4/3 Lens Recommendations

[Chris Ross]

Agree with Wolfgang, the EM-1 MkII AF is much better than the EM-5 MkII. The 60mm is more usable. One problem with the 60mm in particular is it will try to lock onto particles in the water, the 30mm is less prone to that as you are generally much closer to any given subject. I find the EM-1 II is also less prone to locking onto particles, the EM-5 II would lock on and be quite difficult to get it to focus on something a bit further out. The limit switch does not seem to help much and restricts you to smaller subjects. C-AF is also much better on the EM-1 MkII - actually usable and is my default mode.

When talking about lenses and AF you always need to know what camera body people are using, it's the combination of the AF sensors, the algorithms in the AF processor, the lens optics and the AF motor that gives the results. In some cases the camera is the weak link.

on the 30mm it does limit you a little and whether it's useful for you depends on the subjects, I find it's good for objects down to about 1/2 life size or about 35-40mm long.

I have the Panasonic 30mm macro, I find it's very fast and snappy AF on the EM-1 MkII. Haven' tried the olympus so can't compare.

 

[WS007]

Of course AF with a 30mm lens will always be faster than twice the focal length. AF with long focal length (Maco) is a challenge for every camera system...
I just want to add that the example photo of a shrimp above was taken at night in the dark only using the red LED light from the Weefine 2300 (the shrimp will quickly dissappear when illuminated with white light, but does nor care about red light). This is really a challenge for any AF system, but with EM1II and 60mm macro it works (but it is, of course, on the border of what is practicable for the AF. In addition it is difficult to spot the shrimp on the viewfinder under the red illumination)...
I am very interested to compare AF on different camera/lens combinations and hear from as many as possible different people who are using them. But I will open a separate tread, so that we do not destroy jacebutlers tread on lens options for EM1II...

Wolfgang