All EM1-II and Panasonic 100-400 lens combination problems

Hello.

For the benefit of others i would like to note all the problems i found unfortunately by myself rather then anyone reporting it on YouTube.

1. EM1-II will not work in continues focus mode whenever the Lens range limiter switch is set to 5m-infinity. It will work OK when the range limiter is set to Infinity.

2. Pre Capture new feature highlighted so much by Olympus will also not work with Panasonic 100-400 lens. Thos options LPreCapture and HPreCapture will be left gray not allowing the user to select them. It will work only with Olympus lens as the 40-150 F2.8.

3. Not sure exactly how the IBIS and OIS work together , even that in general i had no notable issues.

Will appreciate other adding their own experience with the EM1-I and Panasonic 100-400 combination.

The E-M1.2 manual states that Pro Capture only works with Olympus micro 4/3 lenses.

There have also been discussions about not using the focal limiter on the 100-400 when used with the E-M1.2.

Ezra Koper wrote:

Hello.

For the benefit of others i would like to note all the problems i found unfortunately by myself rather then anyone reporting it on YouTube.

1. EM1-II will not work in continues focus mode whenever the Lens range limiter switch is set to 5m-infinity. It will work OK when the range limiter is set to Infinity.

Lots of posts on this.  Don't use the lens focus limiter, the camera can set 3 different ones to the distances you want.  The camera one is much better than any lens implementation.

2. Pre Capture new feature highlighted so much by Olympus will also not work with Panasonic 100-400 lens. Thos options LPreCapture and HPreCapture will be left gray not allowing the user to select them. It will work only with Olympus lens as the 40-150 F2.8.

3. Not sure exactly how the IBIS and OIS work together , even that in general i had no notable issues.

Again several posts.  Some find the OIS has a problem with panning and recommend IBIS for moving wildlife, but the OIS for stationary images.  The two do not work together.

Will appreciate other adding their own experience with the EM1-I and Panasonic 100-400 combination.

For the benefit of others i would like to note all the problems i found unfortunately by myself rather then anyone reporting it on YouTube.

I was unaware that YouTube was the gold standard for reporting camera and lens problems.  I'll keep that in mind for the future ...

Has anybody had this problem? I had purchased the 100-400from ebay to go with my Olympus m1 ii. Company from Korea. OEM box. Initially lens was tight fitting on cam. After the third use the seal was coming off lens. I than noticed the base was pulled a bit off lens. Two screws appeared to have loosened although they were still "tight." I sent lens back to Korea. They said I mishandled lens of which I did not. It is such an excellent lens and I really would like to repurchase it but am hesitant as I do not know if it was a lens problem or what. Any ideas?  I am very careful with my equipment and there is NO WAY I dropped it or such.. Ohhh, I did get my money back after having to escalate it to resolution center..

Namaste58 wrote:

Has anybody had this problem? I had purchased the 100-400from ebay to go with my Olympus m1 ii. Company from Korea. OEM box. Initially lens was tight fitting on cam. After the third use the seal was coming off lens. I than noticed the base was pulled a bit off lens. Two screws appeared to have loosened although they were still "tight." I sent lens back to Korea. They said I mishandled lens of which I did not. It is such an excellent lens and I really would like to repurchase it but am hesitant as I do not know if it was a lens problem or what. Any ideas? I am very careful with my equipment and there is NO WAY I dropped it or such.. Ohhh, I did get my money back after having to escalate it to resolution center..

My 100-400 is solid in fit and finish and your experience is the first I have read about such an assembly problem. I'm glad you got your money back and I recommend you purchase this lens again.

goodbokeh wrote:

Namaste58 wrote:

Has anybody had this problem? I had purchased the 100-400from ebay to go with my Olympus m1 ii. Company from Korea. OEM box. Initially lens was tight fitting on cam. After the third use the seal was coming off lens. I than noticed the base was pulled a bit off lens. Two screws appeared to have loosened although they were still "tight." I sent lens back to Korea. They said I mishandled lens of which I did not. It is such an excellent lens and I really would like to repurchase it but am hesitant as I do not know if it was a lens problem or what. Any ideas? I am very careful with my equipment and there is NO WAY I dropped it or such.. Ohhh, I did get my money back after having to escalate it to resolution center..

My 100-400 is solid in fit and finish and your experience is the first I have read about such an assembly problem. I'm glad you got your money back and I recommend you purchase this lens again.

My 100-400 is beautifully well put together and has been used daily for 6 months.

Does anybody know how will the 100-400 work with the GH5? Will IS of GH5 and the lens by synced?

drj3 wrote:

Ezra Koper wrote:

Hello.

For the benefit of others i would like to note all the problems i found unfortunately by myself rather then anyone reporting it on YouTube.

1. EM1-II will not work in continues focus mode whenever the Lens range limiter switch is set to 5m-infinity. It will work OK when the range limiter is set to Infinity.

Lots of posts on this. Don't use the lens focus limiter, the camera can set 3 different ones to the distances you want. The camera one is much better than any lens implementation.

2. Pre Capture new feature highlighted so much by Olympus will also not work with Panasonic 100-400 lens. Thos options LPreCapture and HPreCapture will be left gray not allowing the user to select them. It will work only with Olympus lens as the 40-150 F2.8.

3. Not sure exactly how the IBIS and OIS work together , even that in general i had no notable issues.

Again several posts. Some find the OIS has a problem with panning and recommend IBIS for moving wildlife, but the OIS for stationary images. The two do not work together.

