I was there in January, 2018, with my Oly Mk 1.2 and the 12-100 f/4. (24-200 FF equivalent) I found the 12-100 was the right focal length, however, I would have preferred my 12-40 f/2.8 for the indoors exhibits. Had to bump the ISO up a bit too much for my personal liking on the 12-100 when indoors. The 12-100 was very good for the outdoor glass demonstration.

Gary

Thank you to all who replied. I appreciate the input.

I suspected (hoped!) that the technical responses would be what they were. I hope this question and your answers will be of benefit to others as well.

Gary

I was out a few days ago trying to get some close-up images of bees, etc..., on flowers, using my Olympus 40-150 f2.8 zoom. The zoom on this lens is internal. After a while I noticed that the black lens hood and the black lens barrel were noticeably hot (not just warm) to the touch. I am seriously considering getting a lens cover to provide a thermal barrier.

This got me to wondering - as the sun heats up the lens barrel, will it affect the ability of lenses, especially zoom lenses, to focus accurately? Would the answer be different if the zoom extended from the lens?

I did a quick search on the UHH site and did not see any topics on this question.

Any thoughts or real life experience would be appreciated.

Gary

I heard, but have not had the opportunity to confirm, that if you use a rubber lens shade on the lens, and place the shade flush against the window when taking the picture, that the internal glare/reflections are minimized or non-existent.

Hope this helps.

Gary

I am not a big fan of "bird flying away from me" pictures, but I thought the feathers on this GBH landing were worthy of an exception.

EM-1 mkII with 40-150 f/2.8 and MC14 teleconverter. Bird was about 100 yards distant. Cropped substantially

Gary

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This was my first time using the MC14 teleconverter with my Olympus 40-150 f/2.8 zoom on my EM-1 mk II to see what that combination could do.

Duck and fish were about 150 yards distant. They were cropped fairly heavily. The fish was a happy accident as I was scouting this area with the camera and the fish jumped. Pure luck.

Frogs were about 10 feet away, so just a moderate a crop.

Dragon flies were about 5 feet away. If you thought BIF were a challenge, try DFIF (dragon flies in flight). They barely fill the center auto-focus square, and rarely are in one place for more than one second. These DFIF images are basically lucky shots. I pre-focused in a certain area, and when the DF flew into the area fired a burst. These are the two that were the best of about 50 images. These are exceptionally noisy as the crop was pretty drastic and the ISO was

Enjoy

Constructive C/C welcome.

All images captures with Olympus EM 1 mk. II, 40-150 f/2.8 with 1.4 teleconverter.

Gary

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Thank you to all who stopped by and looked.

I am hoping to find many other opportunities to use this focus stacking feature in the camera. There is one other related feature built-in to the camera, focus bracketing, that will allow up to 999 images to be taken. However, this bracketing feature requires the use of outside software (such as Helicon) to do the stacking for you.

My only frustration is that little bugs, etc..., simply do not understand that they need to remain still while they are being focus-stacked.

Gary

Thought I would share this image with the close-up group. I previously posted a picture of a stacked dandelion (see "EM 1.2 Focus Stacking experiment - one Dandy Lion" by GWZ on May 1, 2018) that was cropped and edited in PSE14. I am still experimenting.

This is an in-camera focus stack of eight (8) images using an Olympus EM-1 mk II with the Olympus 60mm f2.8 macro lens. It is posted straight out of the camera - no crop, no contrast, no color adjustments - no nothin'. I am impressed with the quality of the image.

This macro lens is very deceptive - it almost looks like a toy based on it's physical size, but it is a great performer. Sweet spot is between f/5.6 and f.8. This image is at f/7.1.

Enjoy.

Gary

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Thanks all, and glad you liked it.

Cwilson341 - I agree that the "in camera" result was pretty good. I did minimal post-processing - just crop, and then a little contrast and minor sharpening, and that was it.

Just playing around a bit with the focus stack option on the EM1.2 with the 12-40mm f/2.8 @ f/7.1, ISO 200, 1/8 sec. exposure time per frame. It takes eight (8) images at different focal plane depths and then merges the in-focus portions in the camera into a single JPEG output. I will experiment with focus bracketing option (can do up to 999 images for stacking) and see if I get different/better results.

