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

I have the 35mm macro, well not in my posession, I perma lent the FT kit to a good friend, but the 60mm current macro lens beats it into a cocked posset! The focus stack ability and the extra distance to target wins hands down. Oh, I also have the sigma, fits my never used canon thing, way too big and heavy.
 
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.... I wasn't sure about this one at first because of the strong coloured treatment but now it has grown on me and I think the colours bring out her tattoos very well. I very much liked your earlier shot of the same lady in soft mono. Much of it is just personal taste.

EDIT : I have been surfing around your Flickr pages and really like the wide variety of your work.
Thanks Robin for your comment it's always appreciated good or bad and like you state it's always a personal thing with post processing.
I do like to do something a little different at times but sadly I sometimes question my choice afterwarrds.
I love the work you turn out the pelican shots are something else !
 
I have the 35mm macro, well not in my posession, I perma lent the FT kit to a good friend, but the 60mm current macro lens beats it into a cocked posset! The focus stack ability and the extra distance to target wins hands down. Oh, I also have the sigma, fits my never used canon thing, way too big and heavy.

.... I have only just bought the Olympus 60mm Macro and being fairly new to Olympus and m4/3 (since November 2019) I can only compare it with the Canon EF 100mm Macro which is a lens renowned for its sharpness and quality. So far I am absolutely amazed at the high quality of this tiny toilet-roll-sized Olympus 60mm Macro!

I also bought an Olympus STF-8 Twin Flash which will mount on both the 60mm Macro and the Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro - The 12-40mm focusses as close as 7 inches! I have always avoided faffing around with flash and all the calculations but the STF-8 is easy-peasy to use and very logical - Extremely well designed and even weatherproof to Olympus Pro standard. Expensive but aren't most flash units of this type?

On the M1X and M1 Mark III the STF-8 allows for onboard camera Focus Stacking and (?)Bracketing < Something else to learn!

I'll post images and more comments about it in due course but want to finish my somewhat extensive Pelicans album first!
 
Quick question. When I purchased a spare genuine Olympus BLH-1 battery for my EM1 MK II, it came in a small plastic storage box. I now have 5 batteries but only one of the storage boxes. Anyone know if these are available to purchase ?
 
Thanks Robin for your comment it's always appreciated good or bad and like you state it's always a personal thing with post processing.
I do like to do something a little different at times but sadly I sometimes question my choice afterwarrds.
I love the work you turn out the pelican shots are something else !

.... I think it's very healthy for us all to question our own processing choices afterwards - It's how we develop ourselves and potentially improve. However, there is danger of becoming restrictive if we are over critical of our efforts.

The Pelicans at Lake Kerkini Greece are a great subject and have been much photographed by others. The light on the lake this February was very changeable and of course the water surface and big sky played a large part in varying the captured colours. Before going I was a bit concerned that my efforts there would either fall short of work by other photographers I admire or at best look too much the same as theirs. But, somehow I managed to stamp my own style on most of them. Fortunately Guy Edwardes (my host) knows me well enough to let me get on with what I want and not to herd me with the others. In April I am going to another part of Greece with him primarily for landscapes but also some mini-beast macro shots. I have a lot to learn about photographing landscapes but Guy, who specialises in wildlife and landscapes, will be teaching me a lot < I had better warn him!

The Lake Kerkini Pelicans could not have been a better test for me shooting on the Olympus M1X Pro system. I ain't changing!! I am now both converted and addicted!!

:olympus:

FRIENDLY PELICANS by Robin Procter, on Flickr

Did you know that the Pelican species are over 30 million years old!?
 
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Quick question. When I purchased a spare genuine Olympus BLH-1 battery for my EM1 MK II, it came in a small plastic storage box. I now have 5 batteries but only one of the storage boxes. Anyone know if these are available to purchase ?

.... I don't know the definitive answer but phone Olympus UK Customer Support on 00 800 67108300 - Mon-Thurs 8am-5pm, Friday 8am-3:30pm. They are all extremely helpful and no query is too unimportant to them - I often phone them!

The only hassle is that the Olympus shop ships from abroad and delivery times can be disappointing.
 
