Olympus OM-D E-M1 fun continues

The fun of shooting my 'new' Olympus E-M1 system continues and I am trying to take very opportunity I can to get out and use it. My kit is now also complete, with the inclusion of a speedlight (more on that in a future post).

I recently had to take a trip for work, and knew that I would have a chance to stop along the way to take a few quick pictures. So I took the E-M1 with me to see what I could find to photograph as I traveled.

Old Bedford. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with M.Zuiko 12-50mm EZ. f5.6 @ 1/200th, ISO 200

I'm a sucker for rusty old cars as subjects (what photographer isn't?), so I couldn't pass up the chance to stop and take a few photos of this beauty. The reddy-oranges and browns, greens and yellows all compliment each other and create a vibrant portrait of this old vehicle ending it days on the side of the road. Not a particularly dignified way to end your days perhaps, but it certainly makes for a great photo.

The theme of 'old and abandoned' was going to be a re-occurring theme throughout the images taken on this outing. The West Coast has a lot of 'rusty relics' and old buildings that make for great images. Although I have to say that my excitement at finding another dilapidated building or abandoned classic truck to photograph is always tinged with a sense of sadness. Whenever I look at them, I can't help but think about the lives they touched when they were brand new and full of potential. Such is progress I guess?

Abandoned House, Ikamatua. Olympus E-M1 with M.Zuiko 12-50mm EZ. f6.3 @ 1/500th, ISO 200

I had photographed this house quite recently, with the Fujifilm X-E2. But it was on a different day, with very different lighting conditions. The X-E2 image (in this blogpost here) was taken on a very blue-sky day, with a large cloud floating above the house - which I really liked. The above photo has a lot less contrast, since it was shot on a very overcast day. It softens the mood, but brings out heaps of detail in the old wood - which I also really like.

The E-M1 may 'only' have a 16MP micro four thirds sensor, but it is still capable of extracting a lot of extra fine detail. One of the major benefits of micro four thirds are the lenses sharpness and clarity, since the sensors smaller size allows for light to reach the entire sensor more symmetrically, hence avoiding corner distortion. It may sound like marketing hype, but in my 'real-world' experiences, all the lenses I've used on the Olympus cameras have been extremely sharp, edge-to-edge. Even the kit lenses and the very cheap and plastic telephotos produce sharper images than they have a right to, considering their price.

St Patrick's Catholic Church, Ikamatua. E-M1 with M.Zuiko 12-50mm EZ. f10 @ 1/200th, ISO 200

Case-in-point is the above photo of St. Patrick's Church. Shot at f10, focused on the front gate, and set to the widest zoom (12mm to fit everything in), the resulting image is bitingly sharp all over the frame. Some of that has to do with the f10 aperture - which on a smaller micro four thirds sensor is f20 full-frame equivalent - but even stopping down the aperture won't make an inherently soft lens sharp.

I'm not going to continually try to defend the micro four thirds sensor, since its detractors will rubbish the system no matter what you say. However, for those who are open to a different point of view, and who might be generally interested in micro four thirds but only ever hear negative comments, I think it's worth showing how good the images really can be from the system.

As mentioned, it was a very dull and overcast day when I shot these photos, which meant that the sky was really just one large expanse of white cloud. Even my naked eye couldn't perceive any detail in the sky, and the ORFs (Olympus Raw Files) were certainly a bright, bland white when first imported into Lightroom. I was careful not to 'clip' the highlights when shooting, so I knew there was probably some detail there, but didn't hold out much hope of getting anything interesting in the way of clouds.

Grabbing the 'Highlight' slider and moving it all the way to the left to increase highlight definition made a huge difference, and brought back sky detail that I wasn't even aware was there. These smaller sensors are derided for their 'poor' dynamic range - usually by photographers who have invested a lot of money in larger sensors for 'superior' dynamic range. 

And yet the truth is that the E-M1 holds up remarkably well in terms of its ability to capture dynamic range. DXO Mark rate the E-M1's sensor as capturing almost 13 stops of dynamic range (12.7 Evs to be exact). In comparison, the APS-C sized sensor in the Canon 80D can handle just over 13 stops (13.2 Evs) - probably only around half a stop more than the Olympus. The E-M1 sensor actually has better dynamic range capabilities than the APS-C Nikon D300 and Canon 7D. That's hardly a terrible result for the micro four thirds sensor. And yet the notion that their sensors exhibit poor dynamic range still persists! 

I'm not trying to argue that the sensor is 'best in class' - of course not. There are many sensors - both APS-C and full-frame, that beat it for high dynamic range. But if your exposure is there, or there abouts, then you should easily be able to recover two to three stops of information easily. If you've blown the exposure by four to five stops (or more), then you probably need to question photography as a hobby and should maybe consider taking up painting instead? Just saying...

End of the Road. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Lumix 45-150mm. f/6.3 @ 1/200th, ISO 200

I started with an old car, so I thought I would up the ante and end with a couple of them 😉

The Olympus OM-D E-M1 is an impressive bit of kit, no matter how you look at it. Yes, it might be coming up 8 years old now, but so what? That just means it's a bargain on the used market - especially for a pro-spec'd body (weather-sealing, rugged construction and 150,000 rated shutter).

I'm constantly amazed by the plethora of 'is it still good enough' videos that talk about the 'old' cameras as if they came out with Noah on the Ark! Of course it's 'good enough' - certainly for 99% of what most photographers would want to use it for. If you're a pro sports shooter then this camera probably isn't for you. But if you are a pro sports shooter, then you probably knew that already. If, however, you just want to photograph the kids playing soccer on the weekend, then have at it! The E-M1 will be plenty fast enough.

It's also not a video-centric camera, so serious video shooters should look elsewhere. But don't dismiss the micro four thirds platform for video. Check out the GH Panasonic Lumix line if video is important but you also like to shoot stills with the same camera body.

About a year ago, sensationalist Youtubers' who make their money producing 'click-bait' videos claimed that "micro four thirds was dead." So of course they all went into prophetic rapture when Olympus announced it was selling its camera division to JIP a few months ago. "Olympus is dead. Micro four thirds is no more. See, we were right!" they collectively cried.

Yeah? Well hang on a minute there Bucky. The Olympus camera division may be no more, but JIP (Japan Industrial Partners) fully intend to continue the Olympus micro four thirds line under a new name: OM Digital Solutions. Products that were already in development will be released, and warranties for all new products will be honored. So if you purchased an OM-D E-M3 at the beginning of the year, the warranty for the product is still valid.

Old Church, Totara Flat. Olympus OM-D E-M1 with M.Zuiko 12-50mm EZ. f8 @ 1/400th, ISO 200

Of course no company is bullet proof. Not even Canon or Sony. Kodak proved that twenty years ago. But micro four thirds is far from 'dead'. And neither is the DLSR, which is the new doomsday prophecy. JIP may not be able to sustain and grow OM Digital Solutions in the long-term. Who knows? But that's at least what they are setting out to do. Better that than Olympus simply shutting down their camera division altogether (they retain a 5% share in OM Digital).

Maybe they will limp along like Ricoh has with Pentax - releasing a new camera every few years, but not really setting the world on fire with new products? Maybe keeping the Olympus faithful happy will be all that is required to sustain their business model? But whatever happens, the Olympus camera you have now, and the lenses you have - and can still get for it - will work for a very long time to come if taken care of properly. In all honesty, I could probably quite happily use the E-M1 that I have now until the day I retire from this hobby. And I'm hoping that's at least another twenty to thirty years!