I have supplemented my heavy Canon 80D DSLR with its 420 mm lens system (300mm L/4 with 1.4x extender) with a mirrorless Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II with an Olympic M.ZUIKO MSC ED-M 75-300mm II (f/ 4.8-6.7) zoom lens. It weighs less than 2 pounds compared to 5 pounds to carry with my big rig.Yesterday I took it out of the box and tried it out after charging the battery and simply shooting AUTO with all the default settings. It was a disaster, so I skimmed the setup guide and this morning set the camera for 1/400 as my poor results at full magnification were almost entirely due to slow shutter action.
Here are some comparison shots of a Sedge Wren at Nelson Lake and a Savannah Sparrow in a vacant lot near our home in North Aurora.. I alternated between both cameras so the conditions, while not identical, were similar. I was a delightfully cool overcast day with no shadows and this helped with both cameras. All the mirrorless camera images were shot at 300MM at 1/400. Still a bit slow for any action shots and I will experiment with maybe 1/600. In the meantime I plan to fire up the online manual and maybe find a good eBook tutorial to help me understand the very intricate menu system.
Posted by Kenneth Cole Schneider on 2017-07-14 21:24:39
Tagged: , Illinois Kane County , Kane Countybirds , Nelson Lake Marsh /Dick Young Forest Preserve