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

snerkler said:
So considering that the Nikon 180-400mm f4 with built in TC, and Canon’s 200-400mm f4 with built in TC are both over £10k what’s folks’ guesses at the price of the newly announced 150-400mm f4.5? £5-6k?
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I would say about that much over what I could afford :ROFLMAO:

It's lenses like this that can showcase the massive difference between this format and FF. The lens will be 1/3rd the size and I imagine it'll be about 1/3 the price too, so I'd say £3-4K
 
Cagey75 said:
I would say about that much over what I could afford :ROFLMAO:

It's lenses like this that can showcase the massive difference between this format and FF. The lens will be 1/3rd the size and I imagine it'll be about 1/3 the price too, so I'd say £3-4K
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So just £3-4k over my price range then :LOL:
 
snerkler said:
So considering that the Nikon 180-400mm f4 with built in TC, and Canon’s 200-400mm f4 with built in TC are both over £10k what’s folks’ guesses at the price of the newly announced 150-400mm f4.5? £5-6k?
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I reckon £3-4k...

Here's the page on the new Olympus software:

http://app.olympus-imaging.com/olympusworkspace/en/

It doesn't look too bad actually (couldn't be much worse than its predecessor), combined with Affinity for spot removal and more advanced things it might be a viable alternative. Although lack of iPad solution puts me off... (curses Adobe!).
 
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snerkler said:
So considering that the Nikon 180-400mm f4 with built in TC, and Canon’s 200-400mm f4 with built in TC are both over £10k what’s folks’ guesses at the price of the newly announced 150-400mm f4.5? £5-6k?
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I was hoping around £3k but I fear your guess is going to be closer to the mark.
 
It does look to be an extraordinary lens, but out of my league. the 300mm f4 is a lovely lens, and having got used to primes again I'm not bothered by the lack of zoom.

Having just used a gripped OM-D-1 Mk2 and some pro lenses at an event I've previously used Nikon FF for, I'm pleased with the performance. Not sure if I would be tempted by the E-M1X though. At least I can take the grip off the E-M1. To echo what others have sold, the lack of weight in the three lenses I carried about with me compared with the FF ones was noticeable - to the extent I didn't notice them!
 
Pound Coin said:
It does look to be an extraordinary lens, but out of my league. the 300mm f4 is a lovely lens, and having got used to primes again I'm not bothered by the lack of zoom.

Having just used a gripped OM-D-1 Mk2 and some pro lenses at an event I've previously used Nikon FF for, I'm pleased with the performance. Not sure if I would be tempted by the E-M1X though. At least I can take the grip off the E-M1. To echo what others have sold, the lack of weight in the three lenses I carried about with me compared with the FF ones was noticeable - to the extent I didn't notice them!
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I keep flirting with the idea of ditching my heavy FF lenses in favour of lighter Olympus ones, but I do like the flexibility of the 150-600mm zoom so I’m not sure that the 300mm f4 would be an ideal lens for me. I know there’s the 100-400mm Panny but at f6.3 I’d be reaching high ISO a lot of the time. Also, I love the shallow DOF the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 gives me and obviously the Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 won’t give me this. I can’t decide whether I’m willing to sacrifice this for the weight saving though. Decisions decisions ;)

I think I’ll do the Olympus try it and see and some point.
 
snerkler said:
I keep flirting with the idea of ditching my heavy FF lenses in favour of lighter Olympus ones, but I do like the flexibility of the 150-600mm zoom so I’m not sure that the 300mm f4 would be an ideal lens for me. I know there’s the 100-400mm Panny but at f6.3 I’d be reaching high ISO a lot of the time. Also, I love the shallow DOF the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 gives me and obviously the Olympus 40-150mm f2.8 won’t give me this. I can’t decide whether I’m willing to sacrifice this for the weight saving though. Decisions decisions ;)

I think I’ll do the Olympus try it and see and some point.
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I can handhold the 100-400 @ 1/50 and get 10 out of 10 sharp at 400mm, assuming the subject is static enough. Obviously that isn't any use for fast moving subjects but being able to easily handhold at, say, 1/250 makes up for a lot of the slow aperture, a lot of the time.
 
Nawty said:
I can handhold the 100-400 @ 1/50 and get 10 out of 10 sharp at 400mm, assuming the subject is static enough. Obviously that isn't any use for fast moving subjects but being able to easily handhold at, say, 1/250 makes up for a lot of the slow aperture, a lot of the time.
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That’s the thing, my 150-600mm is mainly a Wildlife lens, 80% of the time requiring fast shutter speeds.
 
