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

RedRobin said:
.... Absolutely stunning quality Jeff!

Did you Focus Stack this shot? Handheld or tri/monopod?
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just normal macro robin hand held with a careful approach... superb bee shots by the way we are all now having to learn new modus-operandi .. probably be snowing before this lockdown ends
 
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Thanks for the likes for my red kite photo.

I'm gradually learning what the EM1 can do, and stage by stage I seem to be getting there. Can someone advise me on something please?

When in C-AF you can choose between single target, 5 target group and 9 target group.

Having chosen one of the latter two the camera seems to choose one of the squares within the group to focus on apparently at random. is it possible to tell it to use only the central one, for example?
 
jerry12953 said:
Thanks for the likes for my red kite photo.

I'm gradually learning what the EM1 can do, and stage by stage I seem to be getting there. Can someone advise me on something please?

When in C-AF you can choose between single target, 5 target group and 9 target group.

Having chosen one of the latter two the camera seems to choose one of the squares within the group to focus on apparently at random. is it possible to tell it to use only the central one, for example?
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I think it chooses the nearest point. if you only want it to use central then maybe choose one point?
edit: it would be nice if it could be weighted. I have a feeling something about this is different on the EM1iii
 
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Bebop said:
I think it chooses the nearest point. if you only want it to use central then maybe choose one point?
edit: it would be nice if it could be weighted. I have a feeling something about this is different on the EM1iii
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As I understand it you use 5 point or 9 point so that when you're tracking a moving subject you can stray off the central point to one of the outer points and it keeps focus on the main subject? But if it picks one of the outer points for initial focus that defeats the object, doesn't it? Or have i got it wrong?
 
jerry12953 said:
Thanks for the likes for my red kite photo.

I'm gradually learning what the EM1 can do, and stage by stage I seem to be getting there. Can someone advise me on something please?

When in C-AF you can choose between single target, 5 target group and 9 target group.

Having chosen one of the latter two the camera seems to choose one of the squares within the group to focus on apparently at random. is it possible to tell it to use only the central one, for example?
Click to expand...
You can make it focus on the central point when you first press the button, but, as far as I know, it will move after the initial lock.
 
jerry12953 said:
Thanks for the likes for my red kite photo.

I'm gradually learning what the EM1 can do, and stage by stage I seem to be getting there. Can someone advise me on something please?

When in C-AF you can choose between single target, 5 target group and 9 target group.

Having chosen one of the latter two the camera seems to choose one of the squares within the group to focus on apparently at random. is it possible to tell it to use only the central one, for example?
Click to expand...
yes its one of its nastier quirks , I rarely use more than one point even when tracking b.i.f in fact the only time multi point is used is against a clear blue sky ... 90% of the time I use the pinpoint one to . the lenses are light enough to keep the bird on target with one point so dont waste your time on multi point
 
As a add on to that obviously it helps if your lenses are faster focussing
 
the black fox said:
yes its one of its nastier quirks , I rarely use more than one point even when tracking b.i.f in fact the only time multi point is used is against a clear blue sky ... 90% of the time I use the pinpoint one to . the lenses are light enough to keep the bird on target with one point so dont waste your time on multi point
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I think your last few words are a hell of a generalisation.
Tracking BIF with a single autofocus point must be just about the most difficult task in photography.
You may be one of the select few who can be successful, but for the average chap a few more autofocus points must be of benefit.
 
Still practicing with the 75-300mm. There’s quite a bit of skill involved photographing at such long focal distances, one I’ve yet to master

A few from the garden today, don’t have the benefit of a macro lens or anything as exotic as a queen wasp :)

Fly by Jake Blue, on Flickr

Butterfly by Jake Blue, on Flickr

This guy did stop by though even I didn’t need an app to identify him :)

Robin 2 by Jake Blue, on Flickr

Singing Robin by Jake Blue, on Flickr
 
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jerry12953 said:
As I understand it you use 5 point or 9 point so that when you're tracking a moving subject you can stray off the central point to one of the outer points and it keeps focus on the main subject? But if it picks one of the outer points for initial focus that defeats the object, doesn't it? Or have i got it wrong?
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I‘ve just had a look at the manual for the iii - hopefully same for ii. You can choose to have centre priority, which is the normal state of affairs.... or you can choose starting centre focus.. however this only works if centre priority is not enabled.menu A1.

I’ve just tried it on my EM1ii and that seems to sort it so that it always starts with centre point - do not enable centre priority and enable starting centre point.
 
