Nov 8, 2016

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II Review Extension

IMPORTANT NOTES:
1. I am an Olympus Malaysia employee.
2. This is a user experience based review, based on my personal opinion which can be subjective.
3. All images were shot in RAW and converted directly to JPEG (High Quality) via Olympus Viewer 3
4. General camera settings, Noise Filter = OFF, Contrast/Saturation/sharpness = 0, White Balance = Auto (with an option maintain warm color = OFF), Gradation = Normal
5. Minimal post-processing applied to the images, with slight brightness/contrast balance tweak. All images were almost as good as straight out of camera, with minimal cropping for better presentation.

This is a continuation from the original Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II Review, if you have not read that first review entry kindly do so before proceeding to this extension. I have covered the important points of the E-M1 Mark II Review (Continuous-AF performance, 5-Axis Image Stabilization improvements, image quality, camera handling, etc) in that original review entry.

As you probably know, I have a day job, and can only do my shooting for this review in the weekend. Last Saturday was also the day we had our first official E-M1 Mark II touch and try event in Malaysia. Immediately after the event I went out to shoot some photographs, and I spent almost all my following Sunday to test out some of the features to compose this blog entry.

For this particular blog, I will be addressing the following questions:
1) What are the improvements in the 50MP High Res Shot in E-M1 Mark II?
2) How does E-M1 Mark II handle rolling shutter/jello effect in high speed shooting using electronic shutter?
3) More detailed explanation on how E-M1 Mark II's Continuous AF works, with more image samples
4) What are the improvements in camera operations? (Auto IS with exposure compensation, minimum shutter speed limit in Program and Aperture Priority mode, etc)
5) More images samples!

Lets get right into the first question on the 50MP High Res Shot, shall we?

50MP High Res Shot
7-14mm PRO, f/5.6, 1/1000, 7mm, ISO200



Left: 50MP High Res Shot, Right: 20MP 

E-M1 MARK II HIGH RESOLUTION SHOT

The native image sensor used in the E-M1 Mark II has 20MP effective pixels. However, due to the image sensor being in a floating state, stabilized by the 5-Axis IS mechanism, the magnets that moved the image sensor was reprogrammed to move the sensor by half a pixel pitch, allowing a total of 8 photographs to be taken at slightly displaced position (half a pixel distance apart) and then all photographs were merged into a single high resolution shot, resulting in a true 50MP image. 

Considering that the image sensor needs to be physically moved around in order for this method to work, there are some limitations to be taken note of. 

1) Use of tripod is mandatory. Or at least resting the camera on a sturdy surface. Even slight movement of the camera or external vibration is sufficient to destroy the final outcome. 

2) Not only there must be no movement on camera, the subject you are shooting should not have any movement as well, or the photographs will not be aligned perfectly. However, in E-M1 Mark II, there is improvement in mitigating random pattern movements (water/waves, leaves, etc) and we shall discuss this next. 

3) Camera settings limitations: shutter speed not longer than 8 sec, aperture not narrower than F8, ISO not higher than 1600 and flash sync not faster than 1/50sec (previously in E-M5 Mark II or PEN-F, flash sync limit was 1/20sec)

4) When 50MP High Res Mode is activated, the camera uses full electronic shutter

5) Since the sensor captures 8 separate images, flickering light source will cause inconsistently merged results. 

6) It takes about 1 second to take all 8 separate photographs, and an additional 2.5 seconds to merge them all in camera. All operation can be done in-camera, with just one push of a shutter button and require no further fiddling of settings. I strongly recommend use of 2 seconds delay to ensure no vibration from pressing the shutter button happened 

7) You have the option to shoot 50MP High Res Shot in RAW or JPEG. In RAW, you get two files, a 80MP RAW file (effectively 20MP x 8 frames x 0.5 pixel) and a 20MP ORI file (first frame from the 8 photographs taken to merge). In JPEG, you get a 50MP file, because the amount of details and sharpness does not exceed a true 50MP image file using this pixel-shifting method. No, you cannot keep all the 8 original frames before merging, you can only keep the original first frame when shooting in RAW. 

Improvements In The 50MP High Res Shot in E-M1 Mark II

Olympus claimed that the new Truepic 8 processing engine can recognize the subject movement area in the image and correct it by superimposing the same area with a 20MP original image. The downside is that the "corrected movement area" will have reduced resolution since it was taken from a single shot, but this should not pose an issue especially in typical situations with subject motion, such as moving water or leaves. I was curious on how effective this new methodology is and did some quick tests. 

50MP High Res Shot
7-14mm PRO, F5.6, 1/800sec, 8mm, ISO200

Lets take a closer look at the water movement part in the frame. 

The E-M1 Mark II successfully identified the water movement and substituted the affected area with a lower resolution image. The result was not too bad, considering that there are no defined sharpness and details in that particular zone. 

The choppy area of water appeared less smooth than usual at this 100% view, due to the lower resolution sample being used. Still not a big problem here, and to me, this looks totally acceptable. 

Unfortunately, for subjects with defined features, shapes and lines, this trick can no longer work and you get really strange, funky repetitive patterns showing where the subjects moved within the 1 second time frame. 

The 50MP High Res Shot can successfully recover the subject movement area with by substituting details from the lower resolution image capture from one of the 8 frames before merging, and all this processing was done within 3-4 seconds, which was an impressive feat. This works for random pattern areas, or areas with no properly defined features, such as water and leaves, which are typical in landscape photography. I strongly believe this new improvement opens up a new possibility to shoot images outdoor, since the majority of landscape shots will either contain moving leaves/grass/trees or water. 

However, if your moving parts in the frame have very definitive lines, shapes and patterns, the movement will not be fully fixed, and will still show as repetitive overlaying of subjects on one another. Moving people and vehicles are the best examples of this issue and should be avoided. This can be further illustrated by the following two samples, showing a person moving down from an escalator. Pay closer attention to the moving escalator. 

50MP High Res Shot
7-14mm PRO, f/5.6, 1/80s, 7mm, ISO200
The moving escalator has become smooth, just like a slider!

20MP 
7-14mm PRO, f/5.6, 1/80s, 7mm, ISO200
An actual shot taken, showing the original "shape" of the steps on the escalator.

The main message here is, if you want to make full use of the 50MP High Res Shot, you need to understand what it can and cannot do, and work within the limitations. If you can avoid the situation where the subject movement works against you, and you have a sturdy tripod to work with, you can get some remarkable shots showing immense amount of resolution, equating or surpassing most of the competition in the market (come on, we are not going to compare against medium format are we?). Surely, for product photographers, and now with the improved corrections in processing, even the outdoor landscape photographers, this 50MP High Res Shot can give you spectacular amount of quality details to work with. 

Just another photograph to show the difference between a 50MP High Res Shot and a 20MP ordinary shot on the E-M1 Mark II. 

