How do you feel about the size of this combo? I love m43 but it looks like everything keeps getting bigger and more expensive. I use the 12-40mm pro a lot. Was considering the 25mm 1.2 until I noticed you can get a used RX1R for less than $1000. Different focal length but can always crop!
Size wise – yeah it’s a bit bulky. I actually ended up selling the camera for a Leica M262, but have since purchased a Panasonic G85 for video. I use that with the Panasonic / Leica 12mm f/1.4 and it’s wonderful. Great stills too. Also, way better 4K than the E-M1 Mark II. Here are some photos with it: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYbDiQFALA4
I also got a great deal on a new Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 for about $150 new (it was on sale). Is it as good as the Olympus – nope. However, it’s a good lens and you can’t beat the price.
Leica clearly mentioned in their product announcement/brochure that the lens stop down until 2.8 when you move closer. Clearly. Still you said they were lying!
Thank you for reading my blog. I just moved it over to WordPress.com from Ghost.org and I am tidying things up a bit. Funny thing, this articles is already being viewed more than it had been, and I just moved it a week ago.
Regarding your comment, it’s easy to say that now, but you’d have to go back a few years. That key detail wasn’t advertised, it was quite hidden, and quite disappointing. Now in retrospect, looking at the images they are quite lovely, but the camera is too overpriced for what you get – even today.
If you look at my more recent posts, I have been using a Leica M262 and various lenses. It’s fun, it’s compact, and I like the results.
I use my Leica underwater at 40 meter deep under water. And I use it also for fashion shooting on the beach for my work in Tahiti.
You can read how I do here : http://loicdorez.com/leica-underwater/
One correction to make from my video. I have since re-tried the Lightroom plugin for Photolemur, and it does indeed work the way it is supposed. I cannot explain why my initial testing suggested otherwise.”
Also, I’ve posted the above correction on the YouTube video as well.
Thanks for doing this review…I have the EM5 II…I enjoy it very much. No doubt MFT cameras in general are full of very useful features. They are also excellent as 4K video cameras. However, as a result of their sensor qualities they simply are unable to compete with larger sensors in terms of both resolution and DR. I use mine as a travel camera…for more serious work which requires ultimate IQ I am left to use my antiquated DSLR.
Excellent review, the camera video looked great and the audio sounded great. Can I ask what mic/headphone combo unit you were using? The mic sounded great.
Two things for audio.
#1 is a Yamaha AG06 mixer. I just got this yesterday, and very impressed so far. I’ll be reviewing it later on.
#2 An Audio-Technica BPHS1 (broadcast headset). I use it because it’s much easier than soundproofing my office at home, attaching boom poles, etc. Also, since it’s close to my mouth, I’m able to use a lower gain setting and it blocks out fan noise from my computer, kids, washer machine, etc.
Finally, I slightly boosted levels in DaVinci Resolve.
You really riled up some of the guys on DPReview. Don’t let it get to you. If you were reviewing an Olympus camera, you’d have 30 thumbs up at least, and you’d be getting a standing ovation.
The reason you get that kind of response is because it’s a 90% Olympus forum (at least) and Panasonic is as alien to them as Canon and Nikon.
Your review is pretty much in agreement with the pro reviews and all the comparative reviews between the E-M1 II and the G9 I’ve read, so keep it up. I have yet to see one person who has owned both cameras who didn’t like the G9 better.
I’ve noticed that you can praise a Panasonic camera in the abstract on DPReview. But woe to you if you tell them it’s better than an Olympus camera. That’s the burden of Panasonic and Olympus sharing a forum. A lot of those guys probably only begrudgingly accept that Panasonic is part of Micro Four Thirds. This is all due to the fact that Olympus had a camera presence in the film era and a lot of those guys are so ancient, they had probably been using Olympus film cameras 50 or 60 years before the digital age. I can’t prove it but I think some of those guys actually drive the reviews of the cameras.
It’s sort of an inside joke that Panasonic is sort of the Rodney Dangerfield of the camera world. They get dinged and criticized for things that no other manufacturer does. They probably have to perform twice as well in some aspects to get the same respect. Take the autofocus performance of both cameras as an example.
