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

I think that this has been asked before but I cannot find it.
The EM1 ii has 5 axis IS
The 100-400 lens has 3 axis IS
They do not sync.
So is it better to have the camera sync on (5) and the lens off or the camera off and the lens on (3)? Or just both on and not bother?
Or is that too simplistic?

.... Leave both On and the body and lens will electronically communicate accordingly. The ED 100-400mm is unable to Sync to gain the extra IS axis which some bodies have whereas the ED Pro lenses can fully Sync.
 
I think that this has been asked before but I cannot find it.
The EM1 ii has 5 axis IS
The 100-400 lens has 3 axis IS
They do not sync.
So is it better to have the camera sync on (5) and the lens off or the camera off and the lens on (3)? Or just both on and not bother?
Or is that too simplistic?

Keep both of them On.

Even though it doesn't create full sync, the do actually work together, giving a semi sync sort of system :)
 
.... Leave both On and the body and lens will electronically communicate accordingly. The ED 100-400mm is unable to Sync to gain the extra IS axis which some bodies have whereas the ED Pro lenses can fully Sync.

Sorry Robin didn't mean to undermine what you wrote. Think we were typing at the same time haha
 
Sorry Robin didn't mean to undermine what you wrote. Think we were typing at the same time haha

.... No problem Joe. We have each independently confirmed the same advice and this will help the OP superpippo.
 


Some textures in the trees on a walk at the weekend, this was taken in an old Atlantic oak woodland in North Wales.

I am very impressed with the images from the EM1iii and 40-150mm pro lens.
 


Some textures in the trees on a walk at the weekend, this was taken in an old Atlantic oak woodland in North Wales.

I am very impressed with the images from the EM1iii and 40-150mm pro lens.

.... The ED 40-150mm Pro is a fabulous lens as others will also tell you. Just in case you find this info helpful, it performs very well with even the 2x MC-20 mounted - I have used that combo a lot until I bought the ED 100-400mm.
 
Jeff was right Wex did have 100-400 in stock and have now received mine. This is my first attempt with it, my PP skills are not very good. Any critique would be appreciated PP,composition or otherwise.

View attachment 300089View attachment 300090View attachment 300091View attachment 300092View attachment 300093View attachment 300094View attachment 300095

.... No point giving feedback unless it's honest, so:

#2 is soft focus and the Blue Tits heads a bit soft too, doubtless due to their ultra fast movement - Small birds are often tricky!

Your shutter speed and aperture settings will influence sharpness too and we don't know what your settings were so opinions can be offered.

I must dash! But don't be disheartened by my feedback - All lenses have a learning curve.
 
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.... No point giving feedback unless it's honest, so:

#2 is soft focus and the Blue Tits heads a bit soft too, doubtless due to their ultra fast movement - Small birds are often tricky!

Your shutter speed and aperture settings will influence sharpness too and we don't know what your settings were so opinions can be offered.

I must dash! But don't be disheartened by my feedback - All lenses have a learning curve.

How kindly put.
 
If anybody is considering the E-M1X or the 12-100 F4 (+ others) over at e-group they're reporting some deals today, thread is here if you're not a regular there.
 
Chris glad to be of help . these shots of yours look to be in a woodland setting so by there very nature will be a subdued its not the sensor cameras or you . its a simple fact .you could try lifting the exposure a bit via sliders . as for anything else it really depends on your computer systems , software and skills .. all I can suggest is shoot and play till you get it right .. the main bit of software in my armoury after L/R CC is topaz de-noise-Ai which I would recommend to every single user of MFT gear .it really does work wonders
 
If anybody is considering the E-M1X or the 12-100 F4 (+ others) over at e-group they're reporting some deals today, thread is here if you're not a regular there.
yeah wondering whether its worth chancing a divorce for a camera :rolleyes:
 
Although still showing as pre order on their website. Presumably you rang them.
Nice shots there


Thanks Alan, Wex rang yesterday morning to say the lens was in after an email from them the previous night.
 
.... No point giving feedback unless it's honest, so:

Thanks for the feedback Robin, I appreciate your honesty. Good or not so good feedback is what it is about so I can improve hopefully. The menu system on the Oly mark 3 is certainly a head scratcher. I was using BBF-Manual mode -Auto ISO, F6.3, 370mm, shutter speeds were between 320-400.
 