50MP High Res Shot
25mm F1.8, f/2.8, 1/50s, ISO200

Left: 50MP High Res Shot, Right: 20MP


Possibility of Hand-Held High Res Shot?

I would like to address one popular rumor, which has gotten a little bit out of control. There was a wild rumor flying around, created quite some time before the launch of E-M1 Mark II claiming the possibility of using the High Res Shot while hand-holding the camera. For some reasons, this rumor has mutated to an expectation of a feature to be included in the E-M1 Mark II. When the E-M1 Mark II was launched without the "ability to hand-hold" the High Res Shot, there was some backlash which I thought has become irrational.

The general reasoning and assumptions were: 1) 5-Axis IS should be able to stabilize the image sensor to allow hand-held High Res Shot 2) Now we have Image Stabilization in lens, while the image sensor is being moved, the lens IS can counter the camera shake due to hand-holding and 3) the electronic curtain speed has been improved, it is not much faster and this can make the High Res Shot hand-holdable.

Unfortunately, none of the above claims are practical in any sense!

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out why. As I have mentioned earlier, in order for the High Res Shot to work, the image sensor needs to be physically moved, and this was done by using the 5-Axis IS magnets, moving the sensor by half a pixel each time. Since the 5-Axis IS was used to move the sensor, there is completely no stabilization happening while the High Res Mode was being activated. Then there comes the claim of the lens built in IS. The lens IS compensates for yaw and pitch movements (please Google if you need further clarification on what yaw and pitch movements are), while the image sensor is being moved in vertical and horizontal translations (up down left and right motions) for High Res Shot. On another note, for any stabilization to work, the counter movements are large (can be in centimeters!) which would work against the need to maintain the half pixel distance between each of the 8 shots taken to be merged into the High Res Shot! Now we have established that it is not possible for image stabilization to work together with the pixel shifting, and at the same time we need to maintain just half a pixel, not more, but exactly half a pixel distance movement between shots. How is that hand-holdable even if you have faster electronic curtain speed? No matter how fast the shutter speed or curtain speed is, you still need to physically move the sensor around 8 times, with variance of movement more than half a pixel throwing the image alignment completely off.

I am not saying that it is completely impossible to have High Res Shot done in hand-held. Maybe, by some technical miracle it can happen in the future. I sure would like that too, but to expect it to happen so soon (remember it was only introduced in E-M5 Mark II last year) is a little stretch too far.

ROLLING SHUTTER EFFECT IN ELECTRONIC SHUTTER

One of the popular questions I have observed from forum discussions was regarding the electronic shutter used, especially when shooting in high speed burst sequential mode of either 60 frames per second (single-AF) or 18 frames per second (continuous AF). Many also have noted that the sample photographs I have shown in my original E-M1 Mark II review did not show any trace of jello effect (rolling shutter effect), which was a common issue for electronic shutters in most digital cameras shooting high speed action subjects.

1/60 SECOND ELECTRONIC CURTAIN SPEED
The E-M1 Mark II has an increased electronic curtain speed of 1/60sec, in comparison to 1/13sec found in E-M1, or E-M5 Mark II. The faster electronic curtain speed enabled the capture of the image (pixels on the image sensor blacking out line by line, simulating the effect of opening and closing of actual shutter mechanisms) with minimal distortion due to the curtain speed not catching up to the movement speed. This effect can often be observed in fast panning shots, or subjects moving extremely fast. I have not encountered this in the E-M1 Mark II yet, but that does not mean E-M1 Mark II is completely immune to jello/rolling shutter effect. I think in extra-ordinary situations where the 1/60sec curtain speed was not sufficient, the distortion can still appear, but this should only occur in rare circumstances.

Consequently, this also benefits the video recording in E-M1 Mark II, showing lesser possibility of jello effect occurrence.

Take a look at the following 2 photographs for the jello effect due to rapid subject movement, taken by electronic shutter. A comparison of E-M1 Mark II's electronic shutter shot vs E-M10 Mark II.

E-M1 Mark II with 75mm F1.8
f/2, 1/16000s, 75mm, ISO800
This was taken at super high speed of 1/16000sec shutter speed, in electronic shutter mode. The flowing water from the fountain was frozen into water droplets, which were almost round in shape. 

E-M10 Mark II with 75mm F1.8
f/1.8, 1/16000s, 75mm, ISO800
I replicated the previous shot with my own E-M10 Mark II, which also has an electronic shutter. Since the curtain speed of the E-M10 Mark II was not fast enough, the water was not properly frozen, and the droplets were seen as elongated. 

Left: E-M1 Mark II vs Right: E-M10 Mark II
This comparison clearly shows the superiority of the E-M1 Mark II in handling superbly fast moving subjects while minimizing jello/rolling shutter effect. 

CONTINUOUS AUTOFOCUS PERFORMANCE
I have covered the improvement of Continuous AF in my original E-M1 Mark II review, and this is just an extension to further elaborate on some points I have left out (mostly technical controls and settings). I must reiterate that I am not a sports and action photographer, and I did not have any experience handling fast moving subjects or shooting in continuous AF mode. 

The E-M1 Mark II has the following implementations to ensure high performing continuous AF:

1) Two Quad Core powerful processors to handle all camera operations simultaneously, meaning image processing, AF operations and all camera activities including writing to SD cards can be handled all at the same time, with no compromise or slowing down. The buffer has also been increased twice in size. Therefore, E-M1 Mark II can achieve a full 18 frames per second for Continuous AF sequential shooting in electronic shutter mode, and 10 frames per second with mechanical shutter. 

2) 121 phase detect AF points, all full cross to increase sensitivity for tracking of subject movements. 

3) While the images are being captured in sequential shooting, the images recorded were also immediately utilized for continuous AF calculations. 
In traditional DSLR format, while the image is being shot, the mirror has to be flipped up to allow light to hit the image sensor, blocking the AF module, resulting in temporary pause of AF operations. The AF in the DSLR can only resume as the mirror flips down again, so this intermittent, repetitive interruptions of AF can limit the potential of continuous focusing when shooting in high speed burst sequential mode. In the E-M1 Mark II, the AF happens at real time while live view or EVF is in use, and in sequential high speed burst, the images captured (say 60fps, or 18fps) were all fully used to calculate/predict subject movements, creating a seamless, uninterrupted, full time continuous AF operation. 

4) Plenty of new controls and fine-tune adjustment options to suit different continuous AF shooting conditions. We shall look into his next.


5) Cluster Target Display
Cluster target display can be enabled to allow continuous tracking of subject movement anywhere across the screen, which can be useful when shooting difficult to predict moving subject. This can be enabled by choosing C-AF, AF Area Pointer set to  ON2, and activate ALL focusing points.

