Not terribly impressed with the PENs

jalywol wrote:

MinAZ wrote:

I'm on my third PEN, each time I hope it gets better. The latest iteration is the E-PL6. It's not a hopeless camera but in the final package, it fails to impress, mainly due to Autofocus. This is in contrast to the OM-D cameras which I generally feel are very good in this regard. This is a shame because I do like the diminutive size and form fact of the PENS. But the while the PL6 focus really quickly and gives a reassuring beep when it achieves focus, depending on the subject up to 90% of the shots can be out of focus. in a recent shoot, for instance (backlit portraits with a cherry tree in full bloom in the background - a somewhat tough) the PL6 with the 17mm f/2.8 lens missed AF in 70-90% of the shots. This was despite using touch to focus, eye detection set on nearest eye, and verifying that either the green box or white box (face detect) is on the faces. The camera quite often simply focused on the cherry blossoms instead of the faces.

The higher contrast area is going to get the focus.

You need to take some active control over your focusing technique in situations with a busy background.

1) Use the smallest focus box set to center box only

2) Turn off face detect

3) Turn off touch to focus

4) Put the focus box over the exact point you want to focus on, half press the shutter, then recompose to your liking.

This should give you a very high keeper rate.

These cameras are very sophisticated, even the EPL6, but you still have to tell them what you want them to do when the scene you are shooting has many complex subjects in frame.

Oh, one other thing: You may want to consider getting the VF-4 viewfinder as it makes a very big difference in accurate placement of the focus box (for me it did, anyway).

I never had a problem with my EPM2, which I think uses the same focusing algorithms as the EPL6, but I always used center smallest box focus point to achieve focus, and recomposed after that.

Interestingly enough, while this technique works equally well on both Oly and Panasonic cameras, when I use the smallest box on the Sony A7, it misses focus a lot. On that series of cameras, the medium sized box works far better. On the M43s, the smallest is the way to go, though.

-J

Pretty much the way I use my EPL6. I don't take too much portraits with it thou. Im happy with the purchase, the only real focusing problem is when I use the bodycap lens, that thing is a PIA to get the focus just right.