If you look at the G9 autofocus tests and the E-M1 II autofocus tests on DPReview, the G9 clearly performed BETTER in those tests than the E-M1 II on the bike test.
This is quite obvious. Furthermore, they did additional very complex AF tests with the G9 that were never performed on the E-M1 II, and it actually performed like high end DSLRs in the hit rate. How did Olympus do? How the hell would I know? It was never tested. How did Fuji do? How the hell would I or anyone else know?
It’s clear from the tone of the DPReview review that they’re just as flawed as any reviewer out there. They ding the G9 for using DFD/CDAF even when it freaking aces ALL of their tests. The whole summary of the AF performance is based on the fact that it uses CDAF, not on its actual performance on the tests.
The point is, what actual camera out there performed better, PDAF, OSPDAF, or CDAF. Honestly, there’s no evidence that there’s any other camera that had a higher hit rate than the G9.
So, honestly, I don’t have respect for reviewers who don’t evaluate a camera based on its performance but on a spec sheet, and that’s exactly what DPReview does sometimes. I’m pretty sure that if Panasonic had actually put in the spec sheet that this camera had OSPDAF, they’d be calling it the greatest thing since sliced bread.
So, I definitely trust someone who has both cameras in his hands and gives his honest opinion more than spec sheet “pro” reviewers.
Just a clarfication though, I previously owned an E-M1 Mark II, but no longer do. It was a fine camera. It had a weird issue with video files being split into smaller segments. Even Jordan Drake from The Camera Store TV confirmed this on Twitter – https://twitter.com/NoahBershatsky/status/828363354234245120.
Otherwise, the E-M1 Mark II was a good camera, but nothing great. I’ve owned many a Micro 4/3 camera over the years (bought and sold. E-PL5, E-P5, E-P3, E-M1, E-M1 Mark II, Pen-F, GH4, GH3, GX8, G85, GX7, GX8 and now the G9. Of those, I have found the E-P5, E-M1 (original), GX85, and G9 to be the best. Yes, I know that’s a lot of cameras to have owned, but I love this stuff, and enjoy using different cameras. Thankfully, the internet has made buying and selling gear easier than ever before.
Dear Noah! It would be very helpful for me/us to share the settings with each other. What we have experienced in quality and effects, what has become better: photo style – contrast, sharpness, noise reduction, saturation. Color space. I dynamic. I resolution. It’s great to give us that much freedom, because I think the factory has something to refine for better and comparative images.
Hi,, Very interesting. I feel the same about Adobe, the Idea of paying a lot of money just for some updates on something I have paid for by buying LR3, 4, 5, and 6. Just wondering if you have had a look at Luminar 2018? They do not have a Library module but it is on its way later this year.
Thanks for your excellent review! I have read a number of reviews, none of which mentioned the problems with speed that you have discussed. I have found the exact same problems as you with ON1 2018, so I am wondering if the ON1 software acts differently on different systems.
I started reviewing products because I feel that a lot of the reviews (on anything) online are too biased towards the manufacturer and not always telling the whole story.
Regarding the metadata problem, it’s funny you should comment today. I was emailing back and forth with someone at On1 today about this. They informed me that they will have a fix for the metadata bug in the .1 release. Also, that they will be adding the ability to manage capture date for the files. Lastly, the library/catalog feature will also support video files. Fingers crossed! I actually do like the app, but they really need to get these things fixed.
I got mine for about $300 2 years ago. It really needs a good long metal lens hood as the front element coatings were not very good. Avoid getting direct sunshine on the glass and it’s a lovely performer. Nice shots.
Well written Noah. It’s hard to put the past garbage out there, but very necessary to tell your story. I’m proud to know you & watch you train with Steve.
Thanks for your honest review. I agree with your comments about ON1 2018 100%. I have not used Capture 1 or Photo Mechanic but do use Photoshop CS6 regularly along with a host of other products including ON1 Raw 2017. The main attraction of ON1 2018 for me was the Pano feature. I have the ON1 2018 trial version and have gotten good results using Pano, sometimes, but not always. I had a set of images that ON1 could not effectively merge to a panorama but Kolor Autopano Pro could.To be fair this is a new feature, among many others, for ON1 and Autopano is a premium product that specializes only in developing panorama images.
