{"id":4341,"date":"2014-11-19T12:07:18","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T12:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/?p=4341"},"modified":"2014-11-19T12:07:18","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T12:07:18","slug":"the-olympus-em-1-9-months-of-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/11\/19\/the-olympus-em-1-9-months-of-use\/","title":{"rendered":"The Olympus EM-1&#8230;9 months of use"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:7659,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/adam-jackson.net\\\/blog\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/19\\\/photography-my-experience-with-micro-43-four-third-lenses&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20160229083420\\\/https:\\\/\\\/adam-jackson.net\\\/blog\\\/2014\\\/09\\\/19\\\/photography-my-experience-with-micro-43-four-third-lenses\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-11-05 00:46:11&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-11-29 10:28:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-13 12:01:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-23 02:38:00&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-26 10:17:19&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-07 05:52:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-11 04:04:40&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-23 07:00:30&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-12 08:44:16&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-17 00:36:42&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-21 20:14:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-31 06:08:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-31 06:08:25&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>I\u2019ve taken close to 8,000 photos this year with the Olympus EM-1 since it\u2019s arrival in February. I ordered a few lenses for it which were added to my previous collection of lenses (<a data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/2014\/09\/19\/photography-my-experience-with-micro-43-four-third-lenses\/\" href=\"http:\/\/adam-jackson.net\/blog\/2014\/09\/19\/photography-my-experience-with-micro-43-four-third-lenses\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">outlined in this post<\/a>).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>There are a few annoyances discovered after so much intimage use with a camera like this that you rarely pick up in a review. Without a lot of planning or notes, I\u2019m documenting a few here and I believe most of these can be fixed via software updates. In fact, some of these issues were supposedly already fixed but are recurring almost daily.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>The biggest annoyance comes with the AF (auto-focus) system. It is an issue with every single M43 lens. Scenario:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Turn on camera<\/li>\n<li>Hold shutter half-way down<\/li>\n<li>\u2026no auto-focus<\/li>\n<li>Take photo, no preview is shown of the photo (despite having 2 second previews enabled)<\/li>\n<li>Disable and re-enable AF, still no auto focus and then power cycle camera 3 times and eventually it works.&nbsp;\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This issue occurrs once per day and usually I\u2019m getting shots as I see them with no time to spare.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>Second is a problem ocurring a few times which is an error on screen that my SD card is \u201cWrite Protected\u201d. I usually confirm it\u2019s not and the only fix is to enter the camera\u2019s menu and format the card which of course leads to a deletion of photos so without a laptop present, I\u2019m unable to save the photos already taken. I heard this is due to turning the camera off while wrting photos to the card. The EM-1 will remain on with off switch toggled while writing the SD card so it looks like a serious bug that needs to be resolved. This has only happened 4 times this year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>The Battery grip &amp; using both batteries installed. I have the menu setting confirmed to use both of the batteries that are installed (one in the body and one in the battery grip). However, after a few hours of shooting, my camera reads low battery and turns off. I remove the battery grip and it shows full bars again. Basically, it\u2019s using the grip battery and not the one in the battery. Not a big deal because the grip is mostly for comfort, not for long-life (I\u2019d just carry 2 batteries if I didn\u2019t want the extra grip). It\u2019s just a minor annoyance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>UI Lattency and sluggishness. Boot time varies almost daily and changing settings on the fly rarely feel smooth and reliable. This should have been tweaked quite a bit for a product nearing 18 months old but it\u2019s not and Olympus really needs to step it up and make the interface much faster.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>Another note on Auto Focus. Yes, I can select the AF Point that I\u2019d like to focus on or switch to manual focus but you\u2019d assume AF would work fairly well nearly all of the time. Canon and Nikon nail this down very well. The EM-1 rarely focuses on faces and even when doing the classic\u2026point directly at subject to focus then move to the right (for rule of thirds). Most often, it focuses on something not in the center and I have to delay my subject\u2019s smile or pose to try AF a few more times before finally giving up and choosing the focus point via the D-pad. It takes a lot of time and I imagine if this was a sport photography situation, I\u2019d miss a ton of opportunities for shots.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>The camera takes fantastic photos and it\u2019s very comfortable. The glass so far is high quality (from Olympus and Panasonic) but it seems that mostly it\u2019s Olympus software that really needs a lot of work. If they can work out these bugs, the camera will be a joy to use. Fortunately, it\u2019s only in high-stress situations that these problems cause an issue. If I\u2019m out with a group taking many photographs and changing settings every minute, it counts quite a bit an failure rate seems to go up exponentially. Either way, it shouldn\u2019t matter what situation I\u2019m in. The camera should just work reliably all of the time. AF issues would make more sense if I was using non-standard lenses but these are Olympus made M43 lenses on an Olympus M43 body\u2026in fact, this is the flagship Olympus M43 body. It should behave like one.