Micro 4/3

[William Giokas]

Is anyone using a Micro 4/3 for bird photography? I just got a new Olympus OM-1 and I will try a few test shots. I have a Nikon with a 500mm lens but it is rather heavy and large . We will see how the Micro 4.3 works . Bill

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

I have a OMD E-5, and like it for a lot of photo uses, but the continuous auto focus/tracking isn't suitable for birds in flight. For stationary birds, would probably be fine, as long as the light is decent.

The new 40-150mm pro lens sounds like a real winner, and would make for a nice light weight travel kit when paired with the 12-40mm pro. Just don't expect DSLR continuous auutofocus performance.

Cheers

Randy

[William Giokas]

http://admiringlight.com/blog/review-olympus-om-d-e-m1/2/ Here is what this reviewer said about auto focus. I will test this out with some slow flying gulls . It probably will not track faster flying birds that well. Bill

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

I looked at the link. The EM5 has the updated, smaller focus points via a firmware update now. That helps, but certainly it isn't the entire problem. Taking pictures of a running child is no where near the 3D movement of a bird in flight re challenges to the focusing system.

THom Hogan has some interesting observations from a recent trip to Costa Rica, where he only took m43 gear,and left his Nikons at home. Makes for interesting reading and agrees with my assessment.

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/some-current-m43-impression.html

EM1 is a wonderful camera in many regards, but doesn't replace a DSLR for birds in flight.

Cheers

Randy

[William Giokas]

I agree with both of you on the birds of flight issue, but I will give it a try here on Cape Cod with slower flying birds and see what happens. I have a Nikon and a 500mm lens but it's a huge lens to lug around . I bet the Micro 4/3 will one day catch on this problem. Bill

[Mike Hitchen]

Do you mean you have the OM-D E-M1? You may fnd this comparison interesting because apparently it is better tracking AF than my E-M5.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up8K_xd_iwU

So the following comments are based on my E-M5 and you can supercharge it with info from that video.
Initial focus is blazingly fast, so fast that I reckon when photographin athletics the first frame (maybe 2) are as good as using tracking focus with a midrange DSLR. For my sins my summer obsession is photographing kingfishers and to get them in flight the E-M5 doesn't stand a chance - but if I want them diving then what is more important is speed of AF when they hit the water and the E-M5 seems to beat my 7D. For birds flying slower than a kingfisher then it seems pretty decent and with any camera it is more about your reactions.

However the next issue is lenses. The Panasonic 100-300 is a decent lens at a good price but gets a bit soft at the long end; also the contrast and overall image quality the lens gives to the image does not match my Canon 100-400 (on my 7D this lens set at 375mm is the same FOV as the E-M5 with 100-300 at 300mm). So for critical work I much prefer the Canon set-up overall but it will be very interesting to get my hands on the 40-150 f2.8 and the teleconverter and see how that goes...but the E-M5 does OK and is certainly worth a punt.
With the E-M1 you could go old-school and pre-focus and hit the rapid fire when the bird approaches the right point.

This guy made a transiton from set-up of 7D+Canon 'L' lenses to the E-M5 and now the E-M1 and shoots birds as well as other action stuff and he has developed his skills to get some very good shots:
http://www.imagesfromnature.co.uk/

[William Giokas]

Yes that is the camera that I have. I have put off buying the Olympus 40-150 because of the price which is like buying another OM-D E-M1 ! I will wait until the lens comes down in price and see what the 300f4 is like . Which would give me a 600 compact lens. The only real issue for me with the camera right now is the complex menu system.
Bill

[Mike Hitchen]

Complexity is certainly an issue with the E-M1! Once you have got to grips with what the camera can do I would suggest taking advantage of the different options for custom settings: once I had mine set up I hardly ever have to go back into the menu on my E-M5.

What camera do you have with your 500mm lens? If it is APS-C then the EM-1+300mm will be equivalent to DSLR+375mm (and the Oly may have greater DOF).

[Mike Hitchen]

One other hting - before you go to the trouble of creating all those custom settings, make sure you have the latest firmware. People have reported that when doing the update it wipes all their settings.

[William Giokas]

This is the camera lens combo that I have . If I had to do this over again I should have gotten the Nikor 400 mm lens instead which is one of Nikon best lens. We will see how well the olympus 300 F 4 lens tests out.
Bill

[Richard Stern]

I have an OM-D EM-5 and a Panasonic 100-300 m43 lens. They are good for birds in good light, that are fairly stationary, and big or close. I have taken just that combo on a few trips, as weight-saving measures, and in every case where bird photography was involved, I wished I had taken my Nikon dSLR and long lenses. I just read Thomas Hogan's blog post, mentioned by Randy, and it exactly mirrored (no pun intended) my own experience with m4/3 in Costa Rica, including Tortugero, where he went. For general, street and landscape photography etc. the EM-5 and various shorter lenses is excellent gear.

Richard

[David Stephens]

What is the crop factor relative to full-frame?

[Ray Pollanen]

What is the crop factor relative to full-frame?

The E-M5, as with all m4/3 sensors, the crop factor is 2x. The sensor is 1/4 the area of a FF sensor.

[William Giokas]

I have the Om-1 and it is pretty good on tracking. Is it up to a Nikon 4s , no but we're talking about a camera half the size and a sensor that is a lot smaller. I too have the Panny 100-300 and I am waiting to see how the Olympus 300 (600 with the crop factor) is . So, we'll see what develops. I reviews on the Olympus 14-150 pro lens are very favorable.
http://luminous-landscape.com/olympus-40-150mm-lens/ Bill