6) C-AF Lock
C-AF prediction can be customized for the subject movement. Using C-AF lock, if the subject is moving mostly from front to back (toward or away from camera), for example a kid running towards you, C-AF being set to Loose +1 or +2 can secure higher chance of hit rate. If the subject has high tendency of moving left to right, for example a football/soccer player, then using Tight -2 setting will help the C-AF better. If unsure, like myself in all my tests, I have set the C-AF lock to the default zero position.

While I cannot comment much on continuous AF performance due to my lack of experience, I can say that I have managed to get quite high hit rate based on my few days of shooting with the E-M1 Mark II. I think the camera just works.

7) Focus Limiter 
If you know how far you are from your subjects and you know for sure the range within the moving subjects which will be in focus, you can enable the in-camera focus limiter to ensure higher chance of focusing success when tracking the moving subjects.




Here are some more samples I managed to gather over the weekend.

CONTINUOUS-AUTOFOCUS SAMPLES 1
E-M1 Mark II with 75mm F1.8 lens
C-AF at 18fps
shot at F1.8, 1/6400sec to 1/8000sec, ISO200



CONTINUOUS-AUTOFOCUS SAMPLES 2
E-M1 Mark II with 75mm F1.8 lens
C-AF at 18fps
shot at F1.8, 1/1250sec to 1/1600sec, ISO800




FEATURE CHANGES, ADDITIONS & IMPROVEMENTS

Auto ISO in Manual with Exposure Compensation

I have heard of the constant complains, even from my fellow Olympus street photographers who shoot a lot in manual mode, that in the Auto ISO of Olympus cameras, you cannot control the exposure compensation (which would affect the changes in Auto ISO setting). Now, in the E-M1 Mark II, you can adjust the exposure compensation to directly effect the Auto ISO settings, and you can do so by either using the function switch near the viewfinder (previously known as 2x2 switch in E-M1 2013 version) or you can customize one of the many function buttons that you can press to access the exposure compensation directly.

Exposure compensation is now available in Manual Auto ISO mode in the E-M1 Mark II

You can customize one of the function buttons to access the exposure compensation directly. 

Alternatively you can use the 2x2 function dial, by switching it to a different position to access the exposure compensation setting. 

Minimum Shutter Speed in Auto ISO 

When shooting in Program or Aperture Priority mode, previously there was no setting to limit the slowest shutter speed, and sometimes the Olympus OM-D and PEN cameras can choose too slow of a shutter speed that might not be sufficient to mitigate motion blur. This was always the case that works against street photographers who shoot in A or P mode, that in most situations fast shutter speed is required to freeze movements, then suddenly the camera decided to give you a 1/20sec shutter speed. By having the slowest shutter speed limit, say setting it to 1/250sec or faster, it is very safe to capture (slow moving subjects of course) and mitigate motion blur!



You can fully customize how slow the shutter speed needs to be before the ISO changes automatically

Function Switch Near The Shutter Button Can Be Designated as Power Switch

The function switch located next to the thumb grip/hook area can be customized to work as power switch, which will be desirable for many photographers who work the camera single-handedly. The 2x2 function switch can be easily reached by the thumb for powering up or down the camera, instead of using the default power switch which was located at the far left top of the camera, requiring you to use your left hand to operate it. 

You can reassign the power switch to the function 2x2 switch near the thumb grip area

The 2x2 function switch is easily reached by your thumb to single handedly turn off and on the camera. 

VIDEO RECORDING 

I am still a noob when it comes to video recording, and I do not think there is much I can add to the video part of the E-M1 Mark II, and I shall leave this to more qualified cinematographers/video reviewers. 

However, I would like to provide one video sample which I have recorded using the Cinema 4K setting (4096 x 2160) at 237Mbs readout rate, with Flat Profile enabled. I have uplaoded this to Youtube, so please be wary that Youtube may apply some funky compression which may introduce unwanted artifacts or quality loss. Nonetheless, the short footage demonstrates the capability of the 5-Axis IS steadying the video while I was walking around with the E-M1 Mark II hand-held at all times, and the transition from indoor to outdoor lighting condition. Unfortunately the sky was not so great (it was about to rain) and we do not get sunny clear skies these days. 

OLYMPUS OM-D E-M1 MARK II CINEMA 4K VIDEO SAMPLE (HAND-HELD)

Video was recorded with M.Zuiko 7-14mm PRO lens



MORE SAMPLE IMAGES

I initially wanted to test the Four Thirds DSLR lenses, but there was just not enough time for me to do so, and please understand I have used all my weekend for this particular review extension. I may use the Four Thirds lenses to test in the future, so I apologize to those of you who have been waiting for me to write about this in this entry. I just had too much to do and I could not fit everything with the limited time that I had. I do not intend to postpone this blog entry any further, it has been almost a week since my first original review of the E-M1 Mark II. I thought it would be wise to address some common questions now, and tick off as many items as I can. 

75mm lens, f/1.8, 1/320s, ISO1600

75mm lens, f/1.8, 1/400s, ISO2000

75mm lens, f/1.8, 1/4000s, ISO400

12-100mm PRO, f/4, 1/100s, ISO800

12-100mm lens, f/4, 1/30s, 61mm, ISO200

45mm lens, f/1.8, 1/80s, ISO1600

Crop from previous image

75mm lens, f/2.8, 1/20s, 75mm, ISO1600

45mm lens, f/1.8, 1/400s, 45mm, ISO2500

45mm lens, f/4, 1/125s, ISO3200

Crop from previous image

45mm lens, f/1.8, 1/80s, ISO3200

45mm lens, f/1.8, 1/160s, ISO3200

Crop from previous image

45mm lens, f/1.8, 1/160s, ISO3200

Crop from previous image

45mm lens, f/1.8, 1/200s, ISO3200

Crop from previous image

45mm lens. f/2.2, 1/125, ISO2500

45mm lens, f/1.8, 1/60s, ISO3200
  
45mm lens, f/1.8, 1/80s, ISO6400

Crop from previous image

I strongly suggest that you go to the nearest Olympus E-M1 Mark II touch and try event, I am sure Olympus representative near you will be organizing some awesome event, and having used the camera up close ad personal, I believe you will be able to see for yourself if the camera is suitable for your own shooting needs. 

The Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II was such a great camera to use. I certainly have enjoyed using it and I will continue to use it as much as I can get my hands on it. Please do keep your questions coming and I will try my best to answer them. I may have not cleared all the questions (from comments, emails and Facebook Page) but please do bear with me a while longer, it has been super crazy busy in office lately. 

I will do my best to catch up in my reply to everyone, I promise. 

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II is available from B&H here. 
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117 comments:

  1. Thx a lot for this update! High Res looks great :)

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  2. I've been pretty happy with my E-M10 (mK1), but MAN! I'm starting to want one of these things!

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    1. Thanks! Go get your hands on one and try it yourself!

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  3. Thanks for that - very interesting and the C-AF looks much improved. You can see a small Rolling Shutter Effect in the motorcycle shots where some of the wheel spokes appear to be slightly bent. It looks like it will be fine if you avoid propellers, spokes etc.

