Olympus OMD EM1 Mark 2 best settings for landscape, architecture, people

I feel a bit of a dill for asking this question. I am not a novice and know my way around cameras. I am still getting to grips with my recently purchased Olympus OMD EM1 Mark 2. It is a lovely little camera and offers so many wonderful features. However I have been rather underwhelmed with image quality. Even at 200 iso images lack sharpness and show too much noise. I would love to just use Lightroom for processing but find myself using Topaz Denoise or DXO Photolab with the Prime noise removal to get the best that I can. And even then it isn't always the desired result. If the subject is very bright (such as snow or a white bird) then the result is pretty good. But general images can be rather disappointing.

I always shoot RAW and have downloaded so many cheat sheets to get settings that will give me the cleanest possible image. I am hoping some of you will care to share your favourite settings that will help me get better results. I am heading off to Vietnam and want to do the place justice.

Additional information. Telephoto images are taken with the Panasonic 100-400. All other images are with the Olympus Pro 12-100. So I believe that I am using reasonable quality lenses.

I look forward to your responses.


Carol Darby

Can you post some images that you are unhappy about? Preferably without significant PP.

Your experience is not one shared by many other EM1.2 owners on this forum, myself included. Is this your first M4/3 camera? Are you comparing it against your D750?

There aren’t many settings that affect image quality if you are shooting raw, only really resolution settings. Are you having any focus issues? Have you tried using the electronic shutter, the rectangular box with the heart symbol? That will avoid shutter shock at lower shutter speeds, but not many owners have reported shutter shock problems with the EM1.2.

Maybe you are just seeing the noise difference between a FF sensor and an M4/3 sensor one quarter of the size?

Chris R-UK said:

Can you post some images that you are unhappy about? Preferably without significant PP.

Your experience is not one shared by many other EM1.2 owners on this forum, myself included. Is this your first M4/3 camera? Are you comparing it against your D750?

There aren’t many settings that affect image quality if you are shooting raw, only really resolution settings. Are you having any focus issues? Have you tried using the electronic shutter, the rectangular box with the heart symbol? That will avoid shutter shock at lower shutter speeds, but not many owners have reported shutter shock problems with the EM1.2.

Maybe you are just seeing the noise difference between a FF sensor and an M4/3 sensor one quarter of the size?

Click to expand...

Thanks Chris,

I didn’t expect quite the results of the full frame but I cannot understand why the images are disappointing. I did a huge amount of research before purchasing. And the samples I have seen really inspired me to go down this avenue. I did have an Olympus mirrorless years ago and don’t remember having as many concerns as I do now. In fact I travelled overseas back then and used it in preference to my Nikon D800. There is so much to love in such a feature rich camera. I actually have two bodies so guess it is something in settings that I am missing.

I am heading to the airport in a couple of hours so when I get the chance I will post some images from Vietnam. I will try the electronic shutter and am prepared to try any recommendations and post my findings on this thread.

Carol Darby said:

Chris R-UK said:

Can you post some images that you are unhappy about? Preferably without significant PP.

Your experience is not one shared by many other EM1.2 owners on this forum, myself included. Is this your first M4/3 camera? Are you comparing it against your D750?

There aren’t many settings that affect image quality if you are shooting raw, only really resolution settings. Are you having any focus issues? Have you tried using the electronic shutter, the rectangular box with the heart symbol? That will avoid shutter shock at lower shutter speeds, but not many owners have reported shutter shock problems with the EM1.2.

Maybe you are just seeing the noise difference between a FF sensor and an M4/3 sensor one quarter of the size?

Click to expand...

Thanks Chris,

I didn’t expect quite the results of the full frame but I cannot understand why the images are disappointing. I did a huge amount of research before purchasing. And the samples I have seen really inspired me to go down this avenue. I did have an Olympus mirrorless years ago and don’t remember having as many concerns as I do now. In fact I travelled overseas back then and used it in preference to my Nikon D800. There is so much to love in such a feature rich camera. I actually have two bodies so guess it is something in settings that I am missing.
I am heading to the airport in a couple of hours so when I get the chance I will post some images from Vietnam. I will try the electronic shutter and am prepared to try any recommendations and post my findings on this thread.

Click to expand...

