Good Evening, Chuck!
Thanks for the tips. In my case, it is not practical to change too many
buttons, as the camera was only borrowed for a few hours, and the owner likes
it the way it is.
What you are suggesting is zone focusing - something I've used for years, when
I shot with my old Nikon F, OM-1 and assorted Leicas ... ie: manual focus only.
However, due to distance, I was nearly always at 300mm which reduces the DOF,
and because they spread quite widely it is not possible to pre-focus on a spot,
with much success.
I would pre-focus on a spot, and then try to pick up the bikes or quads as they
came into that zone, and then follow them until the composition was near right.
(A system I've used for thousands of successful images, taken over the last 3
years, at the same lake.) But the camera nearly always lost the focus, and
then started to hunt wildly - meaning no chance for even a bad shot!
I tried both standard AF (dismal) and Continuous, with tracking (better, but
nowhere near the ability of my E3). The E-M5 had trouble both acquiring and
holding the subjects, which I found disappointing. The E3 (used, for this
application, in Continuous focus and with the 50~200 f2.8-3.5 SWD and 1.4x
converter) is not known for wonderful continuous tracking/focus, but it does a
heck of a better job than the E-M5 did today, I'm rather sad to say.
Don't get me wrong... the E-M5 is a heckuva camera for the money... which is
why I've been interested. But in certain situations it seems that the contrast
focusing is no match for phase focusing (as found on the E1,3 & 5). I suspect
that the E-M5 may do better with the extra light from a 75/1.8 ... but I'd
have to (a) have one and (b) be a LOT closer. (Now, if they made a 1.4x for
the MFT....)
The rumoured semi-pro/pro level is touted as being a bit bigger (size of the
original OM-1?) and so may be bit better with gloves... and be up to snuff on
tracking - at least to the E5's level. If it is, I'm in! But, for now, I
think I'll wait.
Meanwhile, I'll post one or two more, of the ones that did work, over the next
couple of days, for when they work, they work well!
David.
> I don't know if it's practical or not since I don't know your actual
> shooting conditions but the first thing I would do would be to separate
> the focus control from the shutter button... easily done on the E-M5.
> The most difficult thing is deciding on which button to put it on.
>
> I assume these guys are running a circle or an oval. Where they come
> around toward you as in your sample shot they are at likely a reasonably
> narrow distance range. If you're already focused on that spot with good
> depth of field you can just shoot.
>
> Just to have some numbers to play with I assumed you were at a distance
> of 100 feet shooting at 200mm at f/6.3 (all based on an assumption (or
> SWAG) of likely distance and a guesstimate of 9 foot horizontal field of
> view. Given some relaxed assumptions for CoC on a 4/3 sensor (due to
> motion blur) my guess it that (at 100 feet, 200mm and f/6.3) you have at
> least 20 feet on either side of your focus point for depth of field...
> more than that if you're only going to make large web images and/or
> there is quite a bit of motion blur.
>
> Anyhow, if you separate the focus control from the shutter button you
> can settle on some central focus point where the action seems to be,
> focus with the focus control button and then leave it be when you're
> happy with it. Shoot away and have fun and don't worry about focusing.
>
> Chuck Norcutt
> (who has been so busy with other stuff he's
> hardly shot anything with his own E-M5)
>
>
> On 1/26/2013 7:18 PM, David Young wrote:
>> I had a fascinating time, today, testing a friend's Oly OM-D (a.k.a.
>> the E-M5) out at Stake Lake. It's a camera I've been considering
>> purchasing.
>>
>> I am most impressed with it's performance, on relatively static
>> subjects. The auto-focus is quick, and the image quality is close to
>> that of the Leica R8/DMR combination I used to use, but with far
>> better high ISO performance and a 16mp sensor.
>>
>> So, what better test it with action, than the maniacs who race
>> motorbikes and Quads, reaching 50 to 80 kph on a frozen lake?
>>
>> The camera is tiny - making it a delight to travel with, but a pain to
>> use, with even light, leather gloves.
>>
>> Problems were that the finder jumped, horribly, when I panned
>> horizontally, across the field. This, I was able to cure by switching
>> to the high frame rate for the finder. Sadly, this then consumes the
>> rather small battery much faster.
>>
>> I'm sad to report that, at least with the lens I tried (the 75~300
>> f4.8-6.7 M-Zuiko), results were not impressive. The camera hunted
>> wildly, trying to lock on to it's subject , most often failing. Even
>> with Continuous tracking, the camera was able to focus fewer than 10%
>> of the shots.
>>
>> However, when the OM-D did get it right, the results were pretty good!
>>
>> http://www.furnfeather.net/temps/TheBoys-1.html
>>
>> CAUTION: This jpeg is 1.1mb - so it will take a while to load, if you
>> are on dial-up!
>>
>> For now, I guess I'll stick with my E-3, which performs much better
>> with these sorts of subjects, and wait, impatiently, for the rumoured
>> semi-pro version.
>>
>> David.
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