In reply to Post #2519
Is that focus bracketing or something for birds/action?
I was quite excited when olympus added that to my em5 via firmware update then never used it
Was around 6 months after I'd bought it, then about 18months later they added the in camera stacking bit. that only works with a few select lenses where the bracketing works with any af lens. Do any other manufacturers offer the equivalent to the olympus live bulb and live composite modes? These seem really gimmicky but I find them really useful
Is that focus bracketing or something for birds/action?
I was quite excited when olympus added that to my em5 via firmware update then never used it
Was around 6 months after I'd bought it, then about 18months later they added the in camera stacking bit. that only works with a few select lenses where the bracketing works with any af lens. Do any other manufacturers offer the equivalent to the olympus live bulb and live composite modes? These seem really gimmicky but I find them really useful
In reply to Post #2520
Yeah, just the focus part, stacking needs to be done in post.
It won't be the first feature I've got excited about then never bothered to use again. I've got plenty of gear (photo and fishing) that falls into the same category.
Yeah, just the focus part, stacking needs to be done in post.
It won't be the first feature I've got excited about then never bothered to use again. I've got plenty of gear (photo and fishing) that falls into the same category.
In reply to Post #2521
I think a lot of us are guilty of buying stuff hoping it'll give us a bit more motivation.
I really reigned in my collection when the 6dii with 50mm art lens sat in a bag while I went walkabout with the em5ii and a dirt cheap toy lens, you know those poxy adapted cctv jobbies
I think if a day comes where Im scrapping more images because of my mft cameras capabilities rather than my own poor skills/timing/decisions I might give full frame another go and appreciate it a bit more. That said if olympus dropped a full frame omd with the same feature set I'd struggle to resist
Edit, just read that olympus have sold the imaging business, doh!
Found the first vid helpful, will check out the second shortly.
I did have the camera set up for back button focus but have now assigned that button for the focus target, that button is the only one my thumb can hit without little jitters that send the viewfinder all over the place at that focal length
I think a lot of us are guilty of buying stuff hoping it'll give us a bit more motivation.
I really reigned in my collection when the 6dii with 50mm art lens sat in a bag while I went walkabout with the em5ii and a dirt cheap toy lens, you know those poxy adapted cctv jobbies
I think if a day comes where Im scrapping more images because of my mft cameras capabilities rather than my own poor skills/timing/decisions I might give full frame another go and appreciate it a bit more. That said if olympus dropped a full frame omd with the same feature set I'd struggle to resist
Edit, just read that olympus have sold the imaging business, doh!
Found the first vid helpful, will check out the second shortly.
I did have the camera set up for back button focus but have now assigned that button for the focus target, that button is the only one my thumb can hit without little jitters that send the viewfinder all over the place at that focal length
In reply to Post #2519
That is a great tutorial
Took me months of Art Morris blogs to glean all that!
Mind you he does sell pdf guides too, so giving it away won't be in his remit - he's a real mercenary bugger.
The only bit I'll argue with is the turning off IS/VR at high shutter speeds.
Seems to be one of those hotly contested areas of the hobby.
The main problem is IS/VR for flight can make your viewfinder "jerky" making your tracking difficult.
But results will vary from kit to kit.
For example.
The Canon 300 2.8 in IS Mode 3 does not stabilise the image until you release the shutter, so you can see your own tracking properly in the viewfinder, right up to the point of the shot.
It still makes a positive difference to the resulting image regardless of the Shutter speed.
I've played around with it a lot!
Biggest problem at the moment is heat haze anyway, first hour or so of light is your best chance, rest of the day forget it.
That is a great tutorial
Took me months of Art Morris blogs to glean all that!
Mind you he does sell pdf guides too, so giving it away won't be in his remit - he's a real mercenary bugger.
The only bit I'll argue with is the turning off IS/VR at high shutter speeds.
Seems to be one of those hotly contested areas of the hobby.
The main problem is IS/VR for flight can make your viewfinder "jerky" making your tracking difficult.
But results will vary from kit to kit.
For example.
The Canon 300 2.8 in IS Mode 3 does not stabilise the image until you release the shutter, so you can see your own tracking properly in the viewfinder, right up to the point of the shot.
It still makes a positive difference to the resulting image regardless of the Shutter speed.
