Micro 4/3 EM5 mark iii shutter shock

gryphon1911

Hall of Famer
Location
Central Ohio, USA
Name
Andrew
So, I’m playing about with the above mentioned camera and try as I might, I can’t seem to get a sharp image.

I “think” I have anti shock shutter options on , set at 0 seconds.

Unlike the older models, there is no “diamond” option to select. It appears from the manual that the turning on of anti shock in the menu should activate EFCS for any shutter speed below 1/320.


I notice when releasing the shutter though that I can feel the shutter mechanism moving the camera. Not sure if that is a defect or something to do with the lighter weight of the camera and/or plastic materials it is made of.

I tested the same conditions with the same lenses on the my EP5 and they are tack sharp. Looking to possibly return this camera if it is defective. If it is a design flaw, I may take those funds and put them toward a used EM1 Mark II. Had one of those before and loved a lot about it.

Any thoughts out there are appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
So, I’m playing about with the above mentioned camera and try as I might, I can’t seem to get a sharp image.

I “think” I have anti shock shutter options on , set at 0 seconds.

Unlike the older models, there is no “diamond” option to select. It appears from the manual that the turning on of anti shock in the menu should activate EFCS for any shutter speed below 1/320.


I notice when releasing the shutter though that I can feel the shutter mechanism moving the camera. Not sure if that is a defect or something to do with the lighter weight of the camera and/or plastic materials it is made of.

I tested the same conditions with the same lenses on the my EP5 and they are tack sharp. Looking to possibly return this camera if it is defective. If it is a design flaw, I may take those funds and put them toward a used EM1 Mark II. Had one of those before and loved a lot about it.

Any thoughts out there are appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Doesn't ring any bells ... I'm very satisfied with my camera and haven't noticed any sharpness problems that I could attribute to shutter shock.

The I.B.I.S. system feels a bit "bossy" with the E-M5 III (much like the Sony A7 II) because you can feel it working, but it's very effective, and I get very sharp images, especially with the admittedly less demanding 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO and 12-45mm f/.4 PRO. But I'll investigate to see if I can come up with something that helps you assess your unit.

M.
 
Doesn't ring any bells ... I'm very satisfied with my camera and haven't noticed any sharpness problems that I could attribute to shutter shock.

The I.B.I.S. system feels a bit "bossy" with the E-M5 III (much like the Sony A7 II) because you can feel it working, but it's very effective, and I get very sharp images, especially with the admittedly less demanding 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO and 12-45mm f/.4 PRO. But I'll investigate to see if I can come up with something that helps you assess your unit.

M.

Thank you. There is a lot to like about the Mark III so I'm hoping it is possibly something I am doing wrong in the setup and not a camera defect.
 
I found this on Robin Wong's site:
CORRECTION (Updated 16 November 2019): There is Anti-Shock setting in E-M5 Mark III but it is disabled by default. To enable Anti-Shock for E-M5 Mark III, go to Menu --> Gear Tab --> D1 --> Burst/Timer Icons Settings --> CHECK the Anti-Shock option.
 
I found this on Robin Wong's site:
CORRECTION (Updated 16 November 2019): There is Anti-Shock setting in E-M5 Mark III but it is disabled by default. To enable Anti-Shock for E-M5 Mark III, go to Menu --> Gear Tab --> D1 --> Burst/Timer Icons Settings --> CHECK the Anti-Shock option.
To be more precise: This his how you *activate the option* to be able use the "0 seconds" anti-shock setting in Shooting Menu 2. A right mess, this is ...

After that, you'll have the diamond again; the mode is active in my camera, here are some quick and dirty results from the 12-45mm f/4 at 45mm (sorry, only very close range and about 3 metres, ISO 1600 ...), pretty much SOOC (from RAW, no edits). Tell me if you need more ...