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    1. Yeap still can't solve the rolling shutter 100% unless we use global shutter!
      Nonetheless you gotta admit it is quite minimal and honestly not too bad.

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    2. Yes, it will do fine until we get global shutter in the MkIII !

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    3. I guess it is the cost of using Global shutter. Imagine now the price for E-M1 Mark II is already quite a touchy subject!

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  4. Contrary to my previous comments which you took offence to, this was a really great follow-up review. I actually really like the hi-res effect on the escalator so in some cases, it could even be used creatively I guess. The only disappointment is the first couple of shots under the "more sample images" section where the IQ does look pretty bad at ISO2000, but hopefully this is just the JPEGs.

    I've tried one of the cameras at my local event and my first impression was the spongy shutter release button being quite a weird feeling, but I guess you'd get used to it. The menus also look quite "busy" compared to Panasonic, but I've had Sony cameras and I'm sure it can't be worse! Thanks for taking the time to follow up.

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  5. Thanks Robin for showing us so many examples of such a wellrounded cam! The best mFT ever produced for sure. I am a GH4 shooter and have an EPL5 and well...the menusystem just bugs me so much of Oly that it really takes a superb cam to win me over and this one might be it. Great and at the moment easily the best review that shows how C-AF is handled.
    There is one growing disappointment: HiRes. It is not the movement nor the tripod, I am fine with that. But you say "let's not compare with MF". Well that of courser would be unfair since the sensor is so much bigger that even this amount of shots won't overcome it. But...I remember HiRes on Em5markII coming very close 645Z in many ways. Now I wonder why it is, but in the sampels I have seen here but also by some landscape photographers it seems to gain a lot less? I do not see any gain in tonality, Dynamic range and slightly so with noise. Colours should be better...I would not be able to distinguish between the shots actually.
    In another exmaple elsewhere I saw a nice Spanish landscape with a large part shaded below by a mountain and the other part further away in the sun. The shadows were completely dark...

    So I wonder and this is what I miss: how well are shady areas lifted and do they have much less noise and much better colours?

    Again: THX!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the kind words.

      olympus has never made any claim on improvement in terms of tonality, dynamic range or high ISO using this High Res Mode. The only claim they made was better resolution. There are also a few other advantages like absence of moire pattern and color accuracy.
      My photographs may not be the best to show the color accuracy, and that was partly my fault. I have not the time and luxury to travel out of the city to shoot nice landscape photos.
      In terms of resolution, while it is 50MP, in terms of fine details surely it can match similar MP DSLR, but I won't dare to compare with medium format.
      No the high ISO noise will stay the same, basically the 50MP shot was a merged composite of 8 images, if noise was present and if dynamic range was not good they will still translate to the final photo.

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    2. Hi Robin,

      It is not about what Oly claims, it is what various reviewers showed us and what for instance dpreview (but I would direct you t oimaging resource) noted...Dpreview on the EM5mkII: colour accuracy is so good it gives 645 Z a run for its money. The ISO noise gain is easily three stops. You can see it for yourself in the dpreview studio scen of the EM5mkII. Again, this is also literally worded by imaging resource. And since noise DR are related of course we should be able to lift shadows without getting the noise. Of course sharpness (as long as the lens resolves enough detail) will increase too since we do not need to interpolate anything. This also gives us a slightly better noise output AFAIK.

      So IF the only difference between current HiRes and previous one is how it deals with some sorts of movement (like you say: the kind you'd expect in landscapes and not with cars) than we should get a result somewhere close to Sony FF 42MP and indeed MF....If not, something has changed. I'll await some reviews with RAW files from landscapes and see how I can work with them.

      Here is a part of the imaging review test of the PenF HiRes, in this case they went from RAW and not use the JPG since the JPGs revealed more detail in the PenF as compared to the EM5mkII but also more noise..."It's a similar story at ISO 1600, the highest resolution supported in High Res Shot Mode, with the PEN-F resolving modestly more detail than the E-M5 II, while noise levels are roughly equal, and much lower than native resolution files."

      As you can see: the noise is much lower in both these cam than in the native resolution (16 respectively 20 MP) files..

      So that is where my disapppointment comes from but it is way too earl y for that I think.

      thx for your reply!

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    3. I do not believe in the claim of higher ISO dynamic range, that is something that DPReview or Imaging Resource claimed, but I have to disagree. I personally have used E-M5 Mark II extensively, also the PEN-F and never have I seen improvements in dynamic range. It just does not make sense.

      In terms of color accuracy, yes, that makes sense. When the 8 images are being merged, there are simply a lot more color pixel information captured, conveying a more accurate representation of real life colors.

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    4. Well, from a technical point of view, less high ISO noise would make sense - for the same reason that the color accuracy improves. There is a lot more information captured and the image then gets downsampled to a smaller resolution, to give you the best usable resolution. And in that I could imagine something like close to a 1-stop difference, but 3 stops seems way too high. However, dynamic range and tonality should indeed not be affected at all.

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    5. Well the DR part is an assumption of mine since Noise and DR are strongly related. When it comes to noise there is no reason at all to guestimate. Both Imaging resource and dpreview simply show several stops gained when it comes to noise. Have you actually looked at the shots they provided. So I thought we could focus on highlights and now much easier pull the shades without a huge noise penalty....

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    6. In a theoretical sense since there are more pixels, "down sampling" will give the illusion that there is less noise (comparison by resizing the image to match fhe size side by side with the 20MP image). If you strictly look at 100% view there is no improvement in noise. Trust me on this.

      Dynamic range is easier to explain. If the original 8 shots have blown highlight (not enough details, being washed out), no matter how you add more shots to merge you are not adding more information. Having 8 images with blown highlights merged will still yield the final image with blown highlights. The exposure stays consistent throughout the 8 frames.
      Unless of course if you can vary the exposure between shots, now that is a different story.

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    7. Well....that cannot explain 3 stops difference. And imaging resource and dpreview let you simply look at the 40 MP file (or 50 Mp in the case of PenF) and I am talkign RAW. So we seem to have to agree to disagree here. Dynamic range makes sense, with the caveat that if I expose so the highlight are not blown with a better noise signal I should be able to pull shadows more easily... But let's keep it there. Thx for your imput RObin and xtj7, I hope that I will find out myself in January or so...

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    8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    9. In High Res mode the camera exposes the sensor 8 times as if it were 8 separate pictures. This means 8 times more light and that's twice the amount of light as a FF sensor catches for the same picture. In theory that's a 3 stop difference in noise performance.
      Less noise means you can raise the shadows more.
      What are your thoughts?

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    10. 3 stops compared to a single exposed mft sensor.

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    11. Hey redlimlad,
      If there was no shadow details in the first place (due to limited dynamic range in original shots) not matter how many photos you add you won't get more details, if all the exposure remains the same. Only HDR process (which the high res shot is not) can record more details in shadow areas since it captures details in varying exposed images.

