Trip of a lifetime Polar Bear Safari - OMD EM1 Mk1 - photos and report

At the end of October my wife and I took our cameras, lenses, warm coats and waterproof winter boots up to a remote lodge 20 mins outside Churchill Manitoba, on the shores of Hudson's Bay (that's northern Canada).

We spend 4 nights at the lodge, each day walking out with our guides to see the polar bears who where waiting for the ice to arrive so they could begin their annual seal hunt.

We were both shooting with EM 1's, we had the new Panasonic 100-400, 2 Zuiko 50-200 mm (Mk 1's) (with the MMF-3 adapters) , the 1.4 TCON, 2x 12-40mm f2.8 lenses, the 75mm f1.8, 2 carbon fibre tripods, lots of batteries, memory cards, etc.

It was cloudy for the entire trip so we never had any 'good' light'. I was at ISO 500 at the lowest, often shooting at 800-1600 and 2000 in the early evening a half hour before sunset. The shots at higher ISO are all fine - as I'm shooting something quite 'light' coloured, the noise is really non-existent and detail is good.

We were shooting almost exclusively at 5 fps (anti-shock) - it was fairly good, but I look forward (eventually) to the 8.5 fps anti-shock mode in the EM1 Mk II.

The EM1 +100-400mm combo worked very well - the reach it gave was perfect. It was quick to lock on accurately with about a 90% keeper rate.

The EM1 + 50-200mm Zuiko (both with and without the TCON) was almost a disaster. Shot after shot is just a little blurry - only about 10-15% of shots are keepers.

FYI - yes, I've been using that lens since 2006 so I'm quite familiar with it. I was shooting in anti-shock burst mode, I had release priority set to ensure focus before firing. Auto IS was set (except when shooting on a tripod). Shutter speed ranged from 1/120 to 1/500 of a second. It was perfectly capable of shooting clear images - it just didn't more than 80% of the time.

I have cases where even in the same burst a non-moving subject will be blurred in 1 shot, then crystal clear in the next (1/5th of a second later). Overall a very maddening experience. I'll be selling both the 50-200's and the Tcon and buying the 40-150mm (and maybe the upcoming Panasonic 50-200 f2.8-f4.0 eventually)

No issues at all the whole trip with any m43 lenses - but the 50-200 was just too unreliable.

The cameras had no issue with rain and cold, battery life was good as well - my wife shot 1600 shots in 1 afternoon on 2 batteries - with temperatures just above freezing.



There were some very serious photographers on this trip FYI - including Art Wolfe - most people shooting high end Canon systems (1DX Mk II, 1DX Mk 1, 5D Mk IV's, 5DSR, several 200-400m f4 lenses).

Only one Nikon camera surprisingly - a mid end 5300D.

One person was shooting with the Sony A7RII and Canon lenses - they were so disappointed with the focus performance that they ordered a 5D Mk IV once the trip was over. Keep that in mind next time you drool over the specs. I certainly took it to heart.



Overall a fantastic experience - I just wish I'd spent an extra 2k and bought a 2nd 100-400mm lens. Fortunately my wife was shooting with one.



Enough talk - here are some pictures. (all mine with 50-200mm and maybe the 1.4 TCON).








That's Art Wolfe with the funny hat on the left. That polar bear is about 15 feet from our guide.
















All our gear - not including tripods.

What a great experience to be that close to the bears! Was this led by Art Wolfe?

Wow, cant believe you got that close! Those things are fierce, and surprisingly fast. What a trip, well done!

I am surprised about your problems with the 50-200's. Mine performs perfectly in every environment I have ever used it in, even with the EC-20 (focus is a bit slow but when it locks it is dead on). Have you done a micro focus adjustment on the lens?

My wife and I were quite surprised - I don't think the other people on the trip (other than those he was travelling with) had any idea who he was when he first showed up.

You know you've picked the right trip however when you find a photographer of his caliber and experience on the same trip rather than leading it.

I've never had any other issues with it - hell, it even focuses realiably on birds in flight (once I had more than the centre focus point selected anyway).

Maybe it struggled to accurately lock on to animals with light fur and dark eyes. Polar bears, ermine, arctic hare - all had issues. Initially I thought the TCON might be the issue, but it made no difference without it.

When it did focus accurately the shots are great - but sadly it's a small number of shots compared to what it should have been.

I'm going to try and run a full set of tests on it - we've got 2 each of EM1, MMF-3, and 50-200mm I'll try them all and see if perhaps there is a problem.

Holy moly what an adventure! Thanks for the story and images; and hey, meeting Art Wolfe as a bonus.

I would only get that near a wild polar bear wearing a jetpack.

Cheers,

Rick

p.s. The 50-200 really does need decent light; but have you also calibrated its focus with each camera w/ and w/o TC. In any case, the 40-150 Pro is leagues better.

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Photo No. 4 (the family of bears) is precious! Very good work.