Test Olympus E-PM2 Image Stabilization Test with Comparison to E-M5

[krugorg]

Am I the only one to find these less than satisfying? I mean the results, not the effort...
And the short anti-shock looks to work, but honestly I have tried it and that delay made me nervous. Well, I sold the E-M5 for financial reasons, but looking at these examples I see why I had less crisp shots than I expected. Keeping in mind that using aperture priority, you end up using often shutter speeds around 1/100.

I am completely impressed with the shots I have from my OM-D over the past few months. Definitely the photographer here is the bottleneck in the IQ chain with this camera and not the other way around.

I am sorry you had to part with your E-M5 and you were not as crisp as you would have liked. What lenses were you using?

Based on my experience and the article I linked earlier, shutter shock does not impact most lenses (I do not own the 12-50mm or any long zooms). With the one lens I have that is susceptible to SS (75/1.8), it is very easy to avoid, either with the anti-shock setting or by forcing the shutter speed up or own.

The other thing I would mention is that this is not just an OM-D feature... could also happen on any other m4/3 body using a mechanical shutter (would assume that the lighter bodies are more susceptible).

Very interesting information. I am familiar with mirror lock up in my Canon DSLRs and previous film bodies. I'm a very recent convert to m43 and have shot less than 12000 photos with my OM-D and I don't recall that I've ever experienced this double image kind of effect from shutter shock. I'm usually shooting multiple frames per second. I don't use a tripod often. I'll have to search through my shots by shutter speed and see if I can find any examples but I probably deleted any good examples without realizing what was going on. I've never turned on the anti-shock. I just experimented with it.

Am I understanding correctly that if I turn on the 1/8 second AS that the first shot is delayed by 1/8 second?

And also, that the maximum 9fps will be reduced to around 6-7fps?

I don't pixel peep much, but when I first ran into SS with the 75/1.8, it was very easy to see on the camera's display.

You are correct on the 1/8 second anti-shock effectively delaying the shot for that amount of time. I am only turning it on when I have the 75/1.8 mounted and don't want to worry about the shutter speed.

 

[alessandro]

I am sorry you had to part with your E-M5 and you were not as crisp as you would have liked. What lenses were you using?

I didn't word it correctly, sorry... I have had many good shots, but sometimes some unexpected soft one too, with my 14-45 if I remember well, around 1/100.
I think the E-M5 is an absolute success, nonetheless we have to reconsider our expectations about IBIS and the like. This is my own opinion, of course: by its own design (a moving sensor), and with higher and higher resolutions, I am sure it can't be "pixel-precise". It helps and will help saving shots, but in my opinion the the perfectly sharp photo will be obtained with adequate shutter speed and perhaps turning the ibis off. This is the pixel-peeper's opinion, of course.
I got a cheap GX1 in change (I needed cash...), and I am truly enjoying the Oly magic cap. No pixel peeping there, it's refreshing.

Best
Alessandro

 

[RobWatson]

Shutter Shock

I use shutter shock all the time (well 50% of the time-and always on tripod) because I find my big meaty paws cause the camera to move about when I press the shutter. While working on improving by shutter button technique I still rely on the shutter shock setting to give me that pause between press and click to help get things back to stable.

With bigger lenses the camera/lens becomes a bit more stable just due to added bulk/weight/moment of inertia so the shutter shock might pay less dividends as the weight goes up (or button technique improves).

I'm generally highly caffinated so I need all the help I can get in this respect.

 

[dhazeghi]

Kyle and Art made me aware of the role for the anti-shock setting. I set it to 1/8s as they suggested and got the following results with the E-M5:

Seems to me that this setting completely addresses the issue with IBIS at 1/100s, albeit at the expense of a slight increase in shutter lag and viewfinder blackout time.. Preliminary results are that even with this setting the E-PM2 results were not ideal at 1/100s. I'm continuing to look at this and will update with any new findings.

Interesting. I don't suppose it'd be possible to try this last test with a self-timer instead of antishock? What I'm wondering is whether it's the act of pushing down the shutter release that the IBIS doesn't handle well, or the actual motion generated by the shutter itself.

