I love my Olympus EM-1 mk II, but I still think I am going to get rid of it.
Last year I decided to go all in on Micro Four Thirds (mft), and I already had one mft camera before that a Yi M1 which is a decent 20mp camera, kinda compact lecia styled, but the audio didn't work, it has limited support, and the autofocus is terrible. So the EM-1 MK II seemed to solve all of those problems, and more.
The EM-1 mk II had the best autofocus I had ever seen on a mft camera, no pulsing like the Panasonic autofocus, and the silent motors meant that I could make videos without worry of lens noise, also full 4K quality with a decent codec was a huge improvement over the A-57 my previous main camera with it's AVCHD 24mbps 1080P/24. I bought a Sigma 30mm f1.4 as my normal walk around lens and I was pretty happy with it. The camera had great quality, great battery life, good autofocus, and the ability to really set it up how I want it.
I still think though, I am just going to get rid of it. The issue is that lenses are terribly expensive for it, and cheap primes are few are far between for micro four thirds. I didn't think I would miss primes, but I did.
My micro four thirds setup was mostly cheap lenses, but if I had to do it again I don't think I would have bought the Sigma, the Xiaoyi 42.5mm f1.8 is like 90% of the performance of the Sigma for less than half the price. I will probably sell the Sigma as well. I have nothing bad to say about the lens except 30mm being a bit tight on micro four thirds, but the 16mm Sigma is a bit big to be using as my default lens that 25mm f1.8 and Yi M1 easily fit in my purse and the results look fine to me so I can keep it around as a compact camera.
So what I am replacing it with? I never did sell my Alpha gear, since I wanted to be absolutely sure so I will be using this:
That Minolta 200mm f2.8 APO (280mm f4 with TC) is so much better than the 40-150 f4-5.6 and I didn't really appreciate that, that Vivitar 100mm f3.5 is the cheapest built macro lens I have ever used, but the image is pleasing enough. That 50mm f1.7 and 28mm f2.8 end up being way nicer than to use than the 12-40mm f3.5-5.6 even though I have to change lenses so often.
What prompted all of this was when I realized that I actually record video footage with my Gopro over my EM-1 mk II because I really don't need cinematic video, and the images out of the A-57 and Yi M1 are good enough. Still I can't fault the photos that came out of this camera. Here is a photo of one of my vintage paintball markers taken in very low light with that Sigma 30mm f1.4/Em-1 MK II that would probably have been too noisy to use with the A-57:
I even used the built in effects from time to time:
And I think the built in colors are pretty good this looks exactly like I remember it being:
It even has a tap to shoot selfie mode:
So if someone is considering getting an EM-1 MK II, it is a great camera but, it just doesn't have affordable prime lenses available for it.
Hi,
Which focal lengths are you missing? Ignoring the pro line up I think you can get most of the usable ones quite cheap used.
I found myself really missing the things I would use my 28mm f2.8 and 200mm f2.8 with. I could have bought the 16mm Sigma or 17mm Olympus f1.7 but the Sigma is huge and the Olympus I never found at a price I was willing to pay, $250-300 would buy alot of film. I considered the 17mm f2.8 but, I like it's form factor, but the last time I used one the results weren't great and I am not at all picky. It could have been a bad copy.
The 200mm f2.8 seemed a bit harder, as it acts like a 200mm/280mm on film with and without the TC and acts like a 300mm/420mm on the APSC A-57. It would seem the 150mm f2 would be the natural choice, as I understand it four thirds lenses work great on the em1 II, but for $1500ish and an adapter, it is just too expensive for me. The Olympus 300mm f4 seems really nice too, but it is a bit tight of a field of view I am not like a serious wildlife photographer or anything, but I could work around that if I were willing to spend $2K.
Though I am not getting out of Micro four thirds, as the Yi M1 makes a pretty good purse camera, and there are tons of pancake primes available in the system, and I was frustrated by the 40-150 in the shade, it is small enough to also fit in my purse and between that and a prime I figure it will be good enough for most situations where I didn't expect to need a camera
Quote from Hikari2763 on June 25, 2022, 7:54 amI found myself really missing the things I would use my 28mm f2.8 and 200mm f2.8 with. I could have bought the 16mm Sigma or 17mm Olympus f1.7 but the Sigma is huge and the Olympus I never found at a price I was willing to pay, $250-300 would buy alot of film. I considered the 17mm f2.8 but, I like it's form factor, but the last time I used one the results weren't great and I am not at all picky. It could have been a bad copy.
The 200mm f2.8 seemed a bit harder, as it acts like a 200mm/280mm on film with and without the TC and acts like a 300mm/420mm on the APSC A-57. It would seem the 150mm f2 would be the natural choice, as I understand it four thirds lenses work great on the em1 II, but for $1500ish and an adapter, it is just too expensive for me. The Olympus 300mm f4 seems really nice too, but it is a bit tight of a field of view I am not like a serious wildlife photographer or anything, but I could work around that if I were willing to spend $2K.
Though I am not getting out of Micro four thirds, as the Yi M1 makes a pretty good purse camera, and there are tons of pancake primes available in the system, and I was frustrated by the 40-150 in the shade, it is small enough to also fit in my purse and between that and a prime I figure it will be good enough for most situations where I didn't expect to need a camera
Ah more insight I see. I was wondering about what primes weren't affordable, whether it was the 17 or 25 or the Panny 20mm. Hadn't even considered the telephoto range
If you'd like to talk inexpensive M4/3 primes, I'm all over that subject. Hahah. I wouldn't call M4/3 a system that's without a number of inexpensive quality primes, in fact I would say it is one of the best systems for those. There's the Panny 14mm f2.5, the Olympus 17mm f2.8, the Panny 20mm f1.7, the Sigma f2.8 trio (19mm, 30mm and 60mm - that last one is the standout), the Olympus 30mm macro, the 25mm f1.8 and f1.7 from both manufacturers... et cetera. All are really quite excellent.
Quote from agentlossing on July 1, 2022, 7:30 pmThere's the Panny 14mm f2.5, the Olympus 17mm f2.8, the Panny 20mm f1.7, the Sigma f2.8 trio (19mm, 30mm and 60mm - that last one is the standout), the Olympus 30mm macro, the 25mm f1.8 and f1.7 from both manufacturers... et cetera. All are really quite excellent.
And these are just the lenses with auto focus. There is also a bunch of manual focus lenses like from Pergear, 7artisan, Meike and so on.
And there is at least one adapter for Pentax K mount lenses. 😉
My favourite plastic-fantastic prime lens is the Panasonic Lumix 25/1.7.
E.
Uploaded files:
Thanks for bringing up manual focus primes. Most of the time, it's true, they are designed for APS-C sensors, so they're a bit larger than they need to be for M4/3. But nonetheless a few are small and very good. I'm blown away by the quality of the TTartisans 23mm f1.4:
P5100156 by Andrew Lossing, on Flickr
P5040128 by Andrew Lossing, on Flickr
It's really sharp, but it's the colors that blow me away. These are unedited, and from the "natural" JPEG profile on the Olympus EM5 mark II.