I have been shooting with the E-M1 since it was available five years ago; and with the E-M1 II for about a year and a half. I would say the noise level of the OMD is on par with the D700. Even with ISO200, I think you will see some noises in the blue sky if you zoom in close enough. The key is to avoid under exposure; because m43 is less forgiving than cameras with larger sensor. I don't know if you have been following Robin Wong's blogspot. Robin shoots mostly OMD and the pictures he posts are brilliant to my eyes. He was an Olympus ambassador for sometime and now is not. He has a cheat sheet that may be in value to you. I use some of his recommendations.

Off topic, traveling to Vietnam, if you have a chance to visit Halong Bay, don't miss scaling to the top of "Ti Top" island. You will have an opportunity to take magnificent panorama of the whole bay.

Enjoy your trip.

Carol,

I shoot different things to you, a lot of wildlife and some sports, but here are a few comments.

• I find noise levels on my EM1.2 to be acceptable up to ISO 1600. At ISO 1600 and 100% resolution there is some visible noise in plain background areas like the sky, but not enough to be a problem in the medium sized (12"x18") prints that I make. ISO 3200 is very noisy, but I use it occasionally when shooting soccer under floodlights - I am only shooting for the web.
• I have never seen significant noise at ISO 200, but then I have been shooting M4/3 for 9 years and I don't look for it.
• Shutter shock can occur at shutter speeds around 1/60-1/200. Personally I use electronic shutter for all my shooting except when using flash or when panning across upright objects like goalposts and floodlight posts around a soccer pitch. When panning fast across vertical objects, rolling shutter effects are pretty obvious. However, panning across trees isn't normally a problem.
• I really like shooting silently and now find the sound of a DSLR quite a surprise when somebody is using one near to me.
• The 100-400mm takes a bit of getting used to at longer focal lengths - remember it goes to 800mm equivalent on FF - and it is worth taking care to hold it as steady as possible. You shouldn't have any problems with the 12-100mm, especially with Sync IS enabled.

Enjoy your trip and post again when you get back if you have any further problems.

joeletx said:

Carol Darby said:

Chris R-UK said:

Can you post some images that you are unhappy about? Preferably without significant PP.

Your experience is not one shared by many other EM1.2 owners on this forum, myself included. Is this your first M4/3 camera? Are you comparing it against your D750?

There aren’t many settings that affect image quality if you are shooting raw, only really resolution settings. Are you having any focus issues? Have you tried using the electronic shutter, the rectangular box with the heart symbol? That will avoid shutter shock at lower shutter speeds, but not many owners have reported shutter shock problems with the EM1.2.

Maybe you are just seeing the noise difference between a FF sensor and an M4/3 sensor one quarter of the size?

Click to expand...

Thanks Chris,

I didn’t expect quite the results of the full frame but I cannot understand why the images are disappointing. I did a huge amount of research before purchasing. And the samples I have seen really inspired me to go down this avenue. I did have an Olympus mirrorless years ago and don’t remember having as many concerns as I do now. In fact I travelled overseas back then and used it in preference to my Nikon D800. There is so much to love in such a feature rich camera. I actually have two bodies so guess it is something in settings that I am missing.
I am heading to the airport in a couple of hours so when I get the chance I will post some images from Vietnam. I will try the electronic shutter and am prepared to try any recommendations and post my findings on this thread.

Click to expand...

I have been shooting with the E-M1 since it was available five years ago; and with the E-M1 II for about a year and a half. I would say the noise level of the OMD is on par with the D700. Even with ISO200, I think you will see some noises in the blue sky if you zoom in close enough. The key is to avoid under exposure; because m43 is less forgiving than cameras with larger sensor. I don't know if you have been following Robin Wong's blogspot. Robin shoots mostly OMD and the pictures he posts are brilliant to my eyes. He was an Olympus ambassador for sometime and now is not. He has a cheat sheet that may be in value to you. I use some of his recommendations.

Off topic, traveling to Vietnam, if you have a chance to visit Halong Bay, don't miss scaling to the top of "Ti Top" island. You will have an opportunity to take magnificent panorama of the whole bay.

Enjoy your trip.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much Joeletx. I am beginning to realise that this camera likes over exposure and will definitely aim more towards lighter images. I have seen some of Robin Wong’s posts but thank you for the link to the cheat sheet. That is exactly what I am looking for. It will be my first visit to Vietnam and I am very much looking forward to it. Heading to Halong Bay on Monday for three days. Hopefully my dodgy knee will get me to the top as the view sounds awesome.

