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

Have just tested an OM-1 RAW file after post-processing it in ON1 2023 to see how well ON1 AI Resize performs. It's a shot on a grey day and massively enlarged from the original :

TESTING AI RESIZE by Robin Procter, on Flickr

Obviously the image has journeyed from ORF > TIFF > JPEG.
 
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RedRobin said:
.... I think it used to happen to me until I Saved a Custom-mode group of settings to one button - In my case the red button because I never shoot video.

It will always revert to your last Saved Custom settings as indeed it should be expected to.

It doesn't seem to happen any more anyway. Do you have the latest Firmware installed?
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Not on the OM-1 if you set it. It will remember what you last dialled in when you were on that Custom setting.

It used to work fine like that - then started reverting to settings that weren't actually set. I had to go into the menu for Custom settings, and the camera had changed the setting from Save to Reset. I've changed it back...
 
OM-1 heads up

Firmware v1.3 released today 24th Nov

Discussion here

Latest OM-1 firmware v1.3 released - Olympus UK E-System User Group

OM Digital Solutions released the latest firmware for the OM System OM-1 mirrorless camera on 24 November. The version number is Ver. 1.3. The update details are as follows. Contents of Ver.1.3 (citation needed). Improved C-AF performance when shooting still images. Improved C-AF performance...
www.e-group.uk.net
 
RedRobin said:
Have just tested an OM-1 RAW file after post-processing it in ON1 2023 to see how well ON1 AI Resize performs. It's a shot on a grey day and massively enlarged from the original :

TESTING AI RESIZE by Robin Procter, on Flickr

Obviously the image has journeyed from ORF > TIFF > JPEG.
Click to expand...
The water along the rails of the board looks a little odd, but otherwise looks pretty good to me. Are you upgrading On1? Do you still use Capture One?

I am mostly using Photolab which I have upgraded, but I also use Capture One occasionally. I still don't feel I've got the hang of sharpening with CO1. I'm trying to resist other software upgrades.

My resistance for the 8-25 was futile :ROFLMAO: - I have now purchased one, sadly too late for my recent trip to Spain where I used the 9-18 quite a lot after it having sat in the cupboard. I will be putting the 9-18 up for sale when I get round to it.

I tried an in camera focus stack the other day. This is SOOC other than ( a lot of ) downsizing. Obvs not a great pic, but I am really happy with the colours.

20221119-OB191100_1.jpg
 
Fabulous detail, I must give the in camera focus stacking a go!!

I have just upgraded to photolab6, wasn't going to, but my ability to resist was futile!! Definitely not upgrading Capture One though, it is way too expensive for my needs!
 
Olly B said:
Fabulous detail, I must give the in camera focus stacking a go!!

I have just upgraded to photolab6, wasn't going to, but my ability to resist was futile!! Definitely not upgrading Capture One though, it is way too expensive for my needs!
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I think the Photolab upgrade will be worthwhile. I love that I can use colour coding again. I've missed it since leaving Lightroom. I also love that they have finally added the ability to tweak your horizon whilst in crop mode by grabbing the corners.

I am hoping to resist the CO1 update, there's always next year :) I'll probably upgrade the Affinity suite as I use that to produce local newsletters and flyers.. and occasionally do some stacking or cloning in there, however the Photolab cloning/healing has drastically improved this time too.
 
Box Brownie said:
Looks like it has gone already!
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They do not hang around long given the waiting list which as I understand is nearly a year now I manged to buy a cancelled order from LCE not regretted it
 
jerry12953 said:
Yes, some of the unexpected changes relate to external knobs and levers but I'm sure I have had internal settings change as well. I just can't remember off hand individual cases.
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I've just had an example of internal settings changing. I had set one of my custom modes (C1) for landscapes, with ISO set at 200. On returning to C1, I discovered that it was set at L80. Now I MAY have moved it to L80 during a previous session but it should have returned to 200 on switching the camera off, shouldn't it?
 
jerry12953 said:
I've just had an example of internal settings changing. I had set one of my custom modes (C1) for landscapes, with ISO set at 200. On returning to C1, I discovered that it was set at L80. Now I MAY have moved it to L80 during a previous session but it should have returned to 200 on switching the camera off, shouldn't it?
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The default behaviour is to go back to the settings. However you can change this so that the last dialled settings are used. That’s the way I use it, and that’s what changed for me, unexpectedly.
 