In the second case, an electronic shutter would completely eliminate the problem.

However, it does still seem that for high and middling shutter speeds, the easiest thing to do is simply leave IBIS off altogether.

 

[drd1135]

I started using the anti-shock (1/8 s) on the E-PM1 as well. I definitely see improvement at low light. I have yet to try anything systematic in good light, but I'm more inspired now. The 14 would minimize the effects and the 45-200 has it's own OIS, which I always use. I'll give it a whirl when I get the 45.

 

[Geoff3DMN]

I wonder if this is related to the double image effect I've seen at certain shutter speeds and the 40-150 using my EPM-1 hmmm

 

[Amin]

Interesting. I don't suppose it'd be possible to try this last test with a self-timer instead of antishock? What I'm wondering is whether it's the act of pushing down the shutter release that the IBIS doesn't handle well, or the actual motion generated by the shutter itself.

All the tests were done with self timer (+/- antishock).

 

[dhazeghi]

All the tests were done with self timer (+/- antishock).

Oh, missed that. Excellent. So it really is 'shutter slap' that's mucking things up here. Thanks again for running the tests.

 

[jamespetts]

Ahh, so shutter shock is not about the movement in a camera caused by pressing the shutter button? I was not aware of this. How does it work?

 

[RobWatson]

Ahh, so shutter shock is not about the movement in a camera caused by pressing the shutter button? I was not aware of this. How does it work?

On the EVIL cameras the shutter is open. It has to first close then open and close again to capture an exposure. That first close causes 'shock' so usign the shutter shock imposes a delay after the first close to allow any shaking to settle before opening the shutter to begin the exposure.

 

[jamespetts]

Interesting. Roll on global shutter, in that case...

Might this affect using a 135mm manual lens on an E-P3, perchance? If so, I might just have to enable that setting...

 

[WolfBane]

Hi

can anyone help me to enable anti-shock? I've looked in the Custom Menu and can't seem to find it. I searched all over the place and see that it's also used to enable timelapse photography, but I can't see how to enable it.

So I click Super Control Panel
Custom Menu

...then where do I go after that?

I'm confused

 

[dav1dz]

Should I buy a second body? Do you guys find having two bodies crucial?

 

[metalmania]

Should I buy a second body? Do you guys find having two bodies crucial?

If money is no problem, then get it.

 

[WolfBane]

Hi

can anyone help me to enable anti-shock? I've looked in the Custom Menu and can't seem to find it. I searched all over the place and see that it's also used to enable timelapse photography, but I can't see how to enable it.

So I click Super Control Panel
Custom Menu

...then where do I go after that?

I'm confused

Found it,

Brain not in gear.

Click the Menu button
Setup
Custom menu
Exposure iso
... then anti shock is the last item on that screen

 

[GaryAyala]

Should I buy a second body? Do you guys find having two bodies crucial?

It all depends on how and what you're shooting. Generally, I find two bodies w/ primes a must. Zooms, one can easily get away with one body, but if you're shooting action or an event, two bodies are most useful. Two bodies speeds up the photographic response to a situation, meaning less misses.

Gary

 

[Jak Crow]

I'd like to see a comparison of IBIS with video between the two cameras.

 

[Rockinggoose]

An interesting demonstration of the problems that can be caused by IBIS on the E-M5 occurred I had set a focal length of 600mm whilst using the Canon 400mm plus 1.4x TC. I omitted to change this setting before mounting the Tokina 12-24mm and when I half pressed the shutter release the image jumped around dramatically, much more than I would expect. This shows just how much the sensor can move during IBIS and would indicate the very real possibility of image blur during shooting. When using my E-M5 with the Leica 14-150mm I find that the in-lens Mega IOS gives me more consistent results than the IBIS.

David

 

[FredUK]

Has anyone tested an EPM2 with a standard Panasonic 14-42mm kit lens with the “Lens I.S. Priority” menu item set to On? It would be interesting to see if it worked better than IBIS and without the need for the 1/8 second delay.

 

[Ulfric M Douglas]

Good idea Fred, I'll second that request.