Olympus e-PM2 - what am i doing wrong?

Hi everyone

I bought the Olympus e-PM2 a couple of days ago, with the kit lens (M.Zuiko 14-42mm f3.5-5.6 II R).

I wasn't planning on buying a camera so hadn't done a lot of research, but a quick google in the store showed very good reviews, and the camera was half price, so i bit the bullet.

Since then i've been really disappointed with the performance and am considering trying to return the camera - any photos where something is moving is blurred - even in the manual settings, and i can't even get it to focus most of the time in low light and outdoors at night. I was hoping i would get better night time shots than my current point and shoot Sony dsc hx20v, since it's got a bigger sensor, but about 75% of the shots are blurry with the olympus which will drive me nuts.

In the daytime the camera is ok, but still has blur when taking photos of kids, even in kids mode or in manual with a faster shutter speed.

Am i doing something wrong? I'm not that knowledgeable on photography but i feel like a camera should at least be able to take a non-blurry photo in auto or the correct mode for the situations.

I'll try and remember to post the photos tonight or tomorrow.

I haven't played with the ISO yet - i was so disappointed with the auto mode and the night scene mode that i kind of lost heart. Night scene seems to have a really long exposure, too long for me to be able to keep still. i know you need a longer exposure for night but this is about 4 seconds long.

I was hoping i'd be able to take simple night scenes without adjusting the settings - and adjust the settings only when it's something more complicated.

300Bee - are you playing with the settings to get good shots or just using auto and scene options? The focus was ok in the day but some kids running around were always blurry, in bright sunshine, so maybe the focus isn't ok if this is happening? It's fine when people aren't moving, or are moving only slowly, but that's it.

KeMc wrote:

300Bee - are you playing with the settings to get good shots or just using auto and scene options? The focus was ok in the day but some kids running around were always blurry, in bright sunshine, so maybe the focus isn't ok if this is happening? It's fine when people aren't moving, or are moving only slowly, but that's it.

As mentioned previously, just post some images and we'll help.  i have the same camera and lens and have no problem at all with motion.

Den

I think this is definitely a possibility - although i had hoped auto mode would be better than it currently is in low light.

Any suggestions of a way to learn all the settings? I have the full manual but is there a good overall website or even a book that might help? I've been reading online about ISO, aperture and shutter speed so i'm hoping to give it all a try when i get home and see if i get better results.

I also need to remember to try it with the stabilization turned on. I turned it off on the first day after reading that it could cause issues. Might be worth a try to put it back on and see if there's a difference.

KeMc wrote:

300Bee - are you playing with the settings to get good shots or just using auto and scene options? The focus was ok in the day but some kids running around were always blurry, in bright sunshine, so maybe the focus isn't ok if this is happening? It's fine when people aren't moving, or are moving only slowly, but that's it.

Blurry images on moving subjects, a smell of slow shutter speed.

As your kit zoom is not very fast (only f/3.5~f/5.6 instead of its pro siblings of f/2.8 etc), it might not allow you to use very fast shutter speed (depending on the lighting conditions). If I was you, I would set ISO to Auto and allowing it to max 3200, shot in A mode (always keep at the fastest aperture, says f/3.5 or f/5.6 in case at its long end), to make sure that your EPM-2 would use the fastest shutter speed to freeze action of your kids. Normally, if not running 100m wihin 10", 1/125"~1/250" should be more than enough to capture their motion.

Secondary, I'm sure you may know it well, but just in case.... Before firing your shutter, I would half press the shutter to lock AF focus. When your subject would be in focus, a green box would bracket the in-focus point (for a kid, normally on his lovely face), then fired. No matter how lightening fast AF of M43 (it is the fastest S-AF mirrorless until recently catching up by SONY), it would be out of focus easily if not sufficient time to AF. One thing, I would set EMP2 to Focus Priority (if not in focus the camera would not shoot). Furthermore, using a single medium size box would also be helpful (not multiple focus points as it would always focus on the wrong places) for moving subjects. For still subject, a single smallest box at the center would do the work faster and better. As per some comment before, Face Detection AF might not be perfect until now. We also needs enough practice as our prediction to the moving direction of a kid could help faster AF a lot, otherwise, a better tracking ability DSLR might be easier (M43's tracking ability is always behind DSLRs. Only until recently, EM1 and GH4 could close the gap to the pro DSLRs).

If shooting with scenery option, in low light shooting a tripod and flash would be a must. Normally the camera would set preference on using a slow shutter speed (allow longer time to capture more light for a brighter background, and the flash to light up your subject). Without tripod, blurry images would easily been seen. It might explain when shooting in the dark you would feel the camera had taken a long time to complete shooting.

EPM2 is a nice camera having much better IQ, higher flexibility (when more lenses added to your collection), more capable than P&S. But it needs practice (specially for its mini design), understand and familiar with it before you could appreciate. For majority of shooting EPM2 could always be not far away from a DSLR (specially for entry~med classes). Wishing you can enjoy your gear some days.

What you're doing wrong is using a camera whose capabilities exceed your knowledge of photography, including the basics.

The E-PM2 is a VERY powerful camera ... meaning it's not a point and shoot. It's capable of captures that are very close in image quality to the best of the M4:3 breed.

What you've done is purchase a camera that requires ... no, DEMANDS ... technical knowledge and technical skill. You've purchased a Ferrari without knowing how to drive.

Even without seeing image samples, it's almost certain that the blur you're experiencing is caused by too low a shutter speed. How to increase the shutter speed and still get a good to excellent picture is accomplished by understanding the relationships between focal length, aperture and ISO speed. That is what you need to learn ... the basics ... and that will take books, lessons, courses and taking into account some of the comments here. But the comments, including mine, will not get you as far as reading the books, taking the courses and taking the time to know your camera.