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Another stunning pelican shot robin , and like you after 6 months with the system I’m fully converted , yes there are downsides but very easily overcome with thought ..
I just wish that some longer length lenses would come along fed up waiting .. some good news though from Olympus they have allowed at least 3 other companies to share the MFT protocol ,including a couple of the Chinese Lens companies so things may change for the better soon .
Just wish sigma was one of them imagine a 150-600 in MFT mount
 
Quick question. When I purchased a spare genuine Olympus BLH-1 battery for my EM1 MK II, it came in a small plastic storage box. I now have 5 batteries but only one of the storage boxes. Anyone know if these are available to purchase ?
Last time I contacted Olympus they didn't sell them separately and I couldn't find any third party ones.
.... I think it's very healthy for us all to question our own processing choices afterwards - It's how we develop ourselves and potentially improve. However, there is danger of becoming restrictive if we are over critical of our efforts.

The Pelicans at Lake Kerkini Greece are a great subject and have been much photographed by others. The light on the lake this February was very changeable and of course the water surface and big sky played a large part in varying the captured colours. Before going I was a bit concerned that my efforts there would either fall short of work by other photographers I admire or at best look too much the same as theirs. But, somehow I managed to stamp my own style on most of them. Fortunately Guy Edwardes (my host) knows me well enough to let me get on with what I want and not to herd me with the others. In April I am going to another part of Greece with him primarily for landscapes but also some mini-beast macro shots. I have a lot to learn about photographing landscapes but Guy, who specialises in wildlife and landscapes, will be teaching me a lot < I had better warn him!

The Lake Kerkini Pelicans could not have been a better test for me shooting on the Olympus M1X Pro system. I ain't changing!! I am now both converted and addicted!!

:olympus:

FRIENDLY PELICANS by Robin Procter, on Flickr

Did you know that the Pelican species are over 30 million years old!?
Great shot, love the pelican "photobombing" at the bottom :D
 
.... I think it's very healthy for us all to question our own processing choices afterwards - It's how we develop ourselves and potentially improve. However, there is danger of becoming restrictive if we are over critical of our efforts.

The Pelicans at Lake Kerkini Greece are a great subject and have been much photographed by others. The light on the lake this February was very changeable and of course the water surface and big sky played a large part in varying the captured colours. Before going I was a bit concerned that my efforts there would either fall short of work by other photographers I admire or at best look too much the same as theirs. But, somehow I managed to stamp my own style on most of them. Fortunately Guy Edwardes (my host) knows me well enough to let me get on with what I want and not to herd me with the others. In April I am going to another part of Greece with him primarily for landscapes but also some mini-beast macro shots. I have a lot to learn about photographing landscapes but Guy, who specialises in wildlife and landscapes, will be teaching me a lot < I had better warn him!

The Lake Kerkini Pelicans could not have been a better test for me shooting on the Olympus M1X Pro system. I ain't changing!! I am now both converted and addicted!!

:olympus:

FRIENDLY PELICANS by Robin Procter, on Flickr

Did you know that the Pelican species are over 30 million years old!?
That is such a great shot Robin. I love it. The two previous ones were great with such lovely light. I didn't contribute on which I preferred as I couldn't choose, both had their merits.
 
Great shot, love the pelican "photobombing" at the bottom :D

.... Thanks Toby! You have inspired me to revise that photo's title to 'PHOTOBOMBED BY FRIENDLY PELICANS'

That is such a great shot Robin. I love it. The two previous ones were great with such lovely light. I didn't contribute on which I preferred as I couldn't choose, both had their merits.

.... Cheers! I found it difficult to choose which I preferred too. As we all know, it's always about the light. When I was a professional Art Director (now retired 20 years) some shoots were done abroad just because the light in England wasn't good enough!
 
Its the one lens I do not own at the moment a wide angle debating to buy this lens or the 9-18 maybe a wide prime Laowa etc enjoy from what I images I have seen it a great lens its a question for me will I use it enough vs cost of purchase
The 9-18 is nowhere near as sharp as the 7-14 or 8-18 but it is compact and light enough to carry just in case you me UW.
 
.... I have only just bought the Olympus 60mm Macro and being fairly new to Olympus and m4/3 (since November 2019) I can only compare it with the Canon EF 100mm Macro which is a lens renowned for its sharpness and quality. So far I am absolutely amazed at the high quality of this tiny toilet-roll-sized Olympus 60mm Macro!

