Olympus Launch the OM-D E-M1ii
At last! On the 19th September 2016 Olympus announced the long awaited OM-D E-M1ii.
When the original OM-D E-M1 was launched it was able to quite comfortably replace (and improve upon) so much of what a traditional DSLR offered. This attracted many to make the switch (including me as I waved goodbye to over £10K worth of Canon equipment!). In the time since that camera was released though we've seen Sony and the 'Big Two' in the DSLR market continue to iterate and improve with mark 2's of their own. Us OM-D E-M1 owners were all scouring the rumour sites for possible mentions and specs of the E-M1 mark ii, but Olympus kept us waiting for the official launch to play their hand.
This latest OM-D feels long-overdue for many. But now it's finally here! And we all know what they say about good things coming to those who wait...
#OMDRevolution - the Olympus OM-D E-M1ii has been announced! The OM-D E-M1ii will sit firmly at the top of the OM-D range and is Olympus' new flagship Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Camera.
Incase you missed it; Olympus streamed the entire launch in rather Apple-esque fashion by talking through each of the new features with an accompanying slide to detail the changes.
If you want to watch the entire presentation just hit play below. Or if you are just looking for a summary of the features packed into the new E-M1ii, then scroll down a little further.
Spec Summary
In the announcement presentation Olympus provided two very useful slides. The first showed the new and impressive headline specs of the E-M1ii, with the other then showing how much each area is imroved upon vs the original OM-D E-M1:
The new E-M1ii spec, including a new 20Mp sensor from Sony, capable of 4K video, 18 frames per second and 121 focus points, all of which are on-chip phase detect and ALL of which are cross type!
63% Faster EVF response rate...this new viewfinder is apparently pretty impressive!
It seems that Olympus really have listened to what photographers were asking for. Countless times in the Olympus groups I've heard photographers demanding better AF tracking, two card slots and a bigger EVF.
All of these things find their way into the mark 2 with a series of other very welcome improvements too. In the presentation Olympus of course put a lot of focus (no pun intended) on the E-M1ii's focussing abilities. It was said that as well as being faster and more accurate to focus, thanks largely to the 121 all cross-type on-chip phase detect focus points, that this new mark 2 will also be able to maintain and track focus on a moving subject far, far better than before. I rarely heard any complaints about auto focus with the E-M1, but if there ever was one, this was probably it.
Olympus Pro Service
The topic of the the E-M1ii's focusing system was discussed for quite some time and it was after this that I thought they would draw the announcement to an end. What else could there be to add?
Well, as I've discussed and written about before, it's one thing to have a camera and a system capable of helping you to make professional-grade images, but it's something else entirely to have the support of the manufacturer when it comes to warranty, support and repairs. To this end Olympus announced the launch of their new pro level support plans too:
Standard, Advanced and Elite Service options will be available. Although not shown in this slide, it was mentioned in the presentation that next-day loan cameras would be available with a plan...
The E-M1ii and Pro Level Service offerings were not the only announcements today though. I've included some of the other details at the bottom of this post, such as the new battery grip and other accessories.
My Thoughts on the OM-D E-M1ii
In all honesty, in a bid to have this post released in as timely a fashion as possible I had much of it pre-written with the expectation I would just add a few images from the live stream. Much of what I had written still stands, but, the entire presentation - in combination with the E-M1ii's specs and the Pro Service plans - reveal so much more to me than just a new camera. There is a message being sent from Olympus here: Olympus are after the professional market in a big way and not just weddings, portraits, pets, landscapes and wildlife - we're talking top level sports photography too!
The original OM-D E-M1 was a camera ahead of it's time trying to muscle it's way into the world of sports and serious professional photography against a field full of mature DSLRs and big white lenses. Whilst some (myself included) felt it was good enough to seamlessly step into the arena's of wedding and portrait photography and that it was even capable of shooting motor sports with great success, it perhaps didn't ever quite cut it as a top-level sports camera for the professional sports photographer. The omission of dual card slots, limited (or at least a lack of) pro level support and it's ability to track a subject being lesser than that of a DSLR, meant that many pro sports photographers just thought of it as another fad mirrorless camera. This was all despite the original E-M1 having always been widely acknowledged to be the best of all of the mirrorless cameras when it came to auto focusing capabilities - even today! (sorry Fuji Shooters, but it's true!).
However, the E-M1, like every DSLR and mirrorless, had it's limitations. You wouldn't have any trouble convincing many wedding and portrait photographers that the E-M1 was a capable replacement for a DSLR when it came to their work. I certainly felt that it was more it was up to the task and it has proven to be great.
