This is probably the last digital camera that I will ever own and use. It'll take two lifetimes just to use all it's functions. I love the ability to add up to 10 lens details to the onboard database so it shows up in the Exif section.
Page Last Edited : Friday, 11th of April 2025.
© Dave Rowlands. All Rights Reserved.
Sitting there just waiting to be picked up and used.
All weatherproofed when the Oly 14-150mm f4-5.6 attached.
Sitting between light and darkness as the sun shines on it.
The Olympus OM-D E-M1 II is a feat of modern technology from 2016 which can do everything and anything you can think of to create the image in your mind. One of the many reasons I like this camera is shown in the screen capture below:
The camera allows you to store the details of up to 10 manual focus lenses and store the information in the EXIF data. This is a boon to those like me who use many of the older lenses and has to remember to make a note of the lens used while out photographing. With this new method you just select from the list you created, which lens you are using and then just take photographs.
The "Tamron 35-70mm f3.5 CF Macro" lens used to take my selfie is one of the sharpest manual zooms I have, click on the link to read more about this lens.
At first, I used to edit the lens name to show if I was using a teleconverter or focal reducer but I now mostly just edit the fStop and focal length fields, for instance when using the Teleconverter I would enter the new focal length and aperture, eg:
The "Tamron 200mm f3.5" with:
2x Teleconverter : FL 400mm, f7.0
3x Teleconverter : FL 600mm, f10.5
6x TC, 2x + 3x : FL 1200mm, f21.0
Focal Reducer : FL 144mm, f2.52
I find it much easier to just change the two fields rather than edit the lens name as well.
The images below were taken rather quickly using the "Tokina SZ-X 60-300mm f4-5.6" manual zoom attached to the E-M1 II:
The Tokina SZ-X has a Canon FD mount and I managed to get this for £29.99 including delivery and it's worth every penny. It balances really well on both my E-M5 II and the E-M1 II when the battery grips are also in place. Her's a shot with it mounted on the E-M1 II:
Now back to the E-M1 II. As I always do when getting a new to me second hand camera I check that the firmware is up to date, this camera had never been updated so I connected it all up and did the update which went from 1.2 to 3.7 with loads of improvements and fixes, so many in fact that it was almost like getting a different camera.
The camera itself is absolutely amazing and the JPeg images it creates are mostly stunning with great colour and fidelity. It focuses a lot quicker than my E-M5 II and even using manual focusing lenses seems easier. I did manage to get similar photos of a Robin on the bird feeder using my E-M5 II and my E-M1 II. The photos are straight out of camera JPegs without any editing done. I chose the "Natural" picture mode and tried to get roughly the same image size.
LUMIX G VARIO 45-150/F4.0-5.6
1/200th @ f6.3 with auto ISO set at 2000.
This lens is absolutely great, it's a "Kit" lens but it does the job of providing sharp contrasty images that you would be hard pressed to distinguish from one of the "Pro" lenses. I don't uses it as often as I should.
OLYMPUS M.14-150mm F4.0-5.6 II
1/200th @ f10 with auto ISO set at 3200.
I should have taken more notice of what the aperture was set to as I'd been using it previously for more depth of field. This is another "Kit" lens that provides respectable results. It's also weather sealed so on all my M43 bodies I can take it out in the rain, snow and storms.
