Interesting thought and test process. I've learnt a few things in landscape photography just from this. My focus normally surrounds critical moments and composition, getting sharp from close to afar isn't my priority but it's fascinating. I do enjoy listening to you though, makes me want to make a cuppa and just watch, now, time for me to head out in the cold and make my next video!

It's these process methods and explainations of why, that keep me a loyal subscriber David. Hat's off to you for another brilliant vlog.

I don't normally enjoy the tech talk vlogs and I don't use M43 but you made that interesting and informative David. Thoroughly enjoyed it :)

Good evening, David. I'm really enjoying your channel, together with your nice relaxed approach to photography. I wish you many hours of pleasure with the new set-up.

Very pleased that you are getting on well with the M4/3 system. I agree, it does take some getting used to after years with in my case, FF cameras. I still use FF in my studio and occasionally outside but I've been using Olympus M4/3 cameras for 95% of my photography for a few years now. Even for studio product photography the M5ii and M1ii with their Hi Res Mode & Pro lenses, competes with my D810 and on a still day without movement in the scene, for landscapes. If you need to go above Olympus's base ISO of 200 exposing to the right of the histogram (ETTR) helps greatly with noise in the shadows and as I mentioned in the comments of your previous video, LOW (64) ISO looses out slightly in the dynamic range but does give a nice smooth image and can be very useful when you want to lengthen the shutter speed and in the studio with powerful studio strobes.

Nice one David. I’m pleased that your initial impressions of the lens and system are favourable. By chance, I often find myself at f5.6 and f7.1 and this video validates my informal findings. I think that m43 apertures are roughly equivalent to 2x full frame-so f5.6 on m43 is the trusty f11 choice of FF or crop shooters. It took me some time to become comfortable with this as it didn’t feel “right” to be at f4 or f5.6 while trying to achieve good DOF, but as you are now learning, it works. On the flip side, it is more difficult to achieve dreamy bokeh, but that’s not really a shortcoming for us landscape folks. Now, get back outside and start shooting! Lest you lose any more sensitive Paul type viewers. 😉😉 Cheers, Jeff

(makes cup of tea, pulls up chair, waiting for any news on your new set up) I was very interested to hear there was no noise, when pulling back the shadows, which is so common in smaller sensor cameras. It seems to be ticking a lot of boxes so far Dave...I look forward to more information on the new set up in the near future 😊

After watching this video a couple of months back, I bit the bullet and bought this lens new just the other day. So far I'm really liking it. Me, always want the fastest lens I can afford, even if that means I have to slap on an ND filter from time to time to get the shutter speed where I need it. There are just too many mornings, evenings, and indoors I cannot take a usable image without the fastest possible lens. So, this lens is not as fast wide-open as I would like, but that constant aperture is beginning to grow on me, it will never be worse at full extension as it is wide-open. absolutely

Nice video with lots of good information. I just went from full frame to crop due to the weight of the full frame camera. I just subscribed to your channel and looking forward to seeing more of your videos.

Thank you David for a real world focus checking system as opposed to shooting a test chart. With my 12-40 Pro, 7.1 is also the sweetest spot, followed by f8.

I'm glad I've found your channel. I want to become a landscape photographer and I find my current camera not having a good selection of lenses and lacking a few features that this Olympus offers. I'm not sure if I should wait and see what camera Olympus is going to release next. But at least I know what lens to get to keep things light and minimal. Thank you. Looking forward to your next videos.

He He you are starting to find what I found; MFT glass is extraordinary. I bought the Panasonic 14-140mm for trips not art photography; it looked good. So I took a photo outside my door of the flats and trees on the estate. I compared it with my Nikon D7100 with a 35mm f1.8G. I decided it was a dead heat; WHAT!!? Its a superzoom if you have a 28-200mm Zoom on a DSLR you expect it to be adequate but nothing to write home about; its too long a range to be optically special, its a compromise. Switched on my computer and ordered an Olympus 17mm f1.8 and a 45mm f1.8. Next week I redid the test. OMG the Olypus primes blew away the Nikon. The flats in the distance looked about the same, I blew them up; on the Nikon they were flat and smooth on the Olympus 17mm i could see the texture of teh pebble dash, I could see individual leaves on bushes. The modern Nikon stuff was packed up and sold to mpb.com, I gave my used Lumix GX7 to my sister and bought the new GX9; I had a new system and added the ultra cheap and fantastic Panasonic 25mm f1.7. This entire system weighs less than my Nikon with a zoom lens. Do be careful of noise, dont let yourself be fooled. All cameras have noise; even full frame cameras. Noise comes from counting statistics and thermal quantum processes in the sensor and preamps. The key is how that noise is managed in a camera; its better to deal with noise in post under your control than let high ISO take care of it with a blunt instrument. Some noise in an image isnt a problem, you can mostly deal with it by lifting the black level. In answer to photographers who go on about sensor size, the 16MP sensor has the same size pixels as the 24MP Nikon so should have about the same level of noise which I confirmed by testing. This is the paradox, noise reduction is a compromise but, you should have the choice. It is better to use lower ISO and remove extra noise in post under your control not the blunt instrument of a hard wired processor which will significantly degrade your image, it removes microtones. You wont find high ISO on expensive high end equipment like a Hasselblad. Incidentally that is why Panasonic GH5 video is slightly noisier than people expect; not because its MFT but because their Ambassadors asked for the noise to be handled lightly as they want to process it later in their expensive video software. Always remember all processes on images remove fine detail, keep that equation as your choice not the choice of the manufacturer. Have fun learning your new system.

