Micro 4/3 Micro 4/3 samples

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I'm pretty stunned at G9 performance. This is not a 100% crop and it has darktable's profiled noise reduction applied (it's not a state of the art NR that I can tell you!)

The majority of the pic is soft because of DOF. The texture of the canvas is where I focused.

Care to guess what's the ISO I used here?
 
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Care to guess what's the ISO I used here?
No guessers, so be it. This was taken at ISO 25000 and then pushed two stops in post, to an effective sensitivity of 100'000 ISO.

Of course the room was illuminated by some light so the results are better than in real world, dark scene shooting scenario. But I have a good feeling nonetheless.

I have to guess but Leica M would probably get destroyed by ISO 12800 in this same light. The banding would do it, the inherent undoing of Leica image processing. The G9 photo shows a different kind of banding but that's because I used the silent mode, including Electronic shutter for it.
 
I bought my O-MD E-M1 MkII back in January this year, after almost 14 years of Olympus Four Thirds DSLR photography. Stunned at how tech has moved on since my trusty (secondhand) E5 came into my possession in 2015.

Still lots to learn, taking photos in both RAW and JPG to see how the edits compare, when I get around to sitting down to do some editing of course. Downside is that the 'new' ORF files are not compatible with my trusty Adobe CS6 Photoshop on my antiquated iMac. So I have to begin to establish a different workflow and learn new software (Affinity Photo by Serif) which I will do. So for now, these are samples, the JPG unedited out of the camera. I also have a penchant for taking photos portrait, not landscape and have no idea why these have uploaded this way. Sorry!
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I bought my O-MD E-M1 MkII back in January this year, after almost 14 years of Olympus Four Thirds DSLR photography. Stunned at how tech has moved on since my trusty (secondhand) E5 came into my possession in 2015.

Still lots to learn, taking photos in both RAW and JPG to see how the edits compare, when I get around to sitting down to do some editing of course. Downside is that the 'new' ORF files are not compatible with my trusty Adobe CS6 Photoshop on my antiquated iMac. So I have to begin to establish a different workflow and learn new software (Affinity Photo by Serif) which I will do. So for now, these are samples, the JPG unedited out of the camera. I also have a penchant for taking photos portrait, not landscape and have no idea why these have uploaded this way. Sorry!View attachment 249215View attachment 249216
_oi000061-jpg.249217

Nice images. My favorite is the first one, of the rushing water.

One minor thought regarding the challenges of converting some RAW formats (including different Olympus versions of their ORF ones) to older versions of Adobe software (both Photoshop and Lightroom): I've encountered similar frustrations in the past - and solved some of them by using a standalone Adobe App called "Adobe DNG Converter" (of which different versions, both older and newer, are available for different Mac OS's, both older and newer ones): what the App does is convert strange RAW files into the DNG format which many (if not most versions) of either Photoshop or Lightroom can read and process easily.

The downside: it's still possible your antiquated Mac and your older version of Photoshop might still have problems reading or working with the converted DNG RAW files.
The upside: I have a pretty antiquated Mac myself, not to mention a semi-antiquated older copy of Adobe's Lightroom (the last standalone version they made years ago before they switched to a pricier subscription model) - and my old software is too old to 'read' or access the newer RAW files which my recently acquired Lumix GX9 produces - but after I converted my RAW files to DNG's (using Adobe DNG Converter) ... my supposedly out-of-date software can read and manipulate them with zero problems.
 
Nice images. My favorite is the first one, of the rushing water.

One minor thought regarding the challenges of converting some RAW formats (including different Olympus versions of their ORF ones) to older versions of Adobe software (both Photoshop and Lightroom): I've encountered similar frustrations in the past - and solved some of them by using a standalone Adobe App called "Adobe DNG Converter" (of which different versions, both older and newer, are available for different Mac OS's, both older and newer ones): what the App does is convert strange RAW files into the DNG format which many (if not most versions) of either Photoshop or Lightroom can read and process easily.

