Hi,
New poster here, casual birder for many years, more recently getting a bit obsessive about it.
Anyhow, I recently purchased an OM-D EM-5 Mark ii & 75-300 lens, to replace my broken Olympus Stylus 1, for a reasonably compact camera to have along birding. I used the TCON-17x with the Stylus 1, and it was decent as a birding camera for documentation photos, giving me f2.8 at a 510mm focal length (35mm eq), but wasn't particularly durable with that big TCON mounted to plastic threads. And it had a small 1/1.7" sensor.
I expected significant improvements with the OM-D, with a larger sensor, and presumably better optics & IS, but even with feeder birds only 20 feet away, I just can't seem to get crisp photos. Maybe I simply haven't learned how to use this camera properly - I'd welcome advice from any OM-D users here.
I primarily use S-AF+MF, letting the camera do the initial focusing, then tweak from there if necessary, using the EVF & magnification. Here's some of what I've tried, testing with feeder birds (mostly the Common Redpolls that have been visiting this winter). With/without IBIS, with/without anti-shock, with a tripod (IBIS off), increasing the default JPG compression to L/SF, different focal lengths, different ISO settings, different speeds, etc. Even the tripod photos were not very crisp, my Stylus 1 was about as good hand-held. I've even tried the new Focus bracketing feature at its finest setting.
Image stabilization certainly helps at long focal lengths / low shutter speeds, but only from really blurry to somewhat blurry. Anti-Shock maybe helps a little, hard to tell. Switching to L/SF compression did seem to help a little. Tripod obviously helps at very low shutter speeds, but not much difference at higher speeds.
Thanks!
-Paul
(Wondering if I should have gone APS-C!)
New poster here, casual birder for many years, more recently getting a bit obsessive about it.
Anyhow, I recently purchased an OM-D EM-5 Mark ii & 75-300 lens, to replace my broken Olympus Stylus 1, for a reasonably compact camera to have along birding. I used the TCON-17x with the Stylus 1, and it was decent as a birding camera for documentation photos, giving me f2.8 at a 510mm focal length (35mm eq), but wasn't particularly durable with that big TCON mounted to plastic threads. And it had a small 1/1.7" sensor.
I expected significant improvements with the OM-D, with a larger sensor, and presumably better optics & IS, but even with feeder birds only 20 feet away, I just can't seem to get crisp photos. Maybe I simply haven't learned how to use this camera properly - I'd welcome advice from any OM-D users here.
I primarily use S-AF+MF, letting the camera do the initial focusing, then tweak from there if necessary, using the EVF & magnification. Here's some of what I've tried, testing with feeder birds (mostly the Common Redpolls that have been visiting this winter). With/without IBIS, with/without anti-shock, with a tripod (IBIS off), increasing the default JPG compression to L/SF, different focal lengths, different ISO settings, different speeds, etc. Even the tripod photos were not very crisp, my Stylus 1 was about as good hand-held. I've even tried the new Focus bracketing feature at its finest setting.
Image stabilization certainly helps at long focal lengths / low shutter speeds, but only from really blurry to somewhat blurry. Anti-Shock maybe helps a little, hard to tell. Switching to L/SF compression did seem to help a little. Tripod obviously helps at very low shutter speeds, but not much difference at higher speeds.
Thanks!
-Paul
(Wondering if I should have gone APS-C!)
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