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Testing the OM-1 AF on my dogs

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Andrew Ellis

Andrew Ellis

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Bit image heavy, but for the first time I took the new OM-1 and the 40-150 F2.8 Pro with me when walking the dogs earlier this week. There's a big field where we let them off to run, and the youngest (Daisy - with the pink harness and white markings), is like an absolute bullet and is so fast she nearly caught a low flying swallow. The older one, Charlie is a bit slower (as he's seven), but still pretty quick. Thought this would be an ideal test for the OM-1's AF. Sun was in and out so the exposure changes a little during bursts.

I shot in both silent 20fps and 50fps, shutter speed 1/2000 or higher, wide open at F2.8, auto ISO, AF-C with Tracking and animal AI selected with a medium size AF box. In total I took nearly 2000 images, and have gone though about 80% of them so far and honestly I've a handful that are slowly OOF, with the rest nice and sharp. I think I'll call that a success.

The OM-1 really is a major step up in AF performance over my older EM1 MK III (now gone) or EM1-X. As an aside, with the battery grip on and two fully charged batteries in the camera, for 1,967 images, the battery in body was still at 100% and the one in the grip at 91% - flipping amazing. Thanks for looking.



























































































--
Lets make pictures, not war........
 

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Very nice!

Long ago there was a guy named Don Parrot on the forum and he liked to take running dog photos too. Here are some of his running dog photos with an E-M1:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55376381

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55387212

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55945245

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/56390119

I see he got an E-M1 II in 2017, but wasn't happy with the AF compared to his E-M1:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/59540627

I don't know if the problems he encountered were fixed in later firmware updates.
 
Don't you just love Spaniels as an AF test subject. :)

I've found 'Dog Detection' to be really reliable using the same set-up as you (OM-1 and 40-150mm F2.8 at maximum aperture). I've not found any of the AF problems that others report when shooting flying dogs.

Here is my girl on the beach that I posted a few days back.

Mike
 
Aww, she’s a beaut. Particularly love the last one of her exhausted and sleeping after a hard day of running at the beach.
 
The OM-1 sure makes animal tracking a breeze. Lovely little fellows you got there.
 
Wow, that sucks.

For me photography is a slow journey towards an unreachable goal of perfection. It's about the journey, you understand.

These pictures are perfect. There is no improvement left to pursue. You might as well sell the camera, it isn't going to get better than this. These dogs running towards you and the focus spot on...It could be the beer I had. But to get action this fast, so pin-sharp in focus... just amazing.
 
Last edited:
This is the 1st dogs running set of photos with an OM-1 that shows the AF. White or light colored dogs is much easier than black or very dog colored dogs are another story.

Have you cropped these images?

Thanks
Andrew Ellis said:
Bit image heavy, but for the first time I took the new OM-1 and the 40-150 F2.8 Pro with me when walking the dogs earlier this week. There's a big field where we let them off to run, and the youngest (Daisy - with the pink harness and white markings), is like an absolute bullet and is so fast she nearly caught a low flying swallow. The older one, Charlie is a bit slower (as he's seven), but still pretty quick. Thought this would be an ideal test for the OM-1's AF. Sun was in and out so the exposure changes a little during bursts.

I shot in both silent 20fps and 50fps, shutter speed 1/2000 or higher, wide open at F2.8, auto ISO, AF-C with Tracking and animal AI selected with a medium size AF box. In total I took nearly 2000 images, and have gone though about 80% of them so far and honestly I've a handful that are slowly OOF, with the rest nice and sharp. I think I'll call that a success.

The OM-1 really is a major step up in AF performance over my older EM1 MK III (now gone) or EM1-X. As an aside, with the battery grip on and two fully charged batteries in the camera, for 1,967 images, the battery in body was still at 100% and the one in the grip at 91% - flipping amazing. Thanks for looking.





























Click to expand...


--
Thanks

The Dogs of Vancouver

The Dogs of Vancouver & Photography
www.sritch.com www.sritch.com
The Dogs of Vancouver, BC
 
Wow impressive numbers Andrew. Number really caught my eye as being so sweet then I saw the others coming straight equally great! :)

Amazing to hear your results.

Dan

:)
 
elfroggio said:
This is the 1st dogs running set of photos with an OM-1 that shows the AF. White or light colored dogs is much easier than black or very dog colored dogs are another story.

Have you cropped these images?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi, yes most of these have been cropped - as even at 150mm sometimes the dogs were still too small in the frame. Makes it all the more impressive I guess that the AF still tracked them when they were relatively small in the frame ?
 
great images, i keep telling members to use medium focus box but as usual no one listens.

ds
 
Hi Andrew,
your post is already quite old and thus, I am not sure if you keep monitoring responses, but I saw your images and read through your description about having a keeper rate far above 90%.
Indeed, I am struggling at the moment with dog photography and the exact same setup you have. Granted, the Firmware Version is the latest (1.7) and not the same that you have used back then, but I am trying to shoot my dog in the exaxt same setup as you did (dog is running towards me) and I am getting a keeper rate of 4 shots out of 600!.
A keeper for me is when the head is sharp instead of the body which is what I am constantly getting.
I have tried everything possible and had also the same settings as you had.
AF-C + Tracking + Animal Detect + SH2 + all kinds of AF-Field sizes.

With and without tracking, all sequential shooting modes - all the same results.
In 99% of the pictures, the body is sharp and not the head or the tail etc. and always way ouside of the minimum focusing distance (below example is a crop)

I am wondering if you had similar issues and if yes how you could overcome these and wondering also if you see the same good performance you had in 2022 with recent firmware versions?

Appreciating your feeback big time!