I can assure you that the problems you're experiencing have nothing to do with the E-PM2. It's a great camera, capable of excellent captures in just about any environment, night or day. I own one and have no problems with blurring or any other issues.

What you're doing wrong will be very apparent to you once you learn how to use a camera ... any camera.

Ok here's some photos. A couple of good ones and some bad ones. The house ones were taken right when it got dark, about 6:30pm in Sydney. There was a little bit of light to start with but after that it got really dark and i think these were taken when it was pretty dark. I can't remember the settings - some on auto and some on shutter priority and using a railing to steady the camera and keep it still.

KeMc wrote:

Ok here's some photos. A couple of good ones and some bad ones. The house ones were taken right when it got dark, about 6:30pm in Sydney. There was a little bit of light to start with but after that it got really dark and i think these were taken when it was pretty dark. I can't remember the settings - some on auto and some on shutter priority and using a railing to steady the camera and keep it still.

Thank you for your posting. We suppose should know better now.

Were all those shot hand held? If so, and if you could get a sharp picture (except for the last photo of your boy), I suppose you must be the ironman having the steadiest hand in this world and tripod mfrs would have to close their door!

The 1st one was using 4" shutter speed (the "S"), max aperture (the "A") of f/3.5 of your kit zoom at ISO 200! Without IBIS, there is a so called theorical safe S since the film day. i.e., 1/focal length. Within this guideline, you should be able to shot a clear image without much hand shake. e.g., as you shot at 14mm (i.e., eq to 28mm of FF), your S should at least be 1/28" or roughly 1/30". Under the best 5-axis IBIS like that of EM5 and EM1, it may give you a benefit of around 3~3.5 stops, i.e, a steady shot at around max 1/5"~1/10". Dear friend, you were using 4"! At such S, your image actually was very very outstanding....

The Second one was reasonable because it used 1.3" at f/3.5 & ISO1600. It was expected to be blurred. However, it demonstrated that your EPM2 knew to increase ISO for a faster S. Unfortunately, it was still very slow.

The Third one was using same setting as the Second image. However, you hit luck this time.

The Fourth was shot at 1", f/3.5 at ISO1600. A blurred image would be expected for such low S. But you could see a relatively darker image because of slightly under exposed caused by a faster S.

Therefore, for similar shooting scenario in future, you better increase your ISO more to 3200 or 6400 (although it would give you very noisy image), or using a faster lens like f/1.4, f/1.8 or so. Both would allow you to shoot at a faster S. Easiest of all, put it on tripod since a flash (no matter how powerful it would be) couldn't reach such far distance. Putting the camera on a table top, bean bag or leaning over the window etc could also help to increase your stability.

Finally regarding your lovely boy's image which used 1/50", f/11 and ISO200. 2 things were observed.

1st, 1/50" may be a bit slow for subject moving in such speed. Like said before, 1/125" up would be better to freeze movement. In fact, there should be sufficient room for a higher S at that time. Your camera, for unknown reason (might be because it was under sun), selected f/11. Says, if f/3.5 would be used, you might have faster S like 1/125" or so. If going up a bit to ISO400, then, 1/250"~1/500" might be possible....

2nd, for M43 camera, f/8.0 or around would be the smallest A for general use. Any smaller A, e.g. f/10 upward (unless intentionally looking for deeper dof), diffraction would start to kick in and would result soft images. It is very difference from APSC and FF that their best A (sharpest result) would be around f/8.0 up. For M43, the best would generally be at wide open (or step down a bit like f/4 would start be the best for a f/3.5 lens etc) and would be peaked at f/8.0 around.

Wishing it might be of any help....

^ What he said +1

It seems like your issue is generally with shutter speeds being too slow for your liking. Keeping the camera in 'A' (Aperture Priority) or 'S' (Shutter Priority).

If you keep your camera in 'A,' you can make sure the aperture is as wide as it can be (for your lens, that would be 3.5 on the wide end and 5.6 on the long end). This means selecting the smallest number that's presented on screen - think of it as the smaller the number, the lower the light the camera can cope with. This would give the camera the best chance at selecting an ISO and shutter combination which are fast enough while keeping the image properly exposed. The other benefit here is that you should eliminate the risk of the camera auto-selecting small apertures (f/11 and higher), which can cause visible diffraction (sometimes even at screen-size) and potentially poorer AF performance (due to less light hitting the sensor).

If you keep your camera in 'S,' you can select shutter speeds that are fast enough to keep your subjects sharp. For stills, 1/(focal length x 2) should be fast enough, so if you're at wide angle, that would be 1/(14mm x 2) = 1/28 sec (closest on the camera is 1/30), and if you're at the long end, 1/(42mm x 2) = 1/84 sec (closest on camera is 1/80 or 1/100). For subject in motion (like bouncing kids), select a shutter speed at least at 1/200 sec - outdoors, I wouldn't hesitate to do 1/1000 sec or even faster. The biggest risk of being in 'S' is that you select a shutter speed that doesn't work - too slow, and you end up with a slew of blurry images (like I got at a recent wedding - 1/60 sec isn't fast enough to freeze motion on the dance floor); too slow and you risk either a) noisy images as the camera pumps up ISO to maintain exposure, or b) underexposed images as the camera can't get enough light.

Lastly, take some shots at ISO 1600, 3200, and 6400. Depending on your tolerance of noise in the image (graininess), it might be good to tell the camera to max out at one of these settings when ISO is set to auto. A max of 1600 is conservative but you'll nearly always come out with images that have acceptably low noise; a max of ISO 6400 gives you a better chance of freezing your subject (you can use a shutter speed 4x faster than ISO 1600), but you might not like the grainy or splotchy effect it has when you zoom in or crop.