-Cheers-
Carol Darby

Carol Darby said:

joeletx said:

Carol Darby said:

Chris R-UK said:

Can you post some images that you are unhappy about? Preferably without significant PP.

Your experience is not one shared by many other EM1.2 owners on this forum, myself included. Is this your first M4/3 camera? Are you comparing it against your D750?

There aren’t many settings that affect image quality if you are shooting raw, only really resolution settings. Are you having any focus issues? Have you tried using the electronic shutter, the rectangular box with the heart symbol? That will avoid shutter shock at lower shutter speeds, but not many owners have reported shutter shock problems with the EM1.2.

Maybe you are just seeing the noise difference between a FF sensor and an M4/3 sensor one quarter of the size?

Click to expand...

Thanks Chris,

I didn’t expect quite the results of the full frame but I cannot understand why the images are disappointing. I did a huge amount of research before purchasing. And the samples I have seen really inspired me to go down this avenue. I did have an Olympus mirrorless years ago and don’t remember having as many concerns as I do now. In fact I travelled overseas back then and used it in preference to my Nikon D800. There is so much to love in such a feature rich camera. I actually have two bodies so guess it is something in settings that I am missing.
I am heading to the airport in a couple of hours so when I get the chance I will post some images from Vietnam. I will try the electronic shutter and am prepared to try any recommendations and post my findings on this thread.

Click to expand...

I have been shooting with the E-M1 since it was available five years ago; and with the E-M1 II for about a year and a half. I would say the noise level of the OMD is on par with the D700. Even with ISO200, I think you will see some noises in the blue sky if you zoom in close enough. The key is to avoid under exposure; because m43 is less forgiving than cameras with larger sensor. I don't know if you have been following Robin Wong's blogspot. Robin shoots mostly OMD and the pictures he posts are brilliant to my eyes. He was an Olympus ambassador for sometime and now is not. He has a cheat sheet that may be in value to you. I use some of his recommendations.

Off topic, traveling to Vietnam, if you have a chance to visit Halong Bay, don't miss scaling to the top of "Ti Top" island. You will have an opportunity to take magnificent panorama of the whole bay.

Enjoy your trip.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much Joeletx. I am beginning to realise that this camera likes over exposure and will definitely aim more towards lighter images.

Click to expand...

If light is very good then try a few comparison shots of ISO 64 vs ISO 200. You might find the ISO 64 captures a bit cleaner

Carol Darby said:

Thanks so much Joeletx. I am beginning to realise that this camera likes over exposure and will definitely aim more towards lighter images. I have seen some of Robin Wong’s posts but thank you for the link to the cheat sheet. That is exactly what I am looking for. It will be my first visit to Vietnam and I am very much looking forward to it. Heading to Halong Bay on Monday for three days. Hopefully my dodgy knee will get me to the top as the view sounds awesome.

-Cheers-
Carol Darby

Click to expand...

While getting to know the camera, perhaps make use of auto-exposure bracketing to dial in your preferred exposure. It's easy to use and will also offer the ability to stack frames later, should that be of interest.

Enjoy the trip!

Rick

One other thing that I forgot to say and that is that diffraction effects start to become visible on M4/3 at lower f/ numbers than on FF.

f/4 on M4/3 is equivalent to f/8 on FF both in terms of depth of field and diffraction, f/8 is equivalent to f/16, f/11 is equivalent to f/22. So, to avoid diffraction it is better to shoot at f/8 or below.

Your 12-100mm is sharpest at f/4 and sharpness decreases significantly at smaller apertures than f/8. More details here

The 100-400mm is pretty sharp wide open.

Thanks Albert. I will definitely try the lower iso. I had originally read that the best low iso is the preferred 200. But I read another post where 64 iso was suggested so I shall definitely try that. I also enjoy bird photography but am wary about the high iso often needed for that. But for my Vietnam trip I will have plenty of opportunity to try the lower iso.

Carol Darby said:

Thanks Albert. I will definitely try the lower iso. I had originally read that the best low iso is the preferred 200. But I read another post where 64 iso was suggested so I shall definitely try that. I also enjoy bird photography but am wary about the high iso often needed for that. But for my Vietnam trip I will have plenty of opportunity to try the lower iso.

