Olympus OMD EM-1 MKII - Open Discussion

[KCrofoot]

Anyone had a chance to get their eyes on this one. Is it a major upgrade over the EM1? Will it fit in the EM1 Nauticam housing?

Based on the pictures that I have seen the only change I see to the body or buttons is that the lcd screen flips open to the left.

Cheers

 

[Furnari]

My understanding is that there are enough dimensional changes that existing E-M1 housings won't work- the grip is deeper, it's a skosh taller, etc. That said, I'm really interested in a lot of the new features, some of which will be helpful underwater like faster focusing, improved low light performance and better stabilization. One downside is that the max flash sync speed is dropping down to 1/250 from the current 1/320.

 

[Audsred]

Just curious- do you know why the flash sync speed is dropping? I'm getting my camera Friday- so I can't wait to start playing with it.

 

[Furnari]

I have no idea why they would drop the sync speed, and I hope that particular spec ends up being changed from what was announced a while back. You'll have to let us know when you yours comes in

 

[jbb]

I have EM-1 mk2 as of today. I missed the bit about flash sync speed change. I am more concerned about having an underwater housing for my March trip to Indonesia. I have a Nauticam for my EM-5 but I see Subal is had a really nice housing for the EM-1 and is easier to repair.

 

[JackConnick]

Hi;

Yep, mine is coming tomorrow! Will delve into the flash sync issue and test it with my studio lighting.

Yes, new housings all around. Oly housing should start shipping RSN along with the new macro port. It will be good for the 60, not so good with the new 30mm as there will be about an inch of space behind the port glass. Same port system as the E-M1 (not like the E-M5 MKII). 7-14 and 12-40 will still not fit...

Nauticam and Subal will for sure have new housings. But they only got the camera to work with a couple of weeks ago. And both had a lot on their plates until around Christmas. Hopefully we'll see prototypes the end of January in time for the BOOT show in Germany. Shipping maybe another 2-3 weeks later, depending on testing. One big issue is that the flash unit that ships with the E-M1 MKII is very tall and you can't use one of the flip up ones. So it's going to have to be replaced with a smaller flash or an LED trigger.

March should be doable Jason. I will have both housings in stock.

Thanks,
Jack

 

[jd950]

Everything I have read suggests x sync is a max 1/250. On the other hand I have always heard those max sync speeds are dependent on the strobes used and I was never sure how that worked out with the little bundled strobes we use to optically trigger the underwater strobes we use. In any event, the other improvements seem to me to outweigh the 1/250 reduction if that ends up being true. I assume there must be some reason to it and would be interested in understanding that.

Looking forward to seeing how the camera does.

 

[Audsred]

Got my camera Friday - I haven't gotten a chance to play with it yet. Plan to play with it during the holidays.

 

[watboy]

Max sync is dependent on the shutter. The mechanical shutter is two curtains, the first one "opens" and the second one "closes". At slow enough shutter speeds, the first curtain moves and the whole sensor is exposed for a period of time before the second starts to close. At faster shutter speeds, the 2nd curtain starts closing before the first one is fully open, meaning the entire sensor is never fully exposed. The duration of the strobe firing is much shorter than mechanical shutter speeds, thus the maximum sync speed is the fastest shutter speed in which the sensor is fully exposed. If you used strobes at shutters faster than the max sync speeds, part of your imagine will be blacked by the curtain blocking the sensor.

Everything I have read suggests x sync is a max 1/250. On the other hand I have always heard those max sync speeds are dependent on the strobes used and I was never sure how that worked out with the little bundled strobes we use to optically trigger the underwater strobes we use. In any event, the other improvements seem to me to outweigh the 1/250 reduction if that ends up being true. I assume there must be some reason to it and would be interested in understanding that.

Looking forward to seeing how the camera does.

 

[JackConnick]

Max sync speed is 1/250th I can confirm. At 1/320th you can a slight shadow at the top of the frame.

Nauticam has released a part number and price of $1900 on their new housing, no other details. Subal is hard at work on theirs and says they will have more information pretty soon.