Only Took M4/3 Gear On A Road Trip; Test #3, Bird Photography

American White Ibis (click to enlarge)
All images with Olympus E-M1 Mark II and Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens
100mm; 1/500th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200

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This is the fourth of a series of posts about my wife's and my recent southern U.S. road trip taken earlier this month (March 2018).   These posts are equally about how well M4/3 format can fully meet my photographic needs.  For each post, I've written about a different type of photography and how well the Olympus gear performed.  In this post, we visited the southern shoreline of Lake Apopka while visiting in Winter Garden, Florida.  Winter Garden is a lovely city with a very nice lake and surrounds.

Also, I wanted to mention that this road trip and series of photographs was made without the latest firmware update Olympus released on February 28, 2018.  In the update, Olympus made several significant improvements in the camera's ability to focus faster in the C-AF mode, allowed the focus points to be about 1/2 the size of what they were, added more capability to the Pro Capture feature and added more lenses to the ones that allow focus stacking in-camera.  Also, image stability was improved in a couple of the latest Olympus PRO lenses.  I did upgrade when I returned home.

100mm; 1/2000th sec. @ f/4; ISO 640

While walking near Lake Apopka in the city of Winter Garden, Florida, I noticed a Great Blue Heron "fishing" among the water plants about 15 ft. from the shoreline.  Hmmm.  I saw this as an opportunity that unexpectedly presented itself to find out how well the Olympus E-M1 Mark II equipped with the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens could focus and track a large flying bird.  I wish I had brought along my Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 lens, but it was back at my friend's house.  Darn!  But I had no idea we would visit a lake.  

Knowing how skiddish Great Blue Herons are, I asked my wife to walk on the shoreline over toward the heron as I stood out on a dock.  The wind was at my back and I knew that as she walked on the shoreline the bird would fly.  I thought the bird wouldn't fly in my direction, but would fly away from the shoreline out into the lake.  If it did, I might be able to capture images of it flying.  As I expected, the heron took off parallel to the dock on which I was standing and I was able to capture a sequence of images.  I placed the entire sequence at the end of this post instead of throughout the post so you can scroll through them more easily.  The first image is the full image and the rest of the sequence are very highly cropped sections (almost 100%) of that same scene.  

I have a custom setting on the Mark II for just this type of situation.  When I switch to C2, the Mark II goes into shutter priority mode, a shutter speed of at least 1/2000th of a second, C-AF, high speed advance, Auto ISO and several additional settings.  Of course, I always shoot in the RAW format.  In other words, whenever I encounter an unexpected fast moving scene, all I have to do is turn the dial on the top plate to C2 and all of my settings are instantly changed to capture action.  I wish my X-T2 had this option.  C1 is where I normally keep my camera for general photography, which is aperture preferred, f/5.6, ISO 200, etc..  C3 is set so if I give the camera to my wife to use or to another individual to take our photos, everything is on automatic with face recognition, etc. set.  In other words, a non-photographer will be able to make a well focused, good exposure.  I never have used this feature in previous cameras I have owned and now I see the value in it.

100mm; 1.250th sec. @ f/7.1; ISO 200 (click to enlarge)

The problem I faced in photographing this heron, as I have previously experienced with only carrying one lens, is that the Olympus 12-100mm f/4 PRO lens was just not long enough to get really close to this subject, hence the cropping.  However, I will say that the files stood up much better than I expected at such a high crop factor.

Common Gallinule.  I heard this unusual noise among the lily pads and finally spotted this Gallinule.  This image
is about 1/3 of the full image. (click to enlarge)
100mm; 1/64oth sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200

For the heron sequence of images, I used the E-M1 Mark II's "Pro Capture" feature. How this works is that when pressing the shutter button halfway, the camera will buffer from 1-14 images continuously (now 35 with the new software update which I didn't have for these tests) until you fully press the shutter.  Once you fully press the shutter the last 14 buffered shots get sent to the memory card and the additional ones you make when fully pressing the shutter make for one heck of a sequence.  If I tried to capture a particular bird just at takeoff or another fast moving subject by using my best skills to press the shutter at an exact moment, I would fail many more times than I would succeed.  My reaction time at my age just isn't what it used to be and I really don't practice this skill.  This feature is a lifesaver when it comes to capturing peak action.  You choose whether your images are saved as RAW, RAW + JPEG or JPEG, by the way.  In the case of the Great Blue Heron, focus was dead on for the sequence.  I'm very happy with how the camera and lens performed.

100mm; 1/2000th sec. @ f/4.5; ISO 200 (click to enlarge)

A Comment:  First of all, this heron series of images was in a situation in which I would not have make any images as the circumstances presented before me were terrible.  I only made the images as illustration and to ascertain how well the camera/lens would perform under these circumstances.  The heron was too far away for the longest focal length I had with me.  The background was cars, road, buildings, etc.  Also, caught in the plants on the left side of the frame was a group of mylar balloons swaying in the breeze.  I was anticipating the heron would fly away from the shoreline and toward the mylar balloons.  It did.  Really, the whole scene and situation was poor but I wanted to find out, when the heron cleared the vegetation, if the Olympus would lock on to the bird and keep focus as I followed it across the scene.  Using Pro Capture feature, I made 52 images.  In every one, the heron is in sharp focus.  I am including all 52 here here, with most of them cropped at almost 100% to exclude the background and allow you to see how the heron was captured.

After the Great Blue Heron landed a bit farther out from the shore, I walked a bit closer to it and noticed it was standing among some water plants and an old fallen tree.  I thought this made a nice setting for an environmental portrait of the bird. This heron was the larges Great Blue Heron I believe I've ever seen.  I suspect it was about 5 ft. tall.

100mm; 1/1250th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 200 (click to enlarge)

Farther along the shoreline, I spotted three American White Ibis wading through the water about 5 ft. from the shoreline, among roots and water plants, searching for food.  I was able to approach withing 10 ft. of them and make several images of each, two of them as well as all three.

Full image frame of the Great Blue Heron Sequence below (click to enlarge)
1/2000th sec. @ f/4; ISO 320

You can click to enlarge any from this sequence.

I think my short foray into photography birds was relatively successful.  The latest update to the Mark II's firmware, which I did not have when in Florida and according to Olympus, will improve the C-AF function.  I felt it worked very well in this situation and I can't wait to see how Olympus has improved it.  Also, Olympus improved the "back focus button" focusing option (using the AE-AF Button) and I have found that much snappier and it seemed to lock in focus faster.  The other major upgrade was to give us an option to reduce the size of the focusing points to about 1/2 of what they were.  That will improve pinpoint focusing ability.  Finally, Olympus added a couple of more lenses that will work with the in-camera focus stacking and improved image stability with the 12-100mm lens and the 300mm f/4 lens.  Thank you Olympus.  Both Olympus and Fujifilm continue to give us significant upgrades, improvements and additional features.  Great companies!

For this test, I am pleased with how the M4/3 gear performed.  I wish the background of the heron sequence was better but I took the opportunity to make the most of what was presented before me.  Again, the only failure was mine.  I should have had a longer lens with me but we were just walking around and I didn't anticipate photographing birds.  I think I should start packing the 40-150mm f/2.8 lens in my carry around bag on a regular basis.  Lessons learned!

So far, the Olympus E-M1 Mark II and lenses have met or exceeded all my expectations on this road trip.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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