Em5ii Hi Res Mode?

[chrism_scotland]

Hey folks,

How useful is the 40mp high res mode? I've been looking for a mirrorless backup to my D800 and I've always like the micro 4/3 system (former EM5 User) - it seems by far the most mature compact system and I really like the more DSLR form factor of the EM5 (with grip) and EM1.

However the hi-res mode has me intrigued! Part of some of my reluctance to pickup a CSC has been the drop from the 36mp of the D800 to the 16mp on Fuji and Olympus - I have looked at the Sony A7 (24mp/36mp) but I feel the systems aren't there yet.

The 40mp hi res mode sounds like it could be a great solution to the problem of lower resolution but how usable is it?

I do a lot of tripod based shooting (landscapes and architecture mainly) and from what I've read it sounds like the hires mode might be decent for that.

 

[Deleted member 20897]

Right now, Olympus has stipulated that it is good for still life or landscapes where nothing is moving at all. Any movement during the capture of the 8 frames can/will result in artifacting. You'll also need to use a tripod at this point.

Rumor has it that the new EM1 Mark II will allow for hi res hand held shooting - but take that with a grain of salt.

 

[Klorenzo]

From what I've read looks like it just works. There are no problems with lens resolution limits because are different 16MP shots. There is a limit of 1/20 for flash sync. ISO is limited to 1600. For landscapes moving water, wind, cloud reflections, etc. can create small artifacts. There is a photoshop plugin from Olympus to process the hi-res file.

 

[dpswbab]

I've played around with it a bit, so I can report that it works pretty well if you abide by the published restrictions: no movement of the camera and no movement in the scene. So it would be great doing landscapes in many areas of the American Southwest, but not for forests and grasslands where the wind moves things about. The RAW output includes a hi-res .orf file and a 16 mpix .ori file. If you have something like flowing water, but nothing else, moving in the scene, you can blend the two files in Photoshop to get the hi-res detail stuff with the low-res moving water. This can work well with the right scene. For me, the hi-res mode is entertaining, but not something I use very often. By the way, the artifacts you get with any motion in the image are pretty obvious if you look at a 100% view of the file.

 

[neil Davidson]

I've just posted some pics comparing the high res with standard res and with a 5D3 image.