The downside: it's still possible your antiquated Mac and your older version of Photoshop might still have problems reading or working with the converted DNG RAW files.
The upside: I have a pretty antiquated Mac myself, not to mention a semi-antiquated older copy of Adobe's Lightroom (the last standalone version they made years ago before they switched to a pricier subscription model) - and my old software is too old to 'read' or access the newer RAW files which my recently acquired Lumix GX9 produces - but after I converted my RAW files to DNG's (using Adobe DNG Converter) ... my supposedly out-of-date software can read and manipulate them with zero problems.
Thanks for this. I'm using an iMac early 2009 running El Capitan. My thoughts are to convert the ORF files in Affinity then save as TIFF. I can then use PS to add the watermark and save as JPEG. Just need to find the time to test the theory....🙃
 
Beautiful photos! If you use "Share -> BBCode" from flickr you won't have the rotation issues (I think :) )


For my E1 (or the newer EM1.../EM5) I often use the "Olympus Viewer" software to do the initial raw conversion to TIF (and then processing in PS CS5, etc...)

It does great conversions - whenever the photos don't need strong shadow/highlight recovery...

It's not the fastest software (<-understatement :-D ) ... so I don't tweak a lot in it (WB, exposure compensation, noise reduction LOW & sharpening 'LOW')
Not sure how painfully slow it would run on an older computer - but it's free. Easy to test. :)
 
I also often use the Olympus software and concur with your comments regarding its use Tilman. It is very useful for basic manipulations and does produce conversions with the Olympus characteristics. However, the "Olympus Viewer 3" software actually hasn't been available to download from Olympus since March 2019. It has been replaced by the newer "Olympus Workspace" software which has improved functionality.

A direct quote from the Olympus website:- "The new Olympus Workspace software replaces Olympus Viewer 3[*]. Supporting various styles of photography workflows, this software is packed with features that meet the demands of pro photographers, including a more customisable screen layout and high-speed RAW preview".
 
My impression of Olympus Workspace was that whatever the changes, they didn't really make it any faster. Besides, from what I read, it won't run on El Capitan - it needs OS X 10.12 or newer, and El Capitan is 10.11. See here:


Anyhow, I mainly want to confirm that the Adobe DNG Converter is a simple and effective way to solve most compatibility problems. Here's the best entry point for a download:


Other than that, there are various free RAW processors, the two most powerful being darktable and, above all, RawTherapee; but they both come with a learning curve; even though I don't know Affinity Photo, I suspect that they may both seem rather intimidating at first, and certainly less polished (at least darktable). That said, they both work well, and RawTherapee is especially versatile and full-featured. But they're both their own animals, not mainstream at all. However, since they're both not only free, but Free Software, you can try them without any penalty except on your own time. I prefer darktable because it's easy to set up your personal workflow (which the software helps to optimise!).

FYI, the Attachment tag doesn't allow for orientation manipulation, either, so it's down to adjusting (or securing) orientation on your machine before uploading. XnView MP may help you there - it's another versatile piece of software for image manipulation, and it's fast.
M.
 
Thanks all for your comments and advice. I had used the bluetooth connection on the E-M1 and downloaded these photos onto my Smartphone, where I have the Olympus Imaging Share App, then uploaded directly from there. Guess I was being lazy!

Plenty of options to look at and think about, thank you for the suggestions. I think from memory, I've tried to download the Adobe DNG Convertor before but it didn't work. I'll certainly try it again thanks.
 
Nice set of photos Martin - I presume you are happier with setting the ISO to Auto? I'm so used to changing the ISO via an external dial on my E5 (& pressing down the ISO button), changing it on the E-M1 is a pain. I may revert to Auto too...
Kaz, as long as you keep Auto ISO limited to 1600, you should be fine - and that's enough for a lot of situations. My OM-D E-M5 III uses the same sensor as your E-M1 II - and it's a solid one. You can even get away with ISO 3200 for most things - I often shoot high contrast in darker conditions and don't like too much noise in uniform dark surfaces, hence the 1600 limit. I used to cap older 12MP sensors at ISO 800 and keep ISO as low as possible - but this 20MP sensor is much better, and much more forgiving.

M.
 
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Nice set of photos Martin - I presume you are happier with setting the ISO to Auto? I'm so used to changing the ISO via an external dial on my E5 (& pressing down the ISO button), changing it on the E-M1 is a pain. I may revert to Auto too...
Yes, Kaz, to be honest I hardly ever change ISO manually. Auto probably handles 95% of my shots. I usually have an ISO limit set to 1600 on M4/3 and it seems to work pretty well.
 
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