Something oyu may have missed is that the E-M5II announced today also comes with a quite unique accessory: The Olympus EE-1 Dot Sight! You can preorders it here at Amazon, Adorama and BHphoto. This is why it useful:
Get some extra help when aiming at faraway subjects with the Olympus EE-1 Dot Sight for OM-D E-M5 Mark II Camera. This is particularly useful when using long telephoto lenses for applications such as wildlife capture. The sight offers a center aiming dot with adjustable brightness and position to enable fast subject acquisition and tracking. You’ll be able to tell whether your aim is right on target or slightly off–without looking through the camera’s viewfinder or using the monitor. The dot sight fits right into the camera’s hot shoe and has a slide lever opening mechanism. Built for durability, it is both dust and splashproof.
Preorders (if you preorder through those links you will support 43rumors…thanks!):
E-M5II in Black or Silver at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus. In Europe at Jessops, WexUK, Namencolor.
14-150mm II lens at Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
FL-LM3 Flash at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus ECG-2 External Metal Grip at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus HLD-6P Battery Grip at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
HLD-8g at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
E-P16 eyecup at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
HLD-8G and HLD-6P kit at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Full leather case at Amazon, Adorama and GetOlympus.
Olympus PT-EP13 Underwater Housing at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
Olympus Stylus Tough TG-860 at Adorama, BHphoto and GetOlympus.
41 Responses
Brilliant! That little tool makes the 300mm far more attractive!
Holo sight like this are for close quarters, not sniping.
Actually they are for sniping as well. Many world best snipers prefer a non-zooming optics as it allows them to keep surroundings visible all the time and its fast to acquire target so.
And world best sniper didn’t even use any optics.
Robin Hood FTW
I think he means Simo Häyhä.
I wonder if this will work with previous models (i.e. E-m1 or E-m5)?
I am little afraid that it doesn’t. Someone said in previous comments that it would, but as E-M5 II has abandoned the AP2 (Accessory Port 2) for power, but instead gets power to its flash from secondary pin, it sounds that this is getting its power as well from same pin = incompatible with E-M1, E-M10 and E-M5 and every other body).
Unless the sight has small button battery to give it power, that doesn’t make sense as its better draw the small amount of power from camera own battery when opened.
According to the Amazon link to this item
Batteries 1 Lithium Metal batteries required. (included)
This is just a spotter. No interaction with the camera.
And Olympus site says:
“Dustproof and splashproof dot sight. Perfect for super telephoto shots of wildlife. Can be used if hot shoe available. Slide lever style opening mechanism. Reticle brightness and position can be adjusted. Compatible with E-M5 Mark II camera body and Stylus 1.”
http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/fl-lm3-flash-2480.html
So sure…. I really hope its just dedicated unit, and if its parallax error is small and field of view is acceptable, brightness OK in sunlight, I get one.
What about other camera like Panasonic? With m43 crop factor, long zoom plus this accessory would be great!
The Olympus US Website has it listed
http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/fl-lm3-flash-2480.html
and they write
“Compatible with E-M5 Mark II camera body and Stylus 1”
But it’s also adjustable…maybe it still work with some others.
That’s an error, the official press release claims it works on any camera with a hot-shoe. And it requires a battery, so it’s got its own power source.
http://petapixel.com/2015/02/05/olympus-ee-1-red-dot-sight-hotshoe-attachment-aiming-speedy-subjects/
This is very useful for astrophotography. The price tag is a little steep though. You can make your own for about $20. It won’t be as slick but it will perform the exact same function.
lol why? telescopes have their own sights in the front. and this oly finder won’t work with large lenses
Look pretty cool…will work maybe with the upcoming 300mm nicely.
Now all it needs is a stock with a grip and a trigger shutter release, and maybe a banana clip battery, and the police will definitely shoot you on the spot while you’re running and gunning through the streets.
Well the good news will be that with the 5-Axis image stabilization you’ll likely capture some great photos before your subdued 😉
you can already get the the stock with pistol grip..=D
Doesn’t the EVF/Viewfinder screen already show you what the camera lens is capturing? I haven’t heard of something like this before but does this actually improve anything? Does the red dot sync to the camera to catch auto focus better, what does it do besides be a binocular?
“catch autofocus better” -now how the heck could it do that?
I was wondering if it provided a more accurate auto focus point than what was in the camera somehow, smaller point or something. I’m not seeing how having a zoom with a red dot gets you a better shot. It says it improves “Subject Acquisition and tracking” so it seems like it is overriding the camera’s auto-focusing point. I could be completely wrong, I don’t know what it is.
