Thinking of going to Olympus for focus bracketting/stacking

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davholla

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Probably Olympus OM-D E-M1 (£295 second hand)or OM-D E-M5 MK II Body Black (£419 new).

With the 60mm lens.

My shooting is due to commitments not ideal, i.e. I don't get up early and look for insects whilst they are still asleep. It is more 5 minutes here or there when my family let me, never early in the morning and on holiday often by torch light.

I currently use Canon 550D and 60 mm lens which I am happy with but I would like the ability to do more stacks. If Olympus didn't have this feature I wouldn't think about changing for a second.
 
GardenersHelper said:
Presumably you have compared the Olympus and Panasonic implementations of bracketing and stacking?
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Well I tried Panasonic and I didn't get on with at all. Fortunately I could return them without any cost (apart from the cost of delivery). Similar risk time but I want to decide what to do.
More people seem to do well with Olympus than Panasonic (which of course could be just luck).
 
I have all the above equipment and do use it for stacks.
I prefer my 4/3 sigma 105 f2.8 to the 60mm f2.8 as I use MF and the manual focusing gets very slow from 1:4 to 1:1 for my liking.

You will want the E-M1 for all the stacking options there are less on the E-M5ii you will also need check the firmware is up to date but at least updatingt the firmware is a simple task. The stacking is well into the menus but you may be able to assign it to a button as they are very customisable cameras.
 
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Yes, you want the EM1, not the EM5ii as it will do the stacking for you and does rather a good job (the EM5ii only focus brackets).

The EM1 also has better AF should that be of relevance.

edit: the EM1 also has a better grip which will be useful for macro.
 
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alfbranch said:
I have all the above equipment and do use it for stacks.
I prefer my 4/3 sigma 105 f2.8 to the 60mm f2.8 as I use MF and the manual focusing gets very slow from 1:4 to 1:1 for my liking.

You will want the E-M1 for all the stacking options there are less on the E-M5ii you will also need check the firmware is up to date but at least updatingt the firmware is a simple task. The stacking is well into the menus but you may be able to assign it to a button as they are very customisable cameras.
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I don't think that the 4/3 sigma (happy to be proved wrong) is an option for me as I can't find it for sale anywhere.
Why do you use MF does auto focus not work?
 
MF is often the best technique for macro, especially to get the 1:1 ratio.

MF and then gently rock slightly back and forth firing off a load of shots.
 
davholla said:
I don't think that the 4/3 sigma (happy to be proved wrong) is an option for me as I can't find it for sale anywhere.
Why do you use MF does auto focus not work?
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The 4/3 Sigma 105 f2.8 was never easy to get
Auto fcous is alaways rather hit and miss IMO if using AF I recomend back button focusing then you can auto focus then tock and fire I prefer the more predicatble MF method but the Sigma also has better working distance.

Nawty said:
MF is often the best technique for macro, especially to get the 1:1 ratio.

MF and then gently rock slightly back and forth firing off a load of shots.
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I agree and in fact at a certain point it becomes easier to move the camera than focusing I find especially when using tubes and Raynox and getting close to 3:1 magnification
 
Check out Magic Lantern for your 550? That may add focus stacking capability.
 
davholla said:
I currently use Canon 550D and 60 mm lens which I am happy with but I would like the ability to do more stacks. If Olympus didn't have this feature I wouldn't think about changing for a second.
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I have used Helicon Remote with my Canon Cameras and it works well calculating the number of images needed in the stack then capturing them. I have just checked and it appears that Helicon Remote does support the 550D.

Dave
 
newbie1 said:
Check out Magic Lantern for your 550? That may add focus stacking capability.
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I tried it and it was a pain to use
Dave Canon said:
I have used Helicon Remote with my Canon Cameras and it works well calculating the number of images needed in the stack then capturing them. I have just checked and it appears that Helicon Remote does support the 550D.

Dave
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Is that tethered to a tablet or something?
 
I use it to control my Canon 5D Mkiv from an iPad. The connection is by WiFi so very easy. You can connect by mini-USB cable if you do not have a WiFi camera.

You just set the near focussing point and the far focussing point on the tablet screen and Helicon does the rest.

Dave
 
An overlooked point is that if you want to use stacking on the e-1m you will need to use the Olympus 60mm f2.8 macro lens on auto focus. It is a fully automatic event performed by the camera.
 
Ajophotog said:
An overlooked point is that if you want to use stacking on the e-1m you will need to use the Olympus 60mm f2.8 macro lens on auto focus. It is a fully automatic event performed by the camera.
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That's pretty much why I do not bother myself and the fact I shoot handheld
 
Well I did some testing with my existing set and Olympus

Obviously these are not really shots I would normally keep, they are just some dead insects I found and keep in the freezer.

The Canon are single shots, Olympus photo stacking, any thoughts particularly on what I could do better with the Olympus

Canon
IMG_4650 by davholla2002, on Flickr

Olympus - very poor, worryingly it looked good at the back of the camera
P4220275 by davholla2002, on Flickr

Canon
IMG_4649 by davholla2002, on Flickr

Olympus

P4220223 by davholla2002, on Flickr


Canon

P4220188 by davholla2002, on Flickr

Olympus

IMG_4646 by davholla2002, on Flickr
 
I dont know anything about the Olympus kit but the differences you are noticing are most probably down to the difference of settings i.e. shutter speeds. All the worrying blurry ones have very slow shutter speeds(1/10, 1/13, 1/8) where the canon ones are using 1/160+. In fact your settings throughout the examples are all over the place in respects to iso and ss. Like for like settings would make for a much better comparison.
 
RyanB said:
I dont know anything about the Olympus kit but the differences you are noticing are most probably down to the difference of settings i.e. shutter speeds. All the worrying blurry ones have very slow shutter speeds(1/10, 1/13, 1/8) where the canon ones are using 1/160+. In fact your settings throughout the examples are all over the place in respects to iso and ss. Like for like settings would make for a much better comparison.
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Oops good point I will have to try again tomorrow with better settings for the Olympus thank you
 
After trying this a bit more I don't think it is worth it and will almost certainly be returning the camera body. Sadly I can't return the lens and will sell it at a slight loss. Oh well macro often involves this kind of joy. It would be great if I had lots of friends near me or colleagues who are interested in macro. Unfortunately the number of people who I see regularly and take macro is zero - although I do have a work colleague who takes bird photos.
 
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