To me at least, as great as the E-M1 was / is, professional sports photography always felt just one step beyond its' reach. Shooting top level team sport events such as football (Soccer) or situations where the subject changed direction and distance rapidly presented the E-M1 with just a little too much to handle. As a result the E-M1 was never largely adopted by professional sports photographers and failed to garner recognition as a true replacement sports photographers' camera, which quite possibly hampered its' bid to be more widely recognised and acknowledged as a professional level camera.
The OM-D E-M1 mark ii now sets out - backed by Olympus PRO service - to take that one final step that it's predecessor arguably couldn't quite make. With it's much improved auto focus system and array of features that any professional sports photographer would demand it appears well placed to do just that! Spec-for-spec the E-M1ii aims to stand toe-to-toe with those big old DSLRs and over-sized white lenses. This is a massively bold move from Olympus. It's something that Sony and Fuji just aren't attempting (or at least they don't appear to be attempting or advertising that this is something they want to achieve). Olympus have set out their stool. Can a camera seen by many professional sports photographers as 'plucky' and 'diminutive' really move in on what has traditionally been the home of those behemoth size camera bodies and lenses?
Even if the OM-D E-M1 mark ii can't do it yet - Olympus are the only company that appear to be trying to take mirrorless cameras in the right direction by attempting to break into that market. With the announcements on offer from Canon and Nikon at Photokina I'm left feeling incredibly un-inspired by those brands and the directions in which they are heading. If we see OM-D's at the next Olympics and pitch-side at Premier League football matches, I can see the perception swinging so heavily that it may just kick start a complete sea change in what it is photographers consider a mirrorless camera capable of being: a truly professional camera suitable for everything from weddings, macro, product, portraits and, the holy-grail; sports photography.
What do you think of the E-M1ii?
Are you going to be buying the Olympus OM-D E-M1 mark 2? What do you think of the new model? Can you see this camera taking over in the field of sports photography? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.
Some more slides from the Olympus OM-D E-M1ii Announcement
The front grip has been made larger, which makes sense considering the largest M.Zuiko lenses (the 40-150mm f/2.8 and the 300mm f/4 were released after the original E-M1 was first made. Dual card slots and improvements to battery longevity were also mentioned...hallelujah!
A slide showing the layout of the new auto focussing system. Impressive!
The E-M1 was ever-reliable. Olympus have recognised this and only seek to build upon that reliability. It was a staple of the success of the E-M1.
4K Video, 1 stop of noise improvement, higher dynamic range and the 50 megapixel hi res shot are all features in the E-M1ii.
New accessories include a new vertical grip, which features a directional button pad all of it's own to mirror the same pad you would find on the camera body, making portrait-oriented shooting even easier than ever. Those who use flash will also be pleased to see news of a new FL-900R speed light as well!
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The Olympus OM-D E-M1 shoots the Le Mans 24 Hours
If you follow me on social media you may have noticed that I was over in France to watch (and photograph) the Le Mans 24 Hours; a race held every year in (oddly) Le Mans. It's a race that tests the drivers, the cars, the designers and the engineers. But let's not forget that we as spectators often stay up for the entire duration of the race too!
This was my 3rd Le Mans 24 hours and one of the most exciting yet. The photography, as well as the racing, was a lot of fun. I was also at Le Mans in 2013 and 2015 (missing a year because my son was born only a few months earlier).
Every year the race takes place in mid-June, starting on a Saturday at 3pm and finishing 24 hours later on the Sunday. My good friend and fellow photographer Neil Graham and I once again stayed up from sunset to sunrise to watch the race through the early hours of the morning, capturing some great shots along the way. Whilst naturally, owing to there being more light; the photographs I made during the daylight hours are cleaner. They were also easier to make because of course you're free to use a wider range of settings. Throughout the night and after the sun has set the challenge becomes all about your ability to pan smoothly using the settings that let the most light into the camera. That means f/2.8, higher ISO's and the lowest possible shutter speed.
In previous years I've focussed on the photography during the daytime and have (in my opinion) always ended up with a good number of clean, sharp images. Just take a look at 2015's Le Mans gallery to see the comparative results. To be honest, in good light it's relatively easy to get good images. Especially at Le Mans when you have an abundance of time (24 hours!). That's why at this years' race I focused more on the racing action after the sun had gone down and the darkness of night had truly set in.
Equipment and Settings
All of the images you see here were made exclusively with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the Olympus M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO. I've included all my settings and information below each image as well for those of you that may be interested.
