I listened to a couple of professional wildlife shooters describe how they use the new OM Systems OM-1 mark2. I found it quite interesting.
How do they handle low light?
For perched birds they slow the shutter speed way down and click off a ton of shots. Yes, they agree, even perched birds move so at low shutter speeds many, even most of the shots will not be sharp. Nevertheless, at 50f/s some will, and you will get enough for some awesome shots. At least they do. At slow shutter speeds the OM-1's image stabilization comes into play which is why they can shoot perched birds at 1/20 of a second.
What does the OM-1 mark 2 really excel at?
Simple answer is ProCapture. The mark 2 has a much-increased buffer size and the new AF is very sticky. At 50f/s you still have 5 seconds of sustained shooting, over 250 shots. Further, you can now burp gun shoot in ProCapture. If, for example, you take 75 shots, you still have 175 shots left for a subsequent ProCapture sequence.
It seems that they all have the same conclusion (or sales pitch). The changes from the OM-1 mark1 to the mark 2 appear small but the combined effect of better, more sticky autofocus, a buffer double the size and the increased image stabilization leads to more quality results.
They, of course, do not discuss the weakness of the m43 sensor size and all consider 20mp more than enough.
My personal view is that an OM-1/100-400 combination provides a compact, lightweight, relatively low cost, wildlife rig. However, the 100-400 is limited to 25 f/s which might be ok to photograph perched birds at slow shutter speeds, but the added buffer size really doesn't come into play much at 25 f/s. All the pros are shooting the expensive 150-400 but that moves the rig price into the $9K range.
Regards,
Tom
How do they handle low light?
For perched birds they slow the shutter speed way down and click off a ton of shots. Yes, they agree, even perched birds move so at low shutter speeds many, even most of the shots will not be sharp. Nevertheless, at 50f/s some will, and you will get enough for some awesome shots. At least they do. At slow shutter speeds the OM-1's image stabilization comes into play which is why they can shoot perched birds at 1/20 of a second.
What does the OM-1 mark 2 really excel at?
Simple answer is ProCapture. The mark 2 has a much-increased buffer size and the new AF is very sticky. At 50f/s you still have 5 seconds of sustained shooting, over 250 shots. Further, you can now burp gun shoot in ProCapture. If, for example, you take 75 shots, you still have 175 shots left for a subsequent ProCapture sequence.
It seems that they all have the same conclusion (or sales pitch). The changes from the OM-1 mark1 to the mark 2 appear small but the combined effect of better, more sticky autofocus, a buffer double the size and the increased image stabilization leads to more quality results.
They, of course, do not discuss the weakness of the m43 sensor size and all consider 20mp more than enough.
My personal view is that an OM-1/100-400 combination provides a compact, lightweight, relatively low cost, wildlife rig. However, the 100-400 is limited to 25 f/s which might be ok to photograph perched birds at slow shutter speeds, but the added buffer size really doesn't come into play much at 25 f/s. All the pros are shooting the expensive 150-400 but that moves the rig price into the $9K range.
Regards,
Tom