cosmonaut
Well-known
I agree.....sorry.
Olympus EM-1
- Thread starter marcr1230
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 30
- Views 6K
I agree.....sorry.
marcr1230
Well-known
Back to the original proposition
While the D800 has uber-features and pixels and quality
It is a bit hefty
My typical usage is travel, family, events and high school sports
I read good stuff about the. 75 1.8 as a portrait lens
Travel with the 12-40 would seem to be a good combo
Image quality - it's probably more than good enough for me
Low light? D800 is going to be better
I've actually done some night sky photography w the D800
Sports - the EM-1 with the yet to be released 40-150 2.8
Would work most of the time - the D800 certainly should
Be "better", but I'm not a pro , just a gear-happy amateur
Can someone explain why focus tracking doesn't/can't work as well
On MFT as on FF DSLR? I would think that
The technology would scale down without losing out
The best camera is the one you take with you
I'm feeling that I would use the EM-1 more
I'm thinking of selling 2 lenses I don't use to fund
The EM-1
The damn thing is expensive when you
Build a kit from scratch
While the D800 has uber-features and pixels and quality
It is a bit hefty
My typical usage is travel, family, events and high school sports
I read good stuff about the. 75 1.8 as a portrait lens
Travel with the 12-40 would seem to be a good combo
Image quality - it's probably more than good enough for me
Low light? D800 is going to be better
I've actually done some night sky photography w the D800
Sports - the EM-1 with the yet to be released 40-150 2.8
Would work most of the time - the D800 certainly should
Be "better", but I'm not a pro , just a gear-happy amateur
Can someone explain why focus tracking doesn't/can't work as well
On MFT as on FF DSLR? I would think that
The technology would scale down without losing out
The best camera is the one you take with you
I'm feeling that I would use the EM-1 more
I'm thinking of selling 2 lenses I don't use to fund
The EM-1
The damn thing is expensive when you
Build a kit from scratch
defconfunk
n00b
The tracking is easy to explain. m4/3 lenses use Contrast Detection AF. The lens focuses in one direction until the selected area hits peak edge contrast, as soon as edge contrast starts going down, it knows it has passed peak and goes back. This is really fast if you have light lens elements that can move and reverse direction quickly. But there is no inherent knowledge in the system for in what direction anything is moving.
Phase Detection (what FF cameras use, and what the E-M1 uses when paired with a four thirds lens via adapter), I'm not as sure about, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but here goes: PD AF has separate sensor elements (in the prism on a DSLR, on the sensor in the E-M1 and Sony A7) that work kind of like a split image on a film SLR. What I mean by that is they can tell where the focus point is when the lens is out of focus and move the lens to where they think the best focus is. This means that lenses with heavy elements don't need to quickly move back and forth to achieve focus. It also means the camera is better able to guess when something is moving towards or away from it, and what speed.
If you have a local camera shop with an E-m1 to play with, see if they also have a four thirds lens lying around and try them together. I've tried my E-510's 40mm-150mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens. It's pretty good and focuses fairly fast on the E-M1. I had planned to replace it with the m4/3 version, but I've read a number of people complain about how the m4/3 lens can't follow a game on the field, so I'll keep my 40-150 until I can get the 50mm-200mm F2.8-3.5.
cosmonaut
Well-known
Deaconfunk is correct. The bottom line if you want a mirrorless alternative the E-M1 is the best in that category hands down no question. Olympus has had the best performing mirrorless camera since they came out. Nothing can touch it.
Let me know what lenses you want to sale. I might be interested.
