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EP-1 AF (Terrible)

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Killiak772

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After some days i made my decision and bought an EP-1.
As an owner of a G10 i bought EP-1 for better IQ.
I'm very happy about IQ and JPG engine of EP-1, but there is a problem with AF.

I found AF totally silly, it is incredible slow, every time u focus le lens hount all his way before it stops.

I don't want to talk about AF-C because i think it is a mistake, it sould just not be there, totally unusable.

I didn't pretend an AF as fast as that of my D700 but at least as fast as that of G10....... But it isn't even close.

I'm very confused because i'm happy IQ wise but can't even use EP-1 with my little daughter which runs all around.
I don't want to be told about prefocusing in the year 2009.

I bought EP-1 because i dind't want to take my D700 back for taking day party picture of little childrens and ai wanted bette IQ tham that of G10..... But now i think it is not time yet to put my D700 in retirement......

Thank you.
 
Sorry, no comparison i said that i didn't desire such fast AF but at list as fats as tha AF of the G10.
Said that i luve the IQ very much over G10.
 
Well, he did compare it to the G10 and that wouldn't seem so unfair?

I don't get the mentioning of MF as a solution to AF speed problems?

--
--
Going Dual-System sounds stupid AND expensive, but it might be what I need...!

Life is for living.
 
I guess I am spoiled by my D3 but I also found the E-P1 painfully slow. I was diaapointed as I knew the E-P1 was no DSLR but I did expect it to focus better/faster than a P&S

Looks like this is impossible of there is a MFG plot to only have great focusing on the larger DSLR units.

--
Greg Gebhardt in
Jacksonville, Florida
 
Killiak772 said:
I didn't pretend an AF as fast as that of my D700 but at least as fast as that of G10....... But it isn't even close.
Click to expand...
--
Roosje
http://www.flickr.com/photos/roosjeh/

Could there be something you are doing wrong since a month ago you stated
Killiak772 said:
Yesterday i went to a near shop for testing a brand new Olympus EP-1 and i took few shots for testing. I liked the camera, it is enough small but bigger and heavier than G10.
Click to expand...
Killiak772 said:
The contrast AF works fine, seems a little faster then G10 AF but not such great difference.
Click to expand...
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=32510408
 
Killiak772 said:
I'm very confused because i'm happy IQ wise but can't even use EP-1 with my little daughter which runs all around.

I bought EP-1 because i dind't want to take my D700 back for taking day party picture of little childrens and ai wanted bette IQ tham that of G10.....
Click to expand...
So, basically, you bought the E-P1 specifically for action photography?

If you had done some research, you would know that the E-P1 is not ideal for action photography, although it can be done with a little patience and practice. I have taken some shots of my own daughter (please see my flickr for reference) but you do need good light and preferably a faster lens than the zooms. What lens are you using with your E-P1?

I think the AF of the E-P1 is very similar to current compacts. If you wanted faster, it is well documented that the G1/GH1 series is faster, so that was an option for you. Since you have the E-P1, you could try using Lumix lenses which are suppose to focus faster, or even wait for faster lenses by Oly.

--
Regards,
Tony

--------
“To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” – William Blake –
--------



http://www.flickr.com/photos/26154011@N07/
 
  • Turn off face detection.
  • Use S-AF, not C-AF.
  • Remove filters and lens hood if any. Their mass may prevent the rotating front lens from accelerating and stopping in the right focus position (this happened to me).
Now try again.

If the lens is still hunting, set Button/Dial --> AEL/AFL in the menu to mode 3. You now focus with the AEL/AFL button in stead of shutter halfpress, which prevents unnecessary refocusing for each shot.

Good luck!
 
He's not complaining that it's slower than the DSLR. He said he expects it to be as fast if not faster than the Canon G10. I believe that's a fair comparison. A m4/3 camera 'Should' be faster than a compact p&s (well, high end non-DSLR but anyhow...).
TonyinJapan said:
If you had done some research, you would know that the E-P1 is not ideal for action photography, although it can be done with a little patience and practice. I have taken some shots of my own daughter (please see my flickr for reference) but you do need good light and preferably a faster lens than the zooms. What lens are you using with your E-P1?

I think the AF of the E-P1 is very similar to current compacts. If you wanted faster, it is well documented that the G1/GH1 series is faster, so that was an option for you. Since you have the E-P1, you could try using Lumix lenses which are suppose to focus faster, or even wait for faster lenses by Oly.

--
Regards,
Tony

--------
“To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour.” – William Blake –
--------



http://www.flickr.com/photos/26154011@N07/
Click to expand...
--
Hubert

My cameras TZ3, recently broken Konica Auto S2, recently bought K1000



http://www.flickr.com/photos/peppermonkey/
 
Return it (including the Oly lenses) while you can and get the Panasonic GF1 that should be announced tomorrow. Only use Panasonic m43 lenses since they AF better than Oly.
Killiak772 said:
After some days i made my decision and bought an EP-1.
As an owner of a G10 i bought EP-1 for better IQ.
I'm very happy about IQ and JPG engine of EP-1, but there is a problem with AF.

