focus on something outside the subject i.e a twig or grass blade .olympus shutter buttons are very sensitive to so just apply a gentle touch
 
the black fox said:
not sure what you are using , but try the smallest single point a/f for bird on the ground and cluster focus (all points) for b.i.f . high or low speed burst and CAF on its own .do not use tracking . I find the other focus point groupings 5/9/ etc tend to miss target and the large single can sometimes focus on something outside the subject i.e a twig or grass blade .olympus shutter buttons are very sensitive to so just apply a gentle touch
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I have C1 and C2 set for ground, and in flight. C1 is set to single point, manual, back button focus (sounds contradictory, but it works. I can focus with the AEL button and then manually adjust focus). C2 is 5x5 cluster CA, without tracking.
However, I suspect that I haven't got the "smallest" single point selected on my C1 - I have to check this when I get home. My ground bird shots on Sunday were all focussed a bit forward of the bird, and I was coming to the conclusion that the single point autofocus didn't work - doh! Your post might have saved me an awful lot of hassle.
 
I find the C1 C2 settings annoying in that you switch to them, then make changes, and if you switch the camera off, they just default to what they were before. I know that is probably sensible, but it isn't if you are out in the field, and are in the habit of switching the camera off for things like a pee or tea break.
 
The reason I don’t like BBF on the Olympus is this , I quite often get asked by others why am I not getting in focus shots .( them not me) And nine times out of ten it’s BBF ,as I said before the shutter button on the Olympus is extremely sensitive ,people focus with the back button and then depress the shutter DSLR style thereby depressing the rig/lens off target ..
Up to you I would personally switch it off learn the two stage front button method half depress obtain focus then fire also make a habit of checking where your focus point has actually landed either on camera screen or via software .
 
Pound Coin said:
I find the C1 C2 settings annoying in that you switch to them, then make changes, and if you switch the camera off, they just default to what they were before. I know that is probably sensible, but it isn't if you are out in the field, and are in the habit of switching the camera off for things like a pee or tea break.
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I've been finding the same thing. I've decided that I will have to change the custom settings every time that I go out. Saturday was very dull, but Sunday was sunny. So on Sunday I changed the shutter speed for both C1 and C2. In future, I'll check them at the start of every session. I did struggle with the custom settings at first, but I seem to be getting to grips with them now.

Oe thing that puzzled me was that I had set the IBIS off for C2 (in flight) and the image data was saying "IS-Auto". Some experiments this evening reveal that this was caused by the IS on the camera LENS. In future, I will switch this off manually. While I was investigating this, I compared the lens vs the IBIS. The tests were not very scientific, but the lens on its own was very impressive. I managed 1/4 s shots at full 400mm zoom that were tack sharp!
 
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Pound Coin said:
I find the C1 C2 settings annoying in that you switch to them, then make changes, and if you switch the camera off, they just default to what they were before. I know that is probably sensible, but it isn't if you are out in the field, and are in the habit of switching the camera off for things like a pee or tea break.
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Don153 said:
I've been finding the same thing. I've decided that I will have to change the custom settings every time that I go out. Saturday was very dull, but Sunday was sunny. So on Sunday I changed the shutter speed for both C1 and C2. In future, I'll check them at the start of every session. I did struggle with the custom settings at first, but I seem to be getting to grips with them now.

Oe thing that puzzled me was that I had set the IBIS off for C2 (in flight) and the image data was saying "IS-Auto". Some experiments this evening reveal that this was caused by the IS on the camera. In future, I will switch this off manually. While I was investigating this, I compared the lens vs the IBIS. The tests were not very scientific, but the lens on its own was very impressive. I managed 1/4 s shots at full 400mm zoom that were tack sharp!
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I no longer have an Olympus. But I’m sure there’s a menu setting that allows changes to custom settings during shooting to be updated/saved when switching modes or switching off.
 
Pound Coin said:
I find the C1 C2 settings annoying in that you switch to them, then make changes, and if you switch the camera off, they just default to what they were before. I know that is probably sensible, but it isn't if you are out in the field, and are in the habit of switching the camera off for things like a pee or tea break.
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Don153 said:
I've been finding the same thing. I've decided that I will have to change the custom settings every time that I go out. Saturday was very dull, but Sunday was sunny. So on Sunday I changed the shutter speed for both C1 and C2. In future, I'll check them at the start of every session. I did struggle with the custom settings at first, but I seem to be getting to grips with them now.

Oe thing that puzzled me was that I had set the IBIS off for C2 (in flight) and the image data was saying "IS-Auto". Some experiments this evening reveal that this was caused by the IS on the camera. In future, I will switch this off manually. While I was investigating this, I compared the lens vs the IBIS. The tests were not very scientific, but the lens on its own was very impressive. I managed 1/4 s shots at full 400mm zoom that were tack sharp!
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trevorbray said:
I no longer have an Olympus. But I’m sure there’s a menu setting that allows changes to custom settings during shooting to be updated/saved when switching modes or switching off.
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Here it is. Watch until the end

View: https://youtu.be/4nwmPftoYPA
 
Stephen L said:
Interesting. On my E-M1 Mk2, the option to update or reset custom mode settings does not appear. I wonder if this only applies to the Mk3? I am on the latest firmware.
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Hadn’t realised that Stephen. Bummer. I’ve recently sold all my M43 gear. Seriously thinking I might have been a bit hasty.
 
Just aquired a EE-1 dot sight ,thanks to paypals xmas draw . Just need to calibrate it now ..for what I do these days I can’t see any reason to change brands. Only ordered it yesterday arrived this morning .

Yesterdays was a bumper day . First a Pergear 60mm 2:1 macro turned up ,xmas pressie from the family so quick check and back in the box till the 25th .

Then i had a lens from a friend a four thirds 11-22 F2.8 . My gear is now expanding to cover all eventualities
 
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Fordsabroad said:
Can anyone recommend 3rd party batteries for the m1 markiii please?
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Tried Duracell poor quality Expro just as bad so have stuck with Olympus batteries Others may have had a better exeperiance
 
Fordsabroad said:
Can anyone recommend 3rd party batteries for the m1 markiii please?
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I have used Hahnel successfully in the past.
Also bought a couple of used genuine ones from MPB which have held a charge well

Just seen genuine ones for 58 quid on Amazon, definitely the way I would go
 
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tijuana taxi said:
Just seen genuine ones for 58 quid on Amazon, definitely the way I would go
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One of those arrived just yesterday. I was sceptical but it appears genuine.
 
mazdaman said:
Tried Duracell poor quality Expro just as bad so have stuck with Olympus batteries Others may have had a better exeperiance
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I’ve always trusted ExPro in other cameras, and had one for my E-M1ii, but I lost it before I had given it a good test. :(
 
Too late for Fordsabroad, but I have been using these since the beginning of September:

They seem to last at least as long as the Olympus battery and they do show their status on the LCD exactly the same as the official battery. I have tried these batteries in the Olympus charger, and they charge just fine. I have also charged the Olympus battery in this charger - and that seems to work fine too.

[edit] I should add that I normally charge "in camera" after I upload my images to the pc vis the USB.
 
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Stephen L said:
Love the light giving a halo effect through the primaries.
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yeah you have to shoot directly into the light at this spot depending on time of day and weather ,thanks for the comment many hundreds more to go though to
 
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