Olympus E-M1X – Autofocus

When I had my first chance to test the new Olympus E-M1X, there weren’t that many opportunities for me to test the autofocus (AF) to its full potential. That’s why in my first camera impressions I quite openly stayed clear off proclaiming any public comments. Some may have been surprised by that, but believe me, writing something meaningful about the AF is not that easy. Mainly, you need subjects that repeatedly move in a similar style so that you can play with different motion settings that you can later compare. The problem is that the E-M1X has a whole range of different settings. You can either use the whole 121 AF-point grid (I’m going to refer to it as the matrix in this text), or you can reduce it into various rows and columns. You can even reduce the size of the AF points further into micro points through a number of cluster points such as 5-cross point, 3×3 points and 5×5 points. Furthermore, you can customise the focus areas into three separate areas – S-AF, C-AF and C-AF + tracking.

TWO OCCASIONS FOR TESTING

In order to test the camera’s AF capabilities I undertook two different trips that perfectly fit into the purpose of testing real-life conditions for a whole spectrum of settings. First one was with my friends who went to Greece to shoot pelicans. Originally, I was fairly reluctant to go with them to the Kerkini lake simply because I know that a lot of photographers already photographed pelicans so I just didn’t wanna be one of them. Coincidently though, the trip took place exactly in time when I had the E-M1X on loan from Olympus so, off I went – without any preparation, without any idea of what and how I want to photograph. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to test the AF features in various scenarios and unique angles even if there wasn’t a decent photo that would come from it all. Afterwards, I took part in a birds of prey workshop with an Olympus ambassador Rosta Stach. Two different scenarios (light pelicans against a mostly light background versus relatively dark birds against primarily dark background) and a number of shots taken (roughly about 3000 pelicans and 2500 birds of prey) resulted in a satisfactory groundwork for me to draw some conclusion about the AF on the E-M1X. Moreover, it was very helpful not to be an organiser of the events so that I could focus solely on the photography.

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 8mm/1.8

DALMATIAN PELICANS ON THE KERKINI LAKE

If you key into any search engine ‘Pelican Kerkini‘ you will end up with a gazillion of images. It is more than obvious that the Dalmatian Pelicans at this lake are more than welcoming. Local fishermen use the lake as their main source of food and the pelicans quickly learned to stick around bringing about an interesting coexistence between the fishermen and fairly attractive feathered creatures. The birds have quickly become used to people even though they don’t really seek them out. That is – unless you have a fish on you. And should you have a whole box of fish you get all the attention in the world. And soon, the word spreads across the whole lake and pelicans fly in from every possible direction. That is a fantastic opportunity to photograph the birds as they fly in. Secondly, you can take a boat trip (again with a box of fish), which the pelicans kindly oblige to follow. So, there is more than plenty of opportunities to photograph the pelicans in their natural element.

Thanks to this and capricious weather during our three day shoot I could try out all the possible variants of time, bad lighting conditions, very bright sunlight, backlight, pelicans covering one third of the picture, and pelicans even as a mere miniature. Most often, I photographed in 18fps sequences and these are the settings that worked for me:

+ reduce the focus area matrix to 3×3 or 5×5 points allowing me to quickly change the AF area
+ 3×3 group target AF points
+ select C-AF
+ set C-AF sensitivity to 0
+ image stabilisation in Auto mode or IS2 (for panning)

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 40-150mm/2.8

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 40-150mm/2.8

Olympus E-M1X, Laowa 7.5mm/2

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 300mm/4 IS

Thanks to this combination, my card was quickly filling up with perfectly sharp images. Naturally, there were some images that were not in focus and even some that the AF missed altogether, but overall about 80% were perfectly sharp, 10% slightly ‘unfocussed’ and 10% out of the focused area. What that meant was that I had plenty of photos to choose from and in the end I had to even delete perfectly sharp photos that I originally meant to keep. I came home with about 600 photos of birds in flight. Most of them fairly boring, of course, as I personally am not a big fan of pictures with flying birds unless you can capture dynamic movement.

