Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II Review
For those of you who haven't been following me on my "new" Instagram account, you may not have noticed that I had the pleasure of using the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. Overall, the "One Two" is an impressive camera! Not just "impressive for a mirrorless" but impressive for anything. And the conclusion is...well... I ended up ordering two of them! I did some blog posts of my initial reactions but if we let the images speak for themselves, here's the links for everything I covered exclusively with the mirrorless system: A friend's low-lit bar birthday celebration NCAA DI Football Stanford at Cal DII Basketball Academy of Art at Cal State East Bay To go a little more in depth, where do I begin. IMAGE QUALITY The images I took were sharp. Arguably many were more sharper than my 1D. I am in no way a "pixel peeper" so while I sent my images to a couple guys who were impressed. I asked Kyle Terada my assignment editor at USA Today Sports Images whether he thought the photos were high enough quality and he had no reservations about me using the camera, and even plans to order one himself!
LENS OFFERINGS When people argue about lens selection and that ::insert system:: has so many hundreds of lenses, I think 'great, but how many of those lenses are high quality, how many of those lenses apply to the type of photography I do?' When I got into mirrorless last year it was mostly as a travel camera set up and possibly an event photography system. I didn't really consider them viable for sports because they lacked high quality long glass and I didn't want to use adapters with canon glass because that slows down focus speed and defeats the idea of going lighter and smaller. The M. Zuiko ED 300mm F4.0 is SHARP, FAST, LIGHT and as a 600mm equivalent, it really put mirrorless in competition for sports photographers. The rest of my set up that I already owned include: M. Zuiko ED 40-150mm F2.8 PRO, a great sharp lens that I even used at swimming, and also for all the non-wide shots during the press conference, both with the original E-M1. M. Zuiko ED 7-14mm F2.8 PRO this is what I used exclusively in Hawaii on the E-M5 Mark II M Zuiko ED 14-40mm F2.8 PRO. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the 14-40mm, but I'm not a huge fan of canon's 24-70mm which it's basically the equivalent of. For me, I either want to be wide or tight and if I'm in more traditional "eye sight" range, with a prime 50mm for beautiful bokeh. But it's a great versatile lens knowing you won't be too tight or too loose. Though I didn't have it for the loan period, I did get to play with the M. Zuiko ED 25mm F1.2 PRO during a walk about with the tech rep Ray Acevedo and after reading some glowing reviews, ordered it along with the E-M1 Mark II bodies. Keep in mind double all of these focal lengths to calculate what their 35mm equivalent is. I haven't ordered but the second I lose a camera body cap which will invariably happen, I'm definitely getting the body cap that doubles as a fisheye! How cool is that! BODY DESIGN Grip - Grip It Good! Even the feminist in me can't argue that my hands are smaller than the average male. But EVERY curious photographer who held the camera body while I had it on loan, their first reaction was to be impressed with the grip. Comments of it fitting their hand, feeling ergonomical, and not feeling like a point and shoot were the biggest takeaways. For me it's having the grip not only in the front but the back thumb grip that makes it feel like a "real" camera. Buttons and Dials and Switches - Oh My! One of my favorite things about my canon camera, if you asked me to change the ISO, I could close my eyes, be handed the camera, and change it. When I first got the Olympus cameras last year, I was constantly going into the menu to change every setting. But now, and even more so with this body, the dials do xyz, flip a switch and the dials do tuv, be in playback mode and the dials do qrs, and nearly every single one of them is customizable down to the correlation of which direction you spin. LCD - Turned Out and Turned Up! The fully articulating LCD panel is why I love my E-M5 Mark II (not too mention I got it in retro silver) not only because I can take hail mail photos and see what I'm getting, or because I can fold it up when backpacking and I don't want to bump the screen along a rock wall, but I can also take customize timed selfies where we can all see whether we are in the frame... and how we look ;) Waterproofing - The Real Deal! Speaking of taking it backpacking. How many times traveling have I put away my camera and opted for iPhone photos because it's raining. How many times have I had to pile on rain gear, which even though Think Tank makes THE BEST rain gear, it's still a pain, or the time I wasn't prepared for rain and actually took my jacket off to cover my camera while I got rained on. No more! "Weather sealed" is more or less waterproof. I was so hesitant to use at the 49ers game in the rain, when it rained all but the end of the 4th quarter, and the camera held up! Super Control Panel - Super Indeed! This is a great feature, especially to be so accessible via LCD or even within the EVF. Whether you are tapping or using thumb and pointer finger to scroll through options, beyond having your thumb and shutter dials to adjust while shooting, a quick hop into super control panel and you can quickly adjust shooting mode, focus mode, focus point, face detection settings, white balance, card settings, RAW/jpg settings, contrast, saturation, and in the menu you can even customize which options the super control panel shows. It's sounds very Mystery Science Theater like to say Super Control Panel, but that's really what it is. Menu - Custom Function Central The menu is slightly different than the menu on the E-M1 and E-M5 Mark II, probably because there are more custom features. To me it's still missing a "favorites" area, but apart from formatting the card (do this every time especially if you shoot on different camera bodies) or setting up timelapse, pretty much everything you need to adjust is