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Malfis said:
I think your last few words are a hell of a generalisation.
Tracking BIF with a single autofocus point must be just about the most difficult task in photography.
You may be one of the select few who can be successful, but for the average chap a few more autofocus points must be of benefit.
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nope Malcolm its simply what I have trained myself to do , remember I shot hand held for years with various canon and nikon bodies and lenses of all sorts and sizes from 300mm ,through 400mm to 600mm , my preferred style of shooting has always been walkabout preferably without a tripod (although I do own one ) so shooting with single point with my mk2 and 100-400 which weighs in at 1.4kg is a doddle ,its not a case of Beijing big headed its something anyone can do with practise .and thats the key factor PRACTICE PRACTISE and keep doing it .. take some bread out feed the gulls practise on them it honestly all falls into place .. and to finalise I think there's enough leeway in the olympus focus to do this with ease . and btw just a reminder i'm no spring chicken at 74 and with a dodgy ticker
 
jakeblu said:
Still practicing with the 75-300mm. There’s quite a bit of skill involved photographing at such long focal distances, one I’ve yet to master

A few from the garden today, don’t have the benefit of a macro lens or anything as exotic as a queen wasp :)

Fly by Jake Blue, on Flickr

Butterfly by Jake Blue, on Flickr

This guy did stop by though even I didn’t need an app to identify him :)

Robin 2 by Jake Blue, on Flickr

Singing Robin by Jake Blue, on Flickr
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.... Yes but you are doing okay, actually quite well imo - It's a case of practice makes perfect (or as near perfect as any of us can get!).

If I may offer some constructive criticism, a bit sharper focus on the insects could make a big difference but Butterflies are especially tricky for DoF.
 
Bebop said:
I‘ve just had a look at the manual for the iii - hopefully same for ii. You can choose to have centre priority, which is the normal state of affairs.... or you can choose starting centre focus.. however this only works if centre priority is not enabled.menu A1.

I’ve just tried it on my EM1ii and that seems to sort it so that it always starts with centre point - do not enable centre priority and enable starting centre point.
Click to expand...


Thanks, I think I've got that combination of settings so I'll give it a play......
 
the black fox said:
nope Malcolm its simply what I have trained myself to do , remember I shot hand held for years with various canon and nikon bodies and lenses of all sorts and sizes from 300mm ,through 400mm to 600mm , my preferred style of shooting has always been walkabout preferably without a tripod (although I do own one ) so shooting with single point with my mk2 and 100-400 which weighs in at 1.4kg is a doddle ,its not a case of Beijing big headed its something anyone can do with practise .and thats the key factor PRACTICE PRACTISE and keep doing it .. take some bread out feed the gulls practise on them it honestly all falls into place .. and to finalise I think there's enough leeway in the olympus focus to do this with ease . and btw just a reminder i'm no spring chicken at 74 and with a dodgy ticker
Click to expand...


Ah Ha, so that's my problem - I'm 76, so wait until you get to my age! :ROFLMAO:
Though I did manage to get a slow flying bird this afternoon!

PIA.jpg
 
RedRobin said:
.... Yes but you are doing okay, actually quite well imo - It's a case of practice makes perfect (or as near perfect as any of us can get!).

If I may offer some constructive criticism, a bit sharper focus on the insects could make a big difference but Butterflies are especially tricky for DoF.
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Thanks Robin, I'm always happy to take constructive criticism. I'm trying to improve the way I hold the camera and keep it steady. Even with the brill Oly IBIS, at 300mm theres a lot of movement which makes it difficult to keep the focal point on the subject, especially when it's so small.
 
the black fox said:
a focus stacked dandelion clock from the garden today
clock this by jeff and jan cohen, on Flickr
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Was that handheld for the focus stacking?

Though I don't have macro lens, does the technique work when using the 12-40 f2.8 @ min focus distance???


PS forgot to add that this is a cracker :)
 
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Box Brownie said:
Was that handheld for the focus stacking?

Though I don't have macro lens, does the technique work when using the 12-40 f2.8 @ min focus distance???


PS forgot to add that this is a cracker :)
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Yes it was hand held , cant answer the about the 12-40 as I don’t have one
 
Box Brownie said:
Was that handheld for the focus stacking?

Though I don't have macro lens, does the technique work when using the 12-40 f2.8 @ min focus distance???
Click to expand...

.... I believe that all the Pro Olympus lenses support Focus Stacking providing that the body does. I haven't tried my 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro yet but as its MFD is very short it should be ideal - I have seen it listed and also the Olympus 300mm F/4 Pro which I intend to test out on a Butterfly and even with my MC-14 mounted. I have been successfully getting shots of perched Butterflies with my 300mm + 1.4x as 840mm (equivalent) is less likely to spook the subject.

