Anyone have experience with micro 4/3rds format cameras?

[Labcoatguy]

I just found a store that actually has the silver E-M5 kit with 12-50mm lens in stock and just pulled the trigger moments ago. I picked the MMF-3 adapter as my accessory, and also have a 14-54mm II 4/3 zoom coming in the mail, so I can compare these two weather-sealed walkabouts head to head. Really excited!

 

[edkwon]

I just found a store that actually has the silver E-M5 kit with 12-50mm lens in stock and just pulled the trigger moments ago. I picked the MMF-3 adapter as my accessory, and also have a 14-54mm II 4/3 zoom coming in the mail, so I can compare these two weather-sealed walkabouts head to head. Really excited!

Congrats on your buy. Whats your other water sealed camera? I'm assuming your 14-54 kit zoom lens has water sealing as well?

 

[Labcoatguy]

The 14-54 does have weather sealing; I'll be comparing both lenses on the E-M5.

 

[edkwon]

The 14-54 does have weather sealing; I'll be comparing both lenses on the E-M5.

Oh you meant you're comparing the two lenses, I thought you meant you had a second weather sealed camera.

 

[Labcoatguy]

Oh you meant you're comparing the two lenses, I thought you meant you had a second weather sealed camera.

Nah, right now I only have my non-weather sealed E-P2. I will probably get rid of it if it turns out that the slight bump in size is something I can live with.

 

[marcos_eirik]

I just found a store that actually has the silver E-M5 kit with 12-50mm lens in stock and just pulled the trigger moments ago. I picked the MMF-3 adapter as my accessory, and also have a 14-54mm II 4/3 zoom coming in the mail, so I can compare these two weather-sealed walkabouts head to head. Really excited!

Congratulations...

My brother bought the MMF-3 adapter when he was over in the US... I tried it with my 14-54mm (old version), and it was a complete mess, most of the time it couldn't find focus at all. The 50-200mm (also old, non-SWD version) behaved surprisingly nice, not much hunting at all, though it's not a fast focusing lens, and the focus action is quite long. It behaves even nicer if you restrict AF to just the area in center. I also tried the 12-60mm, which initially was a mess, the focus motor was working very hard flicking back and forth like crazy (wasn't slow though, it's SWD after all), however using the AF-area in center, it behaved nice, like the 50-200, just much faster (shorter focus action, SWD and all...)

Examples: E-M5 + 12-60mm:

E-M5 + 50-200mm:

Out of curiosity, E-M5 + Canon FD 200/2,8:

 

[marcos_eirik]

Got to test out the weather sealing of the E-M5 (and 12-50mm) properly today. I was down at the wharf to photograph the Costa Luminosa, and I was going to try out a different perspective, so I used the screen on the back to compose (tilting function came in handy here...) as I laid down on the wharf and held the camera about 5-10 cm above the water. Then a small boat came by and the wake from it completely submerged the E-M5 three or four times. No problems with the camera though, but I did get some water drops on the front element, which doesn't look to good on the pictures...

Then, splash... and the result was this:

Weather sealing FTW...

This is what it can look like when it's not wet:

 

[Labcoatguy]

Been playing with the E-M5, 14-54 II, and my existing equipment pretty much all day, and I have a few observations.

-The body doesn't feel any heavier than an E-P2.
-Finally both control dials are usable. Buttons feel weird, but that's probably down to the weather-sealing. Ditto the stiffer lens mount action.
-The faster burst mode is suh-weet; time to get a faster SD card.
-The 14-54 II is not noticeably faster to focus than it was on the E-P2. As a weather-sealed zoom combined with the MMF-3, it isn't a match for the 12-50 kit lens unless the increased speed is worth the slower AF. Also, unlike the 12-50, it creates shadows when the kit flash is used at full wide, though that just means that the kit flash is very rudimentary.
-There are times when I wished the EVF tilted instead of the screen doing so. As a result I found myself in the ridiculous position of plopping my old VF-2 on top and using that.

 

[edkwon]

Battery grip came in the mail today

 

[killpanda]

I got a Panasonic GH1 for very little money late last week, awesome camera!

The video mode (not hacked for now) is miles apart from the E-PL2 and I find the ergonomics to be somewhat more practical than the Oly.


My friends also got me a mint Olympus OM-2 as a birthday gift a day after I got the GH1 so I've been alternating between both for the past few days

I don't think the photos I'll get out of the OM-2 will be very good for a while, but it's very fun to use camera (and it's quite a lot smaller than I was expecting it to be).

 

[edkwon]

I got a Panasonic GH1 for very little money late last week, awesome camera!

The video mode (not hacked for now) is miles apart from the E-PL2 and I find the ergonomics to be somewhat more practical than the Oly.

Since you mention hacking firmware for the video, what are the GH1's current limitations on video shooting and what does the firmware hack allow the camera to do?

