EM1X in action by mu-43 users

[c12402]

The speed of Topaz is the same in the paid version, 30 seconds or so in a good computer. Anyway, much less than any alternative were you have to do a lot of adjustments, masking, etc... I also have the suite of Adobe and affinity, at the end, I use Topaz first and a final overall light, crop, etc... with Lightroom

 

[Ross the fiddler]

The speed of Topaz is the same in the paid version, 30 seconds or so in a good computer. Anyway, much less than any alternative were you have to do a lot of adjustments, masking, etc... I also have the suite of Adobe and affinity, at the end, I use Topaz first and a final overall light, crop, etc... with Lightroom

I tend to do that with Capture One & Olympus Workspace. The latter for importing & final resizing (or cropping) & the former for better editing out comes. I'm comfortable with that, but this denoise tool looks rather good.

 

[Gy Rob]

It speeds up a lot if you crop first as there is less for it to denoise it also depends on how strong you set it,i can say auto does a good job.
Rob.

 

[Gy Rob]

Its very rare to see one of these here on the east coast so feel very lucky to get a few shots EM1X 300f4 +tc 420mm 1/5000 sec f7.1 iso 3200
The ISO Is high as I was taking shots for testing Topaz and did not have time to lower it but happy with it
Rob.

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[Growltiger]

The speed of Topaz is the same in the paid version, 30 seconds or so in a good computer. Anyway, much less than any alternative were you have to do a lot of adjustments, masking, etc... I also have the suite of Adobe and affinity, at the end, I use Topaz first and a final overall light, crop, etc... with Lightroom

If you want Topaz AI to go faster get a fast video card. All their AI tools can use either the CPU (fairly slow even with a very fast CPU), or the GPU (depends how fast your GPU is, and you need plenty of memory in your GPU).

If you have to crop a lot you might benefit from Topaz Gigapixel AI which can enlarge your photo to have many more pixels. Amazing technology.

 

[Deleted member 29884]

City-people testing their limits at Ostrava Urban Challenge

The run takes place in an abandoned coal mine - coking plant - smelting plant in Ostrava, Czech Rep.
It is a very interesting place (not for everyone obviously ).

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[Robstar1963]

@masayoshi
Thanks for the thread which was a great idea !
I am not considering buying the EM1X at the moment because it is far too expensive for me
Although I am personally dissapointed by some aspects of the camera I would be willing to compromise should the price change or should mint used examples become affordable
As such it is great to have a thread such as yours where the features and usage can be discussed in one place and we can all fully appreciate what the camera has to offer
I will be monitoring all of the entries here closely and with great interest
Regards
Rob