I also bought an Olympus STF-8 Twin Flash which will mount on both the 60mm Macro and the Olympus 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro - The 12-40mm focusses as close as 7 inches! I have always avoided faffing around with flash and all the calculations but the STF-8 is easy-peasy to use and very logical - Extremely well designed and even weatherproof to Olympus Pro standard. Expensive but aren't most flash units of this type?

On the M1X and M1 Mark III the STF-8 allows for onboard camera Focus Stacking and (?)Bracketing < Something else to learn!

I'll post images and more comments about it in due course but want to finish my somewhat extensive Pelicans album first!
I find the 60mm f2.8 frustrating I love it's size and sharpness but for me MF is too fine/slow for handheld invertebrate work.
I still use my 4/3 Sigma 105 f2.8

I really like the STF-8.
 
Hmmm 2400mm what a beast . Watch for atmospherics .. be interesting to see the results though .. I’m picking up a manual focus 400mm lens mon or tues . All fun and games init
 
Does anyone know if there is a way to look link magnifying box to focus position? If I move my focus box around, AF on something and then want to check critical focus by zooming in, the magnifying box will be wherever I last used it. Could be the other side of the screen. It's an E-M5iii but I assume if there's a menu option somewhere it's likely to be the same for any model.

And while I'm here, I understand there is updated FW out for the EM5iii but several reports suggest that settings cannot be saved during update. Anybody happen to know a definitive answer? Really cannot be arsed to set the camera up again if it can be avoided.
 
Arrrrrrggggghh, Olympus why do you torture me so?!!!

A minor thing but if I'm downloading Olympus Viewer directly from the Olympus site, I find it a little frustrating that as soon as it's installed, it tells me it's out of date and a newer version is available. Why not just download the newer version in the first place?!!!

But more frustrating than that is that the wording in relation to the FW EM5iii firmware update confirms that all settings will be lost. I thought Olympus had got past all this. I don't think I've ever known this on another camera but it's even more frustrating on Olympus bodies that are so customisable in the first place.

Olympus viewer and updater connect fine to the EM5iii but the option to save settings just gives a message saying that the setting isn't available on the E-M5iii. So infuriating.

I think I'll skip this one!
 
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Arrrrrrggggghh, Olympus why do you torture me so?!!!

A minor thing but if I'm downloading Olympus Viewer directly from the Olympus site, I find it a little frustrating that as soon as it's installed, it tells me it's out of date and a newer version is available. Why not just download the newer version in the first place?!!!

But more frustrating than that is that the wording in relation to the FW EM5iii firmware update confirms that all settings will be lost. I thought Olympus had got past all this. I don't think I've ever known this on another camera but it's even more frustrating on Olympus bodies that are so customisable in the first place.

Olympus viewer and updater connect fine to the EM5iii but the option to save settings just gives a message saying that the setting isn't available on the E-M5iii. So infuriating.

I think I'll skip this one!

I used the old updater on my EM1ii and despite what it said on the website, my settings were not lost on the latest update.
 
I used the old updater on my EM1ii and despite what it said on the website, my settings were not lost on the latest update.

Unfortunately reports are that that is not the case for the em5 iii and olympus have also decided to disable the option to save settings to file on this camera too. That is something that was possible on the previous gen em5. I have to say, I’m actually quite annoyed about this.
 
Unfortunately reports are that that is not the case for the em5 iii and olympus have also decided to disable the option to save settings to file on this camera too. That is something that was possible on the previous gen em5. I have to say, I’m actually quite annoyed about this.

Yes I know what you mean. It’s so customisable, you forget what you’ve changed and it might be critical to getting that shot in a hurry.

It did tell me to use the new workspace and didn’t mention the old updater, but I thought I’d just plug it in and see what happens [emoji51]
 
When I used the 60mm f2.8 before I got the STF-8 it would usually look like this


Thisis a set gives up to 3X magnification about 6mm across the frame.
This is my Olympus OMD E-M5 MKII with 60mm f2.8 macro lens 3 Kooka extensions tubes 48mm in total and a Raynox DCR250 and a Nissin Di466 with homemade diffuser..