I have a gx8 and 100-400, and also 100% agree with your statement above regarding IBIS and OIS not working well together for birding under certain circumstances, especially when the subject is at a great distance!  In fact my shots with the older gx7 which does not support Dual IS are sharper, but at 16mp less detailed. So am strongly considering trying to find the money for a EM1 mk2 if it solves the Panasonic Dual stabilisation 'soft image ' issue!

Will appreciate other adding their own experience with the EM1-I and Panasonic 100-400 combination.

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drj3

Ezra Koper wrote:

Hello.

For the benefit of others i would like to note all the problems i found unfortunately by myself rather then anyone reporting it on YouTube.

1. EM1-II will not work in continues focus mode whenever the Lens range limiter switch is set to 5m-infinity. It will work OK when the range limiter is set to Infinity.

2. Pre Capture new feature highlighted so much by Olympus will also not work with Panasonic 100-400 lens. Thos options LPreCapture and HPreCapture will be left gray not allowing the user to select them. It will work only with Olympus lens as the 40-150 F2.8.

3. Not sure exactly how the IBIS and OIS work together , even that in general i had no notable issues.

Will appreciate other adding their own experience with the EM1-I and Panasonic 100-400 combination.

Boo bloody hoo, doesn't anyone read anything in other threads

1. Has been fixed completely with firmware 1.1 for the lens, version 1.2 has also been released, so this is a non issue

2. RTFM.... and what feels like 100's of threads on dpr already. Should not have been a surprise

3. Also discussed in depth multiple times and they do not work together, OIS will override IBIS when turned on and for the most part is better

I've have the PL100-400 for about 4 months now.  Lots of local shooting and carted it on a 6 day photo trip to south Florida (not exactly the ends of earth but it was a long haul for me). No problems at all, still feels very solid and no complaints on IQ.

fft2000 wrote:

Adrian Harris wrote:

3. Not sure exactly how the IBIS and OIS work together , even that in general i had no notable issues.

Again several posts. Some find the OIS has a problem with panning and recommend IBIS for moving wildlife, but the OIS for stationary images. The two do not work together.

I have a gx8 and 100-400, and also 100% agree with your statement above regarding IBIS and OIS not working well together for birding under certain circumstances, especially when the subject is at a great distance! In fact my shots with the older gx7 which does not support Dual IS are sharper, but at 16mp less detailed. So am strongly considering trying to find the money for a EM1 mk2 if it solves the Panasonic Dual stabilisation 'soft image ' issue!

Is there already a thread that discusses this issue? I think this is an important shortcoming and I probably would have decided against pure Panasonic if I had known before :/ Dual IS 2 was an important decision factor for me!

From my first day out I thought I wasn't affected with G81+100-400 (Dual IS 2). Unsharp images were caused by the strong wind. The next days I was disappointed because I produced too many soft shots from small birds in the tree about 20m away. After reading this statement I went ahead and did some testing. My finding: Dual IS works quite well for me for shutter speeds up to about 1/600s. FASTER shutter speeds cause trouble, I get softer images starting at 1/800s and mostly unsharp ones at 1/1300s. Of course this sometimes causes trouble with small nervous birds (tits...). The issues for started at a distance of about 15 meters.

I can get even better hitrates If I take photos while recording a video. Though I need to test this more. Today I will play with 4K-photo a little bit, probably it is the best solution.

One of the first images taken with the 100-400. Distance somewhere around 10m.

1/640s didn't cause an issue.

OOC jpeg with slightly adjusted settings. Taken while recording a video. I am really pleased with the result! Tree is about 20 meters away. Some test shots with 1/1300s were soft...

Will appreciate other adding their own experience with the EM1-I and Panasonic 100-400 combination.

Speaking to photographers who use other brands, apparently their IS disables as the shutter speed increases.  Many well respected canon and Nikon bird photographers have informed me that they have IS switched off !

There is no doubt that the Dual IS works stunning for most camera uses, but it appears that birds at extreme distances with certain camera and lens combinationns (IE: gx8/100-400) isn't it's best scenario.

I wish Panasonic would provide a menu option to switch IS, so we could choose:

Dual ON.  OIS only,  IBIS only,  All OFF.

I'm starting to feel more comfortable purchasing again. It looks like I got an isolated case from the comments folks are making.  I really thought hard about the Oly 300 but at that range I need to have zoom as it's just too liming for my taste. Hey Phil...being you are in Seattle how is your experience in rain/light showers? I live in Eugene and as you know we have this to contend with in the Northwest....

Namaste58 wrote:

I'm starting to feel more comfortable purchasing again. It looks like I got an isolated case from the comments folks are making. I really thought hard about the Oly 300 but at that range I need to have zoom as it's just too liming for my taste. Hey Phil...being you are in Seattle how is your experience in rain/light showers? I live in Eugene and as you know we have this to contend with in the Northwest..

Only had it 4 months but so far it's been out on a few rainy days. No problems but I tend to baby my gear, even the weather sealed stuff. Force of habit from my Nikon days.

There is kind of a natural limiter as the PL100-400 is not super fast so those grey rainy days are challenging when you need 1/1000 second or faster. That said, when the light is good the small size makes it so easy to carry that I forget all about the grey "don't bother" days. When I was in Florida last week, I saw so many people with huge DSLR lenses. Monopods, tripods and advil, oh my!