I've played around with it a lot!
Biggest problem at the moment is heat haze anyway, first hour or so of light is your best chance, rest of the day forget it.
In reply to Post #2523
I've bought his books and they are well worth the money. The amount of 'free' content he has is very good so I don't mind supporting that by getting the odd product from him since I can't use any affiliate links or anything.
I haven't found much issue with VR interfering with the view but I don't do much in the way of high speed subject matter. I have been switching it off when I'm >1/1000 as I'm not sure that it helps anyway. It does nothing for the subject's movement and my movement should be dealt with by the shutter speed anyway. You also avoid the system fighting against you as you pan and tilt. Some can switch to a 'panning' mode to ignore horizontal movement but I normally just switch it off. It has improved but I remember having a Nikon 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 which was an early VR lens and the system being so poor I had to switch it off permanently. Even without VR the lens was pretty awful, with it on it was better suited to being a paperweight. The version 2 is supposedly a lot better but I haven't trialled one.
I've bought his books and they are well worth the money. The amount of 'free' content he has is very good so I don't mind supporting that by getting the odd product from him since I can't use any affiliate links or anything.
I haven't found much issue with VR interfering with the view but I don't do much in the way of high speed subject matter. I have been switching it off when I'm >1/1000 as I'm not sure that it helps anyway. It does nothing for the subject's movement and my movement should be dealt with by the shutter speed anyway. You also avoid the system fighting against you as you pan and tilt. Some can switch to a 'panning' mode to ignore horizontal movement but I normally just switch it off. It has improved but I remember having a Nikon 80-400mm f4.5-5.6 which was an early VR lens and the system being so poor I had to switch it off permanently. Even without VR the lens was pretty awful, with it on it was better suited to being a paperweight. The version 2 is supposedly a lot better but I haven't trialled one.
The more I read about the olympus sell off the less likely it seems they'll exist in a couple of years.
I'm in two minds whether to move on some lenses or get some in the fire sale to come.
I could still use them on a panasonic body but they seem to be concentrating on the l mount range, with the top end mft bodies being past due replacing. It seems unlikely my next camera will be m43 mount
I'm in two minds whether to move on some lenses or get some in the fire sale to come.
I could still use them on a panasonic body but they seem to be concentrating on the l mount range, with the top end mft bodies being past due replacing. It seems unlikely my next camera will be m43 mount
Has anyone been to photograph The Isle of Skye before.
Landscape's
I will be going there in late September early October time. And visiting the usual places.
Neist Point, The Old Man of Storr, The Fairy Pools
Eilean Donan Castle etc.
Obviously all these places have been well photographed in the past and I do like to look for something a bit different than the usual.
I have a couple of ideas thanks to Google earth but wondered if anyone knows of anything off the beaten track.
A long shot I know.
Landscape's
I will be going there in late September early October time. And visiting the usual places.
Neist Point, The Old Man of Storr, The Fairy Pools
Eilean Donan Castle etc.
Obviously all these places have been well photographed in the past and I do like to look for something a bit different than the usual.
I have a couple of ideas thanks to Google earth but wondered if anyone knows of anything off the beaten track.
A long shot I know.
I've been playing with the focus limiter, what a useful feature!
Managed to set up a custom mode for birds and assigned the limiter to the dof preview button and can toggle between three settings that way. Setting 1 at 25-120m setting 2 at 30-70m and setting 3 at 15-40m. Doing this I can track a bird left to right from my garden and toggle through the settings and eliminate the problem spots where the focus jumps if my tracking isn't perfect
I can see this being useful when using tubes for macro stuff, I'll often use a tube just to bring the reliable af range closer, but then the focus limiter on the lens will be to close and the full range is too slow. I haven't actually tried this method on the em1 yet, it might not need the limiter
Also turned the stabiliser off for the first time since I bought an olympus and using much higher shutter speeds, I've always thought 1000th to 1600th would be enough but that video suggests much higher speeds are better. My lens isn't weather sealed so I can only play during breaks in the rain
Managed to set up a custom mode for birds and assigned the limiter to the dof preview button and can toggle between three settings that way. Setting 1 at 25-120m setting 2 at 30-70m and setting 3 at 15-40m. Doing this I can track a bird left to right from my garden and toggle through the settings and eliminate the problem spots where the focus jumps if my tracking isn't perfect
I can see this being useful when using tubes for macro stuff, I'll often use a tube just to bring the reliable af range closer, but then the focus limiter on the lens will be to close and the full range is too slow. I haven't actually tried this method on the em1 yet, it might not need the limiter
Also turned the stabiliser off for the first time since I bought an olympus and using much higher shutter speeds, I've always thought 1000th to 1600th would be enough but that video suggests much higher speeds are better. My lens isn't weather sealed so I can only play during breaks in the rain
In reply to Post #2527
Focus limiter makes a big difference to "lock-on" speed
Custom modes are super-useful.