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 300mm/4 IS

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 300mm/4 IS

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 12-100mm/4 IS

However, for my testing purposes, flying birds were a pretty good test subject as I could experiment with various shutter speeds as well as focus modes. Naturally, the longer the exposure the less sharp photos I ended up with. I would say that the ratio of unsuccessful photos with 1/30s was completely the other way round the above. With 1/5s values we are talking about pure impressionism. An interesting effect was achieved around 1/50s when the time was so short that the pelican was captured perfectly sharp but water around him had a little time to blur. Sadly, in these situations, the pelican was mostly cruising and wasn’t flapping its wings. The pictures, therefore, lacked any dynamics of movement resulting in a fake-like image where it looked as though the bird is photoshopped in. There were also a number of relatively absurd but interesting situations, when a fisherman threw a fish into the air and the pelicans were trying to catch it. This in the wild naturally almost never happens as most fish stick to the stereotype that ‘fish live in water’. However, for my AF testing purposes this was a perfect opportunity as all the action took place close to the boat and it was easy to lose track of the fish or the bird in the viewfinder. Despite these challenges, a number of decent images was born. The main problem was the sheer size of their wings (their wingspan is about 2m) that did not always fit in the frame.

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 45mm/1.2

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 40-150mm/2.8, TC 1.4x

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 12-100mm/4 IS

BRAND NEW BIRD AF

PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP OF TRAINED BIRDS OF PREY

Trained birds of prey workshop was my second testing medium. The workshop was run by a very experienced photographer Rostislav Stach. While the pelican photos were mostly taken in varied light conditions, the weather during the workshop was overcast with a drizzle or a shower or two. This combination is totally useless for creation of epic imagery but absolutely perfect for testing of autofocus. If the camera can cope with dark birds set against a fairly dark background with minimum light source, then it can get only better from there, right? Having practiced on the pelicans in Greece I settled on the aforementioned setting. I can only confirm what I already mentioned above. When the birds flew from one side to another, about 70% of the photographs from one flight were in focus. During a front flight though, the ratio dropped to about 40%. When I adjusted the AF to +2 and reduced the speed to 10fps I achieved about 50% success rate. What was most important for me was that from EVERY series I always had a number of SHARP photos with perfectly positioned wings.

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 40-150mm/2.8

For BIF shots, two factors were absolutely critical – to maintain the AF points locked on the body of the bird (due to the chosen 3×3 target area that wasn’t too complicated); and to catch the same rhythm corresponding with the speed of the bird. The hardest bird to photograph was a saker falcon. As it is one of the fastest birds on this planet his flight was unpredictable and keeping it in a viewfinder with a 300mm (resp. 600mm) lens on was more challenging than for example with horned owls. Again, even here I ended up with a number of sharp photos even though the success rate dropped down to about 30%. With that in mind, I reckon there is not much more I can test on the AF function and think I will not return to any further tests. I have loads of data that give me a pretty good idea how the AF works and I don’t need to undertake any more ‘testing’ trips. When I go to Costa Rica I will focus on ‘testing’ whatever will pop into my head.

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 300mm/4 IS

Collection of almost the same phase of the wings

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE AUTOFOCUS

+ AF worked well under both the good and the bad lighting conditions and I always had plenty to choose from
+ The possibility to reduce the number of AF points that do not compromise the intersection of the golden ratio
+ The possibility to set your own AF matrix and AF points in Custom mode and its fast selection
+ Really fast AF-points selection by a multiselector
+ Option to assign a Home AF function to a multiselector (personally I can think of an even smarter setting)
+ Possibility to program C1-C4 to individual buttons and the change of the AF improves the effectiveness of the camera
+ Option to assign different colours to the AF points and matrix (here I’d propose a slight improvement)

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 40-150mm/2.8, TC 1.4x

WHAT I MISSED IN AUTOFOCUS

– When you save your photos you cannot change the AF points. The camera remembers where you last tapped. Sometimes, inadvertently, in my haste I moved the point too much.