Pound Coin said:
The default behaviour is to go back to the settings. However you can change this so that the last dialled settings are used. That’s the way I use it, and that’s what changed for me, unexpectedly.
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Thanks, the opposite of what happened to me then......... but I haven't changed it away from the default myself!
 
Bebop said:
The water along the rails of the board looks a little odd, but otherwise looks pretty good to me. Are you upgrading On1? Do you still use Capture One?

I am mostly using Photolab which I have upgraded, but I also use Capture One occasionally. I still don't feel I've got the hang of sharpening with CO1. I'm trying to resist other software upgrades.
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.... Water very often looks a little odd when captured in motion at 1/1000s shutter speeds and faster. The water is 'frozen' in all its infinite varieties of appearance. If I had shot this at slower shutter it wouldn't look odd at all but I also need to freeze the action of the surfer.

I don't use Capture One at all now and am not renewing my subscription in a couple of weeks. Using ON1 RAW 2023 now I have no need to apply Sharpening because the ON1 built-in NoNoise AI automatically does it just right - I have yet to need to fine tune it from default.

I only use Affinity Photo V2 to apply my watermark label after I have finished in ON1 but I use Affinity Publisher a lot for different work.
Bebop said:
My resistance for the 8-25 was futile :ROFLMAO: - I have now purchased one, sadly too late for my recent trip to Spain where I used the 9-18 quite a lot after it having sat in the cupboard. I will be putting the 9-18 up for sale when I get round to it.

I tried an in camera focus stack the other day. This is SOOC other than ( a lot of ) downsizing. Obvs not a great pic, but I am really happy with the colours.
Click to expand...
.... I haven't used my OM 8-25mm much but it has been very valuable to have when needed and will continue to be.
 
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So long winded post.



I decided not to bother saving up for a Sony A7 + a decent lens. Probably would have been looking at £2k second hand to get what I want.

I currently have an A700 + plus a few good longer lenses ( which I will keep for certain things ) and an m10 mk1.

So a more affordable option for me right now is a better Olympus.

So the choice is now m1 mk 2 or 3 or an m5 mk 2 ? I do find the flatter body of the m10 a bit small my my arthritis, so maybe the m1 is the better option.

Is there much difference that I am likely to notice with the mk3 over the mk2 m1 ?

Currently on the m10 I am just using the 14-42 pancake, so was thing of starting with a 12-40 f2.8 pro, I noticed there are 2 versions, about £200 between a ‘good’ mk1 and an ‘excellent’ mk2 on MPB. Is the mk2 that much better ?

Looking at it I could pick up a very good condition m1 mk2 and a mk1 12-40 for about £900
 
leaky5 said:
So long winded post.



I decided not to bother saving up for a Sony A7 + a decent lens. Probably would have been looking at £2k second hand to get what I want.

I currently have an A700 + plus a few good longer lenses ( which I will keep for certain things ) and an m10 mk1.

So a more affordable option for me right now is a better Olympus.

So the choice is now m1 mk 2 or 3 or an m5 mk 2 ? I do find the flatter body of the m10 a bit small my my arthritis, so maybe the m1 is the better option.

Is there much difference that I am likely to notice with the mk3 over the mk2 m1 ?

Currently on the m10 I am just using the 14-42 pancake, so was thing of starting with a 12-40 f2.8 pro, I noticed there are 2 versions, about £200 between a ‘good’ mk1 and an ‘excellent’ mk2 on MPB. Is the mk2 that much better ?

Looking at it I could pick up a very good condition m1 mk2 and a mk1 12-40 for about £900
Click to expand...

Have you considered the 12-45/4, smaller, lighter, weather resistant, excellent iq and cheaper albeit a stop slower.
E-M5 iii is another option worth considering, similar in function to the E-M1 ii
 
leaky5 said:
So long winded post.