Since the review, they have updated the program, but some glaring issues still persist:
1. Cropping is still wonky.
2. Metadata of time captured still gets lost (not all the time, but quite often).
3. Performance is still laggy – sometimes good, but then it slows to a crawl.
4. You still cannot rename files as well as you can in Lightroom or Photomechanic.
Although, now browsing shows video files – that’s a big plus. Their RAW support is also updated faster than Capture One’s is.
As of right now, I have been forced to use Lightroom since Capture One doesn’t support my Fuji X-H1 or Panasonic G9 yet.
I am an On1 customer from when they bought Genuine Fractals. Since they went to the current versions, post V10.5, the application has been one disaster after another. There were so many bugs and flaws in the 2017 versions I never finished an image with it, using V10.5 only. On1 will simply not fix the issues. Instead they add new features from customer input. Thus they continue to add new bugs on top of the old ones. I have not yet loaded 2018.1 and probably will wait for the next release before trying it. Sad because their concepts are great – they just can’t deliver a finished product and I am also tired of being a beta tester for their’ small shop’ of developers.
How good is auto focus at f1.2?
dSLRs can only reliably auto focus to f2.8 sensitivity and that is at the most sensitive central AF point, anything wider is hit and miss.
Hi Bill,
Very interesting and informative. Have you had any problems with the little black GPS button on the INFO display? It just doesn’t work on my installation, and ON1 Support seem to be completely foxed by it.
Vic
Congrats! I’m a Tai Chi Student for almost 17 year and I will be a Student for the rest of my life. That’s the path of the inner development. When I reduce training and practicing, I ‘ve been thrown back for years. Training is a lifetime task. Keep on training! Cheers, oli
Nice shots. I sold my more or less new Nikon FX gear with all the 1.4 and 2.8 optics as well as my FujiX lenses except the 35 1.4, kept the Xpro1 and use an adapter from Metabones for old Canon lenses. And analog I use medium format and Leica, if necessary I can scan their results. Right now I am on the search for a Tele-Elmarit 90 2.8 especially because of the great looking results and the non-septic look one can get with those glasses. Just not the sterile super sharp septic tank look of modern lenses.
Your review underlined that. Thank you!
Thank you for this review. I keep trying to use Luminar, but have the same issues. The lack of the ability to browse is virtually crippling for me. It sounds like I shouldn’t bother trying either of the others. 🙁
There are some ways to fix the file. But they are tricky. Try to google: “Fix .mdt broken file” you will find a couple of anwers for this.
The problem is that the H264 file ended whithout the end of file mark. Till now, none of the available solutions worked perfertly for me. But you can try it.
Good luck!!!
Well maybe in January or around then we will have a new Olympus announcement and then the Oly guys (I am one) can have their day until the next G9 version comes out. They will probably just keep leap-froging each other. I never worry about it. Still using my 3 year old EM5-II and it still takes great photos. Hoping to get something new this next year. Looking forward to see what Oly brings forward then will measure that against the G9.
* It has no inbuilt lens corrections, you train it to each of your personal lenses. It takes seconds; once done it’s done forever and works very well. Each individual lens is unique and this system accounts for that.
* You said Photo Ninja’s presets are nice. They’re not. They’re thermonuclear. Ditch them, use ‘neutral’ and tweak to taste or make your own presets (your pictures using Photo Ninja’s presets are horribly over-saturated).
* Copying and pasting settings in Photo Ninja is simple and takes mere seconds. Photo Ninja batch renders to jpeg and other formats (annoyingly though, you can’t specify pixel dimensions, only a proportion of the cropped size).
* Highlight recovery in Photo Ninja is actually amazingly good, but ideally you shouldn’t need to use it. Expose properly!
* Having to hit ‘Apply’ and ‘Done’ gives you a chance to evaluate changes you make before committing to them (or rejecting them and going back). I like it.