Let me know what lenses you want to sale. I might be interested.
defconfunk
n00b
And looks like I'll be buying a 50mm-200mm F2.8-3.5 (older non SWD version) this weekend, so I'll be able to report back on how well it tracks. Or, I would be able to if my wife's football season weren't over. The local hockey pond hasn't frozen yet, but I may try to get some shots from that this winter.
cosmonaut
Well-known
Please keep us posted. I still have a 14-54mm 4/3rd mount lens. If it works well enough I might swing for the adapter.
marcr1230
Well-known
I ordered it from Amazon - will report back with results
defconfunk
n00b
I picked up the lenses (both four thirds, a 50mm F2 Macro and the 50mm-200mm F2.8-3.5 non SWD) on Saturday. Saturday afternoon I took the macro on a walk in the woods with my dog. I'd send him off into the trees chasing something and then call him back, and then see how well the camera tracked his high speed return. Sunday afternoon I spent 5 minutes with the 50-200 pointed out a window tracking cars and joggers (I expect my neighbours now think terrible things about me - the things I do for you guys!).
What I learned:
-The camera does not track focus between shots when on burst mode, I don't know if that is settable or not
-Coming from a camera with a fps of 3, burst mode on the E-m1 is insanely fast
-When tracking a subject, you have to select an AF point, otherwise it'll switch from subject to background mid sequence
-AF still has a hard time in snowy landscapes
-When tracking an object coming (almost) straight to or away from the camera, the AF is good. Not perfect, but we're talking about a dog doing 25km/h in snow at 30 feet. I'll take good.
-The 50mm F2 Macro, when it gets it right, is almost as fast to focus as the Panasonic 25mm f1.4 (fastest AF lens I've ever used).
-The 50-200 is as fast or faster than the kit 40-150. It feels faster than the 14-54 SWD unless you are going from one extreme to the other.
-When the AF misses with either of these lenses, it takes a long time to recover. It basically focuses all the way to one extreme before figuring out it missed, and then comes back. This can take over a second, which could definitely cost you an important shot. You can help it by releaseing the shutter and trying again.
I basically shoot in two environments that stress AF:
-puppy's at the SPCA (close, high speed & unpredicatable, not-ideal lighting)
-field sports (football)
I'm comfortable saying that the 50mm Macro will be fast enough for working with puppies (the 14-54 is fast enough on an E-510, and this is definitely faster).
I think the 50-200 should be plenty fast enough for football. It'll be important to keep my AF selection point where I want it, but I think the lens should be able to focus from the QB (30 yards away) to the reciever (possibly only 5 yards from me) as fast as the ball can get there.
Cosmo, I don't know how far away from the riders you are, or how quickly the animals move, but I'd guess that the AF tracking will be good enough so long as you keep the AF point on the rider or the ground close to him. If you are up high shooting down, not an issue. If you are ground level and suddenly the camera tries tracking from rider to crowd 30 yards behind him, that would take at least half a second (probably more) to recover from, and as you said, these riders may only be on the animal (I keep using animal because I don't know if you're shooting horses, bulls, or kids on sheep) for a few seconds.
Unfortunately I've never used another high end AF camera, so I can't offer any comparisons. The E-M1 with 4/3 lenses blows a Nikon D80 out of the water, but I doubt that helps anyone much.
What I learned:
-The camera does not track focus between shots when on burst mode, I don't know if that is settable or not
-Coming from a camera with a fps of 3, burst mode on the E-m1 is insanely fast
-When tracking a subject, you have to select an AF point, otherwise it'll switch from subject to background mid sequence
-AF still has a hard time in snowy landscapes
-When tracking an object coming (almost) straight to or away from the camera, the AF is good. Not perfect, but we're talking about a dog doing 25km/h in snow at 30 feet. I'll take good.
-The 50mm F2 Macro, when it gets it right, is almost as fast to focus as the Panasonic 25mm f1.4 (fastest AF lens I've ever used).
-The 50-200 is as fast or faster than the kit 40-150. It feels faster than the 14-54 SWD unless you are going from one extreme to the other.
-When the AF misses with either of these lenses, it takes a long time to recover. It basically focuses all the way to one extreme before figuring out it missed, and then comes back. This can take over a second, which could definitely cost you an important shot. You can help it by releaseing the shutter and trying again.
I basically shoot in two environments that stress AF:
-puppy's at the SPCA (close, high speed & unpredicatable, not-ideal lighting)
-field sports (football)
I'm comfortable saying that the 50mm Macro will be fast enough for working with puppies (the 14-54 is fast enough on an E-510, and this is definitely faster).