Certainly, it was about compromises - 70-200 f2.8 versus 40-150 f2.8, which gave me 50% more focal length and better dof, important for the low light, but against better higher ISO performance.

The noise of the shutter activation was also a big difference. The Oly was virtually silent (I did use silent a couple of times, but in the lighting available, that meant banding)
 
Pound Coin said:
The noise of the shutter activation was also a big difference. The Oly was virtually silent (I did use silent a couple of times, but in the lighting available, that meant banding)
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Can you tall me where I can learn more on this. I don’t really know the pros and cons of silent other than I discovered the flash won’t work in silent and the obvious plus of silence.

I didn’t know about banding in low light. I’ve seen it but thought it was due to lights (at a music gig)
 
Bebop said:
Can you tall me where I can learn more on this. I don’t really know the pros and cons of silent other than I discovered the flash won’t work in silent and the obvious plus of silence.

I didn’t know about banding in low light. I’ve seen it but thought it was due to lights (at a music gig)
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Silent shutter has two main issues, "jello effect" and banding. The jello effect arises due to the time it takes to scan the sensor. As there's no shutter per se using silent mode the sensor scanned, meaning each line is exposed in turn. So for example, if you set a shutter speed to 1/1000 each line/pixel will only be exposed by 1/1000 BUT it takes time to scan the whole sensor meaning some time will have passed before the bottom line of of the sensor is 'exposed' compared to the top line, therefore if you're taking a picture of something moving, or you're moving yourself there's a chance that the image has shifted before the exposure is complete and you get distortion in the image. If taking video it looks as though the image is kind of wobbling like jelly hence the term jello effect. Manufacturers are trying to improve the sensor scan time, and in the Sony A9 for example it's so fast that for most of the time you won't see any jello effect. The holy grail is the global sensor where the 'scan' of the sensor is done in one go, meaning that the whole sensor is exposed at the same time.

All cameras are prone to banding and it's due to the frequency of the flicker of artificial lighting. The reason that silent/electronic shutter are more prone to it is because you can't change the inherent scan time of the sensor, therefore if it happens to coincide with the frequency of the light then you'll get banding an there's not a lot you can do about it, changing the shutter speed won't change the scan time. With a traditional shutter you can alter the shutter speed to try an mitigate it as much as possible.
 
The banding depends on the light source, and the shutter speed. Higher speeds create more banding, and fluorescent lights, particularly, pulse their light, which means as the camera reads from the sensor, there are alternating light and dark areas.

My experience is that it is bad on silent, and can be noticeable at higher shutter speeds on other settings. I ended up using anti-shock, because there were so many different light sources I couldn't take a gamble.

Another drawback of silent is the skewing effect on moving detail. So for action shots, it pretty much has to be normal or anti-shock.

Plus all that snerkler said above!
 
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So banding as described above is not the same as colour banding?
 
Bearair said:
So banding as described above is not the same as colour banding?
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Colour banding is usually the term used to describe banding in large areas of constant colour, such as the sky. Banding in the case above is due to the camera being in sync with the frequency of the pulses of light from the artificial light source.

This shows both the rolling shutter jello effect and banding
https://enthusiastphotoblog.com/2018/09/08/silent-shutter-banding/

And a wedding picture ruined by banding.
https://neilvn.com/tangents/mirrorl...ter-electronic-shutter-vs-mechanical-shutter/

You can also get shifts in white balance under certain artificial lighting too where parts of the image have more of a green cast and some more of a magenta cast.

Going back to Pound coin's original comment about the difference in shutter sound they may not have been referring to the silent shutter though, the mechanical shutter on the EM1 is noticeably quieter than most DSLRs to begin with.
 
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Does the EM1-II allow auto ISO in manual mode, or does it just allow it in Aperture and Shutter priority like the Mark I?
 
snerkler said:
Does the EM1-II allow auto ISO in manual mode, or does it just allow it in Aperture and Shutter priority like the Mark I?
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You can, and you can sort of frig the exposure compensation as the exposure comp mirrors what it is set in Av mode so you can switch to Av, dial the comp and switch back.

