E-M1 - The real deal!

[Jamie Pillers]

Personally, I don't understand the reasoning behind buying a small mirrorless camera and putting a grip on it and making it larger than a typical entry-level DSLR. ...

Its the lenses... the m43 lenses are sooooo much more compact and so much lighter than DSLR lenses!

 

[ZlatkoBatistich]

I've had no problems with shooting kids basketball games indoors. The only caveat is to use single AF and don't even think about continuous AF. I can shoot the 45/1.8 at ISO 400 and still have enough shutter speed left over to freeze action.

Thanks for the tip about using single AF; continuous AF hunts too much. I'm shooting in a much dimmer place, mostly using ISO 6400, 1/500th, f/1.8. If it were bright enough for ISO 400, I think the AF would be much better.

 

[ZlatkoBatistich]

Its the lenses... the m43 lenses are sooooo much more compact and so much lighter than DSLR lenses!

Yes, the lenses are dramatically smaller and lighter. Compare the sizes and weights here (mouse over for measurements):
http://camerasize.com/compact/#482.346,380.298,482.366,380.7,ha,t

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

Enjoy your new camera, Olympus makes really special stuff and great lenses to boot

To be fair, they do get it wrong, sometimes. Anyone remember the E-10 and E-20? I owned an E-20 for a few years and I wanted so much to like it, if nothing else for its superb build quality and excellent lens. At the end of the day, though, the sensor quality just wasn't there, unless you got really good light. Sometimes, though, it did provide a pleasant suprise...

 

[marcr1230]

I tried an shooting an indoor track meet yesterday
The AF performance was not good enough.
lighting was horrible - I was shooting at ISO 5000 with the 75/1.8 at 2.0 and 1/1000.
In the end - I dumped the AF and went MF, prefocus (with the magnify mode) and shoot away - the results were useable for my purposes - I don't remember my Nikon DSLR this way - oh well , It's still my goto camera for 95% of what I do.

I agree, this camera is the real deal. It has a lot going for it. The size is delightful. For example, with the 75/1.8 Olympus lens, it is a tiny little thing compared to a DSLR with a 70-200/2.8, 70-200/4, 135/2, 200/2 or 200/2.8.

The autofocus is excellent for portraits and most subjects. However, so far I haven't had very good luck with indoor sport (basketball) in a poorly lit setting (ISO 6400, 1/500th, f/1.8). At such a low light level, the autofocus doesn't seem to work as well as the AF on my Canon cameras. I've been trying different settings, but haven't yet found one that is really satisfactory for that.

 

[nightfly]

Sky looks blown out or just over exposed.

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[marcr1230]

sky is blown out

I was trying to get some detail in the cliff side, which is black.

I suppose I could have lowered the exposure and tried to bring out the shadows - I will have to go back and try again 🙂

Sky looks blown out or just over exposed.