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EE-1 and BIF

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Chris R-UK

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My EE-1 arrived last week and on Thursday I went to a nearby wetlands site (Slimbridge, UK) where there are lots of birds flying around.

I had read drj3's thread on shooting bats with the EE-1 and Don Parrot's on disc dogging plus a couple of others on other sites. I shot with an E-M1 (FW3.0) and an M4/3 75-300mm and I set the camera up as follows:
  • Sequential H at 5fps
  • CA-F Lock Low
  • 9 centre focus points enabled (a lot of shots are against a changing background
  • IBIS off
  • M exposure mode (because of the changing background) and f/6.3
  • EE-1 pre-calibrated at about 25 yards
You don't get great BIF shots at this site because the interesting birds are all too far away, but if you hang around the lake areas where visitors are putting down grain for the birds then the action is quite fast and furious - swans, ducks, geese, gulls, crows and pigeons.

The EE-1 is great fun to shoot with because you can pick up almost anything, even a fast moving pigeon appearing from behind you with no warning. I took over 450 shots in about 2 hours shooting, easily the most that I have ever taken in a single session at this site. I was very glad that I had the speed set to 5fps or I would have run out of batteries and memory cards!

Here are three of the better shots, the first two large birds at 20-30 yards and the third a small bird at about 75 yards. No post processing apart from cropping.


Mute swans, uncropped


Goose, 100% crop


Rook, 100% crop

Results:
  • 5-10% sharp as in the above images. This is about the same keeper rate as I used to get with my DSLR (7D + 100-400mm) shooting these birds at this site and the image quality is about the same. However, not as good image quality as my best DSLR BIF shots of other birds, especially red kites which I haven't yet shot with the E-M1. Note that this was my first use of the EE-1 and I was attempting much more difficult shots than I would have done with the DSLR, so I expect the hit rate to improve a lot.
  • Significantly sharper images than when I shot this site two months ago with the same kit (except the EE-1) using Sequential Low and hybrid AF.
  • When shooting long sequences at 300mm of smaller targets further away it was difficult the keep the target within the focus area for more than two or three shots. However, with CA-F lock on Low the AF didn't switch to the background even when the target was partially off the edge of the image.
  • No such problems with long sequences of the swans and geese which were much closer and the focusing behaved as you would expect with PDAF - if the first shot is in focus then all the others in the sequence are and vice versa.
  • I tried shooting from a hide with a window height of about 10". The extra height of the EE-1 restricted the range of movement quite a lot, especially when tipping the lens upwards. Hide shooting is going to take some more practice.
  • When you first lift the camera up it takes a second or two to align the camera correctly so that you can pick up the red dot on the EE-1's screen, so if you want to take snap opportunities you need to keep the camera up the whole time. No problem with the 75-300mm but it might be tiring with a heavier lens and a battery grip.
  • Did I say that shooting with the EE-1 is great fun!
--
Chris R
 

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I was surprised at how small the EE-1 is. It isn't much bigger than the clip on flash that comes with the EE-1, just a bit longer.

It is possible to use the EVF with the EE-1 mounted, you just have to push you cap back a bit to stop the peak hitting the sight.

One of my reasons for getting the EE-1 was for a small boat cruise to Baja California and the Sea of Cortez that we are going to be taking next year, so I am still a little worried as to how to calibrate the sight on an 85ft boat at sea. I had hoped that it would be possible to mark a few calibration points, 15 yds, 30 yds, 50 yds etc, with blobs of paint on the calibration wheels but this isn't feasible because of the low gearing of the wheels. However, it seems from drj3's thread that it may not be necessary to recalibrate over 25" anyway, but I will need to do some more work on that.

Some red dot sight users on other forums have commented on picking up on the target with the sight and then switching to the LCD screen to check composition and focusing. I have no idea how they do that. I was totally occupied in keeping the red dot on the target and in the middle of the screen and never looked at the LCD, but maybe that will become possible with practice. Composition is a problem and I got a lot of chopped off wings, heads and feet. Probably better to shoot zoomed out some way to allow more space for cropping in PP.

Because of the composition issue I wouldn't use the sight for groups of birds, but then focusing isn't normally so difficult with a group anyway so I may go back to Sequential L and use the viewfinder for them.

I had forgotten to turn on the beep when focused is acquired and will do so next time. I just started AF (BBF) when I first got the dot on the target and allowed a second or two before starting to shoot. This didn't work too well because I got quite a lot of totally out of focus bursts.

A tip that I had read was to shorten the camera neck strap and use that to brace the camera when tracking. I didn't find that that worked well because I had to shorten the strap a lot to get the camera in the right position and that made the camera sit in an uncomfortable place on my chest when I wasn't shooting. I think that using a neck strap in this way might be more important on a heavy DSLR.
 
The adjustment wheels can be moved as you put the EE-1 on and off when you tighten and loosen the flash shoe wheel if you can avoid this by aligning your fingers east west instead of North south then you can set up before hand and so long as you seat correctly on to the shoe you should not need to realign. I also find that so long as you align at around 50 metres it will be reasonably accurate in front and behind but no good for close range which you would not be using it for anyway.
 