I seem to recall this is how it is with all the OMD cameras?
 
maarten.dhaese said:
This review seems to suggest auto ISO works in manual mode:

https://robinwong.blogspot.com/2016/11/olympus-om-d-e-m1-mark-ii-review_8.html

It's not something I use often but I'll do a hands-on check tonight unless anyone else can confirm in the meantime.
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Nawty said:
You can, and you can sort of frig the exposure compensation as the exposure comp mirrors what it is set in Av mode so you can switch to Av, dial the comp and switch back.

I seem to recall this is how it is with all the OMD cameras?
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Thanks (y) I've actually found this, which suggests that you can actually get Auto ISO in all modes on any OMD camera, I'm going to have to look at my EM1 tonight to see if I have that option :)
https://www.duford.com/2016/08/using-manual-mode-with-auto-iso-on-olympus-cameras/
 
snerkler said:
Thanks (y) I've actually found this, which suggests that you can actually get Auto ISO in all modes on any OMD camera, I'm going to have to look at my EM1 tonight to see if I have that option :)
https://www.duford.com/2016/08/using-manual-mode-with-auto-iso-on-olympus-cameras/
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That's interesting - I almost never use Manual mode and in situations as described rely on Program.
Just set “ISO-Auto” to All on my E-M10ii and E-PL5 :D
Being able to set shutter and aperture and only leave ISO to the camera is option now :)
 
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AMcUK said:
That's interesting - I almost never use Manual mode and in situations as described rely on Program.
Just set “ISO-Auto” to All on my E-M10ii and E-PL5 :D
Being able to set shutter and aperture and only leave ISO to the camera is option now :)
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I use manual mode with Auto ISO all the time on my Nikon, for sports and wildlife I pretty much always have a set aperture and shutter so the only variable is ISO (y)
 
Just tried the settings for auto ISO on my E-M1 MK 1 and it works, very useful.
Thanks for that and explaining banding.:)
 
OK so now I've got Auto ISO in manual mode, but how about exp comp in manual mode?
 
snerkler said:
OK so now I've got Auto ISO in manual mode, but how about exp comp in manual mode?
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Just been trying this out on my E-M1II and it reminded me why I avoid using it. Auto-ISO works fine but in Manual Mode the Exposure Compensation dial becomes the Aperture dial and at first sight there appears to be no convenient way to set exposure compensation, which I use all the time to avoid blowing out the highlights.

*However* it seems that by setting the desired aperture and shutter speed and then toggling the AEL/AFL switch from "1" to "2" the front dial resumes its function as Exposure Compensation dial, so it looks like that this could work for me. NB this also appears to turn the back dial into an ISO dial.

Not sure if this is going to work the same way on the E-M1MkI - I can't test as I recently sold mine. Will try to use the camera like this in the weekend to see if it really works the way I think it is going to and is useable in a live scenario.
 
Like I said above, you can set comp in aperture or shutter mode and it stays the same in manual, not ideal but it works.

Alternatively there might be a way of setting the AE lock switch to vary the comp with the dials.
 
maarten.dhaese said:
Just been trying this out on my E-M1II and it reminded me why I avoid using it. Auto-ISO works fine but in Manual Mode the Exposure Compensation dial becomes the Aperture dial and at first sight there appears to be no convenient way to set exposure compensation, which I use all the time to avoid blowing out the highlights.

*However* it seems that by setting the desired aperture and shutter speed and then toggling the AEL/AFL switch from "1" to "2" the front dial resumes its function as Exposure Compensation dial, so it looks like that this could work for me. NB this also appears to turn the back dial into an ISO dial.

Not sure if this is going to work the same way on the E-M1MkI - I can't test as I recently sold mine. Will try to use the camera like this in the weekend to see if it really works the way I think it is going to and is useable in a live scenario.
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Thanks, will try this out although I have the lever set to WB IIRC.

How’re you finding the Mark II over the Mark I? There’s a few reasons I’m considering the upgrade. The dual card slots (I’m mega paranoid about card failure ;)), the screen refresh rate, hi res function, and the better iso handling. Also, from examples I’ve seen skin tones appear better.

Is ISO/noise handling noticeably better in the real world or not really? Is the automated focus stacking jpeg only?
 
snerkler said:
Thanks, will try this out although I have the lever set to WB IIRC.

How’re you finding the Mark II over the Mark I? There’s a few reasons I’m considering the upgrade. The dual card slots (I’m mega paranoid about card failure ;)), the screen refresh rate, hi res function, and the better iso handling. Also, from examples I’ve seen skin tones appear better.