I think the 50-200 should be plenty fast enough for football. It'll be important to keep my AF selection point where I want it, but I think the lens should be able to focus from the QB (30 yards away) to the reciever (possibly only 5 yards from me) as fast as the ball can get there.
Cosmo, I don't know how far away from the riders you are, or how quickly the animals move, but I'd guess that the AF tracking will be good enough so long as you keep the AF point on the rider or the ground close to him. If you are up high shooting down, not an issue. If you are ground level and suddenly the camera tries tracking from rider to crowd 30 yards behind him, that would take at least half a second (probably more) to recover from, and as you said, these riders may only be on the animal (I keep using animal because I don't know if you're shooting horses, bulls, or kids on sheep) for a few seconds.
Unfortunately I've never used another high end AF camera, so I can't offer any comparisons. The E-M1 with 4/3 lenses blows a Nikon D80 out of the water, but I doubt that helps anyone much.
marcr1230
Well-known
Thanks for the details
Does selecting an AF point mean choosing a single AF point and keeping it on target?
As opposed to allowing the camera to decide which of it's many points it the intended subject?
Re the continuous tracking - I read that continue tracking is effective up to 6.5 FPS
It may be that you have to set continuous tracking to on and that lowers the frame rate but tries to focus, whereas at 10 FPS is is essentially in single shot mode- not sure
The body is due today, however the 40-150 lens is not out yet so my sports shots will be limited, I also have to 12-40 on order and have the 75 1.8 in hand
Will give it all a run thru this week over the thanksgiving holiday
If it can focus on a running dog, it's fast enough for me
Does selecting an AF point mean choosing a single AF point and keeping it on target?
As opposed to allowing the camera to decide which of it's many points it the intended subject?
Re the continuous tracking - I read that continue tracking is effective up to 6.5 FPS
It may be that you have to set continuous tracking to on and that lowers the frame rate but tries to focus, whereas at 10 FPS is is essentially in single shot mode- not sure
The body is due today, however the 40-150 lens is not out yet so my sports shots will be limited, I also have to 12-40 on order and have the 75 1.8 in hand
Will give it all a run thru this week over the thanksgiving holiday
If it can focus on a running dog, it's fast enough for me
Godfrey
somewhat colored
It's best to read the manual thoroughly then experiment. 🙂
At sequence capture high, 10fps, CAF fixes focus on the first frame and captures at that setting for the run. If you turn down the frame rate to low or up to about 6fps, IIRC, you get refocus on a per frame basis.
I'm slowly doing a comprehensive study on the E-M1 CAF modes. Never used CAF in the past, so I have no preconceptions, just want to understand what it does and how it might be useful. It is complex, and its behavior differs when you consider using FT lenses versus mFT lenses too as in the former case it's all PDAF where in the latter case it combines PDAF and CDAF for better accuracy AND speed.
A long lens is on the way... My longest AF lens at present is the Macro-Elmarit 45mm, which is pretty darn responsive and accurate in both CAF and CAF+tr.
G
At sequence capture high, 10fps, CAF fixes focus on the first frame and captures at that setting for the run. If you turn down the frame rate to low or up to about 6fps, IIRC, you get refocus on a per frame basis.
I'm slowly doing a comprehensive study on the E-M1 CAF modes. Never used CAF in the past, so I have no preconceptions, just want to understand what it does and how it might be useful. It is complex, and its behavior differs when you consider using FT lenses versus mFT lenses too as in the former case it's all PDAF where in the latter case it combines PDAF and CDAF for better accuracy AND speed.
A long lens is on the way... My longest AF lens at present is the Macro-Elmarit 45mm, which is pretty darn responsive and accurate in both CAF and CAF+tr.
G
marcr1230
Well-known
I'm assuming that original FT standard has lenses receiving PDAF cues from the body, and the CDAF is not passed or not understood by the FT lenses because it is not part of that standard
Anyone know?
Anyone know?
Similar threads