Well the price came down as I expected and it didn’t take as long as is normally the case with Olympus high end models
The EM1X is now generally available for £2199 (apparently an Olympus offer until the end of March) in the UK which was still a little too much for me but I spotted a really good short term offer from a UK Official dealer for under £2000 a couple of weeks ago which was my target price to justify trying out the camera without risking too much of a loss on the used market if it doesn’t work out (previous Olympus list price was £2799 and previous best offer price was circa £2450)
I took delivery some days ago but took the chance to sit and think for a few days about whether I could justify the purchase and keep it or return it untried
Time is now up for a return in the next couple of days but I’ve decided to keep the camera and give it a go
Reasoning:-
Super telephoto using the Fuji XT3 with the 100-400 is a little cumbersome ( by the standards of someone with a bad back who struggles when the 100-400 is zoomed out to 400mm where it becomes more of a handfull )
The results at 400mm and with the 1.4TC were OK and good at times but the number of keepers was lower than I had hoped - at least at Silverstone where almost all shots are taken at 400mm (600mm) with and without the TC and even then need to be cropped due to the run off areas at the track
The results I had achieved previously with the EM1/2 and 300mm f4.0 were appreciably sharper and more pleasing at least on occasion and with the 1.4TC on the 300mm were better than the 100-400 Fuji with 1.4 TC (equivalent range)
The weight of the Fuji system is also an issue at my local Speedway with the 50-140 on the gripped XT3 which I do throughout the season from May to September
My thinking is that I can use the Olympus 12-100 on the EM1X for my Speedway work which mostly entails working from the infield at close range ( approx 4 to 5 metres where I tend to use only half of the zoom range of the 50-140 - the 12-100 should easily cover the range required and be less bulky and a little lighter
I’ve got to the point where I really should try out the intelligent auto focus for Motorsports on the EM1X - to see if I’m missing something worthwhile
I don’t have my 300mm f4.0 any longer but do still have the PL200mm f2.8 and 1.4 and 2.0 TCs
Although good the CAF auto focus on the XT3 was not quite as good as expected - it seemed to deteriorate after Firmware 3.0 (at least for what I do)
The PL 200mm f2.8 with TCs will give me focal lengths of 200mm @ f2.8 (400mm) 280mm @f4.0 (560mm) and 400mm at f5.6 (800mm) and at least comparable sharpness to the Fuji 100-400 with/without TC and with the 2.0 TC slightly longer maximum reach. I’m hoping that the results will be slightly sharper
The IQ in terms of colour and pop is undoubtedly generally better with the XT3 but having always used Jpeg only for both M43 and Fuji - I’m determined to use RAW on the EM1X in order to try to make up at least some of the difference.
Cropping ability was also better on the XT3 but after reading about experiences of a couple of others with the EM1X for Motorsports I’m hoping that like them I can forget about keeping the focus points on my target and concentrate more on framing and filling the frame which should as a result be more successful and make up some of the difference in IQ by needing much less cropping.
(There is always quite a margin in framing with normal CAF focussing because of having to keep the af target boxes over the subject)
The EM1X is quite a big (very big for M43) body but is very ergonomic and I expect it to be very pleasant to use.
I don’t imagine I would ever consider it if it wasn’t for my preference for Motorsports photography and the Motorsports AI AF
I did try the camera out briefly at a dealer some months ago and discovered that the EVF is perfectly acceptable if not ideal and the progressive scan seems to be well suited to panning fast moving machines so I’m hoping that it will perform well for what I want to do with it
For low light shots at Speedway - my main reason for moving to Fuji - I don’t expect the EM1X to perform well
Most of my shooting in the middle of the season is in better light which tails off towards the end of the events and the end of the season
I’ll make the most of what the camera can do and not concern myself too much with what it can’t achieve
My back injuries are becoming more of a concern and towards the end of a Speedway events I tend to be quite sore - I’m not getting any younger and need to make my body parts last as long as possible so this is going to take more of a priority as time goes on
The PL 200mm will be roughly the same size with or without the 1.4 and 2.0 TCs and won’t be anywhere near as long as the Fuji 100-400 fully extended
Also I find that the extra weight of the Fuji lenses means more inertia so panning becomes more difficult again especially when the 100-400 is fully extended where the moment of inertia is even greater (ie the inertia based upon the combination of the weight and the length of the lens)
The controls on the EM1X are very well laid out and I expect them to be very pleasant to use
I always had mixed feelings about the Fuji XT3 controls - sometimes I preferred the direct access dials for ISO etc but at times I also missed the more usual PASM controls of the Olympus and Panasonic M43 cameras id previously used
I did order an EM1/2 about 6 weeks ago when there was a good offer on Amazon but I returned that as I felt I was going backwards by going with that
By trying the EM1X I am at least able to try something different in the form of the AI AF
I’m just hoping that it will still work on Speedway bikes which tend to present at an angle to my shooting position ie that it will still recognise them as bikes despite seeing mainly the front wheel as the riders slide the back wheel out away from the front and in doing so emphasising less that they are a two wheeled machine
I would appreciate the benefit of anyone’s experience here if using the EM1X in a similar scenario ?
I’m also looking forward to trying out the HHHR shot facility so that I can photograph a wider variety of subjects which is also part of my reasoning for change
I belong to a local camera club. I am very well respected for my Motorsports shots which no one else does at the club and every year ( including this upcoming season) a couple of my shots are entered into a competition which runs for several months against a number of clubs around the country - my shots have contributed to our club being promoted 3 years in a row in our league but I would really like to enter something different in some of the club competitions this year and surprise everyone with some non Motorsports shots !
I’m hoping to try out the 1X quite soon and before the Motorsports season finishes
Speedway has already finished but still to come are two rounds of the MSV Thundersports series which my stepson is taking part in (currently 2nd in the 600 Sportsmans Championship) and the climax to the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch in October
Will post some results all being well
@ijm5012

 

[Robstar1963]