Chris glad to be of help . these shots of yours look to be in a woodland setting so by there very nature will be a subdued its not the sensor cameras or you . its a simple fact .you could try lifting the exposure a bit via sliders . as for anything else it really depends on your computer systems , software and skills .. all I can suggest is shoot and play till you get it right .. the main bit of software in my armoury after L/R CC is topaz de-noise-Ai which I would recommend to every single user of MFT gear .it really does work wonders

Thanks for the advice Jeff, I live on the riverbank 20 metres from the river and rent this strip of land about a 150 metres long. I have just set a hide up a pool and perches around. I have Topaz Denoise and use Luminar 4 for editing on a mac.
 
Hello, I just saw a deal for 449 pounds for a e m10 with a 45mm and a 14-42mm but as a 3 years old camera does it still receive software updates? Or should I go with a t x30?
 
Hello, I just saw a deal for 449 pounds for a e m10 with a 45mm and a 14-42mm but as a 3 years old camera does it still receive software updates? Or should I go with a t x30?
Which version of the OM-D E-M10 ?
The current version is mark IV
Argos have a special mark IIIs with sweep panorama.
Olympus are still selling the mark III from their online store.

FWIW I shoot with a Mark II - for me that was the best price/performance balance. The later versions added some interesting features but the improvements weren't worth the extra money to me while mine is still OK.
The III added 4K video
The IIIs has sweep panorama which would be nice but isn't essential
The IV added USB charging and some other bits and bobs.
They all use the same 16mp sensor but have improved JPEG image processors in the later versions.

Regarding firmware updates - the M1X and the M1ii and M1iii series have had some feature updates since launch.
My M10ii has seen some minor improvements in lens stabilisation for video since it was new and support for later lenses but feature updates are not common so if the E-M10 IV doesn't do something you'd like then I wouldn't bank on seeing an update in future.

The 45mm f1.8 lens is lovely BTW - and worth about £120-150 used if you don't want it.
I find it's a bit long for most purposes but I haven't sold mine :)
 
For those interested in the Olympus ED 100-400mm + MC-20 combo (on a E-M1X), having spent a dawn-til-dusk day shooting surfers in action in Kernowfornia I can report that it's not good. All my images were shot on a tripod.

It was a changeable day regarding the light and generally cloudy overcast, so rather grey. Shots at ISO 1250 were the worst and weren't too clever at ISO 1000 either. I needed a minimum of 1/1000s to capture the fast action from the better surfers and of course the aperture could only be 'slow' settings with this particular lens. Most subjects were at long distance which also doesn't help.

Unlike Jeff, I absolutely cannot recommend Topaz DeNoise for subjects like this - It is total rubbish! The preprogrammed artificial intelligence simply isn't intelligent at all and makes a dog's dinner out of my typical surfing photography. I have gone back to Imageonic Noiseware which is very reliable (and also significantly faster).

So in summary, the combo performs poorly when the light is poor.

Although I didn't use it that day, the ED 40-150mm + MC-20 combo is very good indeed by comparison and was my go-to rig for surfing before I bought the Olympus 100-400mm.

In retrospect I could have taken my ED 300mm Pro F/4 + MC-20 but it was my first visit there and the flexibility of zoom is invaluable.

In futurespect (if there is such a word) I need a ED 150-400mm+1.25x Pro !!

Bude_M1X4195 by Robin Procter, on Flickr

Some of what's wrong with this image is down to my over-zealous post-processing! So here is a slightly better version :

Bude_M1X4195 1.jpg
 
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For those interested in the Olympus ED 100-400mm + MC-20 combo (on a E-M1X), having spent a dawn-til-dusk day shooting surfers in action in Kernowfornia I can report that it's not good. All my images were shot on a tripod.

It was a changeable day regarding the light and generally cloudy overcast, so rather grey. Shots at ISO 1250 were the worst and weren't too clever at ISO 1000 either. I needed a minimum of 1/1000s to capture the fast action from the better surfers and of course the aperture could only be 'slow' settings with this particular lens. Most subjects were at long distance which also doesn't help.

Unlike Jeff, I absolutely cannot recommend Topaz DeNoise for subjects like this - It is total rubbish! The preprogrammed artificial intelligence simply isn't intelligent at all and makes a dog's dinner out of my typical surfing photography. I have gone back to Imageonic Noiseware which is very reliable (and also significantly faster).

So in summary, the combo performs poorly when the light is poor.

Although I didn't use it that day, the ED 40-150mm + MC-20 combo is very good indeed by comparison and was my go-to rig for surfing before I bought the Olympus 100-400mm.

In retrospect I could have taken my ED 300mm Pro F/4 + MC-20 but it was my first visit there and the flexibility of zoom is invaluable.

In futurespect (if there is such a word) I need a ED 150-400mm+1.25x Pro !!