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  6. Hi Robin,
    Thank you for very useful info about the new flagship.
    I have one question about the in camera focus limiter. Do you know if it works also with 4/3 lenses or is this feature reserved only for micro 4/3 lenses?
    Thanks in advance for your reply!

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    Replies
    1. It works with Four Thirds lenses as well. No issue.

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    2. Where you have a focus limiter on the lens, e.g. 300/f4, if you put that at the full setting can you then use the in camera limiter to set a minimum distance greater than using the lens switch setting? The manual is not clear on how this would work.

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    3. Hey Andy, honestly I have no idea how the in camera focus limiter works with lenses that have external focus limiter controls. Will have to get back to you on this one.

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    4. Thanks. I did get a brief hands on with the camera in London but I wasn't able to take any lenses with me (on the way to a football match). Otherwise I would have tested that and also tried Pro Capture with a Panasonic lens which the manual infers won't work.

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    5. Panasonic lens may have different focusing and aperture control mechanism that may not function optimally with the superbly high speed pro capture mode.

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  8. Hey Robin,

    Great review and I'm happy to see that the C-AF seems to be even better than I hoped for.
    Also I like the high resolution mode and I'm sure I'll be able to utilize that quite a bit in the future (for still life and landscapes). Also the usability improvements are very welcome. Overall the camera seems to be an improvement over the old E-M1 in every aspect. That is fantastic :)

    One thing however, I found a little strange. Maybe I just got you wrong, but you wrote:
    "and in sequential high speed burst, the images captured (say 60fps, or 18fps) were all fully used to calculate/predict subject movements"
    But as far as I read the specs, 15fps is the fastest, that C-AF can be used at, everything higher and AF/AE is locked on the first frame?

    Thanks again for investing the time for both these great reviews.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, the C-AF works at 18fps with full electronic shutter, AF/AE fully functional from frame to frame.
      Here is the full rundown.

      Electronic shutter
      C-AF 18fps
      S-AF 60fps

      Mechanical shutter
      C-AF 10fps
      S-AF 15fps

      Hope that clears things up

      Delete
  9. Thank you Robin for all the work you put into these great reviews. I find your hands on approach actually more helpful than many other reviews.

    It's somewhat regrettable that Olympus went only half ways with the implementation of Auto ISO. It often still sets the shutter speed too fast in Aperture Priority mode since it uses the conservative "1/focal length" formula. On top of that is uses 35 mm FF equivalent focal length for this. So if you use a 25 mm lens it will aim for a shutter speed of 1/50 s.

    For a camera with such incredible image stabilization this is a huge waste and it will rise ISO to completely unnecessary values. I wish Olympus would let the user decide on different formulas to get a slower or faster resulting shutter speed like some other cameras do.

    Or is there a patent prohibiting this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But did you see the part where minimum shutter speed can be set? If you want to use slower shutter speed, you can always customize whichever speed to your liking.

      Delete
    2. I think to have read somewhere that you still can't tie the lower shutter speed to the focal length.

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    3. I saw this, Robin. I just wonder if this also will prevent Auto ISO from raising ISO too soon.

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    4. It is not tied to focal length, just one singular shutter speed as a minimum before raising shutter speed.

      Delete
  10. I'm keeping my EM1 MKI AND OMD10 and spending g on new f4 IS ZOOM and f1.2 25mm. Does the zoom need firmware update with EM1 MKI
    BOB IN CHICAGO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As far as I know, no firmware upgrade needed at the moment.

      Delete
  11. great review again. what kind of speed was the motorcycle moving at?

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    Replies
    1. Not too sure though. I am a noob when it comes to racing stuff. Thanks for the kind words.

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  12. Just a comment on video: samples are sharp and clear, but there is still a lot of "judder" when panning. And a question: are there any cameras that eliminate that?

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    Replies
    1. Oh, and I should have added: your review as always was fantastic!

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the kind words, FredT. I think the "judder" could be due to my lousy technique in handling the camera in video mode. My friends seem to get smoother videos.

      Delete
  13. Hi Robin

    Thank you very much for your interesting blog. I understand that you are doing this in your spare time and I appreciate it.

    I think it would be interesting if you could do a quick test on how well C-AF combines with eye detection, e.g. on some person walking against you.

    Re handheld high-res: It could be done as soon as the stabilizer works precisely enough. Then the camera must "just" calculate the high-res shift on top of the stabilizer shift. Of course I'm aware that this is far from trivial. But hey, if they can land a spacecraft on a tiny comet …

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey John,

      Thanks for the kind words! Appreciate them.

      The eye detection, or even the face detection will work only if the subject is sufficiently near, with the head filling maybe about 20-30% of the frame. When the subject started out as being too far it usually can't work very well. I'd still not rely in face detection when shooting C-AF.

      Delete
  14. Looks great. I just put my preorder in this morning. The price is a bit higher than I hoped, but I'm hoping the great the support the E-M1 received over then last couple years via firmware update will continue. My daughter is 1 and the C-AF will be a boon in tracking her and also when I serve as an assistant at some wedding/events, especially with the Fl900r fast refresh rate.

    Do you know if the 4K mode increases the focal length crop? For example, the Olympus 12mm f2 becomes a 26.4mm lens instead of a 24mm equivalent on my Panasonic GX85 when shooting 4K video.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Tom,
      The crop will happen if you enable the Movie IS 1 which includes both electronic and mechanical shutter stabilization. By using Movie IS 2, just the mechanical shutter option, there is no crop in the video.

      Delete
  15. Can the E-M1 II take Hi Res portraits? Or has that not changed from the E-M5 II?

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    Replies
    1. Nope. peoole have very defined features (eyes, nose, hands) and the improvements I mentioned in high res shot worked only for randomized patterns

      Delete
  16. Hi Robin!
    Did You try the peaking settings while recording video or sequential shoots?
    Would be great if the peaking would be visible while doing both as it would make manual focusing breeze and ultimate tool with that amazing electronical shutter capability!

    Anyways, that water droplets sample is great! As were your first part with the birds as those shots are like stuck in the mind for reminding the jaw dropping on the floor how well Olympus suppressed the rolling shutter effect! I use a lot the electronic shutter of E-M1 in weddings, other events and wildlife, only required to be aware to take shot when there is more movement than slow walking or animal staying fairly still. And the new readout speed looks to be like "holy grail" to time until global shutter is developed!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Paristo,
      I don't think you can use the focus peaking when the camera starts shooting in high speed burst, I haven't tried but that would stretch the camera focusing a bit too far.
      Also even if you can use burst, the images do have black outs in between shots though it's not too bad that you can still clearly see where the subject you are tracking is moving to. But not clear enough to visibly see anything else much!

      Delete
  17. Robin, is there anyway you could go to work for Dpreview? They took the M1 Mk2 to Iceland and while they got a few good shots, the majority of their photographs are of cloud filled skies and featureless grassy fields.