* There are a great many adjustments you can make in Photo Ninja that you have clearly not tried.
* It’s probably worth pointing out that Photo Ninja is only an alternative to Lightroom in terms of being a raw converter. It has no digital asset management capability of its own.
Several other things I like about Photo Ninja (don’t know if other raw converters do these things):
* You can make light source profiles for each situation. It takes seconds and gives accurate colours (from which you can tweak if desired – I rarely need to).
* It does automatic, very quick and effective chromatic aberration analysis and adjustment.
* You can use it as a Photoshop plug-in. After raw conversion and basic global edits, Photo Ninja can send the file seamlessly to Photoshop for local edits, sizing, output sharpening, watermarking etc. No intermediate TIFF or DNG required. It also works seamlessly with Photomechanic, Lightroom and Aperture.
* Whenever I’ve emailed Photo Ninja’s developers (just two people) with questions, I’ve got considered and helpful replies within hours. Impressive, considering I live on the other side of the world from their base in Texas.
Hey Noah. Great review and photos. Know this is from a while back, but how do you find the actual size of the lens? I know it comes in at 65mm length. Does it block the viewfinder significantly? Or is it about the same as any other lens mounted on an M? Thanks. Arman
Sorry for the delay, your comment went to the spam area (fixed that now). I don’t remember it being a major issue, you get used to it. I will say that of all the Leica glass I tried during my year with Leica, my absolute favorite was this Zeiss lens! Really, it was a cut above the rest! I’m actually thinking about buying it again to use with my Panasonic S1R, but waiting to see some other reviews first. If you’re shooting a Leica M though, this lens is great!
(Came via SAR) Nice work Noah! I have the A9 and agree with most of your conclusions. Notable NAY is I that I don’t want the battery grip permanently attached! I like having the option of going really light (A9 + 2/28 or 2.8/35, etc.)
One thing I don’t get…..you said that you bought the S5 Pro but didn’t have any Nikon lenses, but before that you said you already have the Nikon D200. What….with no lenses? Even if you had a different brand lens it would be an F mount type. Don’t get this at all.
Never tried filtergrade, but I was very disappointed in Mastin’s presets. I feel they were a complete waste of money. I purchased a few of them, and never use them. Although, now that you’ve asked. I’ll try them again – heck. I paid nearly $300 for them – I might as well. Stay tuned!
Just read your article per our discussion earlier this morning. Thank you for suggesting I read this. Wow, very enlightening but also the process of buying a car sounds like a very daunting task…this will not be fun.
How do you feel about the size of this combo? I love m43 but it looks like everything keeps getting bigger and more expensive. I use the 12-40mm pro a lot. Was considering the 25mm 1.2 until I noticed you can get a used RX1R for less than $1000. Different focal length but can always crop!
Size wise – yeah it’s a bit bulky. I actually ended up selling the camera for a Leica M262, but have since purchased a Panasonic G85 for video. I use that with the Panasonic / Leica 12mm f/1.4 and it’s wonderful. Great stills too. Also, way better 4K than the E-M1 Mark II. Here are some photos with it: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYbDiQFALA4
I also got a great deal on a new Panasonic 25mm f/1.7 for about $150 new (it was on sale). Is it as good as the Olympus – nope. However, it’s a good lens and you can’t beat the price.
How cute is your kid?!!!!!!!!
Thanks! They’re even cuter now!
Leica clearly mentioned in their product announcement/brochure that the lens stop down until 2.8 when you move closer. Clearly. Still you said they were lying!
Thank you for reading my blog. I just moved it over to WordPress.com from Ghost.org and I am tidying things up a bit. Funny thing, this articles is already being viewed more than it had been, and I just moved it a week ago.
Regarding your comment, it’s easy to say that now, but you’d have to go back a few years. That key detail wasn’t advertised, it was quite hidden, and quite disappointing. Now in retrospect, looking at the images they are quite lovely, but the camera is too overpriced for what you get – even today.
If you look at my more recent posts, I have been using a Leica M262 and various lenses. It’s fun, it’s compact, and I like the results.
