Olympus OMD EM-1 mki: 220000 shoots

I work intensively in entomology museums to photographs TYPES of wild bee species (mainly bumblebees Bombus and flower-bees Anthophora). I now use a "light" kit to transport my stacking material in hand-luggage. It includes:

- Olympus OMD EM-1
- Olympus OMD EM-1 mkii (as backup)
- Olympus 60 mm F/2.8 macro
- a small tripod
- a micro rail
- 3 flash lights GODOX TT350o
- several MARUMI additional lenses
- several RAYNOX additional lenses
- various lens adaptators
- various and numerous tricky things to perform the work.

It is for me a considerable step forward, compared to the Nikon material that I used until now. For stacking, I was first using Nikon D7200 + stackshot rail. Much lighter, much faster, able to reach easily higher enlargement (until 5:1, corresponding to 10:1 in FF ratio). The resolution is very good, nearly not possible to differentiate from Nikon D800 + Stackshot rail that I also tested.

I also make a lot of pictures of living wild bees, in lab or in nature. Then, I have to carry the camera + lens + flash by hand. As flash for living specimens, I use Olympus T8 + reflector, that I like A LOT. For lens in lab I till use the Olympus 60mm macro that is very sharp. In the wild, the front distance is very critical as most wild bees are very shy. Then, I discovered that the lens Panasonic 45-175 with a marumi 220 apochromatic lens makes the job perfectly. I also tried the Sigma 105mm F:2.8 macro, but I find its sharpness disappointing compared to the Olympus 60mm and the Panasonic 45-175.

I bought the Olympus OMD EM1 in april 2017, just 2 years ago, and I realize that I reached the incredible score of 220000 shots without any problems. I expected an end of life around 150000 and this is the reason why I bought an OMD EM1 MkII as backup, last year. But until now, the Mki continues to do the job nicely in museums. I like it a lot. And I continue to use it at first.

The MkII is nevertheless significantly better with living bees, as it shows a shorter shutter delay. I don't know what is precisely this gain, it could be 1/10 sec, maybe even less. But with the shy and fast wild bees such an 1/10 sec, it's a lot (specially the flower bees or the banded bees) .

I programmed 2 mysets for each gears, a myset 1 for stacking with flash, a myset 2 for single shot of living bees with flash.

I recently presented a speech in the French Wild Bees working group about " A revolution in microphotography". The first revolution in macro was the apparition of 24x36 reflex, Exacta and Edixa (my father offered me an old Edixa for my 15th birthday). The next revolution was the Nikon F, that allowed shooting in any condition, with powerful flashlights and Kodachrome. The next revolution was the digital era, with the Nikon D1. Then appeared the stacking revolution, with heavy material, e.g. the excellent Canon MP-E 65 F/2.8 5x, together with the stackshot rail.

The incredible with the Olympus OMD EM1 is that the staff added the stacking capability just in firmware 4, improving so dramatically the usability of the camera.

For all of that, I would give a 5 stars to the Olympus OMD EM1 mkI, but I found few drawbacks. One is the flash WB that does not work in focus bracketing mode. Even if you select it, it turns to automatic WB. I call this a bug. I also found another bug when using the Godox X1-o synchroniser. This Godox simply freeze the Olympus at the end of bracketing shots and you have to remove battery to restart, losing the settings, of course. I am also disappointed that the last firmware did not allow to save the settings, as it is the case in EM5 II and EM1 II. Just a pity.

I just bought this week a second OMD EM1 mki camera,"as new" for 350 euros. Such a bargain for this incredible camera.

For any entomologist, or any macro amator, the Olympus OMD EM1 Mki is a huge step beyond, that I feel as a real revolution.

Thanks for the detailed report. You should contact Olympus about your work and your astounding number of shutter actuations. It sounds like you take good care of your gear. Keep up the good work. Maybe next time you can show us photos of some of the work you have been doing. I'd be interested.

Really nice to read such a great report from a person who has such a long and specific experience to report on.  Thanks for your efforts.

Joe

That's interesting, you use the E-M1 for a very specific purpose. If it's not too much trouble, I think it would be interesting to see some of your focus-stacked images of bees.

Thanks for your review, i also got my EM-1 Mk1 last week for 480 usd. Still learning to use the camera with my PL 25mm F1.7