Introduction

This blog is a user's perspective on the Micro Four Thirds camera system. Read more ...

Lens Buyer's Guide. Panasonic GH4 review.

My lens reviews: Olympus 9mm f/8 fisheye, Lumix G 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6, Leica 25mm f/1.4, Lumix X 12-35mm f/2.8, Lumix X 35-100mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm f/2.8, Sigma 19mm f/2.8, Lumix X PZ 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, Lumix X PZ 45-175mm f/4-5.6, Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8, Panasonic Lumix G 100-300mm f/4-5.6, Panasonic Leica Lumix DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 1:1 Macro, Panasonic Lumix G 45-200mm f/4-5.6, Panasonic Lumix G 20mm f/1.7 pancake, Panasonic Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 pancake, Panasonic Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/4-5.8, Panasonic Lumix G HD 14-140mm f/3.5-5.6, Panasonic Lumix G 8mm f/3.5 fisheye, Lumix G 7-14mm f/4, Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye, Tokina 300mm f/6.3 mirror reflex tele, Lensbaby 5.8mm f/3.5 circular fisheye lens
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Saturday 28 March 2015

OM-D sensor shift in action

I previously looked into the effectiveness of the sensor shift image stabilization of the new E-M5 Mark II for video use. Even when using a long lens, it is much more effective than the Power O.I.S. of the Lumix X 35-100mm f/2.8.

Here, I'll be looking into how it actually works. By removing the lens, it is possible to look straight into the sensor, to see how it moves during video recording. To video record the sensor, inside the lens mount, I put the Lumix GH4 with the Samyang 7.5mm f/3.5 fisheye lens pointing straight into the E-M5:


For an even lightning, I put some white paper around the Samyang fisheye lens. The lens was set to the closest focus distance, and f/8 for sufficient depth of focus.

Tuesday 24 March 2015

GH4 vs E-M5 II: Video image stabilization comparison

The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II has a number of firsts in Micro Four Thirds: The first camera to have a sensor offset high resolution mode, the first Olympus camera to feature electronic shutter (called "Silent shutter" by Olympus), and a well functioning in-camera image stabilization feature that also works during video recording, which I am testing here.

To make the test very challenging, I used long lenses on the cameras.

On the E-M5 II, I used the Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm f/1.8 (my review) at f/2.8. As the Olympus camera crops the sensor a bit when recording 1080P footage, this lens corresponds to about 60mm in video mode, or 120mm in equivalent focal length terms, which is a quite long lens.

The Lumix GH4 was fitted with the Lumix X 35-100mm f/2.8 (my review) set to about 60mm, f/2.8. I set the lens to 60mm to match the field of view of the Olympus camera, when recording video. The GH4 does not crop the sensor when recording 1080P footage, thankfully.

I used OIS on the Panasonic Lumix system, and IBIS (In-body image stabilization) on the Olympus system. I only had the IBIS mode (mode 2) initiated on the OM-D, not the IBIS+digital stabilization (mode 1).