I decided not to bother saving up for a Sony A7 + a decent lens. Probably would have been looking at £2k second hand to get what I want.

I currently have an A700 + plus a few good longer lenses ( which I will keep for certain things ) and an m10 mk1.

So a more affordable option for me right now is a better Olympus.

So the choice is now m1 mk 2 or 3 or an m5 mk 2 ? I do find the flatter body of the m10 a bit small my my arthritis, so maybe the m1 is the better option.

Is there much difference that I am likely to notice with the mk3 over the mk2 m1 ?

Currently on the m10 I am just using the 14-42 pancake, so was thing of starting with a 12-40 f2.8 pro, I noticed there are 2 versions, about £200 between a ‘good’ mk1 and an ‘excellent’ mk2 on MPB. Is the mk2 that much better ?

Looking at it I could pick up a very good condition m1 mk2 and a mk1 12-40 for about £900
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quite a lot between the 1mk2 and 1 mk3 especially if your doing land/sea scapes lots more useful bells and whistles .. although the output is similar the mk3 is far newer in terms of sensor tech .
 
the black fox said:
quite a lot between the 1mk2 and 1 mk3 especially if your doing land/sea scapes lots more useful bells and whistles .. although the output is similar the mk3 is far newer in terms of sensor tech .
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:plus1:
also the E-M5iii
 
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Although I often see wrens, I hardly ever get chance to photograph them. Last week I had two come quite close. This was taken using bird detect on the OM1 with the 300mm plus 1.4 extender, and processed with Capture One. I must say I do like the colours - thinking about upgrades to software. I think downsizing it may have robbed it of quality.

20221120-P1001147-C1.jpg
 
Bebop said:
Although I often see wrens, I hardly ever get chance to photograph them. Last week I had two come quite close. This was taken using bird detect on the OM1 with the 300mm plus 1.4 extender, and processed with Capture One. I must say I do like the colours - thinking about upgrades to software. I think downsizing it may have robbed it of quality.

View attachment 374749
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Your bang on focus on the eye/ beak . But stopping down a stop or two due to closeness would have helped .. often forgotten in th3 excitement of the moment
 
the black fox said:
Your bang on focus on the eye/ beak . But stopping down a stop or two due to closeness would have helped .. often forgotten in th3 excitement of the moment
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Thanks - it's actually the camera that managed it more than the me ha ha!

I have taken some highlights down as the branch was a little too bright but nothing was blown. I can't believe I managed to photograph two in one day - I must go out wearing the same (lucky) outfit again next time :)
 
the black fox said:
quite a lot between the 1mk2 and 1 mk3 especially if your doing land/sea scapes lots more useful bells and whistles .. although the output is similar the mk3 is far newer in terms of sensor tech .
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Hi Jeff - fancy seeing you here!

Not trying to be too contentious, but there is much more in common between the EM1.2 and EM1.3 in terms of sensor tech than there is different. As far as I can determine, the two sensors are fundamentally the same, but with two "enhancements" on the EM1.3:

  • There is a new anti-reflective coating on the top surface which increases light transmission a very small amount.
  • There are tweaks to the mid-grey raw levels which results in about a 1/3 stop increase in pixel numerical values (but these are pulled back to the same brightness either by the in-camera JPEG engine or your favourite PP package via a setting in the raw file that indicates grey-level).
The latter means that there is a slightly lower threshold for over-saturation if you push the exposure (i.e. less headroom to recover blown highlights) but it does lead to lower shadow noise. The overall DR is much the same, just that the EV range has slid a little to the right.

Overall though the practical changes are really marginal and the IQ is, to all intents and purposes, the same.
 
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leaky5 said:
Currently on the m10 I am just using the 14-42 pancake, so was thing of starting with a 12-40 f2.8 pro, I noticed there are 2 versions, about £200 between a ‘good’ mk1 and an ‘excellent’ mk2 on MPB. Is the mk2 that much better ?
Click to expand...