– When you select a line of AF points, the indicators are quite afar from each other making it difficult to see the plane of focus. What would be helpful is a coloured stripe running through at least two points along the left and right edge of the focus area.

– I’d really appreciate the possibility of setting up coloured AF points/grid. I use either light green or red. Personally, I’d welcome a separate setting for both parameters where you can simply tick off which colour you want to use for whichever setting. Bright indicators are quite intrusive, strong AF point really helps. If it would be possible to separate the colours, it could likely be in a combination of grey indicators with strong red AF point.

– Another fairly unpractical, but easily fixed, function is the fact that when you want to make your selection with a multiselector, you cannot change the AF format (small, standard, group …). However if you use the arrow pad you can do so simply by turning the top dials.

– I quite like the possibility to quickly change the AF modes with a multiselector. It allows you to change the focus mode (S-AF/ C-AF), AF point location and its shape. What I’d really like to see is the possibility to add image stabilisation options to Home AF setting. When I shoot in S-AF mode I prefer IS1, which makes even the impossible possible. However for birds in flight I prefer the IS2 setting. Because of this I am ‘forced’ to have IS Auto on all the time.

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 300mm/4 IS

IS THE FOCUSING MECHANISM MORE ADVANCED COMPARED TO E-M1 II?

This is a question I get asked all the time and there I have no simple way to analyse the answer. E-M1 II is by no means unreliable even though it has certain limitations. I see the main benefit in the option to set an individual matrix and the speed in changing the modes. That assures me that I will not miss any sudden change of animal movement, which might be the biggest asset compared to the E-M1 II (and a number of other cameras on the market). Reliability of the AF is so high that I don’t have the need to search for another camera that’s out there, which may have it similar or higher.

Olympus E-M1X, M.Zuiko 300mm/4 IS

SETTINGS THAT I FOUND MOST USEFUL

1/ typical shooting – S-AF, sabilisation ‘AUTO’, 121 AF points + 1 small point
2/ action shooting – by pressing a multiselector the AF Home is activated that is assigned to C-AF, stabilisation ‘Auto’, smaller 25 AF point matrix (5×5) and 3×3 target group.
3/ flying birds and panning – programmed as C3 and assigned to a shutter control button. The setting is the same as in action shooting, only the stabilisation is set to the IS2 mode.

This kind of BIF is more closer to my heart but miss the proof of AF reliability

IN CONCLUSION

Personally, I found the AF perfectly satisfactory and I know it will not limit the quality of my work. My reservations are not so much for AF accuracy or other functionalities of the camera but more towards its ease of use that could potentially be further improved (for example spare one C-mode for different modes e.g. night photo, pro-capture etc.). I can honestly say that when correctly set up the AF on E-M1X is extremely reliable as you can see on the pictures here and I don’t feel there is a further need to dissect this issue. Saying that however, I will welcome the time when there is a new AF mode that will be able to detect animals or better yet – their eyes. I guess, we gonna have to wait and see what the next firmware will bring.

Fisheye pelican portrait backstage picture

1:1 crop showcase (open in a new tab)

Petr Bambousek

OM SYSTEM AMBASSADOR | I am a professional wildlife photographer who over the past 20 years undertook more than 40 photo expeditions to tropical rainforests across the world. You may have seen my photos in various exhibitions, on the Internet and many Czech and foreign magazines and books. A number of my photographs were awarded at local and overseas competitions such as the Czech Press Photo, Nature's Best Photography, Bird Photographer of the Year, Sony World Photography Awards, Big Picture Awards, Nactus Awards or the most acclaimed one - the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. At this particular competition, my photographs were not only in the Final but also, one of my finalist images became a central promotional piece of the whole 2015 WPY travelling exhibition. If you enjoy my work, don’t forget to visit my Photogallery and connect to my Facebook profile.