I found AF totally silly, it is incredible slow, every time u focus le lens hount all his way before it stops.

I don't want to talk about AF-C because i think it is a mistake, it sould just not be there, totally unusable.

I didn't pretend an AF as fast as that of my D700 but at least as fast as that of G10....... But it isn't even close.

I'm very confused because i'm happy IQ wise but can't even use EP-1 with my little daughter which runs all around.
I don't want to be told about prefocusing in the year 2009.

I bought EP-1 because i dind't want to take my D700 back for taking day party picture of little childrens and ai wanted bette IQ tham that of G10..... But now i think it is not time yet to put my D700 in retirement......

Thank you.
Click to expand...
 
First of all, I have the Canon G9 and the E-P1 seems about the same with AF. In every other way, the E-P1 kills it (IQ, DOF control, configurability).

Photographing your kids running around would be a challenge for your dSLR (just read all the threads in any brand forum about it), so your expectations are too high there. If you set the E-P1 so that the AF is controlled by the back button, you'll get quicker shot-to-shot response. Also, turn off face detection. Once you do those two things, you'll see the AF improve. Finally, close the aperture and increase ISO. P&S cameras seem to have faster AF a lot of times because they shoot with such a deep DOF that spot-on accurate AF isn't required. "Close enough" is plenty for them.

Just look at the shots posted here (usually in response to people complaining about the AF) and you'll see lots of shots showing that you can get action shots with the Pen. I agree, though, that action is not the primary purpose of this camera, but it's generally as good as the P&S cameras out there.
--
Russ
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rfortson/
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/russfortson
Even bad photography can be fun :)

 
Yes, when i wrote that i just tried EP-1 for a little arount the backyard of the store.... In that occasion the AF didn't seem so bad....

After that i decided that i wanted to buy one due to the good image quality and the portability. But for my concern i found th AF very bad in a day to day usage and i found it worse then the AF of my G10.
 
Didn't you check the reviews before buying?

Slow AF in dim light is the most mentioned shortcoming of this camera.
Killiak772 said:
I bought EP-1 because i dind't want to take my D700 back for taking day party picture of little childrens and ai wanted bette IQ tham that of G10..... But now i think it is not time yet to put my D700 in retirement......

Thank you.
Click to expand...
 
Thank u all for your advices.

For those who suggest to return it, no thanks i think i'll keep it just because i like the IQ and the color response of Oly sistems.

Maybe my expectations were higher about AF even if i heard many stories about people complain.

I'll just use it for reportage, walking around..... static or almost static subjects.

But i'll keep G10 too because now i believe EP-1 is not a subtitute with better IQ but an alternative depending on the subject i want to take picture of.

For sports or moving objects there is my D700 whch is heavy and bulky but reliable....

Thanks.
 
Here's an example where I think the E-P1 apologists cloud the waters. You've now experienced the reality of the camera. Were you led to expect it to be any quicker by the claims of E-P1 users who insist that it's a practical action camera?

--
BJ Nicholls
SLC, UT
 
BJN said:
Here's an example where I think the E-P1 apologists cloud the waters. You've now experienced the reality of the camera. Were you led to expect it to be any quicker by the claims of E-P1 users who insist that it's a practical action camera?
Click to expand...
I have never read any real users of the EP1 insisting that it's a practical camera for action shots. It can be used - with practice and experience - but I don't think anyone would recommend it for this purpose. I don't think we "cloud the waters".
Steve
 
How do people miss what has been said here and in other forums so many times? The camera has slow AF.
 
I agree it has slow focusing - but not according to some of the many posts in the past, which claimed that the E-P1 focus speed was perfectly adequate for "their" purposes (& therefore fine for everybody else)

To make such claims for the E-P1 that were patently less than correct, seems to me to be a considerable disservice by some of the more experienced posters - whatever their reasons for doing it ....

And thus we now see disappointed users ...
Jay Miller said:
How do people miss what has been said here and in other forums so many times? The camera has slow AF.
Click to expand...
--
Regards,
Rich Simpson
 
Killiak772 said:
After some days i made my decision and bought an EP-1.
As an owner of a G10 i bought EP-1 for better IQ.
I'm very happy about IQ and JPG engine of EP-1 ...
Click to expand...
I compared image quality between the E-620 (which uses the same Panasonic sensor as the E-P1) and the Canon G9, and it's really difficult to tell the difference, only with intense pixel peeping:

http://www.bigmikephotoblog.com/2009/08/olympus-e620-vs-canon-g9-shootout.html

--
Big Mike
http://www.bigmikephotoblog.com
 
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