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>Imagine if Canon\u2019s 1Dx had these issues. It would be catstrophic.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve taken close to 8,000 photos this year with the Olympus EM-1 since it\u2019s arrival in February. I&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2016-08-31T00:26:00Z","apple_news_api_id":"141206ee-d530-43c5-80f0-f762fb3e6c23","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2016-08-31T00:26:00Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AFBIG7tUwQ8WA8Pdi-z5sIw","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-photography","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-181","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4254,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/09\/19\/photography-my-experience-with-micro-43-four-third-lenses\/","url_meta":{"origin":4341,"position":0},"title":"Photography: My experience with Micro 4\/3 (Four-Third) lenses","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"September 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanks Stefan for the inspiration on this post. Looking back at old photography posts, I\u2019ve been with the Micro Four-Thirds system since 2011. I haven\u2019t bought every lens or accessory that I want but I\u2019m about to make some big purchases soon and invest further. I did want to share\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4800,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/07\/15\/photography-saying-goodbye-to-micro-four-thirds-for-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":4341,"position":1},"title":"Photography: Saying goodbye to Micro Four Thirds&#8230;for now","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been four and a half years since I proclaimed a switch to Micro Four Thirds platform\u00a0from always using smaller cameras from Canon like the S90 and G1 platform of the late 2000s. I wanted to expand my photography skills and take better photos but I didn\u2019t have the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Olympus E-PL2 verus Canon 5D","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5171\/5446537365_7b641b7c83_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5171\/5446537365_7b641b7c83_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5171\/5446537365_7b641b7c83_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1714,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/02\/14\/why-ive-adopted-the-micro-four-thirds-camera-system\/","url_meta":{"origin":4341,"position":2},"title":"\u2605 Why I&#8217;ve Adopted The Micro-Four Thirds Camera System","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My eyes have been opened to a technological advancement of photography that has blown me away. The technology is known as Micro Four Thirds Cameras. According to\u00a0Wikipedia The\u00a0Micro Four Thirds system (MFT) is a standard created by\u00a0Olympus and\u00a0Panasonic for\u00a0mirrorless interchangeable lens digital cameras and\u00a0camcorders[1] design and development, announced on August\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Olympus E-PL2 w\/ Stock Lens","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5016\/5447136754_db7f3e0be7_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5016\/5447136754_db7f3e0be7_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5016\/5447136754_db7f3e0be7_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4043,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/03\/31\/photography-thoughts-on-olympus-om-d-e-m1\/","url_meta":{"origin":4341,"position":3},"title":"Photography: Thoughts on Olympus&#8217; OM-D E-M1","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"March 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m not a professional photographer or reviewer of gear. I\u2019m an amateur so if you\u2019re looking for an end to end review of the Olympus OM-D E-M1, hit up DPReview.\u00a0 After a month of research and reading reviews, I decided to upgrade my aging Olympus E-PL2 that I bought in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Self-Shot OM-D E-M1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7358\/13356628745_b24e120acf_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7358\/13356628745_b24e120acf_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7358\/13356628745_b24e120acf_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4041,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2014\/03\/23\/photography-the-olympus-om-d-e-m1-preview\/","url_meta":{"origin":4341,"position":4},"title":"Photography: The Olympus OM-D E-M1 (Preview)","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"March 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m going to spend some time with this camera before really weighing in but overall, this is a gigantic upgrade from my PEN E-PL2 that was really showing its age. I\u2019m doubling down on the M43 system in a big way.more lenses, new body. I\u2019m excited to use this especially\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Photography&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"New Camera OM-D E-M1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2882\/13357030474_14276b6ca6_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2882\/13357030474_14276b6ca6_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2882\/13357030474_14276b6ca6_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2006,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2011\/03\/23\/crunchgear-reviews-the-olympus-pen-e-pl2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4341,"position":5},"title":"\u2605 CrunchGear Reviews the Olympus PEN E-PL2","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"March 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My new favorite camera. I carry it with me EVERYWHERE and the review by John Biggs was spot on: I\u2019m a big fan of what Olympus has done here and if you\u2019re in the market for a mid-level portable camera with some great features, the E-PL2 is waiting for your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}