on the super control panel and the menu is really just the nitty gritty set up you do to customize everything when you have time to sit and learn your camera. EVF - From Eventually Viewing Fragments to Excellent Viewable Functionality When my friend Monica Davey brought her mirrorless camera to an Oakalnd A's game a few years ago, the electronic viewfinder was the trippiest thing I could imagine. It was very cool as in blue cool tones, had a severe lag, and basically felt like you were looking through a camera phone from 2005. Other companies avoided this by losing the viewfinder entirely. Either looking through the LCD (might as well use your iPhone, a DXO One, or the Olympus Air A01... which actually looks pretty cool) or with a viewfinder attachment. The E-M1 original wasn't bad, but for tracking sports it wasn't great. I would often get the photo even though I never saw it in the viewfinder. This is a nice surprise when you think you missed a shot and you actually nailed it, but it felt like watching a movie where the sound was slightly off, doesn't affect you getting the story line but totally drives you crazy. This is NOT the case with E-M1 Mark II, it's as close to an optical viewfinder as I could hope, but with three KEY differences. 1) You can custom set the view finder to display dark scenes as brighter to help you see what you're shooting. 2) You can preview your white balance and exposure WHILE shooting 3) You can "chimp" your photos in the EVF... ya know, in case you're shooting in a downpour and you don't want to pull your face away from the camera because it's nice and dry between under the hood of your jacket and the camera body ;) Wifi - Free The Internet! While point and shoots had automatic facebook uploads YEARS ago, all the flagship DSLRs have excluded wifi unless using an extender, even when they've included on their "prosumer" models. I've used CamRanger (useful), I've used EyeFi (now Keenai) and I've seen photographers with proprietary CamRanger-like set ups and even Terrell Lloyd, bless him, raving about the wifi transmitter adapter he can plug into his camera and then how he can carry a backpack custom built by verizon to transmit images in game. I love early adopters of technology because they push and lead the industry, but I do not want to add any attachments or wear a backpack when I know that other smaller cameras have these functionalities built in! I would like to see an open wifi network so I wouldn't have to log on and off cameras or networks to transmit images. But built in wifi and ability to share images with my family while traveling is something I've been using since I first got into the OM-D system and I brought the E-M5 Mark II along for our train trip to Seattle. Also with dual card slots, I can continue to have an EyeFi (now Keenai?) card as my backup jpg and a small file transfer. Continuous Autofocus To be real with you guys, I struggled with this. I could swing on a play that on my 1D-X would probably be soft for the first frame, or I'd miss entirely, but with the One Two, it would lock in immediately. While autofocus tracking with the shutter half pressed, I felt dialed in on the focus as I followed the play, but once I started shooting I had a difficult time maintaining focus throughout the play, it would hop off for a few frames and then hop back on. I think this was a combination of using a 600mm equivalent, I've been using my trusty 300mm f/2.8 occasionally with a 1.4x, so at most I'm shooting 420mm, I used a 600mm once shooting outfield World Series (ooooh I loved it!) but I'm not used to following a play that long. Also just as my 1D-X has autofocus options with little logos of a tennis player or cyclist, the One Two has C-AF lock options on a scale of -2 to +2 which is supposed to be how "tight" or "loose" autofocus tracks. I'm still confused about this settings and whether it works only in C-AF+ Tracking or C-AF, and whether adding face and eye detection might help (not necessarily in football but in basketball) or throw off the tracking capabilities. Considering how it performed otherwise, I'm fairly convinced this had more to do with my own lack of familiarity and handle on the custom AF options. I have a word in with the tech rep for more insight and once I get my own I can do some case-based scenario set ups to dial in what setting works best for me, the type of events I photograph and the way I photograph. OTHER In camera IS - IS everything it claims to be Yes, I tested it out on the bridge, hand held... look how sharp the carpool lane diamond is... that is INSANE! Obviously shooting sports I'm not often going less than 1/1000 of a second so image stabilization isn't an issue. I never even turn my IS on in my L series lenses unless I'm panning (for those of you who use canon image stabilization during the day at speeds above 1/30s, STOP, it arguably makes your images worse, test it out, you will see!) But this would be useful for one of my favorite kind of corporate shot. Blurry people walking past sharp logos. The struggle of enough blur to show motion, but not so much that my shaky hands make the logo blurry too. Olympus Pro Advantage - This will give them a pro advantage Olympus recently launched a pro advantage that includes next-day delivery. For my fellow Nikon and Canon shooters who constantly gripe about how terrible NPS and CPS is, here's something new. Canon does have higher levels for pros, but after sending my gear off before a 2 week Europe trip and explicitly stating I needed it returned by 5th, my 1D Mark IV and wide angle were returned while my 1D-X and 300mm f/2.8 were shipped ever so conveniently (sarcasm) on the 6th AFTER I was already at the 49ers games which I covered with my 1D Mark IV and my 300 f/4 that canon doesn't make or service anymore. (If there is one lens I'd be tempted to hold onto even if I sold all my canon gear, it would be that one!) And I'm the highest level CPS member and pay $300/year. Not to vent, but this came after an experience where my 1DX shutter died just weeks after I had sent it to canon for clean and check, they said they wouldn't process my loan request until they received