E-M1 Mkii and BIF Testing - 7 Photos

I have had time to get out twice to try my luck with the new E-M1 Mkii and photographing birds in flight. The first time it was a cold 20 F degree day and it was extremely overcast. The only birds that I found that were flying around were seagulls. The gulls were on a feeding frenzy skimming the standing waves on the flooded Ohio River. Only trouble were that they were on the other side of the river. Even with the 300mm F4.0 and the matching 1.4x TC the seagulls were about the size of the AF box. Still the camera did great keeping the gulls in focus.

The next time it was a partly sunny late afternoon day and I got to photograph Canadian geese and ducks. It was a good test on seeing how the AF will focus on the birds and not the trees they were flying close to (less than 50'). Most of the time the camera will focus on the birds, which is a great improvement over the old E-M1 when it will AF of the trees behind the birds. On this day I used the 40-150 F2.8 and the 1.4x TC.

I got the photos with numerous burst series in a Flickr album at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/david_l_black/albums/72157678314725635
and I already posted some of the seagull photos in the following post: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58864385

Anyhow, here are a few of the geese and duck in flight photos:

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

Anyhow I really do like the C-AF performance of the new E-M1 Mkii.  I came from the original E-M1 and the E-M5 Mkii.  Just from my initial use I will rate the E-M1 Mkii C-AF performance way ahead of the old E-M1.  The new camera nearly nails the AF most of the time.  I thought the C-AF performance of the old E-M1 was pretty good after the FW updates.  The E-M5 Mkii C-AF performance is close to being worthless.

Anyhow if interested in seeing more from there two outings I got them in a Flickr album (already mentioned) .  Comments are always welcomed.

Nice BIF pictures. The 40-150/f2.8 pro is the fastest lens, definitely, even with MC-14.

Cheers, Horst

I've had my EM1.2 out with 300F4 numerous times now for BIFs..  even with the 1.4tc it is outstanding..  focus capture has allowed my keeper rate (compared to my EM5.2) to soar..  I mostly use CAF but will begin using CAFw/ tracking eventually.. but it is now taking me so much longer to PP my keepers cuz there's so many more.. it is awesome... really love this camera

No question, the 300/f4 (+MC-14) is a lens for a lifetime, superb. I tried C-AF+TR today with the mkII but was not so convinced, lost the target relatively quick.

You got an angle I frequently see in plane photos but not often in BIF shots.

Those shots against the trees are really telling. Terrific test of the camera/lens combination focusing capability.

My experience so far (with the PL 100-400) and the E-M1 II, is if I can get the initial focus lock on the bird, it really does quite well with the tracking. I'm mostly using the single focus point and I'm keeping the lens below the 300mm mark (beginner at BiF's) unless the birds are quite distant. It does a good job at tracking long distance (100yds +) even if the birds are close to the trees/brush, but at that distance the crops make getting good detail tough  Still working on that balance.

Northern Harrier shot yesterday at about 100 yds, severe crop.

Great bif's!  Lots of great bif's!

Neil

Which shutter mode, mechanical or electronic?

lapdog99 wrote:

Which shutter mode, mechanical or electronic?

Electronic shutter, low burst, 18fps. I could have gotten away with a little lower ISO, as it turns out. But, I'm still working out the kinks in my approach and on this day I was looking for fast shutter speeds and ISO be damned.