I just joined the Micro Four Thirds club!

VictorM. said:
Have you tried changing "Release Lag-Time" from "Normal' to "Short"? It's in the Release section of the menus. I'm not sure it changes much, but it might. I set my EM-10 to "Short" as soon as I bought it and am not sure what "Normal" is like to work with.
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Thanks, just checked this, and I have it set to 'short'. I guess I set that up when I first got it. I may need to play around with some of the other settings too to make sure I haven't inadvertently hobbled it somehow.

Anyone actually experienced both 1st gen E-M10 and later?
 
peterm1 said:
I prefer Nik Silver Efex for black and white conversion for the reasons you state though some conversions look fine using native Lightroom conversion capabilities as well. One difference in my workflow is that mainly I run Nik Silver Efex as a plugin under Lightroom and drop directly into Silver Efex from Lightroom without bothering with the need for an editor like Photoshop in most instances.
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I'll try this.

One great feature with the Olympus m4/3s - it is a LOT of fun to set the mode to Monochrome/B&W, to see B&W in the viewfinder while shooting. If anyone hasn't tried, do.

And the real treat is that although the RAW files show up as B&W in most programs (Lightroom certainly) - they can be switched back to colour and then processed as usual if you prefer. You lose no colour info/data by shooting in B&W with Olympus' raw files.

I'll add that although I don't particularly like Olympus' native in-camera black and white processing - it is a lot closer to usable and even decent than most other in-camera monochromes that I've used, where it seemed just a gimmick.
 
Well, I resolved my shutter lag issue without fiddling with menus at all - instead found a low-mileage E-M5 Mark II with a lens I wanted at a reasonable price. For my purposes I didn't need much of the new stuff in later generations, and used prices are reasonable for this gear.

This creature has no perceivable shutter lag, and a few other things that made enough of a difference to me to spend a bit - and some I'll recoup by disposing of unneeded stuff (including some included in what I bought).

Some other very nice things:
-Power switch on top-plate - one thing I hated about the 1st gen E-M10 was the power switch on the back. Sounds trivial and to each his own, but for me, that was the exact wrong place for the power switch.
-The in-body lens stabilisation is VASTLY better. Astonishingly good.
-The viewfinder is also much better, and although a bit heavier, the build quality is excellent too.

The only downside: if you want to appreciate just how obtuse and crazy Olympus' menus and controls are, setting up any OM-D from scratch is the way to do it. Once you get it set up and stable, it's fine, but man, the first few hours involve a lot of headscratching and minor frustration.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
For many years, all of my digital work was shot with large fullframe SLRs. The Canon 5DmkII and a set of lenses for it have been my main kit for color work for the last six years. The image quality was magnificent, and the camera has been reliable, but I've gotten to the point where I just cannot carry that much weight around anymore.

I'm someone who carries a camera EVERYWHERE I go, and with all of my health problems, I needed something smaller and lighter.

For 35mm film, I have used the Olympus OM system since I was a kid. They were the ideal cameras for me; tiny, light, well built, and excellent lenses. I wanted a digital version. I thought of going with a Fuji Xpro-2 or X-T2, but I don't like the Xtrans sensor.

I started thinking about Olympus again. I had always thought the M4/3 sensors were too small, but I began looking at images made with them, and decided to try one. I bought a Pen-F and two Olympus lenses, the 17mm f1.8 (35mm) and the 45mm f1.8 (90mm).

Once I got all the settings figured out, I have been VERY impressed. The images are slightly noisier than those from the Canon at the same ISO settings, but Lightroom's noise reduction eliminates it without losing detail. I think I like the tone and color reproduction better on the Olympus!

So far I love the camera. My only complaint is that it has way too many buttons all over it. The control layout is too complex; most of the buttons are ones I would never use. I love the small size, the tiny lenses, the in-body IS, and the image quality.
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I also like Olympus rendering of images. But if anything, I think Panasonics rendering is slightly better still - especially SOOC black and white (though both are very good - there is no doubt about it). I was shooting m43 more or less exclusively for a number of years but eventually succumbed to allure of Sony (especially the A7 s which has a modest number of pixels but superb dynamic range and this suited me. But I still use and enjoy my remaining M43 kit - more particularly because I happen to like shooting with longer lenses and of course a cropped sensor helps in this regard.

You are right about Olympus' menu system - it is pretty opaque and difficult to navigate. But if you have not done so why not activate the short form menu (I cannot recall what it is called by Olympus - Quick Menu perhaps) that pops up as a bunch of icons on the LCD when the correct hot button is pushed. This gives qives and easy (Single screen) access to a whole bunch of menu items that otherwise are buried in pages and pages of menus.

The following example was shot with an Olympus OM D EM 5 (first one) and the superb Olympus 75mm f1.8. In this case I did convert in post not in camera but the rendering SOOC is otherwise very nice. I have no doubt that M43 cameras and kit from Panasonic and Olympus are great.


Environmental Portrait. Cafe Colombia - Adelaide Central Market 5 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
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