The solution... is to always shoot a sequence. This phenomenon is really strange. I think I should report it to Olympus.Very bad indeed... I hope you will find a solution.
Hi Jules,
Nice puffins. I'm jealous!
This is the closest I have ever been able to get to them.
View attachment 597923
People in Scotland go crazy to see them and spend a LOT of money on chartered boats to spend a couple of hours jammed in with 100 other tourists all trying to get the same picture. I would love to be able to see and photograph them, but not like that!
With your method, what you are doing is essentially S-AF bursts. The whole point of C-AF is to be able to track and focus at the same time, something Canon and Nikon excel at but where the Oly can't react fast enough. Improvements there are expected with the E-M1 Mark II. No chance at all for C-AF with the 400/5.6+Metabones, not even with v2.4, (v2.1 still best) but S-AF with short 9-10 FPS bursts works very well. The Metabones, combined with my home made action finder has meant a HUGE increase in my BiF keeper rate, like 10 to 1, compared to a year ago where I was still limited to MF. A detailed report will follow shortly.
To start with, here is the latest version of my Cheapee-1 (Mark III) action viewfinder.
View attachment 597941 View attachment 597942 View attachment 597943
Mark II worked great, but it was flimsy and got broken or bent or both nearly every time out, so I had to do some re-thinking. I opted for a magnetic mount, that is, the base is the same as the last one, but I filed off the holder and glued a steel post on in its place. Then I took a small magnet from a bits holder (3mm thick, 6mm diameter) and glued it to a more stable frame. The tongue and groove insures that it stays aligned when in place. Now if it gets knocked, it just pops out of its holder and either sticks to the side or is held by the retaining string. There is a small piece of shrink tube around the post to act as a sort of socket for the frame.
The size is a little different also, that is about 13x17mm, which corresponds pretty close to the angle of view with the 400 on the E-M1. It is adjusted to about 25-30 meters, that is, anything closer I have to frame slightly below the cross hairs, and anything further away, slightly above. It is held in place with two Velcro straps, so it can easily be adjusted laterally. For the pictures I pulled the black cover back so you can see the underlying construction.
Yes I use IS.1. The smearing has been seen only with the metabones and 400/5.6. Not seen with the scope, yet.Back from the North Sea. Lots to report a bit later.
I have found that the longer the focal length, the less useful silent shutter is. Distortion can happen VERY easily, so I quit using it except where silence is really necessary. I rely mostly on single anti-shock=0, or on bursts when shutter speeds over 1/320 are possible. BiF I use bursts anyway.
That smearing looks strange to me, and I would indeed report it to Olympus to at least see what they have to say about it. Have you been using IS? If so, I could see it as being caused by the weight of the scope causing the IS to malfunction, compounded with the very slow sensor read time (1/15th second) with silent shutter, though you seem to be having it with the 400/5.6 also. I myself have had no problems with IS using the 400/5.6, silent or normal shutter. I just have to remember to turn it off when I use the scope.
Definitely report it.