 

[killpanda]

For a start, the hack allows international menus on Japanese cameras (which is a welcome addition in my case and a sign that my camera is actually already hacked) and use of third party batteries.

As for videos, you can up the bitrate way up, from 16Mbits/s stock to something like 50 or 70Mbits/s reliably. The camera itself can go up to 100Mbits/s, but as far as I understood you'll sacrifice quite a bit of stability.
I must admit that I'm not a huge video guy and I might have missed something more important about the hack.

Here's a couple of videos on how to hack the camera, the guy does a pretty good job presenting all the different options in the hack tool:




I tried to install his settings, but I can't get to the firmware update screen on my camera

Edit: Finally got the hack to work, the guys who hacked it in the first place set up the version to 1.4 and I didn't get that for the menu to show up, the version actually had to be higher than that.
Solved the issue and set one of the flag in Ptool to change the version number to 0.0, so that won't happen again on that camera ^^
I'm now set to 54Mbits/s :-9

 

[pycyf]

I got a Panasonic GH1 for very little money late last week, awesome camera!

The video mode (not hacked for now) is miles apart from the E-PL2 and I find the ergonomics to be somewhat more practical than the Oly.


My friends also got me a mint Olympus OM-2 as a birthday gift a day after I got the GH1 so I've been alternating between both for the past few days

I don't think the photos I'll get out of the OM-2 will be very good for a while, but it's very fun to use camera (and it's quite a lot smaller than I was expecting it to be).

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On this site,I can see Chinese .I really feel happy.

 

[killpanda]

The sad part is that I don't read Chinese characters yet!

 

[edkwon]

Lumix 35-100mm f 2.8 telephoto announced

 

[marcos_eirik]

Lumix 35-100mm f 2.8 telephoto announced

Should be good... I went to look at the Lumix 12-35mm f2,8 today. It's much smaller and compact than you'd expect, after all it's just using 58mm filter size, same as that 35-100/2,8.

 

[Labcoatguy]

Not bad at all, it still looks smaller than most 4/3 zooms plus adapter. Now I'm just waiting for a sharp native super telephoto zoom or even a prime (>200mm and up). My pics from the Farnborough Air Show (using E-M5+ 40-150mm) are okay, but a bit more reach and croppability would be greatly appreciated. Incidentally, the 300mm f/2.8 four thirds zoom is practically unusuable on the E-M5, especially if handheld.

 

[edkwon]

Incidentally, the 300mm f/2.8 four thirds zoom is practically unusuable on the E-M5, especially if handheld.

Why? Too much shake or the AF doesn't work well?

I got bored last night and did formal product shoots of my OM-D + battery grip. Not happy with the inconsistency of WB (was shooting using ambient light). Rubberized grip is already showing signs of battle damage.

 

[marcos_eirik]

Not bad at all, it still looks smaller than most 4/3 zooms plus adapter. Now I'm just waiting for a sharp native super telephoto zoom or even a prime (>200mm and up). My pics from the Farnborough Air Show (using E-M5+ 40-150mm) are okay, but a bit more reach and croppability would be greatly appreciated. Incidentally, the 300mm f/2.8 four thirds zoom is practically unusuable on the E-M5, especially if handheld.

The Zuiko 300/2,8 prime is not a light weight lens, and I'd say it requires at least a monopod for support. I haven't tried the AF on that one with the E-M5, but it should improve if you fix AF to just the center area, in stead of all 35. Doing that makes a night-and-day difference with the 12-60/2,8-4 SWD and 50-200/2,8-3,5 (Non SWD).

What I have found to work really well for this kind of use is old manual focus lenses. My Canon FD 200/2,8 IF works like a charm on the E-M5. In many instances I have found that stopping down to f8 is necessary due to the amount of light anyways, and the fact that the subject is far away means focus will be at or almost at the infinity mark anyways. IBIS helps a lot with the E-M5 as well, just remember to tell it what focal length you use...

Here are a couple of examples from the FD 200/2,8:

This was taken from a small boat travelling quite fast, stopped down to f8, focus at infinity. Large version...

Same goes for this... Large version

Moving object heading towards me, taken from a moving object... Large version

Similar, except moving away from me... Large version

I also used the FD 200/2,8 quite a lot at Goodwood FOS, but because of my laziness those files are still just RAWs...

 

[Labcoatguy]

The Zuiko 300/2,8 prime is not a light weight lens, and I'd say it requires at least a monopod for support. I haven't tried the AF on that one with the E-M5, but it should improve if you fix AF to just the center area, in stead of all 35. Doing that makes a night-and-day difference with the 12-60/2,8-4 SWD and 50-200/2,8-3,5 (Non SWD).

"Not a light weight lens", you don't say?!?! :lol: I did it mostly for the lulz; I tend to only shoot with center AF and even then it couldn't hold a candle to the 40-150mm when nailing focus on airplanes in flight. Normally I don't make a big deal out of AF speed but at the airshow it was really nice to have.