I also just fixed the images and links in this older article as well comparing the Leica X-Typ 113 to the Fuji X-T1 which can now be had for a fraction of the price of the Leica. https://bershatsky.com/2015/10/04/fuji-x-t1-vs-leica-typ-113-with-chocolate/
I use my Leica underwater at 40 meter deep under water. And I use it also for fashion shooting on the beach for my work in Tahiti.
You can read how I do here : http://loicdorez.com/leica-underwater/
great work and reviews man !
The Lightroom Plugin only works for individual images, not a batch. – I do use Photolemur for batch processing in Lightroom, it works great.
I tried a couple of times with no success. I’ll try again and post a follow up video.
I’ve posted the following fix on the blog:
“12/4/2017 Update
One correction to make from my video. I have since re-tried the Lightroom plugin for Photolemur, and it does indeed work the way it is supposed. I cannot explain why my initial testing suggested otherwise.”
Also, I’ve posted the above correction on the YouTube video as well.
Thanks for a detailed and helpful review.
Thanks for doing this review…I have the EM5 II…I enjoy it very much. No doubt MFT cameras in general are full of very useful features. They are also excellent as 4K video cameras. However, as a result of their sensor qualities they simply are unable to compete with larger sensors in terms of both resolution and DR. I use mine as a travel camera…for more serious work which requires ultimate IQ I am left to use my antiquated DSLR.
Quite a few years between the E-M5 Mark II and the G9. Check one out, you might be surprised.
Excellent review, the camera video looked great and the audio sounded great. Can I ask what mic/headphone combo unit you were using? The mic sounded great.
Thanks!
Two things for audio.
#1 is a Yamaha AG06 mixer. I just got this yesterday, and very impressed so far. I’ll be reviewing it later on.
#2 An Audio-Technica BPHS1 (broadcast headset). I use it because it’s much easier than soundproofing my office at home, attaching boom poles, etc. Also, since it’s close to my mouth, I’m able to use a lower gain setting and it blocks out fan noise from my computer, kids, washer machine, etc.
Finally, I slightly boosted levels in DaVinci Resolve.
You really riled up some of the guys on DPReview. Don’t let it get to you. If you were reviewing an Olympus camera, you’d have 30 thumbs up at least, and you’d be getting a standing ovation.
The reason you get that kind of response is because it’s a 90% Olympus forum (at least) and Panasonic is as alien to them as Canon and Nikon.
Your review is pretty much in agreement with the pro reviews and all the comparative reviews between the E-M1 II and the G9 I’ve read, so keep it up. I have yet to see one person who has owned both cameras who didn’t like the G9 better.
Thanks! Much appreciated! I really didn’t expect any controversy at all!
I’ve noticed that you can praise a Panasonic camera in the abstract on DPReview. But woe to you if you tell them it’s better than an Olympus camera. That’s the burden of Panasonic and Olympus sharing a forum. A lot of those guys probably only begrudgingly accept that Panasonic is part of Micro Four Thirds. This is all due to the fact that Olympus had a camera presence in the film era and a lot of those guys are so ancient, they had probably been using Olympus film cameras 50 or 60 years before the digital age. I can’t prove it but I think some of those guys actually drive the reviews of the cameras.
It’s sort of an inside joke that Panasonic is sort of the Rodney Dangerfield of the camera world. They get dinged and criticized for things that no other manufacturer does. They probably have to perform twice as well in some aspects to get the same respect. Take the autofocus performance of both cameras as an example.
If you look at the G9 autofocus tests and the E-M1 II autofocus tests on DPReview, the G9 clearly performed BETTER in those tests than the E-M1 II on the bike test.
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/olympus-om-d-e-m1-mark-ii/9
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonic-lumix-dc-g9/6
This is quite obvious. Furthermore, they did additional very complex AF tests with the G9 that were never performed on the E-M1 II, and it actually performed like high end DSLRs in the hit rate. How did Olympus do? How the hell would I know? It was never tested. How did Fuji do? How the hell would I or anyone else know?
