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Olympus OM-D E-M1 The first Micro Four Thirds camera that offers phase detect focusing so you can use Four Thirds DSLR lenses normally as well a Micro Four Thirds lenses. |
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E-M1 focus point selection
In the thread about lockups, photo_owl makes an interesting comment:
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I haven't seen any sort of explanation about how group point selection works - the manual just says something bland like "the camera will automatically select the target". Sadly my technique and understanding are not up to working it out for myself. Any chance of an explanation? I would be very interested to learn from others' experience as I have tended to stick with single-point AF under the illusion that I understand what it is doing. Ciao ... John |
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
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Ron |
#3
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
I apologise if my comment confuses any issues re the CDAF on the Pens/OM-Ds!
my understanding is that (ignoring FD) the system has discreet AF sites and, if more than one is active, it will simply select the one where it detects the most contrast. Given a choice mine behaves in the same way that Ron's appears to most of the time! There's no apparent weighting to the centre of the group. It's primary use is when you only have one target in the area and just want the camera to focus on that - where ever it is in the frame, or most/all of the target is covered by the group and you have sufficient dof that you just want the camera to focus on any of the target within the group, but do it as quickly as possible. ie it's what people would logically expect an array of live AF points to do. Diamond on the E3/30/5 works differently. It's both centre weighted and the AF points work together to enable faster focusing than single point can achieve. My point was that some people expected it to work more like that of these CDAF cameras and shied away from it, especially for things like BIF.
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Bikie John (14th January 2014) |
#4
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
my experience is similar to Ron's
Most of the time I use C-AF and on the E-M1 it will only take picture if it thinks picture is really in focus. Hence why I thought 9 point AF would be useful, Unfortunatel it seems with 9 AF points it does not seem to matter if its the background or foreground thats in focus. Hence why now only use single point AF. A centre weighted option similar to E-3/5 would be VERY welcome. Gary |
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
As a time served BIFfer I have now come to the same conclusions and have to think differently to the way I did with the E30/5 so consequently use only small single point for most bird subjects. For BIF however I use single point but magnified to 5x which gives a much larger target area and AFs much faster that centre 9. My tool of choice for BIF though is still Canon 7D which does have a centre-weighted array facility. I do use C-AF Tracking for Landscapes etc. on the E-M1 which enables me to focus on the main subject and then recompose whilst retaining focus with half press.
David
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#6
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
Thanks all for your comments, it sounds pretty much in line with my limited understanding. All further comments/experience welcome....
John |
#7
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
I agree with the "points" (
![]() I usually do this by having the 9 point box centralised vertically but shifted one step to the right or left (depending on which way I expect the bird to arrive) as that lets me pick it up soonest and then I track it to the point at which the interesting action / position occurs. This is usually done with CAF enabled and 6fps Otherwise its usually small, central single point with SAF (+MF if the light and contrast are bad) Seems to suit my style of shooting ![]() |
#8
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
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YEAH ! David that is what Matt told me to do and I have stuck with these settings 99% of the time ![]()
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#9
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
Hi, I'm interested in this conversation.
Has anyone considered / tried using "face Detect" set to "on" and "off". My logic being when "on" focus is looking for near subject, not specifically a face, relative to surrounding area. This would be using the "nine" or 81 focus points. pault |
#10
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
David, could you expand a little on this please:
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I'm sure birds in flight are more difficult to track than lower-division rugby players so the skills ought to be transferable in my direction ![]() Ciao ... John |
#11
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
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Excuse my dimness, but I don't understand this comment. For Landscapes I use S-AF and then recompose whilst maintaining a half press - and this seems to give the expected (focus) result. Is there some advantage to using C_AF + tracking to achieve the same objective?
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Chris |
#12
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
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Hope this makes sense! David
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Bikie John (14th January 2014) |
#13
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
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David
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#14
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
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I always have it off as I find it both slows down focus and focuses on the wrong subject for my sort of work. (this wasn't done as a deliberate trial but on a few occasions when I have had the problems I mention above I have found that I had inadvertently set face detect on ![]() |
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pault (15th January 2014) |
#15
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Re: E-M1 focus point selection
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E, Pen and OM-D bodies 43 m43 and legacy glass loads of flashes and accessories from all the systems |
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Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Focus home point | andym | Olympus OM-D E-M1 | 9 | 28th October 2013 12:33 PM |
Focus Point | GRAHAMJ | Olympus OM-D E-M5 | 19 | 9th July 2012 11:24 PM |
E-PL2 Focus Point | gwpics | Olympus Pen E-PL2 | 3 | 1st July 2011 02:56 PM |
Dynamic focus points and selection | DerekW | Olympus E-3 | 9 | 1st March 2010 07:19 PM |
11 point auto focus on E3 | andym | Olympus E-3 | 5 | 11th December 2007 02:39 AM |