Mirrorless Monday, June 24, 2019

The Bay Responder, XE1, 27mm

peachy

Untitled by c w, on Flickr

Great Blue Heron Catches A Snack by David Stephens, on Flickr

Pip Pip, Get Away From My Patch by David Stephens, on Flickr

XE-1 / Hexanon 40mm

Galena (Illinois) Balloon Rally

Sony A9 + Sony 100-400/4.5-5.6, 1/400 @ f/6.3, ISO 100

Four from a Sony A7R using heritage lenses, as noted.

Coffee (35-135mm Olympus OM Zuiko f/3.5-4.5)

JWS ( 85-205mm Vivitar (Kino) Macro Focusing Zoom f/3.8)

Perfection (35-70mm SMC Pentax A f/4)

Rack (35-135mm Olympus OM Zuiko f/3.5-4.5)

Fuji X-T20

Olympus UK sponsored a photo event at Gifford's Circus when it visited Oxford last week. I got to try out an E-M1X with 12-100mm F4 lens.

Michael Fletcher

Lil Rice and cyr wheel

Model portrait session

Olympus UK sponsored a photo event at Gifford's Circus when it visited Oxford last week. I got to try out an E-M1X with 12-100mm F4 lens.

Looking forward to reading your opinions of this most interesting camera. When you're ready. ;-)

Looking forward to reading your opinions of this most interesting camera. When you're ready. ;-)

I had about 3 hours with the camera and my first impression was that the control system was very difficult - lots of menus, lots of options, and hard to find simple things. Even the quick menu system on the rear scree had me baffled at first as not all icons or abbreviations were obvious to novice user. Olympus staff were on hand to help, but in the circus tent I was pretty much on my own for advice. For example, I couldn't find the drive control to enable a high FPS! It's probably simple and dead obvious after more time with the camera, but not in the dark watching a dynamic performance ... Another thing was switching on and off manual focus; it turns out there's a neat mechanism of pulling the focus ring on the lens to the camera to engage MF and pushing away to reengage AF.

The camera is big and with a 12-100 lens it has a bulk where say my A7 III and 24-70 FE ZA lens are. A sales pitch by a professional photographer there reminded us that the Olympus system is cheaper in pounds sterling as well as pounds weight - their 300 F2.8 being equivalent to a 600 F4 on the full-frame systems, and much cheaper too. A distinct advantage if you're lugging a lot of gear around, but less so if you're with just one lens.

I think the camera is very capable. The build quality is excellent and the lenses perform very well. Friends who are Oly users wonder why Olympus UK put is in a dark tent to photograph circus performances - hardly playing to their strengths when it comes to low light! But the camera performed well at ISO 3200 - as so many do these days.

I think the camera is overprived, and a recent firmware upgrade has brought a lot of the X features to the E-M1 mark II, and that is a remarkable compact camera. When I had an A7 mark I I bought a battery grip for it but in the end I took it off and rarely used it. I feel the same about the 'fixed' grip element to the E-M1X, why can't I take it off?

I hope this is of some interest to you.

The FPS control, including the Pro Capture setting, is on the main back LCD (Super Control Panel) screen....no need to even go into the menu system.

The E-M1X is indeed a BIG camera. I took it on a 4 hour hike this morning with the 12-100mm f4 attached, with the 40-150mm f2.8 + 1.4X TC and 7-14mm f2.8 all in my Think Tank Turnstyle 20 V. 2 sling bag.

Tomorrow morning I'll be taking my E-M1 Mark II with the newly installed 3.0 firmware out for a session with the 12-200mm M. Zuiko, 7-14mm f2.8 and 17mm f1.2. It will be a MUCH lighter bag.