Stew Volt said:
You might want to share this over on the Olympus SLR forum (1022), as there are a few EM-1 birders there who would enjoy reading of your experiences.
Click to expand...
I will post a link on that forum as well.
Stew Volt said:
Hope the Sea of Cortez is flat for you!
Click to expand...
Hopefully the only reason why the Sea of Cortez won't be flat will be the number of whales and dophins. :-D

The Pacific just out of San Diego can be very "unflat" however!
 
olyham said:
The adjustment wheels can be moved as you put the EE-1 on and off when you tighten and loosen the flash shoe wheel if you can avoid this by aligning your fingers east west instead of North south then you can set up before hand and so long as you seat correctly on to the shoe you should not need to realign. I also find that so long as you align at around 50 metres it will be reasonably accurate in front and behind but no good for close range which you would not be using it for anyway.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that information which confirms my gut feeling that the alignment isn't crucial at longer distances. I will carry out some tests today to work out what the error is at different distances. If the bird is still covered by some of the focus points with a 300mm lens 100 yards and, say, a 75mm lens zoom at 15 yards then it shouldn't be a problem for me.

I am more worried about your warning that the alignment can be altered accidentally. That means that I am either going to have to find some way of locking the alignment or I am going to have to re-calibrate hand held on a moving boat!

I will do some tests on how easily the alignment can be altered
 
Chris R-UK said:
olyham said:
The adjustment wheels can be moved as you put the EE-1 on and off when you tighten and loosen the flash shoe wheel if you can avoid this by aligning your fingers east west instead of North south then you can set up before hand and so long as you seat correctly on to the shoe you should not need to realign. I also find that so long as you align at around 50 metres it will be reasonably accurate in front and behind but no good for close range which you would not be using it for anyway.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that information which confirms my gut feeling that the alignment isn't crucial at longer distances. I will carry out some tests today to work out what the error is at different distances. If the bird is still covered by some of the focus points with a 300mm lens 100 yards and, say, a 75mm lens zoom at 15 yards then it shouldn't be a problem for me.

I am more worried about your warning that the alignment can be altered accidentally. That means that I am either going to have to find some way of locking the alignment or I am going to have to re-calibrate hand held on a moving boat!

I will do some tests on how easily the alignment can be altered
Click to expand...
That will be interesting. I have an old (2008) RDS adapted to the camera shoe. But I find it needs a little calibration each time I attach it and tighten it in place.

Does the EE-I have a locking device or is it just push fit? If the latter what stops it moving slightly in the shoe?

Nice birds btw!

Mike
 
Michael J Davis said:
Chris R-UK said:
olyham said:
The adjustment wheels can be moved as you put the EE-1 on and off when you tighten and loosen the flash shoe wheel if you can avoid this by aligning your fingers east west instead of North south then you can set up before hand and so long as you seat correctly on to the shoe you should not need to realign. I also find that so long as you align at around 50 metres it will be reasonably accurate in front and behind but no good for close range which you would not be using it for anyway.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that information which confirms my gut feeling that the alignment isn't crucial at longer distances. I will carry out some tests today to work out what the error is at different distances. If the bird is still covered by some of the focus points with a 300mm lens 100 yards and, say, a 75mm lens zoom at 15 yards then it shouldn't be a problem for me.

I am more worried about your warning that the alignment can be altered accidentally. That means that I am either going to have to find some way of locking the alignment or I am going to have to re-calibrate hand held on a moving boat!

I will do some tests on how easily the alignment can be altered
Click to expand...
That will be interesting. I have an old (2008) RDS adapted to the camera shoe. But I find it needs a little calibration each time I attach it and tighten it in place.

Does the EE-I have a locking device or is it just push fit? If the latter what stops it moving slightly in the shoe?
Click to expand...
The EE-1 has a locking wheel. I am going to do some tests today to see whether it moves off alignment significantly every time I take it off and put it back on.
 
Chris R-UK said:
The EE-1 has a locking wheel. I am going to do some tests today to see whether it moves off alignment significantly every time I take it off and put it back on.
Click to expand...
 
I have just carried out some calibration tests and my results are in ligne with what olyham and others have said.

I mounted the camera on a tripod, extended the zoom to 300mm and aligned the centre focus point on an object about 50 yards away. I then calibrated the EE-1 so that it was aligned on the same point.

Using the red dot I then lined the camera up on objects at different distances. At each distance I looked through the viewfinder with the focus points display tuned on and roughly measured the alignment error in terms of focus points.