I had the M10 and upgraded to the M10ii several years ago. The M10ii is substantially better (stabilisation esp.) but I've not been tempted by the later M10 versions or the bigger bodies.
If the M10 is too small for you then I would probably look at the M1 over the M5. If you can get to a shop to compare them then I found the grip was the thing that felt bigger on the M5 and bigger again on the M1 though they are bigger all over anyway.

I upgraded from the 14-42 EZ pancake to the 12-40 PRO - I assume the mark 1 as it was used and a while back. It is dramatically better than the little pancake. It's quite big on the M10ii but not unusably so. The quality improvement was dramatic. At f2.8 it has replaced my f1.8 and f1.7 primes for most duties too.
 
AMcUK said:
I had the M10 and upgraded to the M10ii several years ago. The M10ii is substantially better (stabilisation esp.) but I've not been tempted by the later M10 versions or the bigger bodies.
If the M10 is too small for you then I would probably look at the M1 over the M5. If you can get to a shop to compare them then I found the grip was the thing that felt bigger on the M5 and bigger again on the M1 though they are bigger all over anyway.

I upgraded from the 14-42 EZ pancake to the 12-40 PRO - I assume the mark 1 as it was used and a while back. It is dramatically better than the little pancake. It's quite big on the M10ii but not unusably so. The quality improvement was dramatic. At f2.8 it has replaced my f1.8 and f1.7 primes for most duties too.
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Thanks, I am trying to think which way to go right now. Its going to be down to a m1 mk2 or mk3, just trying to work out if the extra few functions of the Mk3 are worth paying an extra £300 ish for.
I could go Mk3 and continue with the pancake for now, but it might be a while before I can afford any better lenses.
If I go for the Mk2 I can probably get one extra lens, like the 12-40 Pro.
Which ever way I go I will probably just get another 40-150 (the cheap one) to be my temp longer lens.
 
leaky5 said:
Thanks, I am trying to think which way to go right now. Its going to be down to a m1 mk2 or mk3, just trying to work out if the extra few functions of the Mk3 are worth paying an extra £300 ish for.
I could go Mk3 and continue with the pancake for now, but it might be a while before I can afford any better lenses.
If I go for the Mk2 I can probably get one extra lens, like the 12-40 Pro.
Which ever way I go I will probably just get another 40-150 (the cheap one) to be my temp longer lens.
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The EM10 mark 3 was a backward step in many ways. The camera has been dumbed down in firmware. It has the same sensor as the mark 2 so adds nothing in terms of IQ. I personally would not favour the 3 over the 2.

The 12-40 is superb - just get one!! It will make a MUCH bigger difference to your photography than the body.

EDIT - take a look too at the EM5 mark ii. Same sensor as the EM10 mark ii, but it's better built, has weather sealing, a better grip, an optional battery grip, a swivel screen, and some more features. They can be found now at decent prices.
 
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Pdk42 said:
The EM10 mark 3 was a backward step in many ways. The camera has been dumbed down in firmware. It has the same sensor as the mark 2 so adds nothing in terms of IQ. I personally would not favour the 3 over the 2.

The 12-40 is superb - just get one!! It will make a MUCH bigger difference to your photography than the body.

EDIT - take a look too at the EM5 mark ii. Same sensor as the EM10 mark ii, but it's better built, has weather sealing, a better grip, an optional battery grip, a swivel screen, and some more features. They can be found now at decent prices.
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I am looking at the m1, not the M10. I will most likely go for a Mk2 and a 12-40 to start with. That is just within budget
 
leaky5 said:
I am looking at the m1, not the M10. I will most likely go for a Mk2 and a 12-40 to start with. That is just within budget
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Oops, sorry. Must have got my wires crossed. The EM1.2 is a really good camera. It's 95% of the EM1.3. The later camera has a few extra things, but whether they are worth it or not is really a personal decision. From memory the main differences are:

- Improved face/eye detect (much improved)
- More flexible AF point configuration in CAF (horizontal line etc)
- HHHR
- LiveND
- Starry sky AF
- USB charging
- Extra C position on the dial
- Focus joystick
- Slightly faster operation
- MyMenu customisable page
- Menu button moved to top left
- Slight tweaks to sensor (see my post above)

For me, only HHHR and LiveND are really worth having, but even then I don't use them a lot. The extra res of HHHR isn't really much use IMHO, but it does help a lot in reducing shadow noise (esp when pushing later in PP). LiveND will do the same. I could live with the EM1.2 for what I do.
 
