Micro Four Thirds comes of age

OLYMPUS Om1 Mk11. 1600 iso 1/250th at f4. 300mm f4 Olympus lens.

I am now on my forth Micro Four Thirds camera. I have owned the Panasonic GH2, GH3 and Gh4. Each was slightly better than the previous, but I have now tried the Olympus EM1 Mk11 and finally feel this is a camera to seriously challenge the DSLR. In fact after I have reviewed today’s pictures I wonder if I will ever want to use my Canon gear again.

Small, lightweight, 100% silent and up to 60 fps with the ability to take a picture before you press the button and a feature to limit the focus to whatever range you want. Only focus between 5 to 6 metres for instance. What is not to like.

The quality at higher iso settings was amazing, but I need to experiment more yet. I can well imagine 3200 iso as my standard setting it seems that good. The viewfinder image has almost no time lag, unlike any other EVF system (electronic viewfinder) I have used and is flicker free compared to a DSLR. Following birds in flight should now be possible and in fact easier than with a DSLR. I need to try more before I am certain.

There is still a downside. The manual (PDF file) will take more reading and digesting than the Bible. There are many settings I do not understand and the manual does not explain. My friend Google is also unable to help. There appears to be a micro adjustment for the focus for instance, but how do you use it?

I started using it with the Panasonic 100-400mm lens, but turns out to be one of the worst lenses I have ever owned. Do I have a faulty one? They can’t all be as bad as mine. The Olympus 300mm f4 however is wonderful and the equivalent of a 600mm f4. I do not normally get excited about camera gear, but today Micro Four Thirds came of age for me. It is the future and I need to invest in more gear for it.

Marsh tit

Marsh tit, Poecile palustris, Single bird in flight, Warwickshire, January 2017

In recent years I have been doing small birds in flight using natural light with either a DSLR or the 4K photo mode on the Panasonic GH4. This winter I have taken a step backwards and returned to using flash. I have bought 4 x Canon 580 Mk2 flash guns and a large alloy frame to which I can attached an artificial background. In this picture the background is a large sheet of hessian. The birds are flying towards a feeder and the button pressed as they arrive. I get two or sometimes three flashes per attempt. I really need more than two flashes, but the guns do not recycle fast enough.

This is 800iso at f13 on a Canon 1dx, 100-400mm mk2 lens. The flash is in ETL mode using a wireless transmitter. The flash is probably firing on about 1/4 power so about 1/4000th of a second. The shutter speed is set to the fastest flash sync speed of 1/250th. I can only work on a dull day as the ambient light needs to be at least 3 stops underexposed to avoid any ghosting caused by a double exposure by the flash and daylight.

For this shot two flashguns were on the bird and two on the background.

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I have not had much success at my main winter feeding station for birds this winter. It has not been cold enough to attract many birds. I have moved it about 100 metres from the previous year to give a new background and there are three Silver birch trees right in front of the hide. I did expect the woodpeckers to land on the main trunk frequently on their way to the food, but they do not.  This male however does like to land on one of the thinner cross branches.

Great-spotted woodpecker, Dendrocopos major, single male on tree, Warwickshire, December 2016

Canon 1dx, 800mm. 1/320th at f11. 800 iso from a hide.