Focus Stacking is fundamentally a functional extension of Focus Bracketing and therefore relies on instructions from the body. Even my compact Olympus TG-6 does handheld Focus Stacking,
 
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RedRobin said:
.... I believe that all the Pro Olympus lenses support Focus Stacking providing that the body does. I haven't tried my 12-40mm F/2.8 Pro yet but as its MFD is very short it should be ideal - I have seen it listed and also the Olympus 300mm F/4 Pro which I intend to test out on a Butterfly and even with my MC-14 mounted. I have been successfully getting shots of perched Butterflies with my 300mm + 1.4x as 840mm (equivalent) is less likely to spook the subject.

Focus Stacking is fundamentally a functional extension of Focus Bracketing and therefore relies on instructions from the body. Even my compact Olympus TG-6 does handheld Focus Stacking,
Click to expand...

Just watched a mini tutorial by Olympus (on this page https://www.olympus-imagespace.co.u...VAU&bpid=fa163ef4-1778-1ee8-a49e-db93aca9553e ), a couple of questions:-
How many do you shoot in the set e.g. 15 and what 'differential' do you set?
I surmise that the camera creates a JPEG...........how do you find that generated JPEG for "quality" in regard to its post process'abilty?

TIA :)
 
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Box Brownie said:
Just watched a mini tutorial by Olympus (on this page https://www.olympus-imagespace.co.u...VAU&bpid=fa163ef4-1778-1ee8-a49e-db93aca9553e ), a couple of questions:-
How many do you shoot in the set e.g. 15 and what 'differential' do you set?
I surmise that the camera creates a JPEG...........how do you find that generated JPEG for "quality" in regard to its post process'abilty?

TIA :)
Click to expand...
Yes the camera creates a jpeg, which is pretty good, but also generates the full set of raws so you can stack in software. Here's the jpeg that was generated my my first shot My cars mascot by Pete Banks, on Flickr
 
Box Brownie said:
Just watched a mini tutorial by Olympus (on this page https://www.olympus-imagespace.co.u...VAU&bpid=fa163ef4-1778-1ee8-a49e-db93aca9553e ), a couple of questions:-
How many do you shoot in the set e.g. 15 and what 'differential' do you set?
I surmise that the camera creates a JPEG...........how do you find that generated JPEG for "quality" in regard to its post process'abilty?

TIA :)
Click to expand...

.... For my Bumble Bee shots (Reply #19,400) I set 8 but will try set of 15 next time and my differential was 5 which is in the middle position (1-10).

I always shoot RAW and never JPEG but was very pleasantly surprised how good the final output 73Mb JPEG was when post-processed in Capture One. Even the WB was changeable from its default 5000K if I wanted to and all my usual adjustment sliders were no different than in a RAW file. As usual in my workflow I converted to TIFF to apply Topaz DeNoise etc.

I was also surprised how well the results came out because the Bumble Bee was in the shade and I had to shoot wide open at F/2.8 and ISO 800 (not Auto). I nearly always shoot Manual-mode and was 1/60s.

As selecting Focus Stacking involves so many steps through the Menu I suggest allocating it to a C-mode on the top dial. Live minibeast subjects cannot be relied on to hold a pose indefinitely.

Personally I could never be bothered to faff around with Focus Stacking in software after uploading the files but now it can be done onboard and also handheld, I am interested. The maximum set of 15 would appear to be good enough for my purposes as I still want my pictures to look real rather than unrealistically perfect.

HTH
 
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I can’t see where focus stacking involves so many steps robin.once you have input your initial settings mines 8 shots 5 diff , it’s simply a case of turning focus bracketing on or off .once turned on it’s all set and ready to go why overcomplicate it . I work on the K.i.S.S principal
 
the black fox said:
I can’t see where focus stacking involves so many steps robin.once you have input your initial settings mines 8 shots 5 diff , it’s simply a case of turning focus bracketing on or off .once turned on it’s all set and ready to go why overcomplicate it . I work on the K.i.S.S principal
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.... Usually I would work on the L.t.J.H.R.* principle and I agree that once you have set it all up to your preference it's only a case of turning Focus Bracketing On/Off, but that assumes you don't want to change any of your Stacking settings for a particular subject.

Besides which, it's either:
A) - Turn Mode Dial to your predefined C1/C2/C3 position = 1 action
versus
B) - Menu > Shooting Menu 2 > Bracketing > OK > On/Off > Menu button/OK = 6 actions

Which is quicker? - A) of course, plus you can also include your preferred aperture/shutter/ISO/AF settings for macro work in your C-mode.