Is ISO/noise handling noticeably better in the real world or not really? Is the automated focus stacking jpeg only?
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For me it was a very worthwhile upgrade. Things that I noticed in real-life use: better CAF, better CAF+TR, better control of focus points thanks to the possibility of the 9 point focus patch, better high ISO performance (ISO 3200 on the MkII looks at least as good as ISO 1600 on the MkI I think), less noise in the shadows when shooting into the sun (but this is where full frame will probably always be better), better dynamic range, much less viewfinder blackout, and I do like the colours coming out of it better than the MkI (although I always shoot RAW and process in Lightroom - but I usually reapply one of the Olympus colour presets).

I've tried focus stacking a couple of times. The focus stacking I did resulted in ORF and JPG files for each of the individual frames and JPG only for the combined result. Hi res I haven't yet used.

I held out upgrading for a long time due to the pretty significant price difference between the MkI and the MkII but I'm glad I upgraded in the end. I still have a Canon 5DIII but I very rarely use it.

Example of shadow noise on the MkI shooting into the sun:

20181021_093721_027 by Maarten D'Haese, on Flickr

Example of shadow noise on the MkII shooting into the sun - shot almost in the same location; colours are also noticeably better I think:

20190127_094206_054 by Maarten D'Haese, on Flickr
 
snerkler said:
Thanks, will try this out although I have the lever set to WB IIRC.

How’re you finding the Mark II over the Mark I? There’s a few reasons I’m considering the upgrade. The dual card slots (I’m mega paranoid about card failure ;)), the screen refresh rate, hi res function, and the better iso handling. Also, from examples I’ve seen skin tones appear better.

Is ISO/noise handling noticeably better in the real world or not really? Is the automated focus stacking jpeg only?
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For me there isn’t a single “wow this is amazing and justifies the upgrade on its own” feature (although the AF is close) but as an all round package it is much nicer. It’s the little things, like not being paranoid about the battery running out, or that it’s quicker to wake, or the SAF is much better in low light, or the lack of jello effect with silent shutter that make it a better camera all ‘round. It is a bit bigger though and I prefer the size of the mk1.

ISO, a tiny bit better but not a lot and not worth the upgrade alone (unless long exposure is your thing). The EVF, pretty much the same but at a higher refresh rate...
 
maarten.dhaese said:
For me it was a very worthwhile upgrade. Things that I noticed in real-life use: better CAF, better CAF+TR, better control of focus points thanks to the possibility of the 9 point focus patch, better high ISO performance (ISO 3200 on the MkII looks at least as good as ISO 1600 on the MkI I think), less noise in the shadows when shooting into the sun (but this is where full frame will probably always be better), better dynamic range, much less viewfinder blackout, and I do like the colours coming out of it better than the MkI (although I always shoot RAW and process in Lightroom - but I usually reapply one of the Olympus colour presets).

I've tried focus stacking a couple of times. The focus stacking I did resulted in ORF and JPG files for each of the individual frames and JPG only for the combined result. Hi res I haven't yet used.

I held out upgrading for a long time due to the pretty significant price difference between the MkI and the MkII but I'm glad I upgraded in the end. I still have a Canon 5DIII but I very rarely use it.

Example of shadow noise on the MkI shooting into the sun:

20181021_093721_027 by Maarten D'Haese, on Flickr

Example of shadow noise on the MkII shooting into the sun - shot almost in the same location; colours are also noticeably better I think:

20190127_094206_054 by Maarten D'Haese, on Flickr
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Nawty said:
For me there isn’t a single “wow this is amazing and justifies the upgrade on its own” feature (although the AF is close) but as an all round package it is much nicer. It’s the little things, like not being paranoid about the battery running out, or that it’s quicker to wake, or the SAF is much better in low light, or the lack of jello effect with silent shutter that make it a better camera all ‘round. It is a bit bigger though and I prefer the size of the mk1.

ISO, a tiny bit better but not a lot and not worth the upgrade alone (unless long exposure is your thing). The EVF, pretty much the same but at a higher refresh rate...
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Thanks, useful info. I didn’t realise there was a big difference in battery performance, must look into that. I assume that means a different battery though :rolleyes:
 
snerkler said:
I guess it depends on the sports some may require a slower shutter, but even then I'm not sure how IBIS copes with/affects panning. But yes, photographing football, athletics, tennis etc etc you'll be up at 1/1000+ shutter and possibly high ISO (especially if you live in the UK ;))
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Something I've come to realise for street photography is that ibis isn't that useful and what i really want is good high ISO performance for higher shutter speeds, especially for the UK winter.
 
