flashbang

I switched to the Olympus Micro 4/3 line last year and admit that despite 50+ years as a working pro, I am still on a learning curve with this gear. My question here is in regard focusing in low light conditions. Specifically last night I photographed an outdoor event (yeah, I was at that big one here in NYC). Even with the focus assist beam from the camera, I found there was a distinct delay in the image coming into focus.

I was shooting with an E-M1 and 12-40 f/2.8 lens. At times I had to hold down the shutter button (as opposed to just pressing it), before the lens focused. This was not an extremely dark location with all the TV lights set up and I had used the same settings indoors earlier in the evening with no problems (that is, with out the noticeable focus delay).

Images were all sharp when I downloaded.

So, is this just a characteristic of the gear? Or gremlins? Or........?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

The camera's meter is functional down to -2 EV. I would expect your camera to do better in low light.

You might find this interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwKt9oG4vzc

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Its probably the stabilization at work which slows down focusing.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Are you thinking the OP must have been using a different, unstabilized, lens earlier when he didn't have that problem?