Olympus Pen F autofocus

can anyone user with Pen -F or with e-m10 mark II ( which shares the same sensor with the Pen F ) try at these settings and report?

thx again guys!

Believe the OM10mkii has the 16mp sensor

You don't say whether you are on s-af or c-af.

My penf is fine on s-af but hunts hopelessly on c-af, particularly in poor light or with long lenses. There appears to be a lag time of about 2 sec to lock focus. I reported to Olympus UK, along with some burst shots to illustrate. This was their reply.

There does appear to be some lag time with C-AF as you mentioned.

I have tried it myself and watched the video you attached.

We value you input and have passed the information on to our development team.

zikman said:

can anyone user with Pen -F or with e-m10 mark II ( which shares the same sensor with the Pen F ) try at these settings and report?

thx again guys!

Click to expand...

As the other responder said, the E-M10 Mark II has the 16 MP sensor, unfortunately - the Pen-F is currently unique in the Olympus range with its 20 MP one. By the way, my tests of the Pen-F where I got the same hesitant AF as you in warm, fairly subdued artificial light were carried out with the humble 14-42 EZ at 42mm (so a maximum aperture for AF of only f5.6), using S-AF and the tiniest centre AF target of all (so making the job the hardest for it).

The uncertainty is always an issue when you have a question such as yours - I've noticed time and again over the years that what is a problem for one may not be for another, so that you end up thinking your own equipment must be faulty, only to find out on replacement that it isn't, as the replacement is just the same. You then wonder how on earth it can NOT bother somebody else, especially when you may have seen them complain of another aspect that turns out not to bother you at all! Unfortunately, such is the way of things - subjectivity and expectations all play a part.

What I have noticed (though some disagreed when I mentioned it) was that the Panasonic GX8, which might use the same sensor as the Pen-F, is actually in my experience a little more hesitant about AF than a 16MP model such as the G7 when used side by side in the exact same circumstances with the same lens. Due to all the excellent AF speed-related features that Panasonic has brought in, it does of course fare better than the Pen-F in a side-by-side AF test in challenging conditions, but it did show to me that the 20MP sensor (or sensors) is (are?) not quite as adept at decisively locking focus as the 16MP ones seem to be. I noticed this immediately on trying my GX8 and have never had reason to change my mind on this - and I tried it well before the Pen-F was available. It's not slow as such, just perceptibly not as decisive as a G7.

I am at s-af of course and the focus problem occurs always on medium artificial light ...IT JUST cannot focus at all resulting in a blur screen whereas the p5 at the same subject and conditions strikes super FAST!

i have just sent the camera to Olhmpus in order to test it and waiting for their response ..there is definitely an issue ..however I don't know if it is happening because of a faulty body or because of the premature firmware of the pen f ..of course I will report the result here ...!

I also came across the gx85 ..WOW ! The thing can focus Everywhere even at almost complete dark ! I am pretty impressed ..

zikman said:

I am at s-af of course and the focus problem occurs always on medium artificial light ...IT JUST cannot focus at all resulting in a blur screen whereas the p5 at the same subject and conditions strikes super FAST!

i have just sent the camera to Olhmpus in order to test it and waiting for their response ..there is definitely an issue ..however I don't know if it is happening because of a faulty body or because of the premature firmware of the pen f ..of course I will report the result here ...!

I also came across the gx85 ..WOW ! The thing can focus Everywhere even at almost complete dark ! I am pretty impressed ..

Click to expand...

I hope you get a satisfactory conclusion - maybe yours is worse than mine.

Yes, a 16MP sensor plus the latest Panasonic generation of AF (DFD and all that) gives the GX85 nice, fast focusing in most conditions. As a total camera nut, I do have one :-D . It's a really well specified camera, excellent value for money and a good performer results-wise. Unfortunately, it doesn't suit my hands as well as some (this obviously is a purely personal thing) and for me, the EVF is rather uncomfortable in use (for me it's the uneven focus issue rather than the rainbow tearing, which I can pretty much ignore). This is my major issue with it as I instinctively use the EVF in most situations, so if you end up going for one, just check the EVF is OK for you - it could well be fine as it depends on your eyesight characteristics.

A bit lower light than you had asked for but focus in AF-S with the smallest AF square on the solid red box in the center. The focus was less sure, but this is a fairly difficult target since there's very little contrast (only from the subtle texture in the solid red box).

Thx for the test !

and ?? It was fast??

for me it probably would struggle to focus a lot and eventually fail...or it would focus after 2-3 tries ..

