The last chance ?

Hey,

Right now I'm thinking about switching brands again. And hopefully you can give me some advice.

I have owned many many cameras including:

Sony A7, Panasonic GH2, Olympus E-PL1, E-P1, E-PL5, 2x E-P5, E-M10II, E-M5II, Samsung NX200, Fujifilm X-E1, X-A1.

3 years ago I bought 2 Olympus E-P5 cameras. For me a best camera I have ever used: ergonomics, rangefinder style, tilt screen, 2 wheels, 1/8000s and Olympus colors.

Anyways after some time I have discovered that it suffers from many physical design issues:

both of them had issues: with wheels (so had to be repaired twice), were suffering from a shuttershock and when shooting on e-shutter 0 delay (to prevent that shutter shock) there was sometimes visible something like a banding on my photos. Even though picture was shot during a daylight and it was a landscape shot.

So I sold both of them.

Then I bought Olympus E-M10II. Very good camera again.

But from the begining I have found that it suffers from an AF inaccuracy (backfocus error - quite often and mainly for closer focus distances).

1 month ago I bought excellent Sigma 30mm 1.4 contemporary and 1/4 of my shots are backfocused (head and shoulder shots). This is not acceptable for me. Focusing on an eye but back of head or ears are in focus. This happens even more often when shooting in bad light.

Well ok what to do now ??

A camera that is closest to my beloved E-P5 is Pen F. But since this camera has very similar AF system as E-M5II and E-M10II I do not believe that it will be visibly better and more accurate.

OK what about Panasonic GX80 ? It seems to be a very good camera. Though I'm afraid of its jpeg colors.

Does color significantly improve if one can use Passport color checker for calibration GX80 ?

I still own (2 years) Sony A7 that is on sale now because I hate everything except pure image quallity (that is really excellent).

Other cameras that I still own are Fujifilm X-E1 (stunning camera but very slow AF and no tilt screen), X-A1 ergonomically very bad camera but out of camera colors are excellent.

So I'm thinking about completly jumping ship and getting Fujifilm X-T20 or upcoming X-E3.

But still trying to stay within m43 camp since I own many nice lenses.

Is there any other m43 camera that would be similar to my beloved E-P5 and had better AF (not faster but more accurate) than all actual Olympus cameras that I have used (E-M10II, E-M5II) ?

Thank you

Getting backfocus is strange. It generally suggests that the camera is being given the choice about what to focus on, and choosing the wrong thing. I doubt it's a problem with focus accuracy, and more a problem with the camera being given too much choice in what to focus on.

Have you tried using face detect?

Have you used small focus point?

Are you using a large focus point, or letting the camera choose what it considers to be the best focus point?

Dunsun wrote:

Hey,

Right now I'm thinking about switching brands again. And hopefully you can give me some advice.

I have owned many many cameras including:

Sony A7, Panasonic GH2, Olympus E-PL1, E-P1, E-PL5, 2x E-P5, E-M10II, E-M5II, Samsung NX200, Fujifilm X-E1, X-A1.

3 years ago I bought 2 Olympus E-P5 cameras. For me a best camera I have ever used: ergonomics, rangefinder style, tilt screen, 2 wheels, 1/8000s and Olympus colors.

Anyways after some time I have discovered that it suffers from many physical design issues:

both of them had issues: with wheels (so had to be repaired twice), were suffering from a shuttershock and when shooting on e-shutter 0 delay (to prevent that shutter shock) there was sometimes visible something like a banding on my photos. Even though picture was shot during a daylight and it was a landscape shot.

So I sold both of them.

Then I bought Olympus E-M10II. Very good camera again.

But from the begining I have found that it suffers from an AF inaccuracy (backfocus error - quite often and mainly for closer focus distances).

1 month ago I bought excellent Sigma 30mm 1.4 contemporary and 1/4 of my shots are backfocused (head and shoulder shots). This is not acceptable for me. Focusing on an eye but back of head or ears are in focus. This happens even more often when shooting in bad light.

Well ok what to do now ??

A camera that is closest to my beloved E-P5 is Pen F. But since this camera has very similar AF system as E-M5II and E-M10II I do not believe that it will be visibly better and more accurate.

OK what about Panasonic GX80 ? It seems to be a very good camera. Though I'm afraid of its jpeg colors.

Does color significantly improve if one can use Passport color checker for calibration GX80 ?

I still own (2 years) Sony A7 that is on sale now because I hate everything except pure image quallity (that is really excellent).

Other cameras that I still own are Fujifilm X-E1 (stunning camera but very slow AF and no tilt screen), X-A1 ergonomically very bad camera but out of camera colors are excellent.

So I'm thinking about completly jumping ship and getting Fujifilm X-T20 or upcoming X-E3.

But still trying to stay within m43 camp since I own many nice lenses.

