The Mirrorless Party 2015
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II review at DigitalCameraWorld.
OLYMPUS OM-D E-M5 II – The Bad News – Manual Focusing 3rd. Party Lenses (Soundimagesplus).
Reader Comment: Olympus E-M5 Mark II High-Res Mode (Diglloyd).
E-M5II test at Mynavi Japan.
Olympus OMD E-M5 Mark II: Hi-Res Sensor Shift Mode vs Standard-res, NOISE Compared (Diglloyd).
11 tips for capturing Sping at Olympus.
Setting Up Back Button Focus for Olympus OM-D (TheDigitalStory).
Mesq: “This musical youtube channel, only use M43 cameras, GH2, Gh3 and GH4. Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ju1UFNx1VI“
16 Responses
My Panny Gm5 works great with c-mount lenses… https://www.flickr.com/photos/artistwithlight/16234781684/
The C-mount lens I have is also horrible 😉
Sony put a Canon lens because they don’t have a good lens selection. Lol.
I wouldn’t use a Canon lens either 😉
metaphor, my friend.
About Soundimagesplus complaint:
I’ll check today if manual focusing an m mount lens is such a pain, on em5.
On em1 I never had any problem, and to be honest EVF is so good I never use focus peaking.
(Btw, if I’m in a hurry or need to take a snap of Elvis before he’s gone, a manual focus lens would not be my first choice, unless on a rangefinder camera)
David could have framed for the composition first, pressed his dedicated fn magnify button, moved the magnify area to the part he wants in focus, focused manually, and pressed the shutter button. Without focus peaking. Yes, if you want you can first return to the regular unmagnified view, but that could cause the (handheld) camera to move a bit. One thing I have been wishing for is that the selected focus point would be the same point as the magnify area.
The way I read the article it seems pana/sony/fuji don’t let you choose what area you want to magnify, which i don’t really believe.
The GH4 and GX7 certainly let you select the area to magnify
The GH4 for sure allows FP with the shutter at the half-press ready to rock, or not. As is the selected focus point … (I don’t get tot play with her GX7 so much)
I can’t imagine why he seems to think anyone would need to use focus peaking and magnify view at the same time. Totally unnecessary. They are an either/or thing. Focus peaking is for focusing without magnification while magnification is for more critical focusing. Focus peaking provides no additional benefit to magnify focusing that I can see.
I’m with Marco – neither are necessary most of the time.
Is the E-M5 II different from the E-M1 in terms of button assignments? Their assignment doesn’t change when I turn mine off.
Perhaps he simply compared two ways of using focus peaking, but to call it “bad news” just makes me think that it’s a great camera. 🙂
When I tried the mark2 some weeks ago (a display model) I immediatly noticed some difference in the buttons layout
The bigger is the lack of the second button next to the lens mount: on Em1 I have the first set to magnification and the second for focus peaking.
Considering the top EVF quality I think I’ll leave the focus peaking option hidden in some sub menu.
Can’t wait to test the Hi Res mode against a Sigma dp2 quattro single shot..
I shoot legacy MF lenses about 90% of the time and have used Sony’s FP (A65, tried a NEX7 too), Panasonic’s FP (GX7) and Olympus’s (E-PL7)
In this order: Sony (brilliant), Panasonic (excellent), Olympus (terrible)
I love my E-PL7 and shoot it often with the fantastic VF-4 which as you’ve said just about removes the need for peaking anyway. But Olympus have no idea how peaking should work. It’s too vague for starters, highlighting too many areas, the white or black option on the PL7, which always seems to be thin lines rather than accumulations of points (could just be how I see it!), is not good for determining the actual peak AND it turns off when you half press the shutter to engage the stabiliser and set up for taking the shot. It’s only really of use on a tripod with a static subject. Try it with something not 100% static (or shooting handheld) and it really is a very frustrating implementation.
With wildlife, for example, where you’re trying to follow a subject around with a long lens, which I do most weekends, and tend to have the shutter half-pressed ready to trip it (minimal shake, or active IBIS on a camera that has it) the peaking turning off renders it useless anyway. On the Sony and Panasonic bodies it’s on all the time and much more useful, Sony being the more accurate in my experience (though there are a few reasons why I no longer have the Sony and prefer the GX7)
I agree that it’s best left off if you have an EVF from the VF-4 family (E-M1 and E-M5 MkII use it I believe?). And because the EVF is so good it’s definitely NOT “bad news” 🙂
I wonder if it might be a processing power issue (can’t handle IBIS and peaking together perhaps?). I don’t know if it’s been addressed to any extent in the E-M5 II but it doesn’t sound like it so far.
Once tried you will find magnified view and FP is very useful.
Of course you do need a camera that actually does that.
No, the E-M5ii button assignment doesn’t reset when you power off.
But perhaps he had one on loan that was set up in demo mode (?)
Believe it or not, I have actually used magnified view and focus peaking, otherwise I wouldn’t have felt justified to comment on them.
I am used to shooting film with a plain matte focus screen with no focus aids, so perhaps I don’t have the mindset that most digital era photographers seem to have that manual focusing is near impossible without focus peaking or other aids.
Yep I agree it’s not essential as long as the EVF is good enough (It’s not much fun on a GX7, mind!!). The VF-4 is certainly good enough for unaided MF and I find the area in focus gets a sort of “edge” to it that tells you enough that you can take the shot in reasonable confidence.
On the E-PL7 the screen / EVF gets darker when the FP engages which annoys the hell out of me, along with the rest of the FP implementation. Does the same thing happen on the E-M5 MkII? I don’t bother with the peaking much on the Olympus but use it all the time on my GX7.
It is true, the focus peaking of manual lenses is abysmal. Whilst the E-M5ii FP is itself is ok, it refuses to stay on when it’s needed. A GH4 for example keeps the FP on when the shutter is half pressed, the E-M5ii will not, won’t, can’t, dumb; useless.
Have I missed something? I have focus peaking on, and magnification on. I half press the shutter when in MF, the image engages and focus peaking works at the same time, so I set the sharpness and press the shutter. Done. Yes, If I wait 1-2 sec the magnification and focus peaking disappears, but then I have already set the focus, so for me it really does not matter. But maybe I misunderstood what the problem is?