I did make use of the 1.4 Extender as well whilst I was track-side, but in truth; at night time f/4 (which is the maximum aperture when you use the extender with an f/2.8 lens) was just not letting enough light into the camera. The other consideration was that for the most part we were close enough to the track so it didn't require that extra reach. 300mm was plenty!
Technique
Traditionally I would have encouraged anyone panning for long periods of time to do so with the aid of a tripod, or preferably a monopod for that extra manouvaerability. However, within the E-M1 and the 40-150 I just don't feel the need. The setup is so light that I don't believe it warrants it for me. This is one of the advantages of shooting with such a smaller system. The fact that I have up to 300mm worth of reach on such a small lens (the Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO) , whilst maintaining f/2.8 throughout that zoom range is a revelation for me.
So, with all that in mind here are a selection of my favourite images from Le Mans 2016. If you have many questions about the images drop me a comment at the bottom of this post or get in touch via email, as always, at: michael@rammellphotography.com
Note: You can click / tap on all of these images to view them at a larger size to inspect the detail
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/80th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/80th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/80th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/80th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2000 | Shutter: 1/80th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2000 | Shutter: 1/80th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2000 | Shutter: 1/80th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2000 | Shutter: 1/80th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2500 | Shutter: 1/125th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2500 | Shutter: 1/125th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 100 | Shutter: 1/250th | Aperture: f/3.5
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 100 | Shutter: 1/125th | Aperture: f/13
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 100 | Shutter: 1/125th | Aperture: f/8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2500 | Shutter: 1/60th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 200 | Shutter: 1/100th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2000 | Shutter: 1/100th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2000 | Shutter: 1/125th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 2000 | Shutter: 1/125th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/125th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/125th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/60th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/60th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/60th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/60th | Aperture: f/2.8
Camera & Lens: Olympus OM-D E-M1 & M.ZUIKO 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO
Settings: ISO: 1600 | Shutter: 1/100th | Aperture: f/2.8
What do you think? Were you at Le Mans this year? What's your favourite image from this gallery? Drop me a moment below!
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Happy New Year & The Best of 2015
I wanted to leave my 'Happy New Year' post until a week or so after New Year. I don't know about you but my inbox was full of offers, promotions, discounts and all sorts of other things that just added to the noise immediately after New Years. Everyone wants you to visit their site and buy their product. I felt that If I were to release this post just after Christmas, or on the 1st of January that I too would be adding your inboxes that are likely (like mine was) busting with things I just wasn't interested in.
Now that most of us are returning to some sort of normality and a sense of routine I thought it would be a good time to share with you, what I think, was some of my best work from 2015 and take a look back on those 12 months.
So, firstly I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and that you spoiled yourself with some lovely new photography-related goodies. Personally I think photography books are the best Christmas present. As great as new gear is photography books give you so much and can help you grow. If you get a new book at the beginning of a year it can really inspire and inform you for the year ahead. Whether it's business or technical, or even just a photo book filled with amazing photographs to inspire, photography books are fantastic. If you've received Amazon or book vouchers, one book I would recommend is Gregory Heisler: 50 Portraits. Wow!
Best Street Photographs of 2015
I found this to be harder than I thought this year. Usually I would just pick out 10 images and post them right here, but this year I thought instead I'd select a few more and put them in to a slide show. Some of these images are seeing the light-of-day for the first time, which surprises even me. As I looked back through my library in Adobe Lightroom there were a few images that jumped out at me - images that I had previously overlooked as good enough to share with the world. So, here are my favourite Street Photographs from 2015:
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Best Of the Rest
As much as I consider myself primarily a street photographer, the truth is that I photograph everything. 2015 saw me travel to Dubai, Venice, France (for the Le Mans 24hr) and Turkey. I moved to a new area here in the UK and of course I'm actually a wedding photographer 'by day' and so this year has seen me make some photographs that I just haven't made in previous years that I'm particularly proud of. I would add though that one massive change to my photography has been the move to the Olympus system. I'm not suggesting that without the Olympus I wouldn't have made any of these photographs however, there were times when I was undecided as to whether I'd take a camera with me because of the extra thing to carry. More often than not I took the camera but I do feel that If I were still shooting Canon and had to lug a DSLR body and a selection of not-so-small lenses, it would have been the other way round and I'd have been consigned to using my iPhone for moments that really called for a quality camera. Ben Nevis is a perfect example of this.
This was perhaps my favourite photograph from my trip to Scotland. This is not from Ben Nevis at all but was actually a photograph I took as I pulled over the car on the way home to jump out an make a final few photographs before leaving these beautiful landscape behind me. I was most pleased with the colours, the stream in the foreground, the rolling clouds - everything seem to come together to give me exactly what I was looking for!