Hi David I am new to your channel but have been playing with the olympus omd em1 mk1 for about a year. I also enjoy landscape photography and one thing that I found when I wanted to pull the most colour and detail out of an image I used the olympus viewer 3 software to process the raw file and then convert that to a tiff file and then complete my editing in lightroom soon to be capture one. On my own testing over a range of shots in a range of conditions I got significant improvements in colour and detail but the work flow is horrendous so I reserve this process for only images that I am going to print large (up to A1) size. Keep up the great work I do find your on location talks very informative and inspirational. Cheers :)

Enjoyed, learning how you evaluate sensor and lens combinations. I shoot Olympus and want to do some wildlife and la dscape photography.

Very well explained David, I am considering buying this len,s, think it,s a 1 off do it all, pro standard, built in IBIS etc. However, it,s £750 used, has excellent review,s, F4 not a problem for landscape, it does not move! Expensive, but maybe save on 3? lenses of lesser quality, plus weight etc.

Another great asset of this lens that not many people talk about is the way it renders the out of focus areas at the wide angle end of the focal range. As an example, take a head and shoulders portrait of someone under a tree at 12mm and f4. Look at the out of focus leaves and branches in the background. You will be hooked :-)

So pleased I came across your you tube pages and disappointed you didn't choose fuji cameras which I've just migrated to from Canon. But then I can see your reasoning and enjoy so much of the results you've found. I enjoy all of your videos and hope to see much more of your landscape work in the future. Keep the hits and tips alive as i'm ready always to take on board any that come my way even though I'm in my eighties you take me there whare I can't manage with my balance on these old legs which are perhaps worse than yours lol.

Thanks for this Dave, I know it's an old one but I have just bought the EM5 mk3 along with a 12-100mm f/4 pro. I have so many Panasonic lenses to go with my Lumix GX8 that I couldn't afford to replace them with Olympus. I thought I would go with this one lens as it covers my main focal usage lengths. I found that my Pany lenses will not work with lens IS on the Olympus body nor can I focus stack with them. so this review with the lens sweet spot was most useful.

Hi David, i'm loving all your content so please don't apologies for putting this out. I use a panasonic system for all the travel stuff I do, as I find it much easier to carry around all day. Really sorry I wasn't able to meet you in person at the Mallam meet up as I was in Singapore, but hopefully this summer our paths will cross. All the very best Graeme

I would like to hear about your experiences with your new stuff. This would give more insight than typical "review" channels. Combined with your "usual" stuff - sounds interesting. The lack of shadow noise (and a smooth sky) with the E-M1 MkII corresponds to the one day test I did with it, and it gives much better results in this regard than the also 20 MP sensor in my Pen F (I had other considerations in opting for the Pen F, because I wasn't sure if MFT is the way to go for me; my Sony A7 is mostly gaining dust since then … ;-)).

A tip for all Olympus MFT photographers - try to use only PRO lenses - they really are worth the extra money for sharpness and lack of distortion. Olympus PRO lenses are every bit as sharp as Nikon.

Thanks for another great video like you I upgraded to a omd1 mk2 but from a omd10 and am in the process of going over from Nikon as well as the weight is getting out of hand I am using 14-150 and a pano 25mm at moment till I decide on what lens will suit me in my landscape photography, and I have been using f9 I will try f7,1 as it’s make sense with the smaller sensor and try the pro lens you are useing

Informative video David, I went on a landscape photography workshop with Phil Norton and he advised me to use f7.1 so you’re spot on there. You should also find usable results up to iso 6400 with your new toy. When you do your next test shot could I ask you crop our the bit of sky, top right, That’s all I found I was looking at. Im one of those annoying folks who go and straighten pictures on the wall. Thanks for the video David and I’m looking forward to seeing some cracking images from your EM1 mkii and 12-100 as you embark on your photographic travels.

Griff, You're talking about depth of field in crop sensor micro 4/3rds (or MFT). Of course, most viewers are probably familiar with the idea that when dealing with a MFT lens, in comparison with a full frame sensor (or old 35mm film), the focal length is effectively doubled. So a 25mm MFT lens becomes equivalent to a 50mm in old money, and a 300mm becomes a 600mm super-telephoto. However, there's also a comparable effect on the f-stops. An f.4 in MFT is not the same as an f.4 in a full frame sensor or old 35mm film. Perhaps it would be helpful to your viewers to explain how this f-stop thing works in MFT vs full size sensors and 35mm film, so that they can better understand what you're saying about depth of field in your excellent video. ...and for those new to MFT who are wondering what I'm referring to, please look at Griff's reply, then re-watch this Griff's really good video a few times, to see how MFT lenses change our thinking about depth of field. Thanks Griff. Looking forward to your reply, Rick

Welcome to the m43 world, and another sub.

