Choosing My Camera - the Olympus OMD EM1 Mk2
Back in college I got into photography with the twin lens reflex medium format Yashica Mat 124G. This was the poor man’s way to shoot 2 1/4 film. I think it was $125 new. I fantasized about owning a Hasselblad 500CM, but shot countless rolls of 220 with the Yashica, looking down into the flip out mirror behind the upper lens. When I discovered filmmaking in the mid 70’s I left my still photo hobby behind.
I had a few point and shoot travel cameras over the years but in 2015 I finally decided to get serious about shooting from the air in my paraglider. Brian at Looking Glass Photo & Camera in Berkeley recommended the Olympus OMD EM1. It was small and light, ergonomically comfortable for one hand shooting, weather sealed and fully featured. The Canon 5D was all the rage at the time and my film friends scolded me to go full frame. The image quality of the micro 4/3 format was a concern but after some testing I decided to go with the Olympus over the Sony a7 full frame mirrorless because of the ergonomics. It felt really good in the hand and the image quality difference was negligible so I bought it with a 25mm (50mm equivalent) f1.8 lens. For 3 months I shot with only that lens in order to learn the ins and outs of the camera without too many variables. Once I knew the EM1 thoroughly I bought the Olympus 75mm f1.8 to capture more water detail and closer shots of pilots in the air. I have since built up a pretty good collection of Olympus primes, but the 75 is still my favorite .
The original OMD EM1 was a fabulous camera for my purposes. The 16 megapixel image was sufficient for the 16x20 inch prints I was making. The 5 axis image stabilization combined with 1/8000 sec mechanical and 1 /16000 sec electronic shutter allowed me to capture the air to air flight shots and seascapes I was hoping for without having to goose up the ISO.
When the Mk2 was released in 2016 I upgraded for the 20 megapixel sensor, better autofocus and 60 fps Pro Capture. In Pro Capture mode you press the shutter half way and the camera shoots at up to 60 fps into a buffer so that when you finally press the shutter release all the way the previous 35 (or so) shots are captured along with a quantity going forward that is user specified. This allows you to effectively go back in time to get shots that you weren’t quick enough on the trigger to get normally. This is great for those nature shots where you sit waiting for a whale to breach or a bird to launch knowing full well that you’ll be a split second behind the sudden action.
For the first few years my subjects were seascapes and paragliding. In 2017 I began lighting for the Restoration Hardware catalogue, a hi end coffee table print publication. We were lighting these still shoots with the same gear and techniques that I had been using on film sets for decades. The medium format cameras were tethered to workstations running Capture One Pro software. Over the course of the year at Restoration Hardware I learned Capture One and wound up buying a license for processing my raw files. I love it. It’s so powerful that now I rarely go outside of C1 to Photoshop anymore. The layer function gives me granular control of every aspect of my processing, retouching, and printing workflow.
So I began to wonder if I could do product photography with my camera. Through firmware updates Olympus developed a Hi Res Mode that enables 80 megapixel raw files! The sensor shift technology moves the sensor 8 times in a rectangular pattern and combines the detail gathered from the 8 exposures into one raw file, yielding a significant resolution increase. Knowing that I would be able to get this level of resolution from my best lenses started the ball rolling to where I am now, building out a product studio. My tether gear should arrive this week. I’m really looking forward to having a decent screen size for tabletop work. Stay tuned.