Is there any other m43 camera that would be similar to my beloved E-P5 and had better AF (not faster but more accurate) than all actual Olympus cameras that I have used (E-M10II, E-M5II) ?

Thank you

it's an odd complaint as I have owned virtually dozens of bodies across multiple systems including canon apsc and full frame, sony a7 and m43 (almost every body bar the pen series), but not fuji. The biggest party piece of m43 is focus speed and accuracy... bang on first time every time almost without fail... that's what keeps m43 in my bag... it's faster and more accurate than DSLR for single shot AFS, doesn't need any focus adjustment that dogged my days as a Canon DSLR shooter, and is faster than a7. Unless the pen is a stand out in a bad way among m43 for accuracy, you must have a dud?

Dunsun wrote:

For testing this backfocus tendency I purchased a used E-M5II camera 1 year ago.

I tested these 2 bodies (M10II, M5II) side by side for 3 weeks and I found out that their focusing algoritms were same. Same tendency to missfocus (backfocus). But these tests were executed with my Olympus 45mm 1.8. This lens is not imune to that issue but is significantly more accurate than my new Sigma 30mm 1.4 contemporary.

I have an E-M5 II and an E-PL5, and I use center spot metering and center focus.  I have never had either camera backfocus.  I always focus and recompose.  I don't understand how you guys use multiple focus points and NOT miss focus.

I use Olympus MFT cameras, and I've found if you set the delay to 1/8 second anti shock, and then use center focus and recompose, or in the case of my beloved E-P3, use the touchscreen focus and shutter release, about all my photos are well focused of what I want focused.  If my cameras have any shutter shock in the images, I'm blissfully unaware of it.

If I use the area focus as default, there's no telling what the camera thinks I want in focus.

Hope this helps.

I do not have any of the cameras you mention, but my E-M5 has never in five years behaved in the way you describe. I (almost) always use S-AF, small focus point, and the camera faithfully focusses on whatever I point it at as long as it is within the parameters of the CDAF system.

Of all the things I could complain about on my Olympus cameras (troublesome wheels, complex menus etc), focus accuracy is not one of them. I too have recently acquired a Sigma 30/1.4 and it works superbly on my Pen F.  I only ever use single focus point or face detect.

I'm not doubting OP's problems, but I'm wondering if some scientific step-by-step analysis might help get to the bottom of it? - e.g. start with simple flat patterns on paper and work up from there.

Can't speak for the GX80, but my G80 has excellent JPEG colours under all conditions. Seems to me like Panasonic has really caught up.

My Em5II is dead on accurate

Read this as a downside with the lens (Sigma). Unsure, so look it up may be?

Looks to me like you bought 11 different cameras in less than 8 years and you ended up unhappy with all of them.

I don't think you will ever be happy with any camera until you accept the fact that no camera is perfect. They all have their quirks and imperfections. All cameras are compromises of one sort or the other.

Once you make that realization, life gets a lot simpler since you don't have to keep trying to find something better.

Dunsun wrote:

Dunsun wrote:

third son wrote:

My Em5II is dead on accurate

Oh well then you must be a very lucky guy

It seems to be very unlikely that I would get 2 defective cameras (E-M5II, E-M10II) from 2 tries ...

My previously owned E-M5II was suffering from that back focusing tendency as well. But yes it was not as bad as my E-M10II.

All these guys that are happy. I like that you like your cameras but I have seen similar reactions before and I see it as a brand cult or I don't know what.

I do not care if I shoot Olympus, Panasonic or whatever. I need a camera that I like shooting and that serves me well without any or almost any issues.

That thing I'm talking about is E-P5's (by the way E-M1 was suffering from it as well) failing wheels and many other design flaws (shutter shock) this camera has or had.

I needed just 1 day to check that shutter shock produced by E-P5 was making it almost an useless camera (before firmware update with 0s delay was released). Any photo made within 1/100 - 1/300s was a blured garbage. But again there were hundreds of guys on this forum that were saying we do not see any shutter shock so it does not exist. I owned 2 E-P5 cameras how I could be so unfortunate and get 2 faulty units (second one was bought 10 months after my first one).

All these and other similar reactions smell like a fanboyism or I do not know how to explain it ... and yes I hate fanboyism.

Anyways thank you for all your comments I have to investigate it a bit more.

Next week I'm going for a used GX80 + PanaLeica 15mm 1.7 lens (I got a good deal). Then I will compare my 4 actual m43 cameras (E-PL2 + E-M10II + GX80 + E-PL5) for an AF accuracy.

Then I will let you know how they performed.

I have no idea why you quoted me twice. Fanboi? No I am not. I also own Fuji and had Panasonic for quite a while as well. I just learned how to use my gear. I will know not to engage in any of your subsequent posts. You seem hard to please.