My results were as follows:
  • If the initial alignment is at about 50mm then the alignment error stays within the central focus point from 25 yards to 100 yards.
  • At infinity (far horizon) the error was an extra focus point away, i.e. still within a nine point focus area.
  • At 15 yards the alignment error was 2 focus points, i.e. outside a nine point focus area. This was at 300mm focal length. If I had zoomed back the alignment error would have been greater (I think?).
  • All the alignment errors were vertical, as you would expect. There were no significant horizontal errors.
  • I tried taking the sight off and putting it back on the camera several times. This did not affect the vertical alignment. However, there is a certain amount of horizontal play when the sight is pushed fully into the hot shoe but not locked, although this error was within the centre focus point at 50 yards. I can live with that error.
  • If you take care when handling the sight (see olyham's post) and put it away carefully in its carrying case I don't think that the alignment wheels are going to be moved accidentally, but it would be useful to find out what happens when you carry the sight around in your camera bag for a day or two.
  • When you are using the sight the red dot moves around over a screen. Provided it is inside the screen the accuracy of the sight is not significantly affected. With the camera locked down on the tripod, moving my head around so that the dot moved around the whole of the screen did not move dot off the target by more than a small fraction of a focus point.
I think that in future when I am shooting birds in flight I will calibrate the sight at around 25 yards (as olyham and others have suggested) and know that it should be accurate for all distances from 20 yards or so to infinity.

I imagine that calibration will become more critical for much closer targets, but perhaps somebody else can test that.
 
Thanks for posting this. Good commentary. Kind of makes me re-think about the EE_1. Mmmm!
 
Trevor,

Are you shooting with a G7? Do you find DFD to be a big improvement?

They key thing for me about the EE-1 on an E-M1 is that it enables you to use the E-M1's pure PDAF system with an M4/3 lens. Until a firmware upgrade earlier this year it was only available with Olympus 4/3 DSLR lenses. The problem with the firmware upgrade is that you can only use the PDAF system in a mode which blacks out Liveview, so the EE-1 allows you to use PDAF and track the target.

I started out shooting BIF on M4/3 with a GH2 but found the C-AF to be almost unusable. It almost always switched to the background when tracking a bird. So, like may others, I started using single shot focusing instead.

The E-M1 has a hybrid PDAF/CDAF focusing system up to 6.5 fps but I find that it doesn't give me really sharp images. It is far better than the GH2 at C-AF but it tends to go in and out of focus from time to time while tracking. The PDAF system seems to give sharper images and it doesn't drift in and out of focus, but with no Liveview you really need the EE-1 to track a bird during a long burst.
 
Chris R-UK said:
Trevor,

Are you shooting with a G7? Do you find DFD to be a big improvement?
Click to expand...
I find the G7 better than my previous Pannys but whether that is DFD I don't know. I don't know how to tell whether DFD is having an impact other the perception. Strangely but as far as I can see the manual doesn't mention DFD. I got rid of all my 4/3s lenses so I've only ever shot m4/s with m4/3s lenses.
Chris R-UK said:
They key thing for me about the EE-1 on an E-M1 is that it enables you to use the E-M1's pure PDAF system with an M4/3 lens. Until a firmware upgrade earlier this year it was only available with Olympus 4/3 DSLR lenses. The problem with the firmware upgrade is that you can only use the PDAF system in a mode which blacks out Liveview, so the EE-1 allows you to use PDAF and track the target.

I started out shooting BIF on M4/3 with a GH2 but found the C-AF to be almost unusable. It almost always switched to the background when tracking a bird. So, like may others, I started using single shot focusing instead.
Click to expand...
I still rarely use CAF with BIFs but haven't really experimented with it on the G7. I tend not to trust (probably for no reason) CAF. A lot of my BIFs are fast moving waders and I'm not convinced that any CAF manages to keep up with them.
Chris R-UK said:
The E-M1 has a hybrid PDAF/CDAF focusing system up to 6.5 fps but I find that it doesn't give me really sharp images. It is far better than the GH2 at C-AF but it tends to go in and out of focus from time to time while tracking. The PDAF system seems to give sharper images and it doesn't drift in and out of focus, but with no Liveview you really need the EE-1 to track a bird during a long burst.
Click to expand...
 
Trevor Carpenter said:
Thanks for the response Chris. My movement is horizontal and I have to check it every time I put it back on the camera, compounded by slight movement between sight and mount if I don't have it completely tightened. It sounds like the EE1 might be an improvement.
I'm using m4/3s Panny 100-300. For BIFs and in fact for nearly all of my shooting I use a customised central cross for my focus target because in all moving subjects my concentration is getting the subject central. The key point for me is that using the EVF I can hear the focus beep and see the subject focus at the same time.
Click to expand...
Trevor Carpenter said:
When I use an RDS I can get a beep but I have no idea what the camera has focused on. In the case of your Rook I would find the best solution would be no RDS, for the Goose RDS definitely beneficial and for the Swans either should work although I'd be more confident without RDS.
Click to expand...
Yes. the swans are a perfect example of the RDS picking up the swans and the focus picking up the background. I had that happen at Slimbridge some years ago!

Mike
 
Thanks Chris!

Mike
 
Chris R-UK said:
My results were as follows:

  • At 15 yards the alignment error was 2 focus points, i.e. outside a nine point focus area. This was at 300mm focal length. If I had zoomed back the alignment error would have been greater (I think?).
Click to expand...
I got this the wrong way round. At a shorter focal length the each focus point will cover a greater angle of view and the alignment error will therefore be less.
 
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