I missed it going from 7D to the 1D4(older camera), but with the 5D3 it's back again.
The settings I've settled on are...
C1 for flight - usually 300 + 1.4x
ISO 800, S/S 2500, f6.3, AF expand, High Speed burst, Slow tracking response
C2 for general birding usually 300 + 2x
ISO 1600, S/S 1250, f6.3, AF single point, High Speed burst, Medium tracking response
C3 for macro - always the 180 & Speedlight
ISO 200, F16, S/S 200, Flash pin-spot AF point, fast tracking response, single shot
All are in Manual mode and really good start points for each lens combination.
On the day of course it's all fiddled with on the fly as appropriate.
Focus limiter makes a big difference to "lock-on" speed
Custom modes are super-useful.
I missed it going from 7D to the 1D4(older camera), but with the 5D3 it's back again.
The settings I've settled on are...
C1 for flight - usually 300 + 1.4x
ISO 800, S/S 2500, f6.3, AF expand, High Speed burst, Slow tracking response
C2 for general birding usually 300 + 2x
ISO 1600, S/S 1250, f6.3, AF single point, High Speed burst, Medium tracking response
C3 for macro - always the 180 & Speedlight
ISO 200, F16, S/S 200, Flash pin-spot AF point, fast tracking response, single shot
All are in Manual mode and really good start points for each lens combination.
On the day of course it's all fiddled with on the fly as appropriate.
In reply to Post #2528
It'll probably change but so far I've got
C1 for birds
C2 for macro
C3 for fishing catch shots (this will probably change as I think the em5 with the 17mm 1.8 will be my fishing camera most of the time)
Most general settings are really quick to change, but I've assigned buttons to different functions in each mode, so the dof preview button will do focus limiter for birds, focus peaking for macro and intervalometer for catch shots as an example.
I could do this on the em5 but it was much more complicated as you replaced things like the scene modes on the dial, and even then I was never quite sure what mode I was in
It'll probably change but so far I've got
C1 for birds
C2 for macro
C3 for fishing catch shots (this will probably change as I think the em5 with the 17mm 1.8 will be my fishing camera most of the time)
Most general settings are really quick to change, but I've assigned buttons to different functions in each mode, so the dof preview button will do focus limiter for birds, focus peaking for macro and intervalometer for catch shots as an example.
I could do this on the em5 but it was much more complicated as you replaced things like the scene modes on the dial, and even then I was never quite sure what mode I was in
In reply to Post #2529
Focus limit is on the lens(es) for me not the camera, so that's one I have to remember, and often forget!
I've a few things common to all.
Back button focus is the main one, although I'm considering taking that off the macro settings, it's not necessary for that at all just habit now, but it makes contorting for macro angles a lot more painful!
Focus limit is on the lens(es) for me not the camera, so that's one I have to remember, and often forget!
I've a few things common to all.
Back button focus is the main one, although I'm considering taking that off the macro settings, it's not necessary for that at all just habit now, but it makes contorting for macro angles a lot more painful!
In reply to Post #2530
I can't get on with back button focus, it just seems like a waste of a button. I can't see the advantage over just half pressing
I can't get on with back button focus, it just seems like a waste of a button. I can't see the advantage over just half pressing
In reply to Post #2531
I found quite a difference for flight when you get into it, particularly with busy backgrounds.
I found quite a difference for flight when you get into it, particularly with busy backgrounds.
Popped into wex earlier, bet its a brilliant shop normally but it's more like a trip to argos with the covid precautions
David Carradine 
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Violet Ground Beetle
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