Does it matter which selection route is quicker? - For wildlife subjects, yes it most definitely does. For studio/inanimate subjects, no it doesn't.

The bottom line is that the extensive customisations which Olympus cameras offer means that we can each individually choose which modus operandi we prefer.

[*L.t.J.H.R. principle = Listen to Jeff, He's Right] WTF is the the K.i.S.S. principal please?
 
RedRobin said:
.... Usually I would work on the L.t.J.H.R.* principle and I agree that once you have set it all up to your preference it's only a case of turning Focus Bracketing On/Off, but that assumes you don't want to change any of your Stacking settings for a particular subject.

Besides which, it's either:
A) - Turn Mode Dial to your predefined C1/C2/C3 position = 1 action
versus
B) - Menu > Shooting Menu 2 > Bracketing > OK > On/Off > Menu button/OK = 6 actions

Which is quicker? - A) of course, plus you can also include your preferred aperture/shutter/ISO/AF settings for macro work in your C-mode.

Does it matter which selection route is quicker? - For wildlife subjects, yes it most definitely does. For studio/inanimate subjects, no it doesn't.

The bottom line is that the extensive customisations which Olympus cameras offer means that we can each individually choose which modus operandi we prefer.

[*L.t.J.H.R. principle = Listen to Jeff, He's Right] WTF is the the K.i.S.S. principal please?
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Keep it Simple, Stupid :D
 
jakeblu said:
Keep it Simple, Stupid :D
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.... :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: That's so typical Jeff-speak! But at least he will say that to your face, as I have experienced more than once!

I'm glad to learn that Jeff isn't blowing me KISSES :D

Cheers for the translation Steve.
 
RedRobin said:
For those here who are on Facebook and wish to learn more about Olympus Focus Stacking & Bracketing, there is a dedicated group :

https://www.facebook.com/groups/481963741985570/

HTH
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Thanks for that Robin. I've just requested to join.

@Box Brownie when I tried it recently I did 15 shots and a differential of 4. My understanding is that a wider aperture might require a smaller differential and possibly more shots depending on how 'deep' your subject is. I don't think there is a definitive answer because it depends on the subject.

I had tried it previously and took way too many shots and lost the will. I was stacking on my computer. I think maybe this was when I had an EM5ii, a long time ago.
 
Bebop said:
Thanks for that Robin. I've just requested to join.

@Box Brownie when I tried it recently I did 15 shots and a differential of 4. My understanding is that a wider aperture might require a smaller differential and possibly more shots depending on how 'deep' your subject is. I don't think there is a definitive answer because it depends on the subject.

I had tried it previously and took way too many shots and lost the will. I was stacking on my computer. I think maybe this was when I had an EM5ii, a long time ago.
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Thanks for the added insights :)

Plus thanks to @RedRobin for the FB linky......................will have to request joining :)

PS obviously becoming popular ;)
Activity
2,792 Members
+140 in the last 30 days
 
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Just joined today the Facebook group today thanks to those posting Macro made me part with more cash! Actually Amazon have a 5 payments plan £341 and being "my cash is better in my bank" it would be rude not to of course

Olympus cameras certainly offer more for your buck with features that once you understand make the cameras so versatile

One other question anyone using focus bracketing and using hi Res (assuming it can be done)
Box Brownie said:
Thanks for the added insights :)

Plus thanks to @RedRobin for the FB linky......................will have to request joining :)

PS obviously becoming popular ;)
Activity
2,792 Members
+140 in the last 30 days
Click to expand...
 
I wrote : "...extensive customisations which Olympus cameras offer..." and you replied :

jerry12953 said:
I'd say that was a mixed blessing, personally..........
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.... Why a mixed blessing? It enables.

IMO it is absolutely worth perservering - Simply explore as you get to know the camera. When you have such a choice to customise to suit your preferences it enables you and increases your fluidity and at-one-ness with your camera tool.

I have seen your work and it is fabulous.
 
mazdaman said:
One other question anyone using focus bracketing and using hi Res (assuming it can be done)
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.... I wondered about that but one step at a time eh? Have only just done my first ever focus stacking (Reply #19,400).

One aspect of Hi Res is that its file format can only be processed in Olympus Workflow < I think but perhaps needs confirming. So I don't know how that will mix if indeed it can.

Pity that OlympusUK are also on lockdown and so I can't phone and have a chat about it. You can email but they're taking days to answer at the moment.
 
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