EM1 continous AF and tracking

Paul Amyes wrote:

Steve2015 wrote:

Paul Amyes wrote:

After consulting the collective brains trust on this very subject a few weeks ago I purchased an EM1 for shooting sports. To put it mildly the results were disappointing while the camera quickly acquired focus it quickly lost it with the net result that I was not getting anymore than around 50% of shots in focus.

Not knowing much about your gear will net you the results you're getting. Others here seem to be getting fantastic results shooting sports.
Have you tried playing around with the CAF lock?
How about the AF point? (small, 9, all?)

I can honestly say that if you're only getting 50% keepers, what were you doing wrong? A lot here think that you only need a camera capable at shooting sports to be able to capture consistantly great action shots. Like with any other genre, it's going to take a lot of practice to get images you're happy with, not a week or two, especially with a new camera.

I've been shooting sports for over 30 years and have had them published around the world so it's not like I've never done this before. I'd been using an EM 10 for a couple of months before that and while the EM1 was better it wasn't giving me that much more. I had the camera set up as people here advised. 9 zones selected, CAF, low burst rate etc. I was shooting surfers and what would happen was that the camera was very quick to acquire focus on the surfer, but then it would quickly loose that after a couple of shots and lock onto another point. It was very frustrating, 2 or 3 shots in focus and then the rest out of focus meaning you'd missed the point of peak action. Once it looses focus then it starts to hunt. I've tested it on other sports subjects cycling, running, martial arts and found that anything that moves erratically across the frame repeats this. Subjects that move in a constant linear fashion no problem, subjects heading straight at the camera not good but acceptable. I tried a variety of different lenses, funnily enough the best results were with the plastic 40-150 which makes me wonder whether the lens motors are not able drive the lens elements fast enough on the heavier lenses.

I wanted the EM1 to work, I like m4/3s and have really been impressed with my Olympus kit, this is just one area where things haven't worked out. It is just not the right tool for the job at the moment. That may change down the track with new firmware, or be improved in another model.

It's a simple case of not knowing your gear and what it's capable of. Your issue is YOU can't get successful shots in those situations you state, but others have no issues capturing images in situations you can't. To me and the majority, that is not a camera issue.
You set up the camera as others have advised and is a good place to start, not knowing what setting to change or experiment with is the difference between success and failure. If 9 zone wasn't working for you, did you try single af point? As it lost focus, did you experiment with different CAF lock options? Did you try CAF H?
You say that you've been shooting sports for over 30 years, you should already have goto settings for optimum actions shots, come on we are talking 30 years here. There are things you've posted which to me absolutely makes no sense.
You might have been shooting for 30 years, but you can't call yourself a success when you can't even get the basics right.
And, blaming your shortcomings on the camera is pretty weak.

Would a successful portrait phtographer or wedding phtographer, come online and get advice on what settings would best suit that genre? Come on.