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I’ve only had the E-M1iii for a few days, but in my experience it does feel appreciably better in the hand than the Mk2 version. For my shooting, the joystick, HDR, and live hi-res made it worthwhile. It feels better than the sum of its parts. Regarding lenses, its soul mate is the 12-45 f4
 
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just had a custom made hand stitched leather strap made for my 1-mkiii looks good ,feels good and does the job .. she can make straps to order up to 50 inches in length if anyones interested
strap 1 by jeff cohen, on Flickr

strap 2 by jeff cohen, on Flickr
 
Just in case this is of interest?

I have often read on DPReview that the USA users can buy refurbished bodies but I have seen this link this morning showing that UK/EU also have the same opportunity.

OM SYSTEM Cameras, Lenses, Audio & Binoculars

shop.olympus.eu shop.olympus.eu

No idea how the prices compare to grey etc but as it is apparently covered by a Full Warranty it might be worth considering if needed :thinking:
 
Box Brownie said:
Just in case this is of interest?

I have often read on DPReview that the USA users can buy refurbished bodies but I have seen this link this morning showing that UK/EU also have the same opportunity.

OM SYSTEM Cameras, Lenses, Audio & Binoculars

shop.olympus.eu shop.olympus.eu

No idea how the prices compare to grey etc but as it is apparently covered by a Full Warranty it might be worth considering if needed :thinking:
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That looks quite good to me for the M1 Mk3 @ £950. I have seen a few 2nd hand at £899 and 1 even at £999
 
leaky5 said:
I could go Mk3 and continue with the pancake for now, but it might be a while before I can afford any better lenses.
If I go for the Mk2 I can probably get one extra lens, like the 12-40 Pro.
Which ever way I go I will probably just get another 40-150 (the cheap one) to be my temp longer lens.
Click to expand...

I think you'll see much more improvement from the better lens on the slightly older body than the newer body and the cheaper lens.
Even on your M10 I think you'd be surprised how much better your images are.
That said if your photography is in good light etc. then the pancake EZ is perfectly respectable.

The cheap 40-150 is a great little lens, much better than it's price tag and weight suggests.

Pdk42 said:
The 12-40 is superb - just get one!! It will make a MUCH bigger difference to your photography than the body.
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I think this speaks to what I've said (waves at Paul from e-group)
 
Ok trigger pulled an a VGC M1 M2. Ordered from WEX as it aslo comes with a 12 mth warrenty.

Just waiting for a few items to be confimed as delivered and then I have found a new 12-45 Pro for £400.

All being well, I should have about £400-500 for a final lens once a few other things clear.
 
one from Monday ,ten minutes after this the fog blew in and its not moved for three days ,you can see the edge of the fog bank just below the bird
hunting high by jeff cohen, on Flickr
 
The first E-M1X ended up going back to MPB before I had a chance to use it... Unfortunately, due to some major incompetence on the part of DPD, it's taken nearly a fortnight to get the replacement sorted but it finally arrived this morning. Usually when I get a new camera, it rains for a week solid but today was about as good as it could get. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to go for the Panasonic 100-400mm f/4.0-6.3 to put on it. Fortunately, the RSPB reserve at Ynys-Hir is only a 10 minute drive so I parked myself on the bench under the verandah of the visitor centre and waited to see what turned up. Back the other way to Aberystwyth beach this evening to see if the starlings were in the mood to dance. I've got a ton of configuring to do with the camera but first impressions of both the camera and the lens are very favourable. The lens isn't what I'm used to (I always used to use fast primes) but money's a bit tighter these days so this is something of a compromise but one I'm happy with thus far. :)

EM1X0218.jpg

EM1X0320.jpg

EM1X0026.jpg

EM1X0081.jpg
 
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