    Do the photographers at Dpreview have an inability or aversion to simply point their cameras into the eyes of their fellow human beings?

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    Replies
    1. Hey Bryan,
      The DPReview like all other media/bloggers went to Iceland on a paid trip. I think they had a bad run in with weather and things did not go as planned.
      I however do treasure DPReviews ability to produce consistent comparisons, charts and meaningful numbers to test the cameras. The comparometer is an excellent tool!

      Delete
  18. Thanks for sharing. With this additional remarks you really pointed out many items that certainly make the E-M1 Mark II look even better. Thanks Robin.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This is a thoughtful addition. I enjoyed playing the C-AF sequences forward, and even more backward :) Did you just use C-AF or C-AF+Tracking?
    Can you comment on whether the dynamic range has improved at ISO 200? Earlier, Oly's manager Terada said the em1ii has 4.2steps (=14ev), improving about 1.2ev over em1. See https://www.ephotozine.com/article/olympus-q-a--olympus-om-d-e-m1-sensor-size-trip-29987 for ref.
    But in all the samples I have seen, it's hard to detect a 10% improvement.
    TIA.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Boston,
      I used C-AF only, not C-AF with tracking.
      I think there is improvement in dynamic range but that is difficult to show through JPEG photographs as it has been processed. We might need to do more technical tests on RAW files from the em1 mark II when the compatibility with third party software is available.

      Delete
  20. As always, it's another awesome review! Since it's the first Olympus m43 camera shooting 4k (with very high bitrate), could you cover more about the video part in the future review? such as manual controls (hope they can be done with dials), color profiles etc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes the manual controls (eg shutter speed and aperture) can be controlled directly from the dials while shooting.
      I am quite new and honestly not experienced enough when it comes to video shooting. I am sure there will be more video reviewers for the em1 mark II soon. I believe they will do a much better job than me.

      Delete
    2. That's good news. I have to call out Live Control first in my em5ii to change some of the shooting settings. I cannot change both shutter speed and aperture unless I'm shooting in M mode.

      I knew, as you said, it's not your strength to shoot video, however I still hope you can do a similar video review as you did for em5ii since you always have it in depth and details that I cannot find from others.

      At last, I want to share my idea about the pricing jump of em1ii. I would say it's worth it if you compare it with em1i or if you're a pro shooting m43 and need these high-end features in a single package. Comparing it with FF cameras in the same price range will not help you to judge since they're different beasts. People shoot m43 for taking the advantages of the small size and decent IQ. You have to switch to FF or MF if you care about high ISO performance, extreme fast C-AF, and hair thin DoF etc.

      The only thing that I want to have for m43 cameras is a better sensor. I want to have:
      1. a 28mp+ BSI sensor with improved dynamic range
      2. or a 12-20mp sensor with highly improved dynamic range as sony a7s* provided

      Either way I would be highly satisfied. I don't think we can get that with the current sony sensors. Let's see if Panasonic and Fuji can roll out the organic sensor in the near future.

      That's my 2c.

      Delete
    3. No worries J Li.

      My video review part of the E-M5 Mark II was not very well received, and that was not because of the camera but mostly because of my own inadequacies in doing video reviews. I still need a lot to learn.

      I too wish to see more and more improvements especially when it comes to image sensor, we just have to wait and see what happens next. Nonetheless I gotta admit the improvements in the E-M1 Mark II is quite significant too.

      Delete
  21. Very useful review. Specifically appreciate the test of (reduction of) rolling shutter and the HiRes tests. Everything else is useful, too Plus i always like to go through your images.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Peter, I only wish I have more time to shoot! I always feel I could have done better.

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  22. Will there ever be any upgrades for mk1 to catch up with mk2

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    Replies
    1. There will be firmware upgrades for em1 but it will surely not be able to catch up with the mark II!

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  23. Thanks a lot for your reviews, I appreciate your work a lot!
    One total different question: do you know why the highres raw is called an ORF and the additional raw is called ORI? To me it would make sense to do it vice versa! The standard raw should be an ORF and the special highres is the different format, the ORI...
    If you have mixed formats in one folder on your computer, you have to check each file to know if it is a high or not.

    I work with the E-M5II from start and use the Highres function a lot for interiors, lost places and architecture. Also I combine different exposures to HDR. I can not confirm a better dynamic range from a single highres files, but much better noise. This should be a result from the combination of 4 exposures in each pixel

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    1. Thanks for sharing your experience on the better noise characteristics in high res shot.

      The 50MP Raw is ORF. The ORI is the first shot from the original 8 separate frames used to merge into the 50MP shot. Olympus allows this to be saved, in case something happened in the 50MP shot you still have a backup 20Mp image to use and you can replace the moving parts in 5OMP shot by upscaling and blending from the original ORI image.

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  24. It looks better than the E-M1 or GH4/GX8/GM5 at ISO 3200.

    High Res Shot looks good, although I can't imagine a situation where I would use it. It looks as though they came to the same conclusions as Pentax did to fix some movement.

    I wonder if shooting at skate parks, as I do, will improve. I adapted my technique and I haven't used C-AF for 4 years, even on a dSLR. I get my shots.

    Do you have more shots that you would keep?

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    1. I think the E-M1 Mark II high ISO did have some improvement, and I particularly like the fact that they did not overdo the default sharpening at high ISO (hence the smoother, more refined look).

      I did have a lot of keepers, but the images started to look repetitive (they all go through the same race track, and in the case of he bicycle, the same jump).

      Delete
    2. I wish I had the extra money--and the health--to go try the new body and listen to the lecture about Olympus and micro Four-Thirds. It just didn't happen.

      I bet I could have taken it to a couple of skate parks in the area to really put it to the test, especially with all of the lenses I have. I noticed earlier that the 12-40mm f/2.8 has a firmware update for improve compatibility with the E-M1 Mk II.

      If I wasn't dying, this would be an important body for me.

      Delete
  25. Excellent once again! Your site is more exciting than taking pictures!
    I do see this:
    >>10 frames per second with mechanical shutter. <<
    But Olympus website says it's 15:
    http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/e-m1-mark-ii.html
    Is there something different from what you have?

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    1. When mechanical shutter is engaged, the maximum speed for Singe-AF is 15 frames per second, and maximum burst rate for Continuous AF is 10 frames per second.
      Hope that clears things up!

      Delete
    2. Great!
      When using the E-Shutter is there a way to turn on a shutter "click" sound to acknowledge the shot? I can just imagine getting back from a shoot where I thought I shot 200 pictures and finding that I took 2500 or more.

      Delete
    3. Oh dear, the electronic shutter in E-M1 Mark II is described as "silent shutter" and, literally is completely silent!

      Delete
  26. Robin, truly the most interesting article on the E-M1 mk II posted so far on the internet.
    Thank you for that.