Donnie said:
I simply bought an extra ex-pro battery for the EM1, problem solved for less than £15.
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I take the point and I've got several genuine batteries for the EM1 (well, I actually use them in my EM5ii) but there is something very nice about grabbing your camera, seeing the battery is at 40% and thinking "that'll do". If it were the EM1 I'd be thinking "better grab two batteries, hope they're charged". I guess that comes from using a DSLR where a battery running out came as somewhat of a surprise.

Like I said, it's the little things that elevate the EM1ii to being much nicer to use, rather than the headline features. For me at least.
 
Donnie said:
I simply bought an extra ex-pro battery for the EM1, problem solved for less than £15.
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Yeah, I always buy a couple of spare ex-pro batteries. The only issue with this with regards to the EM1-II is that I believe they've centralised the tripod connector rather than being offset meaning that if you have a tripod plate attached you can't get to the battery compartment. As I use the peak design strap I use the tripod plate as a connector so that would be annoying. I have seen that the Peak Design Slide Lite has a smaller 'tripod' connector so maybe this would 'solve' the issue.
Nawty said:
I take the point and I've got several genuine batteries for the EM1 (well, I actually use them in my EM5ii) but there is something very nice about grabbing your camera, seeing the battery is at 40% and thinking "that'll do". If it were the EM1 I'd be thinking "better grab two batteries, hope they're charged". I guess that comes from using a DSLR where a battery running out came as somewhat of a surprise.

Like I said, it's the little things that elevate the EM1ii to being much nicer to use, rather than the headline features. For me at least.
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It does astound me how many shots I can get with my D850, approaching 2000 single shots with plenty of chimping. The battery grip battery gives you over 4000 shots, although that is the size of a house :LOL:
 
Does the Em1 ii still need anti shock settings to be selected as a workaround.
Or have they eliminated the issue like Panasonic with a new shutter mechanism?
 
snerkler said:
Yeah, I always buy a couple of spare ex-pro batteries. The only issue with this with regards to the EM1-II is that I believe they've centralised the tripod connector rather than being offset meaning that if you have a tripod plate attached you can't get to the battery compartment. As I use the peak design strap I use the tripod plate as a connector so that would be annoying. I have seen that the Peak Design Slide Lite has a smaller 'tripod' connector so maybe this would 'solve' the issue.
It does astound me how many shots I can get with my D850, approaching 2000 single shots with plenty of chimping. The battery grip battery gives you over 4000 shots, although that is the size of a house :LOL:
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L-brackets often get around the battery compartment issue if that is any use to you.

Can't help thinking that much of this battery concern would be alleviated if Olympus offered USB charging. It makes so much sense for travel cameras. I know you can buy usb external chargers but that moves away from the minimalist, portable nature of a nice travel set up.

Oh, and start fitting OLED EVF's. That would help with battery life too and be far better.

If Olympus implement both of those on an E-M5iii, they'll have at least one customer :). The 7.5 stop ibis system would be nice too.
 
@snerkler Thank you so much for your detailed reply. I have seen banding in my pictures taken at gigs. Could easily have not used silent due to the noise! I’ve seen the rolling shutter effect in video.

Thank you also @Pound Coin. I will have to do more reading on antishock. Something I have used on occasion when on a tripod

Regarding auto ISO in manual mode on the EM1 ii, I use it all the time and frequently dial in exposure compensation. After trialling a few methods, I’ve now set my lever to be exposure compensation in position 2, and both dials set it, front and back, as otherwise I tended to confuse myself, or else it was unpredictable.
 
gad-westy said:
L-brackets often get around the battery compartment issue if that is any use to you.

Can't help thinking that much of this battery concern would be alleviated if Olympus offered USB charging. It makes so much sense for travel cameras. I know you can buy usb external chargers but that moves away from the minimalist, portable nature of a nice travel set up.

Oh, and start fitting OLED EVF's. That would help with battery life too and be far better.

If Olympus implement both of those on an E-M5iii, they'll have at least one customer :). The 7.5 stop ibis system would be nice too.
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Unfortunately L-brackets aren't any good for me, but I'm pretty sure the PD slide lite fixing will be ok, looks pretty small.

https://www.peakdesign.com/products/slide-lite
 
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