It’s clear from the tone of the DPReview review that they’re just as flawed as any reviewer out there. They ding the G9 for using DFD/CDAF even when it freaking aces ALL of their tests. The whole summary of the AF performance is based on the fact that it uses CDAF, not on its actual performance on the tests.
The point is, what actual camera out there performed better, PDAF, OSPDAF, or CDAF. Honestly, there’s no evidence that there’s any other camera that had a higher hit rate than the G9.
So, honestly, I don’t have respect for reviewers who don’t evaluate a camera based on its performance but on a spec sheet, and that’s exactly what DPReview does sometimes. I’m pretty sure that if Panasonic had actually put in the spec sheet that this camera had OSPDAF, they’d be calling it the greatest thing since sliced bread.
So, I definitely trust someone who has both cameras in his hands and gives his honest opinion more than spec sheet “pro” reviewers.
Great insight! Thanks again for your comments!
Just a clarfication though, I previously owned an E-M1 Mark II, but no longer do. It was a fine camera. It had a weird issue with video files being split into smaller segments. Even Jordan Drake from The Camera Store TV confirmed this on Twitter –
https://twitter.com/NoahBershatsky/status/828363354234245120.
Otherwise, the E-M1 Mark II was a good camera, but nothing great. I’ve owned many a Micro 4/3 camera over the years (bought and sold. E-PL5, E-P5, E-P3, E-M1, E-M1 Mark II, Pen-F, GH4, GH3, GX8, G85, GX7, GX8 and now the G9. Of those, I have found the E-P5, E-M1 (original), GX85, and G9 to be the best. Yes, I know that’s a lot of cameras to have owned, but I love this stuff, and enjoy using different cameras. Thankfully, the internet has made buying and selling gear easier than ever before.
Dear Noah! It would be very helpful for me/us to share the settings with each other. What we have experienced in quality and effects, what has become better: photo style – contrast, sharpness, noise reduction, saturation. Color space. I dynamic. I resolution. It’s great to give us that much freedom, because I think the factory has something to refine for better and comparative images.
Hi,, Very interesting. I feel the same about Adobe, the Idea of paying a lot of money just for some updates on something I have paid for by buying LR3, 4, 5, and 6. Just wondering if you have had a look at Luminar 2018? They do not have a Library module but it is on its way later this year.
Thanks for your excellent review! I have read a number of reviews, none of which mentioned the problems with speed that you have discussed. I have found the exact same problems as you with ON1 2018, so I am wondering if the ON1 software acts differently on different systems.
I started reviewing products because I feel that a lot of the reviews (on anything) online are too biased towards the manufacturer and not always telling the whole story.
Regarding the metadata problem, it’s funny you should comment today. I was emailing back and forth with someone at On1 today about this. They informed me that they will have a fix for the metadata bug in the .1 release. Also, that they will be adding the ability to manage capture date for the files. Lastly, the library/catalog feature will also support video files. Fingers crossed! I actually do like the app, but they really need to get these things fixed.
I got mine for about $300 2 years ago. It really needs a good long metal lens hood as the front element coatings were not very good. Avoid getting direct sunshine on the glass and it’s a lovely performer. Nice shots.
Great read! Thanks for sharing your story. You are a real inspiration Sir! James
Pffft – Says the guy that pushes me every single class.
Well written Noah. It’s hard to put the past garbage out there, but very necessary to tell your story. I’m proud to know you & watch you train with Steve.
Thanks Cami! Ditto to you and yours!
Thank you very much for these Picture. Great Review. Picture say more than thousands of words.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for your honest review. I agree with your comments about ON1 2018 100%. I have not used Capture 1 or Photo Mechanic but do use Photoshop CS6 regularly along with a host of other products including ON1 Raw 2017. The main attraction of ON1 2018 for me was the Pano feature. I have the ON1 2018 trial version and have gotten good results using Pano, sometimes, but not always. I had a set of images that ON1 could not effectively merge to a panorama but Kolor Autopano Pro could.To be fair this is a new feature, among many others, for ON1 and Autopano is a premium product that specializes only in developing panorama images.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Since the review, they have updated the program, but some glaring issues still persist:
1. Cropping is still wonky.
2. Metadata of time captured still gets lost (not all the time, but quite often).
3. Performance is still laggy – sometimes good, but then it slows to a crawl.
4. You still cannot rename files as well as you can in Lightroom or Photomechanic.
Although, now browsing shows video files – that’s a big plus. Their RAW support is also updated faster than Capture One’s is.