    I have one very specific question that I'm not sure you will be able to answer though.
    I'm very attached to the panasonic 20mm f/1.7 lens, since E-P1 times and still use it plenty on my E-M5.

    As you know this lens is plagued on two aspects :
    1-its AF motor speed : it's a rather slow motor and the fact it's going back and forth on contrast based AF detection doesn't really help. My question is then : Is the use of phase detection on EM1 mkII permanent and likely to help on that case?

    2-a problem of electronic interference apparently occuring only with the sony 16mp sensor found in E-M5, E-M5 mkII, E-P5, & E-M10... if you are aware of this problem, I would be interested to know if it still occurs with that new 20MP sensor.

    If you still own this lens and have some times to compare results, I and certainly a few others would be grateful.

    Keep up the good work and the extensive coverage !

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    1. Thanks for the kind words, Sylvain.
      I am afraid the reason for the slow AF in the 20mm F1.7 Panasonic lens is the lens design itself, and no matter how much the new camera improves in AF, the focusing motor in the lens just cannot go any faster.
      I personally have not encountered any electronic interference in any camera, maybe I did and I was completely unaware. Not sure if there was any improvement, maybe someone else who is knowledgeable in this issue can give you better comment?

      Delete
    2. Well, if the lens has less back and forth travels to do, it is going to be faster in the end... That's the reasoning :-)

      Delete
  27. Thanks for another of your consistently excellent reviews. I find yours the most insightful out there. Your new camera is really good, but your eye for composition is even better. I do technical documentation photography and photogrammetry as a part of other scientific work, so thankfully my lack of such artistic talent is not a big limitation. I have used E-M5ii with 12-40 Pro to good effect, but it looks like the E-M1ii with 12-100 will do an excellent job of addressing the limitations of that combination. I ordered after your first review and look forward getting some practice with them before taking them to the field in the Spring.

    Handheld hi-res would be useful for my work. I understand that it is not present now and that there is no promise of future functionality. But I did want to comment on the control theoretical aspects. It is true that at the present time hi-res pixel shifting and IS are separate control systems. There is, however, no intrinsic theoretical reason that they cannot be combined without additional hardware. Doing so is essentially using the pixel shift as a setpoint adjustment in the IS loop. I can see three possible reasons that this has not been done: 1) there was just not time to do the amount of development and testing to release software with acceptable quality assurance at product launch, 2) the uncertainty of IS is sufficient for the 20 Mp image, but not for higher resolution, or 3) IS control is supplemented by frame-to-frame autocorrelation for fine control. The first would be consistent with Olympus quality standards and suggest a later upgrade, the second could be a hard limitation depending on the source of uncertainty and the third would suggest handheld is achievable with substantial development if there is sufficient process power.

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    1. Hey Steve, thanks!
      I think Olympus is not holding back when it comes to R&D and technological advancement. They have been pushing the 5-Axis IS, and I have noticed their improvements over the years, not just small but jumping by leaps and bound (starting from E-M5, then E-M1, then the 5-Axis Sync, and now E-M1 Mark II). I understand the benefits of the hand-held high res shot, and I would want that too! lets hope Olympus can come up with a miracle and we dont have to wait too long.

      Delete
  28. Hi Robin,
    Excellent review. What do you think about Full Color mode(as an option to HiRes mode) based on 3 shots(for R, G and B channel with pixel shift)? I think that such mode can be implemented Hand Held easily(only 3 shots instead of 8).

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    Replies
    1. I think they should include your recommendation just for the sake of having higher fidelity in colors! Nonetheless I don't think i is possible in hand-held as well, not at this moment. It is a great idea though.

      Delete
    2. As far as I heard, there's a 4-picture high-res mode which does exactly this. Not handheld though … yet.

      Delete
  29. With the camera shooting 8 frames for Hi-Res, might it also allow use of a HDR setting to change exposure on each frame (+2 +1.5 +1 N N -1 -1.5 -2) or would such extremes effect the Hi-Res? Seems a very useful feature going to waste.

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    Replies
    1. If the exposures change every single frame, the photos will not be merged properly (we are talking about pixel level shifting). Imagine one pixel is brighter than the next pixel, we might get very uneven, unnatural looking image.

      Delete
    2. Pity!
      As always a very interesting and comprehensive review, congratulations Robin and thank you for using your free time for our benefit. With the Sterling exchange rate at its present level I doubt I shall be upgrading, but if Olympus continues to support the E-M1 and adds a Hi-Res mode, that would keep me satisfied until the Mk III comes along.

      Delete
  30. Robin, I enjoyed your review of the E-M1 II, thank you. I wanted however to bring one bit of information to your attention. The rumor of a hand-held high resolution mode comes from Olympus itself, which is why I believe some people have been disappointed by it's lack of inclusion.

    https://www.dpreview.com/articles/5476551037/interview-with-setsuya-kataoka-from-olympus-om-d-high-resolution-mode

    Thanks Again,
    Paul

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    Replies
    1. Dear Paul,

      So I went over to read this article. " According to Setsuya Kataoka, future OM-D cameras will be able to create multi-shot high resolution images in such a short time that photographers will be able to use the feature handheld."

      Nothing says in E-M1 Mark II. I also believe the hand held high Res is possible in the FUTURE. It was the Rumors that started saying it was possible in E-M1 Mark II, that started the wild speculations

      Delete
  31. I am interested in the focus stacking mode (like with the 60mm Macro or 300mm f4.0). What is the speed of that mode (or focus bracketing)? Can it be used handheld?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Focus stacking can be used hand-held (since 5-Axis IS is activated when his is used) but it is highly recommended to use a tripod instead.

      Delete
  32. Great review! Thanks and congratulations! Although you are an Olympus employee, you are not afraid of pointing out some (small) issues.
    I will wait for dpreview results in RAW, but almost sure, I am in for this camera.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jos. If I was not being honest, I will lose credibility, and when that happens, what was the point of me doing all this?

      Delete
  33. I actually like that smooth escalator shots, hahaha :D

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  34. Dear Sir, thank you for your beautiful photos (and the technical information)! IMHO the only feature that's missing from the firmware now would be the option to choose a program curve for auto ISO as implemented by Pentax or Canon. So I could choose a steeper curve for freezing action and a normal curve for optimizing low ISO / dynamic range. Both my E-M5 and my E-M1 tend to give me too low ISO values in auto ISO mode so I'm missing some shots when I'm birding in bad or rapidly changing light. The option to define the lowest shutter speed is very welcome and a step into the right direction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think each camera has their own unique features and that is what differentiates one camera from another. Surely Canon or Pentax cameras do not have the 5-Axis IS and other features like Live Composite in Olympus cameras. What I am saying is there is no one camera that has everything, and all the features.