Enjoy,

Gary

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Wondering if any Hoggers with an Olympus EM-1 Mk. II have used the

>Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmar 100-400mm f/4-6.3
and/or
>Olympus MC-14 1.4x Teleconverter with either the Olympus 40-150 f/2.8 Pro or the 300mm f/4 Pro lenses

I am considering both of these options for BIF and other wildlife, and would really appreciate any Hogger comments on their actual user experience.

I have read many reviews and looked at a number of Youtube videos, but none do this specific comparison.

Thanks,
Gary

I traveled to Lyon in the fall of 2017 with a Nikon d5300 and 18-140 zoom. This was more than sufficient for all the pictures I took.

If you have the chance to do land travel in Lyon, be SURE to see the (1) Ancient Theatre of Fourvière, a Roman theater, (2) the Basillica of Notre Dame, and (3) Museum of Gallo-Roman Civilization, all located within very close walking distance to each other on Fourvière Hill. If you can only see one, be sure to see the Ancient Theatre - it is amazing, and offers some great photo opportunities. You can get to this location by taking the funicular from the Vieux Lyon metro station. Well worth the time if you like ancient Roman history.

Gary

There are three locations that I constantly go to because I know birds will be there - geese, ducks, gulls, herons, egrets, and an occasional raptor (hawk or eagle), along with many song birds that I can hear but not readily see.

Many times I just bring a chair and some binoculars (no camera) and listen to the birds as they call to each other. Then I try to correlate their calls with any resultant action.

I am (slowly) learning that certain birds have specific calls they make just before they take flight. Other birds have a certain pre-flight ritual that they go through before taking off.
Other times I hear the standard calls of the song birds, along with other larger birds like the geese and ducks, change when a raptor appears on scene. This tells me that there may be some air-to-air combat in the offing. By observing their behavior I am able to be ready when I have my camera (quick re-check ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed, and pre-focus on the area that action will likely come from) so that I have a better chance of catching them in all aspects of flight.

Above all - I am learning to be patient; when BIF'ing I just never know if the birds will cooperate that day or not, so I enjoy being able to be outside during the lulls between activity.

Hope this helps - this is just my take on things.

Gary

Finally got around to editing some BIF images taken earlier this year with the Oly EM-1 MK II and 40-150 f/2.8 zoom. The number of keepers is increasing, which is good.

Constructive C&C welcome.

Enjoy.

Gary

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Frank,

I purchased the M1 MKII in November, 2017, and love it. I use the Olympus 40mm-150mm f2.8 Pro for my birding. This gets me to a 300mm crop equivalent. Depending on the type of birding you want to do this may or may not be enough.

As far as actual user experience, these are my personal observations.

1. The "continuous focus - tracking" works very well. If your bird is subject to quick or sudden changes of direction you may lose focus frequently. In cases like that I will track the bird, and only depress the shutter to lock the focus when I am ready to capture the images. But if the bird tends to go in in a fairly predictable flight path, I find that I can get focus lock early in the flight and maintain lock with appropriate panning. I find that if there are issues with focus in the end product it is my fault, not the camera's fault.

2. There are a number of continuous shooting modes you can choose from. I typically shoot using the 15 fps burst mode and use shutter priority (1/2000 up to 1/4000) at either 400 or 640 ISO, with variable aperture. I have been very please with the results. I have never filled the buffer.

3. As I said above, I use the Olympus 40mm-150mm f2.8 Pro. This lens/camera combination is very light and easy to use for an extended period of time. I don't know that I need a longer reach yet. I will be renting the Panasonic 100mm-400mm f/4 - f/6.3 in the near future to see how that works on the MKII. I have heard and read good reviews, but I need to see for myself. I have a friend that uses the Olympus 300mm f/4 Pro for both birding and deer, goats, etc... . He is very happy with image quality.

4. I found battery life is very good. I always bring two batteries with me just in case. If you shoot both RAW & JPEG be sure to have both card slots filled as you can fill up a card pretty quickly using burst mode.

Overall, I love the MKII for the type of birding I do. You can see two of my recent efforts at "When life gives you gulls" (Feb. 19, 2018) and "Reflections on a gull" (March 12, 2018). These images were all taken at relatively close range as I was experimenting with the various settings and what works best for me. The attached image of the three pelicans was at a range of about 200 yards. The second attached image of the bird (a Coot, I believe) taking off was at a range of about 50 yards. Both were shot with the 40-150mm zoom. Both have been cropped substantially in PSE 14.

I hope this helps.

Gary

I have not had a

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