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Olympus E-M1 MarkII: OH MY! (1 Viewer)

That depends a lot on what lens you have on it. As an example, S-AF on my mFT 75-300 II (only mFT lens I own) is lightning fast and C-AF is quite good at all focal lengths. My FT 50-200 is still OK, not nearly as fast but for slower moving subjects usable. C-AF with my Canon 400/5.6 and Metabones adapter it totally useless, even worse than the E-M1. But bang one of the new Pro lenses on the Mark II and it would not surprise me at all that it is "one of the best". They are really designed for each other.
 
DanC.Licks said:
That depends a lot on what lens you have on it. As an example, S-AF on my mFT 75-300 II (only mFT lens I own) is lightning fast and C-AF is quite good at all focal lengths. My FT 50-200 is still OK, not nearly as fast but for slower moving subjects usable. C-AF with my Canon 400/5.6 and Metabones adapter it totally useless, even worse than the E-M1. But bang one of the new Pro lenses on the Mark II and it would not surprise me at all that it is "one of the best". They are really designed for each other.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I've bought most of the PRO lenses released since the 12-40 f2.8 (I don't have the 300mm f4 or the fisheye) and on the Mark II one gets just tremendous results.

njlarsen said:
Pretty big words

Niels
Click to expand...

In traditional DSLR format, while the image is being shot, the mirror has to be flipped up to allow light to hit the image sensor, blocking the AF module, resulting in temporary pause of AF operations. The AF in the DSLR can only resume as the mirror flips down again, so this intermittent, repetitive interruptions of AF can limit the potential of continuous focusing when shooting in high speed burst sequential mode. In the E-M1 Mark II, besides having a dedicated multi-core processor to focusing, the AF happens at real time while live view or EVF is in use, and in sequential high speed burst, the images captured (say 60fps, or 18fps) were all fully used to calculate/predict subject movements, creating a seamless, uninterrupted, full time continuous AF operation. And, 121 phase detect AF points, all full cross to increase sensitivity for tracking of subject movements.

A handful of informal shots I toook the first two weeks with the Mark II are here (http://www.pbase.com/dwever/em1).

DanC.Licks said:
Good explanation!
Click to expand...

Thank you. And I made the mistake in haste of not crediting an Olympus Malaysia employee with a blog and the last name of Wong as I recall for that clear explanation.
 
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Been playing around with High-Res and stacking. Love the High-Res feature!
32784362214_c7138ea1dd_b.jpg

Full sized.
21 High-Res, 50 MB jpgs. E-M1 Mark II with Leicaflex Macro Elmarit-R 60/2.8 stopprd down to f/8. Gray skies, light falling in through the window with no fill in.
 
Waves on water can be tricky as they can provide lots of contrast for the AF, so both gulls are not quite in focus. The immature HG has the focus on the left wing where there is also good contrast, so it is not far off. Always best to have the eye in focus, me thinks. Only solution is more light and stopping down a bit, and experimenting to see what works best. AF systems all need light and with these relatively slow lenses they can struggle. And shoot LOTS!
The MT is right on. :) Also not an easy situation, but at least the AF finds the bird more attractive than the background.
I find the Mark II to be a little worse in being tempted by the background than the Mark I was, at least with the adapted Canon lens which uses only the phase detect system, just like FT lenses. I am finding it harder to single something out against either a stronger background or foreground. Need to practice more too... might just be my imagination.
The little 75-300 works quite well though because it can also use the contrast detect AF when it feels it needs it. Snappy little lens. Lots of bang for the buck/quid/€.

By the way, if you are thinking of making a monopod support like mine, there would be no problem resting the 75-300 in it further back. I just would not rest it on the extended barrel. Some pro level zooms wouldn't be a problem, but these little guys are not built for that kind of abuse.
 
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katastrofa said:
Thanks. Would panning help? It would blur the background, removing the temptation for the AF system to latch on to it.
Click to expand...

I'd imagine you'd be panning anyway whilst following the bird so that probably answers your question :)

The real solution is to use as small an AF group as possible and maybe set the AF Lock a bit tighter. Remember too that there's no "set and forget" setting for AF Lock: you're going to need to set it according to the task you're asking the AF to perform. This is why the engineers at Olympus give you the ability to change it.

HTH
 
katastrofa said:
Thanks. Would panning help? It would blur the background, removing the temptation for the AF system to latch on to it.
Click to expand...

For sure! One thing to note though is that when panning, the IS can also be tricked by the background, that is, it can stabilize the background to make it easier for the AF to be tricked by it. I have my three sets configured like this:
C1 is for stationary subjects, (lets call them birds ;) ...), C2 is for BiF, and C3 is for faster moving BiFs, so C1 and C2 are set to IS1 and C3 is IS off and with the ISO at 800 rather than my standard 400 on the first two. The sets are a great help, and I have configured the buttons etc so I can quickly move from one set to another, or from one focus point configuration to another without changing my grip and looking through the viewfinder. Brilliant to be able to do that. Oly-san really gave that one some thought!
If you want I can give you a complete rundown of what works for me, but with no guarantee it will work for you. ;)
 
An example of how water can trick the AF and ruin a shot:
EM123276.jpg
Then a few seconds later after refocusing to be sure.
EM123277.jpg

The goslings were right in the center on both shots, but little fuzzy things aren't as attractive to the AF an those nice high contrast back lit waves. I sensed that the AF wasn't cooperating so on the second shot I focused on one of the parents and re-framed. Good thing they weren't flying!

Another bad example....
EM123228.jpg
It can happen SO easily.... :-C
 
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