John & Maria's Photography Pages

Thoughts on the Olympus EM1 mkII and 40-150mm f2.8 Pro

By the standards of too many YouTube photographers and critics this combination of an old M43 camera (December 2016) and even older Olympus Pro lens (2014) should long ago have been discarded on the scrap heap in favour of newer and better equipment.  Surely only the latest and best is good enough for professional quality work?

Well no.  For my stock and other photography I don't need super high resolution, incredible high ISO ability or the smaller depth of field of a full frame body and expensive, larger aperture lens.  The 16 and 20Mp sensors of my two Olympus bodies, together with the f2.8 constant aperture of the 12-40mm and 40-150mm Pro and 60mm macro lenses are more than enough for my needs, and, more importantly, the needs of Alamy's client base.

Of all the gear the EM1 mkII and 40-150mm f2.8 Pro has definitely become a favourite.  Consider the following image:

It's actually two shots from a sequence, merged as a panorama in Lightroom, and chosen to show both the tuck and extension phases of the double suspension gallop of my daughter's deerhound / greyhound cross.  Sampson (the dog) was at full speed, around 40mph, on a local field.  I was panning at 142mm, ISO 800, f3.2, 1/2000 sec and using the continuous autofocus of the sequential high shooting mode. There is a little motion blur around the limbs - I could have gone down to f2.8 - but it doesn't detract from the fact that the extremely fast and accurate autofocus, large aperture 40-150 lens, and high speed shooting ability of the EM1 MkII body enabled me to get a sequence of sharp shots of a very fast dog.

Consider another image:

This is a Silver washed fritillary butterfly, taken at 150mm, f6.3, ISO 800. 1/2500 sec, using the close focusing ability of the 40-150 to fill the frame with the butterfly and the Inula flower head it was nectaring on.  Plenty of separation from the background with this shot, something it's often claimed you can't get with m43 gear.

Of course it's possible to get even better separation and even closer focusing with the addition of the tiny 1.4x teleconverter.  Consider this marbled white butterfly shot:

f4 at 1/8000 sec and 210mm.  Wide open at maximum reach with a teleconverter, ideal conditions for a soft photo.  Here's a 100% crop:

The addition of the teleconverter even gets me into small bird territory.  Here's a nuthatch at Stover Park in Devon

Of course my primary need is for my plant and garden photography.  Shots that I would previously have taken with the 180mm macro now come into the province of the 40-150mm  Whether individual plant portraits....

...or wider ranging shots:

Even gardenscapes are not exempt.  Crop this down to portrait format and it's even good enough for a respected magazine front cover:

All from an antiquated lens and camera combination, which, even with the teleconverter, cost me less than £1500.  I rest my case.

Ps.  The last image is focus stacked - but that's a tale for another time.