I must be doing something wrong

Time for a Panasonic body?

 

throw your kitlens in the trash. buy some of the fast oly babies and then u go home and look after the instruction manual to your stuff. cheers  

 

All of my Olympus gear has bounced around the seat or floor of my 4WD for years, sometimes flying off the front seat into the passenger foot well when off-road. I've never had anything break etc. My E-M1 often sits on the floor and my E-P1 hasn't had one thing come loose or fall off since day one. You must have angered the Olympus gods at some point in time.  

 

I wore out two (albeit used) E-P1 and I'm only a casual shooter. Stuff is falling of the E-M5's ...

I don't have anything besides P&S to compare to (which also got worn out). I'm hard on stuff as a matter of principle. Just ask my mom about me and shoes!

Never broke a lens except on purpose.

 

You might not be gelling with the gear. It happens. Took me quite a bit of time to get my EM5 setup to where i love it. Had to get some good primes and skip the kit zoom, did a LOT of camera setup changes. One of the things that the EM5 could use some help on is C-AF.

Might need to spend more time concentrating on the EM5?

 

Get to know the EM5 and add some fast primes. Learn Lightroom or other program for PP.

 

I can help with only the most minor of your problems.

The eyecup on the E-M5 is notorious for escaping. See this thread for an alternative suggestion.

 

Dave,

Sorry to hear of your whoas. I too suffer with terrible posture after lugging around F3s, F4s, F5s, D1s, D1xs, D2xs, D3s, D700s and now D800s for years (not to mention the Hasselblads and Pentax 67s!). I truly feel your pain! THANK GOD one of my friends inspired me to give the Micro 4/3 system a casual then thorough evaluation. I started off with a humble Oly E-P2 along with a Pany GF-1 and their two respective "kit lenses". Those two cameras forced me to hunker down and LEARN how to shoot with their complex menus, itty-bitty buttons and dials. Most assuredly a different change of pace and a completely different discipline than I'd become accustomed to over the decades! Once everything started to fall in place and shooting with the new gear became more intuitive for me, there was NO turning back. While I'd have to agree that the Oly and Pany gear I currently own isn't quite in the same league with regards to being as battle-tough as my pro-level Nikons -- they sure are damn close and weigh a trifle of the kit I routinely had hanging off my shoulder.

HANG in there. Take some time to TRULY familiarize yourself with whatever system you decide to put in the hours with. Once you get through the learning curve, you'll start to really enjoy this little system!

 

As per other comments here you should be able to good results photographing moving subjects with your Oly with some practice and perhaps upgrading your kit lens. If you post some photo's and methodology (e.g. shooting mode) the members here can offer some practical advice. E.g. you could be relying on C-AF too much and S-AF (perhaps in conjunction full-time AF) could be the better choice for your photography.

Having said that if you just can't get on with your EM5 it's probably worth you at least borrowing / hiring a Pany body (e.g. GH3/GH4) - maybe you'll just gel with it, and it apparently the autofocus on these newer Pany bodies is excellent.

 

I don't know if it's Olympus or M43 that is the big difference but I took a full year to get the quality of results I wanted. Even starting in full auto the camera invariably chooses to focus on the wrong target - usually something off-centre but closer than the thing I'm looking at. I still struggle to get focus and exposure right on my black lab.

Personally I found using prime lenses and working mostly in Aperture Priority with S-AF was a great help. Also, I admit being an amateur, I sometimes select Sports Mode and let the camera hold my hand.

 

So long as you have good light. I've had cause to shoot football at night, and the lights used required shooting at ISO 3200 or 6400, and even using a Nikon D300 and 80-200/2.8 or 300/f at those ISO was insufficient in IQ. I needed to switch to full frame D700 to get acceptable to me results.

 

I'm confused. You say you have NO IS in lenses, yet have OMD and EPM2 (same two I have), which have IBIS in body. What's the problem?

 

The Lumix GX7 has in-body stabilization, fwiw.

 

And a lot of people look favorably upon the GX7, holding that and the GH4 as some of the best bodies from the Panasonic camp in m43.

 

The GH4 is pretty darn close there as well.