As of right now, I have been forced to use Lightroom since Capture One doesn’t support my Fuji X-H1 or Panasonic G9 yet.
I am an On1 customer from when they bought Genuine Fractals. Since they went to the current versions, post V10.5, the application has been one disaster after another. There were so many bugs and flaws in the 2017 versions I never finished an image with it, using V10.5 only. On1 will simply not fix the issues. Instead they add new features from customer input. Thus they continue to add new bugs on top of the old ones. I have not yet loaded 2018.1 and probably will wait for the next release before trying it. Sad because their concepts are great – they just can’t deliver a finished product and I am also tired of being a beta tester for their’ small shop’ of developers.
How good is auto focus at f1.2?
dSLRs can only reliably auto focus to f2.8 sensitivity and that is at the most sensitive central AF point, anything wider is hit and miss.
It wasn’t good at all. I’ve since moved to a Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art.
Is Sigma any better auto focusing?
Sigmas tends to be wonky, but once the micro focus adjustment was completed, seems fairly accurate. See https://bershatsky.com/2016/11/24/canon-5ds-and-5d-mark-iv-micro-focus-adjustments/ regarding micro focus adjustments.
Bottom line, Canon needs to do a refresh of its 50mm f/1.4.
Hi Bill,
Very interesting and informative. Have you had any problems with the little black GPS button on the INFO display? It just doesn’t work on my installation, and ON1 Support seem to be completely foxed by it.
Vic
Congrats! I’m a Tai Chi Student for almost 17 year and I will be a Student for the rest of my life. That’s the path of the inner development. When I reduce training and practicing, I ‘ve been thrown back for years. Training is a lifetime task. Keep on training! Cheers, oli
Thanks for reading! Right there with you. Off to class!
Nice shots. I sold my more or less new Nikon FX gear with all the 1.4 and 2.8 optics as well as my FujiX lenses except the 35 1.4, kept the Xpro1 and use an adapter from Metabones for old Canon lenses. And analog I use medium format and Leica, if necessary I can scan their results. Right now I am on the search for a Tele-Elmarit 90 2.8 especially because of the great looking results and the non-septic look one can get with those glasses. Just not the sterile super sharp septic tank look of modern lenses.
Your review underlined that. Thank you!
I’m actually in the market to sell my copy – using Loxia lenses on my Sony now. Shoot me an email noah@bershatsky.com
Thank you for this review. I keep trying to use Luminar, but have the same issues. The lack of the ability to browse is virtually crippling for me. It sounds like I shouldn’t bother trying either of the others. 🙁
Thanks for reading and your comment!
You can see why I went back to Lightroom – sigh.
Do you know about de AC adaptors to get the camera continously running?
Now, but it’s something I’ll be looking into.
There are some ways to fix the file. But they are tricky. Try to google: “Fix .mdt broken file” you will find a couple of anwers for this.
The problem is that the H264 file ended whithout the end of file mark. Till now, none of the available solutions worked perfertly for me. But you can try it.
Good luck!!!
Interesting review, I believe some of the things you mentioned have been fixed. I’m still learning the program.
I love your glasses!
Thanks!
Well maybe in January or around then we will have a new Olympus announcement and then the Oly guys (I am one) can have their day until the next G9 version comes out. They will probably just keep leap-froging each other. I never worry about it. Still using my 3 year old EM5-II and it still takes great photos. Hoping to get something new this next year. Looking forward to see what Oly brings forward then will measure that against the G9.
Some compelling images here.
How did you solve lack of weather sealing for this camera?
Have you used a flash, thumb rest for it?
What memory card?