Ben Nevis & Glencoe
Here are a few more from that same trip:
Macro Dandelions
Another surprise in my library of favourites were these images of Dandelions that I made using the superb Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens. Before this lens I had only used a Canon Macro lens on hire on a few occasions for weddings. My need and desire for a Macro lens never warranted me owning one, however when making my switch to Olympus and making a sizable investment in new kit I decided that a Macro will be part of that. Before my first wedding of 2015 I took it to the lake near my house to see what i could find to photograph with it - and this was the result:
From that very same trip here are a few more Macro's of Dandelions. I find the close-up detail fascinating!
Motor Sports
If you've been following me for some time you may be aware that each June I make my way to Le Mans in France to watch / photograph the legendary 24 hour race. Although this photograph isn't from the Le Mans 24 Hour Race (it's from the 6 hours of Silverstone here in the UK (another date on the same race calendar) this was the first time I had put the Olympus OM-D E-M1 through it's paces and shot motorsport with it. It was on this day, with photographs like this, that the E-M1 proved to me that it was able to do what my Canon DSLR could and that my switch to Olympus was a justified move. I wouldn't have been overly upset had the E-M1 not been able to produce the goods, but knowing that my new favourite camera was a match for the system I had just moved from, it made me very happy indeed. The post I wrote about the E-M1 and motorsports was also one of my most popular posts in 2015 as well. This was also the first time I really got to put the astounding Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO through it's paces.
For more E-M1 motorsport photographs have a look at my post 'A Day At the Races with the Olympus OM-D E-M1'
Richmond Park
This was a memorable day for me, as much for what I saw with my eyes as for what I managed to capture with the camera. This was perhaps the most golden of golden hours I have ever experienced. The light really was the colour you can see here in the photograph:
I've been to Richmond on numerous occasions to capture the stags rutting and the images I usually make are close ups of the stags with as much detail as possible. I tend to end up coming home with technically sound images; well cropped, good Depth of Field and sharpness etc. Being a park the images almost always have a dark or green feel to them as well. But this particular day I wanted to try something different than what I had before and the Golden Stag above reflects that. I was really pleased that what I had when I got home was something a little different and that, for me, was very reflective of 2015 as a whole. In part thanks to the EVF in the Olympus, more in part to my own personal development and growth as a photographer. Here are a few more from that morning in Richmond:
Summary
So my top picks for 2015 certainly differ dramatically from my look back in 2014 (which you can find here: 2014 Top 10). You'll see that back in that review I was still between systems; shooting both DSLR and Olympus (mirrorless). Whilst for many it doesn't have to be a question of one system or another, for me, I simply found that the Olympus was a very intuitive system to use and the EVF allowed me to (literally) see what it is I was about to capture. This made 2015 a year where I learnt even more about photography; with a solid technical background I found I was now able to more easily break rules and try out new things with a higher chance of success.
Throughout 2015 the only camera I have used has ben either the Olympus OM-D E-M5 or the OM-D E-M1. And I couldn't be happier.
Show me your top 10 from 2015
I'd love to see your top 10 or even just some of your favourite images from 2015. Drop a comment in the comments section below on the blog and be sure to include a link.
Olympus OM-D E-M1 Firmware Version 4.0 - Issues
I wrote earlier this week about the release of firmware version 4.0 for the diminutive Olympus OM-D E-M1 and the perks and additional features it's going to bring to our cameras. For that full list of additional features check out my post right here.
This version was announced back in September and not released until November 26th, so Olympus had us all waiting for this one. I would expect, having worked in software testing and IT for well over 10 years now, that the firmware was in development for a much longer period than many of us would have been aware of and of course during it's development it would have been tested thoroughly over and over to ensure it's stability. However it's not uncommon, even for the likes of Apple (as we all know!) that a new release has a couple of bugs here and there and we find ourselves downloading version 4.0.1 or 4.1.0 or some iteration of the update only a week later. After all it's only when it's in the hands of thousands of device users that you can really have every single little fine detail tested as we all use our cameras so differently!
Well, I've downloaded the firmware to my E-M1 and I must say so far; no issues! Now, despite the title of this post possibly alluding to there being some issues with the software - there don't appear to be any at this point. That's not to say however that I haven't come across a few little snags with the download / upgrade process myself and in the various Olympus Facebook groups. So, I thought I'd collate some of them here for you to have a look at so that if you haven't upgraded yet and have left others to test the water for you, here's what you may need to know.