Looks like very nice piece of gear, heard only great things about it, you will have lot of fun with it! Listen you look great in your new you, thank you and take care, cheers V!

Hi , you mentioned in no.70 that you going to do the milky way shoot later on in the year. I just wondered if you did it , if so how did it go with your new Olympus combination..by way the I just discovered your channel today. I'm also Olympus Panasonic shooter. It's all great gear. I love it but don't tell the wife.. lol...

Very interesting vlog. I love this lens and the sharpness is amazing.

Good video and very informative. I've just bought the 12-50mm compact zoom and I was wondering how it faired in your test if you've done one. Thanks

Don't mind tech reviews if they are informative and entertaining as yours are. Not many can do them very well. Keep doing what you do and I hope it all works out as planned.

Fantastic mate nice video well thought out. 🙂👍✌

Very well done. Thank you.

Hi David, loving the videos, especially the ones on location... however the indoor ones through thick and thin, suggest your looking thin...very slimline.. I trust your ok mate and loosing weight intentionally as you appear very up beat and enthralled in the new equipment. Best Wishes James

Brilliant vlog buddy

Might just be me, but I didn't think the video quality was quite up to your normal standards on this? Not as sharp, or smooth (framerate), and the highlights are blown. I think you mentioned you used an iPhone before for these videos made at your home? I remember thinking at the time how impressed I was with the quality, considering it was "only" a phone.

1 and 2/3 stop up from the biggest aperture, sounds about right as most as a thumb rule says a given lense is sharpest at 2stops down from the widest. Where did you focus on the tests? :-)

Great spot to test out a new lens :D I have not been around for 18 months but I have been around for a few weeks now since i discovered your channel. I like the mixed Vlogs you do variety as they say is the spice of life :D Looking forward to your next Vlog :D Teddy

Thanks very much D Griff. I enjoyed your video. One comment though, it maybe just me, but i would rather want a mix of analysis of the lens plus actual/y footage (pics, video). Thanks again

Interesting video. Just wondering if you've considered focus stacking?

I am really surprised that F 7.1 was your sweet spot. I would have expected at least F 8 or F9 based on the range of apertures. That makes me think I need to do a similar test on my setup. I shoot full frame and I have always just assumed F8-F9 were my go to apertures, occasionally F10 or F11. I may find out that my sweet spot is different than where I think it is.

I use m4-3rds and you are spot on when you say 7.1 is the sweet spot this can be pushed but only when you have absolutely perfect light, I am sure you are going too love using the range of Zuicko pro lenses as I believe they are some of the best glass around. Looking forward to seeing your images with the new system, if the past is anything to go by they are going to be superb. Regards, Colin.

Wouldn't that be 24-200 f 8 in ff

My main lens is the 12-40 2.8, I like having that extra stop of light for less ideal lighting conditions, but the 12-100 does look a tasty lens too. I wonder which is the sharper?

Interesting watch..... thanks again. I uploaded my second ever vlog type thing yesterday and would be interested in your opinion..... Please don’t worry I will never be in competition as this is a distraction hobby for me as my wife is very poorly.

Nice video and presentation. What i fail to understand is this: "Why buy an interchangeable lens camera when you know you won't be changing lenses?"

Hi David where do you focus on this photo? Thanks

David thank you for this video. Last reply you said the sweet spot was 5.6? But I just saw this. Would you say 7.1 vs 5.6 will vary depending on what you’re shooting or the type of image you want to create ?

Hi, another thing that I like about the E-M1 mk2 is that you can configure it so that it shows you on the screen whilst you are framing the image what parts are over exposed (in red) and underexposed in blue (similar to what you can do after you have shot the image). This way you can push your histogram as far to the right without clipping and know you have the maximum details possible in the shadows. This can give a horrible JPEG, but is great if you want the most flexible raw file. If you are interested in setting you camera like that, here is a video that shows you how: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qdJ5qcaJz9nHg40.html

#70 plus video 6min and Im in love with you why are the people teach this to me............. Trade secret will be watching all 69 video before it now, your the best.

When you talk you look so cute !

👍

Hello Dave. I'm glad you found the sweet spot of your lens. I just wanted to recommend a video regarding Olympus' histogram. Don't know if other brands can actually manipulate or control their histogram to avoid as much as possible clipping highlights and shadows. Rob Trek has a useful tutorial on this particular matter. Check it out and see if you find it useful. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rdRzac5o3Z-YnYk.html Note: He is using a different camera model from Olympus but menus are very similar.

In good old Thomas Heaton fashion... 1st !! :)

Another comedian - if you want even more depth of field, use your iPhone...