For weather sealing, I used a rain cover made by Fotosharp. http://www.fotosharp.com/
Flash/Thumb rest? Yes, I got one with it when I got it used. For free it was fine, but I wouldn’t waste money on it.
Memory card? Any old fast SD Card will do.
Observations from a long time Photo Ninja user:
* It has no inbuilt lens corrections, you train it to each of your personal lenses. It takes seconds; once done it’s done forever and works very well. Each individual lens is unique and this system accounts for that.
* You said Photo Ninja’s presets are nice. They’re not. They’re thermonuclear. Ditch them, use ‘neutral’ and tweak to taste or make your own presets (your pictures using Photo Ninja’s presets are horribly over-saturated).
* Copying and pasting settings in Photo Ninja is simple and takes mere seconds. Photo Ninja batch renders to jpeg and other formats (annoyingly though, you can’t specify pixel dimensions, only a proportion of the cropped size).
* Highlight recovery in Photo Ninja is actually amazingly good, but ideally you shouldn’t need to use it. Expose properly!
* Having to hit ‘Apply’ and ‘Done’ gives you a chance to evaluate changes you make before committing to them (or rejecting them and going back). I like it.
* There are a great many adjustments you can make in Photo Ninja that you have clearly not tried.
* It’s probably worth pointing out that Photo Ninja is only an alternative to Lightroom in terms of being a raw converter. It has no digital asset management capability of its own.
Several other things I like about Photo Ninja (don’t know if other raw converters do these things):
* You can make light source profiles for each situation. It takes seconds and gives accurate colours (from which you can tweak if desired – I rarely need to).
* It does automatic, very quick and effective chromatic aberration analysis and adjustment.
* You can use it as a Photoshop plug-in. After raw conversion and basic global edits, Photo Ninja can send the file seamlessly to Photoshop for local edits, sizing, output sharpening, watermarking etc. No intermediate TIFF or DNG required. It also works seamlessly with Photomechanic, Lightroom and Aperture.
* Whenever I’ve emailed Photo Ninja’s developers (just two people) with questions, I’ve got considered and helpful replies within hours. Impressive, considering I live on the other side of the world from their base in Texas.
Pippan
Hey Noah. Great review and photos. Know this is from a while back, but how do you find the actual size of the lens? I know it comes in at 65mm length. Does it block the viewfinder significantly? Or is it about the same as any other lens mounted on an M? Thanks. Arman
Sorry for the delay, your comment went to the spam area (fixed that now). I don’t remember it being a major issue, you get used to it. I will say that of all the Leica glass I tried during my year with Leica, my absolute favorite was this Zeiss lens! Really, it was a cut above the rest! I’m actually thinking about buying it again to use with my Panasonic S1R, but waiting to see some other reviews first. If you’re shooting a Leica M though, this lens is great!
That’s my bike!!
That’s pretty cool! Thanks for reading!
(Came via SAR) Nice work Noah! I have the A9 and agree with most of your conclusions. Notable NAY is I that I don’t want the battery grip permanently attached! I like having the option of going really light (A9 + 2/28 or 2.8/35, etc.)
One thing I don’t get…..you said that you bought the S5 Pro but didn’t have any Nikon lenses, but before that you said you already have the Nikon D200. What….with no lenses? Even if you had a different brand lens it would be an F mount type. Don’t get this at all.
Nice review.
Why did you delete the LUTs?
I’m a Tai Chi Student for almost 20 years – but I never did a session in public rather on YouTube. 😮
Neither have I – this is an unlisted video. I wanted to limit the views on this one – people will only see it if they come through the blog first.
What is your point view regarding Mastin labs presets and Filtergrade compared to RNI?
Never tried filtergrade, but I was very disappointed in Mastin’s presets. I feel they were a complete waste of money. I purchased a few of them, and never use them. Although, now that you’ve asked. I’ll try them again – heck. I paid nearly $300 for them – I might as well. Stay tuned!
Just read your article per our discussion earlier this morning. Thank you for suggesting I read this. Wow, very enlightening but also the process of buying a car sounds like a very daunting task…this will not be fun.
Jim, Jim, Jim…
thank you for this review