The last chance ?

Hi Dunsun,

I see this forum is 4 months old now. Have you any update since then with respect to E-M10ii mis/back/focusing?

I made very similar experience and recently came to the conclusion it really must be a camera problem. I am getting systematically wrong focus when shooting faces, typically on the hairs around the ears. I use always single focus point, the smallest size, always focus very carefully on the eye by half press, then recompose and shoot. Always S-AF+MF, face detection off. Sometimes after focus by half pressing I cancel, switch to MF by Fn2 and recompose and shoot in MF mode.

I am suspicious that maybe this procedure is somehow interfering with something on E-M10ii. I decided to reconfigure AF to "mode3", assign the focusing to Fn1 and magnification to Fn2 to bypass the step of recomposition with half pressed shutter. Also activated the first electronic shutter mode. But I will have some results only after some days, I just need to make a break after several days constantly fighting with this.

I have been shooting the E-M10ii for one year by now, with Oly 45mm and Pana 20mm lenses. Last week I borrowed a Fuji XT10 + 35mm f1.4 + kit zoom for a test (XT20 just wasn't available...) and I was completely shocked by how accurate that system autofocused! Completely different story compared to my camera. Using exactly the same procedure as with my Oly. Both Fuji lenses.

When I was returning the Fuji camera to the shop I also asked to make several testing shots, just in the shop, with two MFT lenses I am interested in - the Oly 75mm and 25mm f1.2 - both well regarded for their sharpness. I tested on my E-M10ii body and was getting again my old back-focusing problem!!

It just can't be that all four MFT lenses were so bad ones and both Fuji lenses so good.... It really must be the AF algorithm in the E-M10ii !!! Also good to mention, in very good light (outdoors), the focus is often perfect, so my lenses as such can be sharp (20mm without no doubt, 45mm might need to be stopped to f2.8...).

I start tend to agree with the speculation that Olympus maybe preferred the AF speed against the accuracy (by accepting the sub-optimal contrast instead of searching for real maximum). This is supported by the difference of AF behaviour on XT10 - there, it quite often retried and made extra "hunting round" during single half press. In contrast to Oly, where it doesn't really happen and the speed is rather good - but maybe for the cost of accuracy(?). I should get more experience after a week or two, the reconfigured settings I mentioned earlier should allow for more precise observation even during shooting (magnification by Fn button & roller, maybe in combination with focus peaking).

P.S. I see no technical reason for a new E-M10iii to be better in this aspect, even though it should be really just a sw issue! I could even imagine an AF menu setting "preference of speed / precision".