Oly OM-D E-M1 MK I Meter off by 3 stops`

[webOSUser]

I recently bought an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk 1 with the collapsing kit lens. I was looking for something a bit lighter than my Nikon F750 dSLR.

I got the lighter camera and most of the functionality works well. Except for the camera's light meeter.

When I am out shooting in Manual mode in normal full light, 'Sunny 16', I have to increase exposure by three stops, i.s. shutter at 1/ISO and aperture at f/6.3. If I set it to automatic, it works fine.

I tried upgrading the camera firmware to the current release and it did not correct the issue. I performed a full reset without any improvement.

Any suggestions on where to look?

Thank you.

Steve W

 

[gavinlg]

Your exposure compensation is probably set to -3. On the Olympus cameras exposure compensation works in manual mode for some strange reason.

 

[JeffS7444]

Your camera and lens are probably fine, but the Olympus 14-43EZ power zoom may simply not transmit the amount of light you might expect at a given f/setting. If you really want to use external metering or "Sunny 16", you will need to take this into account. By the way, light transmission with that particular lens also varies with focal length even at same aperture setting.

What's going on here? Pretty safe to say this is a design tradeoff which makes modern wonders like very tiny zoom lenses possible: It's designers never anticipated that someone would resort to old-school exposure techniques.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Do you have the ISO set correctly. Be careful of the "auto ISO setting" it may use a different ISO speed than you think its using, throwing off the exposure. If thats not it, I would return the camera; repair will cost more than you likely paid for it.

 

[webOSUser]

Your exposure compensation is probably set to -3. On the Olympus cameras exposure compensation works in manual mode for some strange reason.

I will check on that.

Thanks.

Steve W

 

[webOSUser]

Your camera and lens are probably fine, but the Olympus 14-43EZ power zoom may simply not transmit the amount of light you might expect at a given f/setting. If you really want to use external metering or "Sunny 16", you will need to take this into account. By the way, light transmission with that particular lens also varies with focal length even at same aperture setting.

What's going on here? Pretty safe to say this is a design tradeoff which makes modern wonders like very tiny zoom lenses possible: It's designers never anticipated that someone would resort to old-school exposure techniques.

That sounds interesting. I have the manual zoom version of the 14-42. It probably has the same optics as the powerzoom model, and light transmission issues.

I'll need t o work with this camera more.

Thanks.

Steve W

 

[webOSUser]

Do you have the ISO set correctly. Be careful of the "auto ISO setting" it may use a different ISO speed than you think its using, throwing off the exposure. If thats not it, I would return the camera; repair will cost more than you likely paid for it.

I'll double check the ISO setting the next time I use the camera.

It is way too late to take it back for a refund, but I can take it back to the local camera shop where I bought it. The sales person appeared to be familiar with Oly m43 cameras and may be able to point out the error of my ways.

Thanks.

Steve W

 

[sleepyhead]

Hi there. I'm wondering if you ever solved your problem.

One explanation for your issue, which has not been mentioned above, is that "Exposure Shift" is set by mistake. It can be found under the Cogwheel Menu > Exposure Shift. There is a separate setting for each Metering Mode.

Best of luck, Jarne