The last chance ?

Dunsun wrote:

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.

I just read through the whole thread. I sympathise.

You have an unfortunate problem, and it is one that many Olympus users never see, so you will hear that comment a lot.

I do not own the SigmaF1.4 but do use the 45mm and I also have never had mine "backfocus" on ears when I focus on the eye using centre small area, S-AF.

(Catastrophic backfocus on backgrounds does happen ...often)

Perhaps there is no solution, or perhaps there is some involuntary physical movement at play.

My serious advice would be to get a mirrorful (yes) DSLR and matching SigmaF1.4 lens.

The whole focus system of CDAF seems not to suit you, and that is not a criticism at all, but an observation. Go native PDAF (or manual).

I would go for Canon, for the skin tones, as opposed to Nikon or Sony.

third son wrote:

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.

Sorry for that. Maybe I was too rude. This really was not my intention. I'm just tired of people who are not objective (and this is not only in photography). It's not addressed to you but generaly.

Regards

Hi Dunsun,

I see this forum is 4 months old now. Have you any update since then with respect to E-M10ii mis/back/focusing?

I made very similar experience and recently came to the conclusion it really must be a camera problem. I am getting systematically wrong focus when shooting faces, typically on the hairs around the ears. I use always single focus point, the smallest size, always focus very carefully on the eye by half press, then recompose and shoot. Always S-AF+MF, face detection off. Sometimes after focus by half pressing I cancel, switch to MF by Fn2 and recompose and shoot in MF mode.

I am suspicious that maybe this procedure is somehow interfering with something on E-M10ii. I decided to reconfigure AF to "mode3", assign the focusing to Fn1 and magnification to Fn2 to bypass the step of recomposition with half pressed shutter. Also activated the first electronic shutter mode. But I will have some results only after some days, I just need to make a break after several days constantly fighting with this.

I have been shooting the E-M10ii for one year by now, with Oly 45mm and Pana 20mm lenses. Last week I borrowed a Fuji XT10 + 35mm f1.4 + kit zoom for a test (XT20 just wasn't available...) and I was completely shocked by how accurate that system autofocused! Completely different story compared to my camera. Using exactly the same procedure as with my Oly. Both Fuji lenses.

When I was returning the Fuji camera to the shop I also asked to make several testing shots, just in the shop, with two MFT lenses I am interested in - the Oly 75mm and 25mm f1.2 - both well regarded for their sharpness. I tested on my E-M10ii body and was getting again my old back-focusing problem!!

It just can't be that all four MFT lenses were so bad ones and both Fuji lenses so good.... It really must be the AF algorithm in the E-M10ii !!! Also good to mention, in very good light (outdoors), the focus is often perfect, so my lenses as such can be sharp (20mm without no doubt, 45mm might need to be stopped to f2.8...).

I start tend to agree with the speculation that Olympus maybe preferred the AF speed against the accuracy (by accepting the sub-optimal contrast instead of searching for real maximum). This is supported by the difference of AF behaviour on XT10 - there, it quite often retried and made extra "hunting round" during single half press. In contrast to Oly, where it doesn't really happen and the speed is rather good - but maybe for the cost of accuracy(?). I should get more experience after a week or two, the reconfigured settings I mentioned earlier should allow for more precise observation even during shooting (magnification by Fn button & roller, maybe in combination with focus peaking).

P.S. I see no technical reason for a new E-M10iii to be better in this aspect, even though it should be really just a sw issue! I could even imagine an AF menu setting "preference of speed / precision".