      Delete
  35. Solid review. Nice work. The image of the kitten with the hair on it's eye (from the first part) was awesome. I couldn't believe the detail. You could almost call it eye-opening (alright, that was awful, sorry). I'm really looking forward to your full 12-100mm review. That thing looks great.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Robin
    Great review focused on the practical use of this amazing tool. I currently use 3 cameras. The EM1, and Panasonic GX8 for wildlife and a Nikon d810 for landscapes. I am considering the EM1 mk2 to potentially replace the Nikon kit. However for wildlife my main lenses are the Oly SWD 50-200+ 1.4 TC. And on the GX8, the Panasonic 100-400mm f4. My question to you is what should I expect in performance (focus speed, accuracy, and tracking) using the Oly EM1 mk2 with these lenses? Truth is both these lenses are about as good as it gets with a long zoom lens and If I buy the new EM1 mk2, I am hoping to get better performance from this glass, but is that a realistic expectation?

    ReplyDelete
  37. Hi Robin,

    Very interesting review, as usual i want to say. I have a question about autofocus : can you choose which "mode" (phase or contrast detect) the body uses to focus ? Or does it use both ?

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  38. Well done Olympus! A great step forward for MFT! Those of us who prefer smaller cameras can't wait for the next EM-5 and PEN-F generations to take over the main advances...And thank you Robin for your review!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Your blog is the best information I have found on this new camera. I am most interested in buying it once it becomes available, although I already own Olympus's top-of-the-line DSLR - the E-5. Of course, I also own some good Oly glass for that camera and would like to be able to use it on the OM-D E-M1 II, at least at times, with my MMF-1 adapter. Other than not being splash- and dust- proof, will this adapter work with the OM-D E-M1 II to the best of your knowledge?

    ReplyDelete
  40. Wonderfully informative! One question I have that hasn't been answered: does OI Share enable WiFi control of High Res Shot with the new camera?

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  41. This looks an awesome all around camera, and also good looking camera. Thanks for the detail review. One major feature missing for me is the Video Recording Length, because I record Theater shows/rehearsals I need to record sometimes 1 hour and 30 min videos. I don't want setup 2 camera's for this. Will recording length be updated in future Firmware or does the camera not provide enough cooling? Still a reason why I'm considering buying a the 2 year old Panasonic GH4 (or hold off on a future GH5).

    ReplyDelete
  42. Hi Robin,

    A couple of questions:

    - is it possible to use focus bracketing in combination with the high res shot mode?
    - if you shot a classical portrait, i.e. the model sitting still during the exposure - why shouldn´t it be possible to use the high res mode achieving flawless results?
    - if I wanted to take a series of high res shots as quickly as possible: would it be possible to merge the 8 single shots at a later stage to speed up the total shooting time as each merging process takes 2.5 s?
    - finally: what stops you from comparing the M1 II in high res mode to a medium format camera, say the Phase One IQ3 when it comes to details? (let alone the different dynamic ranges)

    Many thanks
    Mike

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  43. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  44. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  45. Hi Robin,

    Thanks for yet another superb review (I read the primary article about this camera first) of a truly astounding camera. The hand-held 5-6 seconds stuff completely blew me away, as did the overall image quality. Your pictures are exquisite, as always, and your writing is a joy to read. Man, what a camera, and what spectacular results! It's a work of art. It's like Arthur C. Clarke once observed: "any technology sufficiently advanced will be indistinguishable from magic". Oly is getting really, really close!

    You know me, the old stubborn dinosaur, I've just about seen it all - so, not always that easily impressed. But these optics, and this camera is really something else. Stunning results, and in your capable hands - it really is magical!

    Congratulations to you and Oly on another triumph. You've won me over, I'm going to invest in a Oly 4/3 system to compliment my existing system. The quality is there, the handling is great, the lenses are there. When I want to pack light and not lug around my huge DSLR's this is perfect. And the quality is really superb, as your work abundantly proves. I'm happy :-)

    Happy holidays and my best wishes for a healthy, happy and even better 2017!

    ReplyDelete
  46. Thanks so much for spending the time to shoot the pictures and write the reviews. I used Olympus in the film days and have used Canon and Fuji since moving to digital. I noticed how Olympus has caught up with the state of the art in small camera technology. I thought I was going to buy another Fuji but this camera is really something special! Thanks again...

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  47. very nice. There is certainly a lot of content popping up around this camera now. I think I'm still going to wait a while until the price drops some as my E-M1 is still a pretty good camera. :-) The video looks quite nice. I have 2560x1440 monitor so seeing it at 4K res looks nice full screen. While the IS does a decent job I think if I was shooting a lot of video while moving around I would invest in some sort of steady-shot rig.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Great review! What can you tell me about the upgraded weather sealing? I have the E-M5 Mark II but if the weather sealing was much improved I would like to upgrade. I do a lot of shooting out in wet conditions. Thanks!

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  49. Hi Robin,
    Thanks for the detailed review with great samples. I recently bought an E-M1 Mark II, my second try at M43 (the first one was with E-PL1 some years ago, the lenses were inadequate) after using Nikon for many many years.
    The "Auto ISO in Manual with Exposure Compensation" is how I use the camera all the time. However, the camera does not allow exposure compensation, when a button (say Fn2) is defined for exposure compensation. Would you please elaborate how you could do so?
    Checked the English version of manual: p.29 and 42 showed the expected behaviour via the Fn level, but p.68 showed the inconsistent behaviour when using a button to initiate exposure compensation.

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  50. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  51. Robin,

    Thanks so much for all the work that goes into your reviews.
    I have a Pen F that I use for product photography. I'm considering an upgrade to the Mark II. I see it has in-camera focus stacking, which I have been doing with third party software.
    Aside from that is there any difference between hi res pics from the Pen F vs the Mark II?

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  52. After trying out the 1m2 at an Oly event, I'm reading everything I can find. Your reviews seem to be pointed right at me for what I do. Darn Oly! Their event and your reviews are going to cost me well over $3k for the new camera and the new 25 1.2!!!

    ReplyDelete
  53. Hi robin
    Thank you for your excellent reviews.
    I have had the omd em1 mk1 and now 2 oms em1 mk2 bodies.
    Super great weather sealing is a huge factor selecting Olympus Mirrorless cameras.
    But I Do Live in Hope That Olympus could;
    Put a joystick toggle switch for changing focus points; in the spot where the AEL AFL butoon is now--and move out the info button and put the AEL AFL button there instead.
    Just a thought.
    Cheers,
    Evan Spellman

    ReplyDelete
  54. Very thoughtful review, thank you. A quick question about High Res mode. Say you take three high res mode images at three different exposures. Any reason you couldn't merge them into an HDR high res final image? Perhaps mimicking an MF sensor result.

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  55. hi Robin
    thanks a lot for your article
    I want to buy a tripod to use the high res shot mode with my new e-m1 ii, but I don't know what which one to choose (afraid that it won't work with something too unstable). out of curiosity, which one do you use? any recommendation?
    thanks a lot!

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