Ref my previous
XT3 with Fuji grip 935 grammes (3 batteries total)
EM1X 1003 Grammes (only 68 Grammes more) (2 batteries)
XT3 with 50-140 f2.8 2131 grammes
EM1X with Olympus 12-100 f4.0 1591 Grammes
So EM1X combo just over half a kilo lighter, shorter lens and similar equivalent reach (75-210 Fuji vs 24 - 200 Oly)

 

[AussiePhil]

Now for something completely different ..... It spring time and the local Floriade event is on with massive flower displays, been out trying hand held focus stacking with both the 60mm macro and the 40-150 pro

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X9143449 by Phil Gartner, on Flickr

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X9143429 by Phil Gartner, on Flickr

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X9153583 by Phil Gartner, on Flickr

 

[AussiePhil]

Just a quick follow up as I should have included a little extra info about the stacking..

All the images posted here and in my album of hand held focus stacked images on flickr are in camera stacked yep i just let the camera handle the stacking.
The ones above are 12 shot images with a focus differential of 2, i adjust the base aperture to get differing overall dof results.
With the 60mm i'm not that great at holding the camera steady up close but it doesn't seem to affect the result.
Subject motion blur is a concern so moving flowers etc are a no go
the camera when stacking the images seems to stack from the closest focus to the far focus and in the event it can't work out next step if builds the jpg with no further stacking ... well that's how it looks when comparing the individual images to the final stacked image.
Oh it also imposes quite a crop but you do get guides on the display that show the final crop sizing

 

[Ross the fiddler]

Just a quick follow up as I should have included a little extra info about the stacking..

All the images posted here and in my album of hand held focus stacked images on flickr are in camera stacked yep i just let the camera handle the stacking.
The ones above are 12 shot images with a focus differential of 2, i adjust the base aperture to get differing overall dof results.
With the 60mm i'm not that great at holding the camera steady up close but it doesn't seem to affect the result.
Subject motion blur is a concern so moving flowers etc are a no go
the camera when stacking the images seems to stack from the closest focus to the far focus and in the event it can't work out next step if builds the jpg with no further stacking ... well that's how it looks when comparing the individual images to the final stacked image.
Oh it also imposes quite a crop but you do get guides on the display that show the final crop sizing

Thanks, as that now also applies to the E-M1 II with FW 3.1 as well although I can't be certain about the level of movement possible though where the IBIS in the E-M1X maybe (should be) performing better than the E-M1 II.

 

[AussiePhil]

Thanks, as that now also applies to the E-M1 II with FW 3.1 as well although I can't be certain about the level of movement possible though where the IBIS in the E-M1X maybe (should be) performing better than the E-M1 II.

Hi Ross,
Oh i'd forgotten that the mk2 picked up the functionality.... i'll try it out next time.
Cheers
Phil

 

[Ross the fiddler]

Hi Ross,
Oh i'd forgotten that the mk2 picked up the functionality.... i'll try it out next time.
Cheers
Phil

Yes, it's nice now there are more frame options than 8 after the FW update, plus the cropping frame in the display is helpful too.

 

[Angus Gibbins]

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my E-M1X (although photography has taken a little bit of a back seat while I try and lose some weight) but the size, weight and form factor of the E-M1 mk II make it probably my favourite camera I've ever owned.

If you're going hiking, bushwalking or any intense physical activity, the E-M1X does get pretty heavy. I know it's probably nothing compared to a FF DSLR but when you're used to smaller M43 bodies, is does pick up a bit.

 

[TheLaird]

Some from a recent trip to Orkney.

 

[royd63uk]

Eagle Owl

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dont know how i got 2 in the post!!!

 

[Bristolero]

Eagle Owl View attachment 775176

View attachment 775176

dont know how i got 2 in the post!!!

"Stutter shock?"

 

[Deleted member 29884]

So how is our EM1x going ?

I was playing with it on our local motocross track, IMHO it simply functions

I'm still trying to settle down with my style and learning ACDSee, so the pictures might be wild a bit

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[Bristolero]

After more tests I decided to buy it, I'm more than happy with the results just a little extra selective sharpening to finish gets that little bit more out of the complete process .
I think its a game changer for me to get from 800iso my normal top to at leased 3200 .
Rob.

Gy, I'm curious if you have ever used DXO Prime, and if so, how it compares?

 

[Gy Rob]

No I normally use dust and scratches in PS and mask the subject .
Rob.