1/10s:
EM530077.jpg
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1/13s:
EM530078.jpg
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While I didn't really take a lot of care, sharpness seems satisfactory to me - certainly no shake ... Truth be told, the camera handles 1/4s without breaking a sweat with this kind of lens setting ...

M.
 
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Ok, so I might have figured it out.

After making sure that I had the camera setup like suggested above, I noticed that the anti-shock option was not something I could select as a choice.

So, digging about, I notice the D1 menu option. Drive settings. The anti shock settings were deselected! I added the anti shock back to checked and it is now selectable.

A few preliminary checks and I can see a definite difference. Of course, being Ohio - it is about to rain and a tornado touched down close by, so I might need to wait until later today or tomorrow to have some better light to test.

Again, thanks all to those that took the time to comment and discuss with me. The menu options were different enough on this camera that caused me to miss some things.
 
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I think it is sorted out.

09-07-2020_test_EM53P9070139.jpg
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09-07-2020_test_EM53P9070141.jpg
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09-07-2020_test_EM53P9070148.jpg
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09-07-2020_test_EM53P9070152.jpg
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These are looking good to me, even in the non-optimal light I had to shoot in. The crops are extreme, and shot wide open, so basically worst case scenarios...so it can only get better from here, which is a positive!! :)
 
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I know that I've personally experienced the worst shutter shock when using Panasonic lenses on the Olympus bodies.

It was so bad on the original EM5 that I thought I got a defective P14mm f/2.5 and returned it.
The shutter shock here is possibly slightly worse. On both Panasonic lenses I was using (12-32/3.5-5.6 and 35-100/2.8), it made them unacceptable to use. Even the Olympus 40-150/4-5.6 and 25/1.8 were showing signs of suffering from it - just not as bad.

I did test it after a bit with the fully electronic shutter and that provided me with a hint that I did not have the anti-shock activated properly. The other thing that threw me was that I had set anti-shock to 0 seconds, but I never got an option to turn it on. For some weird reason, the D1 menu had the shutter shock selections as deactivated by default.

I think this might be a case where olympus is getting a little too deep into the weeds with the menu system. I LOVE CUSTOMIZATION...I really do, but sometimes this is getting a little crazy. If it is that complicated as to potentially make your camera appear defective...then yikes!
 
So update: Took the EM5 back out for another few days and I believe there is something wrong. My EP5 is consistently out performing it in IQ. Not sure why that is, there just seems to be something off about the output. It is not as sharp and the colors seem off.


Even after I set them up the same and post process the same.

My EM5.3 has gone back for repair / replacement.

I will keep you updated.
 
The replacement is a silver and black version. Quite good looking to be honest.

Initial tests are promising. I couldn’t get out to test it properly, but initial tests on my puppies are showing the level of sharpness I had expected from the first body. Even shooting at ISO 6400, f/2.8, they are looking good.

I shall try and get out tomorrow to test it properly.

If the IQ is where I want it, I’ll then move on to experimenting with the AF-C settings and see if I can get them to an acceptable level. From everything I’ve heard it should be relatively capable.

Thanks all for listening to me as I work through all this.

I will report more on how I setup the EM5.3 later.
 
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FINALLY.......I am pleased!! :)

Images 1 and 2 are at ISO 6400 and f/2.8...just about the hardest shooting conditions I could come up with. Passed with flying colors.

I also realized that it appears that the noise reduction in the JPG engine, even at LOW is way too much and it destroys the sharpness in the EM5.3....so I turned the noise reduction off entirely. I prefer to deal with that in post anyway - light reduction si fine in Lightroom, but I can pull out Topaz Denoise when I need to hit it hard!

Now to start testing the on sensor PDAF performance.


1
10-09-2020_EM53_testing_PA090055.jpg
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2
10-09-2020_EM53_testing_PA090058.jpg
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3
10-10-2020_EM53_testing_PA100064.jpg
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4
10-10-2020_EM53_testing_PA100067.jpg
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5
10-10-2020_EM53_testing_PA100082.jpg
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