Bude_M1X4195 by Robin Procter, on Flickr


Unfortunately this reinforces what a lot of the objective, non Olympus visionaries, were saying in their reviews - it's going to struggle in poor light.
 
Unfortunately this reinforces what a lot of the objective, non Olympus visionaries, were saying in their reviews - it's going to struggle in poor light.

.... And if the subject is at long distance. Oh dear, this means I should start considering the big expensive ED 150-400mm+1.25x Pro.

This was closer and much better and I am very happy with this shot, also on the MC-20:

LIVING DANGEROUSLY! by Robin Procter, on Flickr

The light was so much better at sunset and tide higher bringing surfers closer. Swopped to the MC-14 and image not cropped at all:

"THAT'S SICK, DUDE!" by Robin Procter, on Flickr
 
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Sorry to hear your day didn't go too well!

I don't know what it is with Jeff.....he seems to come up with amazing results every time he picks his camera up!

Your first image is great BUT there's an awful lot of what looks like colour speckling / noise in it -outside a cicular zone around the surfer. What do you put that down to?
 
As you say not the best shot's Robin i can see the strange colour too,

Yes i think the 150/400 would have made a big improvement It's tempting me to come back to Olympus to run along side my Sony system just waiting for the EM1X bird firmware reviews to show up should see some next week -interesting times for the Olympus.

Rob.
 
Sorry to hear your day didn't go too well!

I don't know what it is with Jeff.....he seems to come up with amazing results every time he picks his camera up!

Your first image is great BUT there's an awful lot of what looks like colour speckling / noise in it -outside a cicular zone around the surfer. What do you put that down to?

.... Overall I had a great day and had enough shots to be happy with but did hit the limits of what I could do in poor light at a distance.

Jeff is an excellent photographer but I'm not sure he could match his birds quality if standing side by side with me shooting surfers.

I put the noisy colour speckling down to my over post-processing and use of vignette filter. I need to have yet another go at post-processing this image and be less ambitious! The trouble is that capturing a good surfer doing an 'air' is highly desirable and I want this photo to succeed if at all possible. I might even consider a B&W version to hide its colour problems.
 
to me it looks more like a shooting into the light problem than a problem with camera or lens or t.c .. and to be fair no one sees my deletions or cock up shots .. as with birds you only get one pop at things like surfers or b.i.f .. using the 2x tc on this lens was also always going to be a problem given u.k winter light .

and I think that only those of us lucky enough to live on the coast really know the problems it can throw up unexpectedly . exerberated by low winter sunshine .. I didn't do well at all last winter with the owls shooting into the light and it really didn't start to pick up till around late feb as light levels lifted then oops lockdown .. still waiting to find out if I can legally go cross border after tomorrow .. it seems those that comply with the rules in Wales are being forced into virtual house arrest .

also a lot of my stuff is more down to fieldcraft and getting myself in the right place rather than any camera magic .. its also a case of having the right settings installed beforehand as it can be hard to change stuff on the fly ..

and the old adage applies theres always tomorrow
 
robin . in your living dangerously shot why is background far lighter than the foreground . I in all honesty feel that the problems with this tend to be more with you trying to lift the shadows than with a shot in poor light that might have been better with a bigger crop and subject emphasis ..but thats my view dont take it as read
 
as an example heres a couple I took one day last week while waiting on a no show snow buntings day first is full frame at 400mm to show how far out the kite surfer was ,next a cropped in version , I might go back and see if I can pull a bit more out of it

full image by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr

hang ten by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr



and finally massive crop as can be seen from top pic it has shown up sea weed on his control lines though .. what I feel after doing this is robin hasn't taken atmospherics into account and I would have been better off leaving it as taken rather than enhancing colours . as I can see the mishmash topaz is making of the waves

pushed to extreme by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr
 
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robin . in your living dangerously shot why is background far lighter than the foreground . I in all honesty feel that the problems with this tend to be more with you trying to lift the shadows than with a shot in poor light that might have been better with a bigger crop and subject emphasis ..but thats my view dont take it as read

.... I'm very happy with this particular image, Jeff.

The light was much better than the one in my Reply #21,991 and was coming at a slight side angle. The rock layers are at all sorts of angles and stepped tiers and some light is reflected from the rock pools etc.

For me, a bigger crop would have ruined the composition and the atmosphere of the whole environment. Additionally it would have exposed further weaknesses/limitations due to enlargement. That's where m4/3 and higher ISO really does have limitations. It would have been a different story if shot on my heavy Canon 1DX-2 + 500mm F/4L II + 1.4x combo.
 
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