Targets in the surrounding area definitely focus faster and more confidently but then again they have far more contrast to work with. I would say half the time it focuses like normal and half the time it will hunt back and forth a couple times before focusing. But also keep in mind that, assuming red is a weakness, this is a worst case scenario as the target is solid red with only minor texturing to pick up on.

Thx for the response !

the difference in p5 would be that it would focus fast ...I am pretty sure

Olympus has just replied to me today...

They told me that autofocus works ok with comparison with the factory Pen - F they have...So this means that i have to wait for a future upgrade of the firmware ....

Thx guys anyway for helping me out..Now i have to wait for Olympus to send me back the body...

Thx again!

Olympus called me again this morning and told me that there is definitely an issue with the autofocus on lower lighting conditions on the Pen F compared to the old E-p5 or others.they noticed it too....they told me that they are working for an update to firmware of the Pen F ..

So we are staying in tune for this...

zikman said:

Olympus called me again this morning and told me that there is definitely an issue with the autofocus on lower lighting conditions on the Pen F compared to the old E-p5 or others.they noticed it too....they told me that they are working for an update to firmware of the Pen F ..

So we are staying in tune for this...

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Good to know that they are hoping to fix it with firmware. Since it's readily apparent to those of us with experience of 16MP recent Olympus models (which are much quicker in the same low-light conditions), it's surprising that they didn't already know about it and fix it before the model hit the market, but to be fair, these things seem to happen with many manufacturers these days.

They told me that they will bring the fix asap ..

maybe it will also correct the problematic af-c of the pen F significantly ...

any update on this?

i'm thinking of picking up a Pen F so just wondering if there's anything i should be looking out for.

was there a firmware update?

and zikman, did you get your camera sorted?

were Olympus helpful in resolving this issue?

The problem with autofocus is still there ...It is VERY annoying in the interior artificial lighting so I am using manual focus there ...Olympus told me that there is a problem with autofocus at Pen F that it will be fixed with firmware ...my camera is not faulty but there is an autofocus problem that a new firmware will solve it ..

i hope it will happen soon ..

I can confirm this issue because i have the same problem in low light with my Pen-F that I have for 9 month. Sometimes it focuses real fine also in low light and sometimes it does not focus - not that it is slow it realy can not fix the focus. And a few minutes later it works fine in the same lightening-conditions.

I would be greatful when Olympus update the camera

I have myself these days a e-p5 just for comparison from a friend...the e-p5 is fast and accurate in artificial lighting where pen F struggles and fails... I have tried making the autofocus small or bigger ...no difference ...the Pen F fails fails and fails...

Of course in exterior light of day the pen f is accurate and fast ...but NOT in incadesense lighting...

I have also a gx85 which behaves tremendously well in all lighting conditions ...(better than the p5) with oly lenses...

i also have the 17mm f1.8 and 45 f1.8 which autofocus is way better than the 12-40 2.8 and 40-150mm f2.8 at the pen F at artificial lighting but far away from perfect...

I think the issue is related a lot with the problematic c-af mode of the pen -f that an early YouTube review video of the camera-store about pen f depicted ...

Hope that Olympus fixes the issue with a firmware upgrade 9 months after the launch of the model...

However i am a pretty unsure why all these reviews on the net about Pen F haven't mentioned this problem...That's why I thought that my model was faulty and sent it to Olympus repair Europe...and they told me that there in nothing wrong with my camera ...but they did realize this problem after the inspection of my camera ...(this is what they told me )

This applies to both my Pana 12-32 (f/3.5+) & 35-100 (f/4+).

And not really sure if this is relevant or helpful, but in the meantime, until Olympus resolves this, I've found that using the LCD touch screen for a/f works 80% of the time in indoors, incandescent, low light situations. About 1/2 the time there is no hunting, the other 1/2 just a quick hunt. (When all else fails, focus and recompose. A way of life with my Nikon D7000.)

My Oly 25 f/1.8 and 40-150 f/4 usually acquire focus fairly quickly under the same conditions. (Don't get me wrong, I love both of the pocketable Pana lenses.)

Anyway, for me, a noticeable difference. YMWPV (Your mileage will probably vary). <g>

--JustGeorge

JustGeorge said:

And not really sure if this is relevant or helpful, but in the meantime, until Olympus resolves this, I've found that using the LCD touch screen for a/f works 80% of the time in indoors, incandescent, low light situations. About 1/2 the time there is no hunting, the other 1/2 just a quick hunt.

Click to expand...

I use the same technique(touch screen) when shooting with 45/1.8. I haven't seen this problem yet using 15/1.7.