Macro rigg E M5II by Alf Branch, on Flickr


Here is a shot with it of a springtail or Collembola Dicyrtomina saundersi one of the larger ones

this is about 6mm across the frame. This is an uncropped shot.

Dicyrtomina saundersi by Alf Branch, on Flickr
 
You jumping ship then @snerkler ?

I for one will miss your contribution to this thread.
Looking likely. Thanks very kind, I'm sure I'll still frequent it though as I still love the Olympus system (y)
 
.... I go away for a weekend and I miss the latest! - What's the gos then?
Well I've always been looking for the holy grail looking for great IQ in a lightweight system, and hence why I have two systems at present (Nikon FF and Olympus M4/3). I have always been happy with both, but in an ideal world I've always wanted one system.

Now that Sony has brought out the A7RIV and finally improved the ergonomics to a point that I can actually use their bodies, and has the crazy 60mp sensor that allows me to get 2 x crops with 15mp it does appear that I can have the best of both worlds. I can buy the Sony 100-400mm and crop 2 x to give me the same FOV as my 100-400mm on the Olympus, albeit with a slight weight penalty, but still over a kilo lighter than my previous wildlife setup (Nikon D850 with 150-600mm).

Add to this that Sony have opened up their mount to 3rd party (so in theory 3rd party lenses should work just as well as Sony lenses) it opens up the opportunity to a host of lightweight lenses, such as the soon to be released Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 weight in at just 800g, that's the weight of a 70-200mm f4 :eek:. There's then 24mm and 35mm primes weighing less than 100g and easily pocketable. It's just a system that makes sense for me right now, and as much as I love Nikon and Olympus they can't offer everything Sony can at the mo.

I've gone back and forth and then back and forth some more, but providing I can get the price that I want for me gear I've decided to make the switch. I'm slightly apprehensive as I've never been the biggest fan of Sony colours, but they have improved from generation to generation and after having downloaded some raw samples I believe that I've come up with a preset to match Nikon (my favourite colours of all systems,....... barring Leica ;)).
 
Looking likely. Thanks very kind, I'm sure I'll still frequent it though as I still love the Olympus system (y)

You selling your Nikon Z stuff as well as the Olympus stuff then Toby, as it would seem a bit pointless to have 2 FF mirrorless systems ?

**edit** post above must have crossed.
 
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Well I've always been looking for the holy grail looking for great IQ in a lightweight system, and hence why I have two systems at present (Nikon FF and Olympus M4/3). I have always been happy with both, but in an ideal world I've always wanted one system.

Now that Sony has brought out the A7RIV and finally improved the ergonomics to a point that I can actually use their bodies, and has the crazy 60mp sensor that allows me to get 2 x crops with 15mp it does appear that I can have the best of both worlds. I can buy the Sony 100-400mm and crop 2 x to give me the same FOV as my 100-400mm on the Olympus, albeit with a slight weight penalty, but still over a kilo lighter than my previous wildlife setup (Nikon D850 with 150-600mm).

Add to this that Sony have opened up their mount to 3rd party (so in theory 3rd party lenses should work just as well as Sony lenses) it opens up the opportunity to a host of lightweight lenses, such as the soon to be released Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 weight in at just 800g, that's the weight of a 70-200mm f4 :eek:. There's then 24mm and 35mm primes weighing less than 100g and easily pocketable. It's just a system that makes sense for me right now, and as much as I love Nikon and Olympus they can't offer everything Sony can at the mo.

I've gone back and forth and then back and forth some more, but providing I can get the price that I want for me gear I've decided to make the switch. I'm slightly apprehensive as I've never been the biggest fan of Sony colours, but they have improved from generation to generation and after having downloaded some raw samples I believe that I've come up with a preset to match Nikon (my favourite colours of all systems,....... barring Leica ;)).

.... I understand your thinking and reasoning and I am not for a moment suggesting you don't change or further add to your camera systems, but don't you know that there is no such thing as a perfect camera?

It's a personal preference thing and I don't care how good the Sony system is technically, I intensely dislike its ergonomics and physical feel.

If you look at my best images on Flickr, would I have got better ones if I was shooting Sony?
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/114775606@N07/albums/72157686132840835

As long as you enjoy taking photographs and don't get too self-critical I can see the advantages Sony brings to you personally. Sony is marmite!
 
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