Yes, your far off 😀 , it has nothing to do with the af-system. Theres no connection between it and the camera, it’s like a guide aiming tube in a telescope. Tracking here means tracking physically, it’s a visual aid for your eyes to show where the camera is pointing without having to zoom out.
What roba said.
Also, it might make C-AF more successful, but only because you will be able to keep your subject fairly still in the frame. At 300mm, it’s very hard to keep fast moving subject still in the frame, when all you see is 5 fps slide show in EVF. So your subject jumps all over the frame, popping in and out of it. That tends to confuse C-AF and it becomes useless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXOFt5TKpRQ#t=154 You get the idea from that.
You place the camera on tripod, place AF point to center and then point camera to subject at wanted distance so the center AF point is on it. Then you adjust reflex sight so it is pointing the same point as the AF point is on your screen.
Now, the reflex sight cross/dot points to exactly the center point AF no matter from what direction you look at it, if its well done and there isn’t parallax error.
But if you move AF point, you need to adjust reflex sight again for it. Or if you have subject at different distance, it gets wrong vertical position. Best thing is to set the dot/cross to distance over the subject as the reflex sight is the center of objective. This way you always know that the reticle is about 10cm over AF point.
Someone answered this on the prior thread, there is an image for it. So what it appears to do is the screen will zoom further in to show what the red dot is centered on versus what the lens is seeing is my best guess. Seems interesting, I wouldn’t particularly need it though
There is no connection between this and the camera. It’s basically made to make it easier to point your camera with a long telephoto lens at a specific object. When you use a long lens like the 300mm lens and look through the EVF or display you see what the lens sees….like looking through a tunnel. At such a focal length it can take quite some time to “find” the right object, especially if it’s a moving animal.
With this it’s much easier because you can just aim the dot at the target and then look through the display or EVF and you’re spot on. It makes it easier and faster
There are also some birding and astro shops who sell those.
Nothing you cannot do with a DSLR already… As usual, mate.
Try aiming a telescope at high power without using a finder. Google Telrad finder.
Wildlife photographers will love it. It will cut down the time it takes to zero in on your subject.
Exactly what I dont need.
Well it’s a pity it’s built in then – oh wait…
Could be useful on a xz2 in full sunlight and I can see the apeal when you are shooting animals on long tele (assuming af does what it should do etc) or anything moving fast. probably useless for macro etc…
Would be perfect if the E-M5 II has PDAF to go with this. People complains about the lack of PDAF because it is necessary to use telephoto lens effectively in tracking.
Well that will be the only benefit to use E-M1 now. The upcoming firmware (3.0) to change C-AF to use only PDAF instead PDAF+CDAF (PDAF used first to focus about and then use CDAF to get critical focus). It should speed up dramatically the C-AF speed.
Anyone who does not understand why this is a benefit for shooting moving action with a very long lens (like the new Oly 300mm with the 1.4x attached…just don’t bother asking…it is beyond our photographic skills and ability. 🙂 Its a supercool tool for those in the know!!!!!
You can also glue a red-dot sight for a BB gun (~$10) to any hot shoe adapter and get something similar for about $20 total :-). Won’t be as slick, though.
Yes, similar. But big, bulgier and very likely with much worse parallax error that does not help at all in tracking small birds and subjects in small places.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti03p1RPmOE#t=76
Seems like a great accessory to waste your money on. Well, go and spend…
Then you don’t know anything about fast moment photography. Instead trying to track fast moving subject trough a “pipe”, you can clearly see surrounding and track the subject easily:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuZ2N35Vyig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-kkybnonbY
Sorry, but sports photographers and wildlife photographers disagree with you. Thats why they use dot sights mounted to hotshoe.
The difference is just, this is first time when camera manufacturer makes officially one as attachment (or built in).
It is like a Telrad finder used on telescopes. It gives you a wider field for aiming.
Doubters, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. It made life much easier when using my Dobsonian telescope.
http://www.backyard-astro.com/equipment/accessories/telrad/telrad.html
I’m not sure why this one looks so complicated, but it is the old sports finder. Great for getting the right moment in complex action (you can see things coming outside the frame). Not just for long tele, I used these most during party shoots with a moderate wide angle. Getting this kind of wild action is not for AF or auto anything, it is about learning to pre-set your camera to average lighting and a certain working distance, making sure you are in the right spot and following the things that are happening.