Initial Impressions OMD E-M1 plus 14-42mm F2.8 kit

[Shadowman]

The E-M1 is back from repair. Looks like they fitted an entirely new top to the camera. It was away for 2 weeks. Exactly the time the repairers mentioned. They reckon that they have had very few of the cameras in for repair and that all makes have their moments with thumb wheels. I did a web check on Canon and Nikon and that seems to be correct. The note that came back with it said that they had also calibrated the sensor ???????

The firmware had been updated as well. Some new things to look at. The main change I have noticed is the ability to set continuous shooting speeds in both the slower with focus mode and the faster setting without pre focus. Personally I am glad to see that. There seems to be more button settings too but haven't really gone through those.

I tried a few birds in flight the other day. No luck but they were flying across and I couldn't really pan the camera fast enough to keep up with them for long enough to allow the focus to settle or even get the focus square over them. I didn't try playing around with the focus area settings and tracking etc just tried to use the central af area.

John
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I was doing an update on my Olympus camera and it stated that I should have attached flash unit and lens (up to two) that I planned to use with the camera. Do you follow that practice? I usually just attach the camera to the computer with the lens that happens to be attached.

[ajohnw]

I think I have had 1 lens firmware update so eventually plug it in with all I have fitted. I haven't done that for a while now but should really in case any of the lenses have been updated.

John
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[ajohnw]

The repair included a firmware update to 2.0. One aspect has been driving me mad. Like most I suppose I generally raise the camera and then change settings with the rear thumb wheel in A,P,S etc the front being for compensation. I found that if I did this now the white balance mode was changed unless I half pressed the shutter. ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGG along with using BBF for a lot of snap shot type shooting it drove me up the wall. Seems a pretty pointless way of changing white balance modes to me, usual list auto, daylight etc.

Looking through the menu's I couldn't find any way of turning the "feature" off. Eventually I found that it was an option on the 2 position switch that changes dial functions. There seems to be 5 modes none of which I can see any appeal in so far. These are they



Odd really as iso and if I remember correctly white balance can be selected via a button using a 1/2 press or the button again to cancel the selector so this is a rather strange duplication. I feel AF modes or continuous shooting selection etc would be a much better option but there are buttons for that too but the switch could be used without using the viewfinder or rear screen. 2 user modes would be a lot more useful. Those can be programmed into the main mode dial as long as the user remembers which is which. I find that places a limit on how many I can have.

John
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