Many thanks, Philipp

4310a1b91019473b848c359e448b0f27.jpg
 
Philipp Buchecker said:
Hi Andrew,
your post is already quite old and thus, I am not sure if you keep monitoring responses, but I saw your images and read through your description about having a keeper rate far above 90%.
Indeed, I am struggling at the moment with dog photography and the exact same setup you have. Granted, the Firmware Version is the latest (1.7) and not the same that you have used back then, but I am trying to shoot my dog in the exaxt same setup as you did (dog is running towards me) and I am getting a keeper rate of 4 shots out of 600!.
A keeper for me is when the head is sharp instead of the body which is what I am constantly getting.
I have tried everything possible and had also the same settings as you had.
AF-C + Tracking + Animal Detect + SH2 + all kinds of AF-Field sizes.

With and without tracking, all sequential shooting modes - all the same results.
In 99% of the pictures, the body is sharp and not the head or the tail etc. and always way ouside of the minimum focusing distance (below example is a crop)
I am wondering if you had similar issues and if yes how you could overcome these and wondering also if you see the same good performance you had in 2022 with recent firmware versions?
Appreciating your feeback big time!

Many thanks, Philipp

4310a1b91019473b848c359e448b0f27.jpg
Click to expand...
I'm not the original poster.

You have the wrong settings. You cannot use Tracking with any of the detects: animal or otherwise. Somehow they conflict with each other.

OM has automatically disabled the tracking when using any subject detection on the Mk2.



--
Thanks

The Dogs of Vancouver

The Dogs of Vancouver & Photography
www.sritch.com www.sritch.com
The Dogs of Vancouver, BC
 
I have had considerable success shooting running dogs as posted earlier in this thread, and below.

What I have found is that when the dog gets as close as the example you showed, the AF can't keep up and focus is lost.

And as already said, don't use CAF + TR with subject detection.

Mike



ed238f6c6d3d4df9bd3275e3939aea9a.jpg
 
elfroggio said:
Philipp Buchecker said:
Hi Andrew,
your post is already quite old and thus, I am not sure if you keep monitoring responses, but I saw your images and read through your description about having a keeper rate far above 90%.
Indeed, I am struggling at the moment with dog photography and the exact same setup you have. Granted, the Firmware Version is the latest (1.7) and not the same that you have used back then, but I am trying to shoot my dog in the exaxt same setup as you did (dog is running towards me) and I am getting a keeper rate of 4 shots out of 600!.
A keeper for me is when the head is sharp instead of the body which is what I am constantly getting.
I have tried everything possible and had also the same settings as you had.
AF-C + Tracking + Animal Detect + SH2 + all kinds of AF-Field sizes.

With and without tracking, all sequential shooting modes - all the same results.
In 99% of the pictures, the body is sharp and not the head or the tail etc. and always way ouside of the minimum focusing distance (below example is a crop)
I am wondering if you had similar issues and if yes how you could overcome these and wondering also if you see the same good performance you had in 2022 with recent firmware versions?
Appreciating your feeback big time!

Many thanks, Philipp
Click to expand...
I'm not the original poster.

You have the wrong settings. You cannot use Tracking with any of the detects: animal or otherwise. Somehow they conflict with each other.
Click to expand...
yes you can (OM-1) but the success rate is lower
elfroggio said:
OM has automatically disabled the tracking when using any subject detection on the Mk2.
Click to expand...
 
mikero said:
I have had considerable success shooting running dogs as posted earlier in this thread, and below.

What I have found is that when the dog gets as close as the example you showed, the AF can't keep up and focus is lost.

And as already said, don't use CAF + TR with subject detection.
Click to expand...
Confusingly in E-M1x the subject detection works ONLY with Caf+TR!
 
epozar said:
mikero said:
I have had considerable success shooting running dogs as posted earlier in this thread, and below.

What I have found is that when the dog gets as close as the example you showed, the AF can't keep up and focus is lost.

And as already said, don't use CAF + TR with subject detection.
Click to expand...
Confusingly in E-M1x the subject detection works ONLY with Caf+TR!
Click to expand...
Yes, I think Olympus got that wrong.
 
Thanks for your feedback.

Are you sure, this applies for the Mk-1 as well? Because Olympus/OM-System mention this combination explicitly in their videos for Subject Detection on the Mk-1. (00:38)

https://learnandsupport.getolympus.com/introducing-the-new-om-1/ai-detection-af

But I tested w/o tracking as well and the results are essentially the same. So this alone does not seem to be the problem. 😔

Thanks, Philipp
 
Your hit rate is so low that something definitely has to be messed up.

What, if anything, do the few in-focus shots have in common that is different from the OOF shots?

Are you sure you haven't enabled a range limiter switch or AF Limiter setting in-camera?

Does the subject recognition feature work on stationary dogs?

Do you see the white frame and the eye frame?

Are you using focus priority or release priority?

Are you getting the focus confirmation indicator in the viewfinder or the beep?

Does it fail with other lenses too?

Are you using a C1-C4 mode that has saved the wrong settings?

Have you done a full reset?

--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143821723@N06/
 
Last edited:
David5833 said:
Your hit rate is so low that something definitely has to be messed up.

What, if anything, do the few in-focus shots have in common that is different from the OOF shots?

Are you sure you haven't enabled a range limiter switch or AF Limiter setting in-camera?

Does the subject recognition feature work on stationary dogs?

Do you see the white frame and the eye frame?

Are you using focus priority or release priority?

Are you getting the focus confirmation indicator in the viewfinder or the beep?

Does it fail with other lenses too?

Are you using a C1-C4 mode that has saved the wrong settings?

Have you done a full reset?
Click to expand...
It could be a release priority or AF limiter, IMO. Focus clutch is a trouble one sometines but he would notice, I guess.
 
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