After weighing long and hard about the pros and cons of the E-M1X, I broke down and bought one, using the trade-in event. That finally put the price down to where I felt it should be, and after taking in more positive reviews and user experiences over time, I felt it was worth doing.
I have been harboring a few lingering concerns that are important to me and whether I continue to invest in my Olympus system...
Will we get bird or people AI subject tracking at some point? How will the 150-400mm Pro turn out? Will Olympus µ4/3 hang around long enough to see a major innovation in its sensor technology? Should I have tacos for dinner?
But even if the answers to those questions come out badly, I still wouldn't stop using my Olympus system. It might mean down the road I buy a second system to make up for the hurdles Olympus hadn't been able to overcome, but I don't like working two systems, and could just as easily continue with what I have.
I looked hard at a Sony A9 kit, and that as much as anything else made me realize that for my shooting genres and preferences, µ4/3 still offers the most flexibility and best
portability-to-IQ compromise for a hobbyist
like myself. In comparison, while I think the A9 / A7RIII combo might be the best thing going right now -- the size, weight and price
of the full frame gear I was considering wasn't justifiable for me. I probably need
to rent the A9 at some point, just to satisfy my curiosity.
Part of my early dismay with the E-M1X release was that in a Finland trip at the beginning of the year (the same time the E-M1X was coming out), I wasn't
overly happy with the IQ of many of the E-M1 MkII wildlife images I walked away with. Thinking that the E-M1X wouldn't have done any better made me feel that the system wasn't progressing in the way I wanted it to. But in retrospect, there were many positive results from my trip as well; and the disappointing
images were more because the lighting was challenging at times, but more importantly because I had been out of practice with wildlife photography for a few years now. (There are surprisingly few birds where I am living right now in Germany, but I regret not finding the time to practice beforehand with
the local birds, boring as they are.) I can point to some personal mistakes in technique and gear choice, as well as some aspects of the shooting situation that were preventing me from using my kit in an optimal way. So lately I have been thinking hard about how to hone specific skills and set my kit up in a way that would rectify those issues and yield better results. I ended up even more excited about bird photography with my Olympus gear, and I am glad that I didn't let a temporary despondency lead me to do anything rash.
The E-M1X with its current feature set admittedly isn't necessary to my ambitions, but its improved AF algorithms and target settings will help. This new body will retire my old E-M1, leaving me with an E-M1 MkII and E-M1X -- both of which I will use extensively but for very different purposes. I intend to set up the E-M1X Custom Modes primarily for various wildlife scenarios, and have a pretty comprehensive setup in mind -- both in terms of settings and employing accessories. I am planning a number of birding trips within the next year to see if my new plans all come together.
6-9 Bald eagle through branch-dehaze by Masaaki, on Flickr
). It seems so cheap that Olympus must have a good feeling the thing is almost indestructible.