Click to expand...

Best to try these things yourself to judge for yourself. Sometimes it does not matter and sometimes it does - like clear skies vs forest. For the latter who cares if there is some noise.

Personally, my camera is set for ISO 250 most of the time since that setting on a EM1.2 offers the best DR, but only a hair better than ISO 200 - see chart below.

Last week I was out on a cloudy day shooting waterfalls at very slow shutter speeds of 1-3 seconds, using stacked CPL and 3-stop ND filters (to get 4.5 stops of density) to get those slow shutter speeds. As the light changes in different places I was shooting I did not bother fussing with removing and reattaching filters but instead simply varied the ISO from 64 to 250. I got lots of strange looks from the guys with the big FF cameras lugging tripods on a long 5 plus mile hike (I used to be one of those tripod guys). Finally, one of the asked me what shutter speeds I was using and they could not believe I was shooting handheld with stacked filters at those speeds. When I showed them blowups on my LCD they were gobsmacked



--
If you don't get older and wiser, than you just get older.

I will try to hit everything, but probably will miss a few points. These are general guidelines only.

Sharpness:

Use the aperture that gives the best sharpness for your lens and situation. I most often use f5.6 for landscapes in order to bring in the corners and get enough depth of field. For a well centered subject the lens can be opened up to f4.0 or f2.8. Diffraction effects begin to creep in around f8-f11.

The starting point for hand held shutter speed is 1/4xFL. For example a focal length of 25 would require a shutter speed of 1/100 s for pixel level sharpness. This can be extended with IBIS of course.

Use electronic first curtain shutter with zero delay to avoid shutter shock.

Use single point auto focus making sure the focus square fully covers whatever you need to be in sharp focus. Choose an area with high contrast if possible.

Noise:

Use RAW and expose to the right! There is almost a stop of recoverable highlights in an Olympus RAW file.

Use ISO 200 to get maximum dynamic range. There is no need to go lower if you expose to the right.

Use the histogram and turn on Highlights and Shadows. For lowest noise, I crank up exposure until Highlight indicators just begin to show in the brightest areas. If shooting RAW, those areas can be easily recovered in PP.

In ACR/Lightroom base Sharpness/Noise settings I use are Sharpness 40, Radius 1.2, Detail 20, Luminance Noise 20. If uniformly toned areas like sky still show noise, additional noise reduction can be applied in those areas using the adjustment brush.

For scenes with a very large brightness range, I bracket exposures and blend in PS.

Thanks so much everyone. I am currently sitting in Singapore airport waiting for my next flight so won’t try to reply to everyone individually. But thank you for all your replies and I will definitely be trying them all out. Definitely exposing to the right will be a good start.

The IBIS in the camera is insane and I am amazed at what I can get away with handheld. I am travelling in Vietnam without a tripod and plan on doing low light and night photography as well as daytime.

I use Lightroom for my sorting and culling and favourite images are edited in DXO Lab as the noise reduction in that is fantastic. It keeps the detail but removes the noise in skies etc. it works really well with my Nikon files. But when viewing details from the Olympus there is a definite lack of crispness and in fact details such as eyes and feathers (I do a lot of bird and wildlife photography) are quite mushy looking and have a lot of artefacts. And sharpening makes it even worse.

I was told about Topaz Denoise and have only just tried it. And it is by far the best software I have used on my Olympus images. Beautifully removes noise from backgrounds and sharpens nicely. But it is very slow and doesn’t allow for batch processing. So great for the occasional special image but would be a pain if editing many images which I usually do if making a book of my trip.

I look forward to doing some street photography tomorrow. I will still check out your posts and will definitely let you know how I go.

Hello again,

For those who are interested here is an update on using the camera and trying the settings you have suggested. I have changed to shooting in silent mode (heart symbol) and exposing a little lighter than I normally would. I can see a definite improvement in image quality. Shooting with the 12-100 F4 lens is a delight and I have been capturing many images around Hanoi. It is a wonderful light combination for Street photography. Images are looking very sharp and with great detail.

I am not really getting to use the 100-400 lens as this is not a wildlife trip. My next project will be perfecting wildlife and birds (in particularly birds in flight) using the longer lens. I still struggle getting good results with the longer lens. I think I am limited by the Panasonic Leica lens and will be watching out for the Olympus 150-400 F4.5 with built in converter which is hopefully coming out next year.