Hiccups with the update
Whilst the update wasn't hard to install, I did have to do a little extra digging to get started because when I plugged my E-M1 in to my iMac I wasn't seeing version 4.0 as an available update within the Olympus Camera Updater Platform. Odd! Reading through some of the Facebook groups I saw quite a few people saying the same and adding that they were on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 as well as, like myself using a Mac running El Capitan. So, the good news is (hear me out here) is that the issue with the updater not seeing the new firmware wasn't specific to one operating system.
My initial thought was to check out the Camera Updater site to see if there were any issues or to see if there was a new version of the updater itself - which there was!
So, my first step was to download the latest version of the Olympus Camera Updater. This was actually included however as part of the Olympus Image Viewer update. So I had to install that first. (Here's the link to that download: http://support.olympus-imaging.com/ov3download/index/). You need to have the serial number from the bottom of your E-M1 handy to do this.
I followed the simple install instructions. It gave me The revised version of the Camera Updater and I was set! I plugged in my E-M1 and I was away.
When you connect your E-M1 to your computer you are given a few options - the camera wants to know what you intend to do. I selected the highlighted option:
All Options Reset
So I went through the motions and updated my E-M1 to firmware version 4.0. It was impressively smooth and very fast to complete. However, everything had reset! I should have paid more attention and made a note of some of my settings, but after navigating through each and every setting in the menu's it was only about 5 minutes before I had everything just how I like it again: rear dial for the aperture, front dial for the shutter speed, Fn.1 for white balance, Fn.2 for the ISO and the 'lever' disabled. I make use of the directional buttons to adjust my focus point. I of course had to go through other settings as well, such as disabling the face autofocus detection, putting the EVF back to Mono etc. But it didn't take long at all.
Things to be aware of
One of the things I was really conscious of, having ran into this issue with my original OM-D E-M5 was that the USB cable supplied with the camera is the one you're going to need for the update. Although the port on the side of the camera is referred to as a Mini USB port (and it looks just like one too!) it's actually a slightly different version of the port that requires the Olympus-own USB cable. If you haven't got one for your E-M1 you're looking for the 'Olympus CB-USB8'. I daren't link to one on Amazon or eBay because i tend to be a little suspicious of their claims to be compatible with the E-M1. I prefer, as always, to buy the genuine accessories.
Silent Shooting - Shutter Speed Limitations
I remember reading somewhere, but now I can't remember, that the silent shutter mode is limited to a minimum shutter speed of 1/8th. I didn't think much of this, but my brain obviously had it's pen and notepad to hand and locked that information away for later use. So when fellow Olympus photographer Graham Jones got in touch to ask me if I knew why the E-M1 wasn't going any lower than 1/8th - I knew the answer. Just to be clear you can still shoot long exposures and what not using the regular mechanical shutter mode. It's just when you're using the electronic shutter in silent mode that the shutter speed won't go any lower than 1/8th. The advantage though is of course that the electronic shutter can go all the way to 1/16,000th of a second!
Focus Stacking - Compatible Lenses
I've seen a lot of people saying they can't get access to the Focus Stacking feature that was made available in this new release. This is basically (although, incredibly clever and massively useful) where your E-M1 will now take up to 100 photographs of an image at various focus points and your amazing E-M1 will stack them together and create one single image for you. This takes a lot of the heavy lifting away. I can't wait to use this feature; I'm going to go back and re-shoot my Macro Dandelions!
Anyway, the point of me mentioning this is that the focus stacking feature is only compatible with the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro, the 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO and the 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO. If you haven't got one of these three lenses then you're going to miss out I'm afraid.
I will write a post of my own on the Focus Stacking feature, but in my opinion, for now at least, the best write-up and review with some of the best example photographs to illustrate how this works is by Kazuo Unno over on the Olympus.com site. If it's a feature you're interested in you really should take a look.
Summary
Not that I'm any sort of authority on the matter at all, but as far as I can tell and from what I can see others saying online - it looks like Firmware Version 4.00 for your Olympus OM-D E-M1 is pretty stable. I'm keeping an eye on the usual places online because of course I want to be sure that my own camera continues to perform as perfectly as it has since the day It arrived. If I come across anything though I'll be sure to update you. The best way to keep up to date with information is to Subscribe to the blog - it'd be great to be able to share new content with you regularly. Join over 200 other subscribers today!
I can't wait to get back out on the streets of London again, this time shooting in silent mode. I know that it'll give me a lot more confidence to point my camera at people a little more directly, just like I can when I shoot my sleeping commuters series!
So if you're waiting for everyone else to test this release - consider it a thumbs up from me!