my camera and made it seem like they were doing me a big favor by making an "exception" for me to process loan paperwork before the camera was in house with them. Olympus program is next-day shipping and a loan if they have your gear for more than 3 days for a $99/year membership. I'd argue that pros need to be treated better than hobbyists, but it's even better if just everyone can be treated great! While I haven't had to use their pro advantage system yet, I am glad they are committing to the service. Also a 1D X which has had the shutter replaced twice already, maybe mirrorless and electronic shutter are for me!! What this camera has that puts it above other/previous models Dual Card Slots - Game changer, whether you use the dual slot to write simultaneously for backup or so you don't fill a card (if you're the latter, come on, buy an extra card or two so that you can switch out cards when you are down to last 100 frames and not worry about running out of space) or like me and you want one card for RAW and one for jpg, especially a jpg that can automatically add to Option to quickly tag photos - Dedicated button in playback to tag photos, no more going into a menu setting to chimp Continuous Autofocus - Both in terms of how the electronic viewfinder follows without delay and how the camera can follow a moving object Electronic Shutter - This allows truly silent shooting which would have been great for all the Pac-12 Networks work I did where I could only shoot between takes because the producer could hear my shutter even on canon's "silent" mode. This also ups the frames per second to mind blowing basically video speeds, 18 fps with C-AF 60 fps with S-AF Weight - Or Lack there/of - Nearly every older (not calling you guys old) photographer I know has back issues. I go to Pilates every week and I focus on my core and my posture but at the end of an event with two SLRs hanging from me and one on a monopod, I'm a hunchback and generally come home and immediately lay down to try and reset myself. I'm not even 30 yet. If I want to have a long career AND a long healthy life, I can't be carrying all this weight on my shoulders and neck like that! Editing In Camera - Option to edit your RAW in camera (not just crop) and save as jpg is so cool! You can even apply funky little art filters which are gimmicky, but for those who love instagram filters, eat it up! Battery Life - While you won't get as many shots on one battery as you would an SLR battery, the new batteries have so much more life than the previous OM-D models, are more easily managed, charge faster, and while rate for 400 frames, I got well over 1000 on one battery at both football games. What this camera still needs RAW compatibility - I'm looking at you Adobe and Photo Mechanic! I saved all my .orf files just waiting for your update! GPS - The app is surprisingly good at tracking and adding GPS coordinates to the image (don't need them tethered the whole time can sync later) but I'd still prefer it being automated MORE customized filename - I can set Initials same as most camera, but would love to see one that also sets with yyyymmdd_hhmmss, I hate sequential filenames, leaves you too exposed to errors from redundant files. For now, I'll just still rename it in Lightroom or Photo Mechanic. Network Wifi Compatibility - As opposed to the camera creating it's own wifi so that I could more easily connect to multiple cameras at once A Better App - It's currently functional but not nearly as beautiful as it could be An FTP menu - When shooting major events like World Series, Super Bowl, I've been tethered to an ethernet cable plugged into my camera to send images live to an editor. I don't plan on covering another Super Bowl and if I cover the World Series, I could always rent an ethernet enabled body, no sense in having the extra size and weight... maybe if this even #BeliEVEN year hadn't already passed us. NBA Finals I had card runners or was quickly sending from my computer, there could EASILY be a work around, and who knows what technology (and regulations) will be next year or even next month! What this camera lacks that I think is actually a good thing A full frame sensor - Yes, I remember getting hyped up about a full frame sensor, because you figured the bigger the sensor the better the file. Just like we used to figure an SLR was better than a point shoot. We now know many point and shoots have highr IQ than low end SLRs and size doesn't matter, quality matters. Size AND Quality together is wonderful buuuuuuut the second you have a full frame sensor, you need full frame lenses and then you're back to carrying around GIANT 2.8 lenses. And if you are arguing bigger is better, why aren't you shooting on a medium format camera? Custom memory cards - I'd be all about coming up with something faster and more convenient than SD. CF cards are great, CFast cards are impressive but as someone who has had to buy a card reader at a best buy in the middle of nowhere because mine failed while on a travel assignment, or been in workrooms when someone forgot to bring their new custom reader and only has their old card reader, or a friend who had their brand new CFast card fail in their brand new 1DX Mark II and losing ALL the images from a championship boxing match, having exclusive cards seems dangerous. Plus I can carry a thumb drive size reader as backup, or some computers (not mine) even come with built in SD readers. The buffer on the E-M1 Mark II kept up with the 18fps (apart from a moment when I didn't realize I was pressing the shutter on the grip and took 30 or so unintentional RAW + jpg photos before realizing) I don't often motordrive that outrageously, and I always set my PhotoMechanic ingest to copy the tags first so I'm not slowed down waiting for a card to import. A flash - I could dedicate an entire blog to how much I hate on-camera flash. I will work with natural light until I absolutely can't, and when I do want/need flash, I want one I can bounce off the ceiling or position in a flattering or dramatic way, not just blasting people will the greasy face revealer :P
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