Carol Darby

Carol Darby said:

joeletx said:

Carol Darby said:

Chris R-UK said:

Can you post some images that you are unhappy about? Preferably without significant PP.

Your experience is not one shared by many other EM1.2 owners on this forum, myself included. Is this your first M4/3 camera? Are you comparing it against your D750?

There aren’t many settings that affect image quality if you are shooting raw, only really resolution settings. Are you having any focus issues? Have you tried using the electronic shutter, the rectangular box with the heart symbol? That will avoid shutter shock at lower shutter speeds, but not many owners have reported shutter shock problems with the EM1.2.

Maybe you are just seeing the noise difference between a FF sensor and an M4/3 sensor one quarter of the size?

Click to expand...

Thanks Chris,

I didn’t expect quite the results of the full frame but I cannot understand why the images are disappointing. I did a huge amount of research before purchasing. And the samples I have seen really inspired me to go down this avenue. I did have an Olympus mirrorless years ago and don’t remember having as many concerns as I do now. In fact I travelled overseas back then and used it in preference to my Nikon D800. There is so much to love in such a feature rich camera. I actually have two bodies so guess it is something in settings that I am missing.
I am heading to the airport in a couple of hours so when I get the chance I will post some images from Vietnam. I will try the electronic shutter and am prepared to try any recommendations and post my findings on this thread.

Click to expand...

I have been shooting with the E-M1 since it was available five years ago; and with the E-M1 II for about a year and a half. I would say the noise level of the OMD is on par with the D700. Even with ISO200, I think you will see some noises in the blue sky if you zoom in close enough. The key is to avoid under exposure; because m43 is less forgiving than cameras with larger sensor. I don't know if you have been following Robin Wong's blogspot. Robin shoots mostly OMD and the pictures he posts are brilliant to my eyes. He was an Olympus ambassador for sometime and now is not. He has a cheat sheet that may be in value to you. I use some of his recommendations.

Off topic, traveling to Vietnam, if you have a chance to visit Halong Bay, don't miss scaling to the top of "Ti Top" island. You will have an opportunity to take magnificent panorama of the whole bay.

Enjoy your trip.

Click to expand...

Thanks so much Joeletx. I am beginning to realise that this camera likes over exposure and will definitely aim more towards lighter images. I have seen some of Robin Wong’s posts but thank you for the link to the cheat sheet. That is exactly what I am looking for. It will be my first visit to Vietnam and I am very much looking forward to it. Heading to Halong Bay on Monday for three days. Hopefully my dodgy knee will get me to the top as the view sounds awesome.

-Cheers-
Carol Darby

Click to expand...

Using ISO 100 or 64 helps a lot with noise... noise is noticably better in SOOC JPGS... blue sky noise pretty much vanishes... not too sure about a RAW process in DXO as I have always been happy enough with 200 ISO RAW processed in DXO +PRIME.

Hi Carol,

For me, increasing the exposure in PP seems to introduce a lot of noise in the mid-dark areas. I have found my best results by exposing to the right as much as possible.

I found the key for me in this video for setting your underexposure and overexposure limits for your histogram in the video:
I'm not sure how important the "muted" settings are in his video, as these only affect the jpeg and not the raw.

Using his strategy, I adjust my exposure until I get start getting some blown highlight warnings. When it appears to show blown highlights you are actually unusually OK. This lets you know how far you can safely expose to the right.

rjensen11 said:

Hi Carol,

For me, increasing the exposure in PP seems to introduce a lot of noise in the mid-dark areas. I have found my best results by exposing to the right as much as possible.

I found the key for me in this video for setting your underexposure and overexposure limits for your histogram in the video:

I'm not sure how important the "muted" settings are in his video, as these only affect the jpeg and not the raw.

Using his strategy, I adjust my exposure until I get start getting some blown highlight warnings. When it appears to show blown highlights you are actually unusually OK. This lets you know how far you can safely expose to the right.

Click to expand...

Hi and thank you for your info. I agree and have been shooting with a lighter exposure (not in PP). It is much easier to darken a photo in PP and have had no trouble bring back lots of detail in the lighter parts of the image. Thank you for the link. I will definitely check it out as soon as I get a chance.


Carol Darby