Better autofocus with the Olympus EM1 MKII 

Two more notes I didn't think of when I was making the video: 1. If you hit the Home button once to bring your point back to center if you hit it again it will go back to last point you had set and you can bounce between the two. 2. You can register another point to be the default point of the home key under Menu A2 [Set Home] and the last icon on that next screen which is a box with four arrows is where you can set which point you want to be your home point. I leave it on center but you might want something else. Best - J

Watching in April 2024. Thanks for this video, exactly what I need to photograph sports.

Hey Joseph, just stumbled onto this channel yesterday and I would like to let you know that I hope you continue doing what you're doing. M43 is a great photographic system that not enough people honestly talk about. Your channel has been very informative for me despite your oldest video being only a few months old. I hope you keep regularly posting cause I know I will support it.

Amazing tutorial mate! great to see such in depth explanations in a clear way

I just bought this camera a couple of weeks ago, and I'm trying to use different settings. and what I would like to say is that your videos are so clear and very useful. I thank you very much.

Hi Joseph. Glad you are doing this. I switched to Olympus About 2 years ago and love it. There are’nt many Oly videos out there so I am sure you will get lots of subscribers soon. Great job.

Your channel is very helpful! I love my Olympus gear Thank-you and keep it up

WOW! I wish I had found this in May of '18!!!! The best in depth video I have ever seen about auto-focus!!!

very well structured and presented. A pleasure listending to you, even for me as a German. Keep up with the good work. I am a great Oly fan since a few year and just upgraded to the Mark ii after shooting the original EM 1 for a few years. Bought also more of the Pro glass, wonderfull quality and lightweight. I also shoot a full-frame mostly for the shallow depth of field for portraits.

Thanks for this video, I've make the changes suggested for back button focus and just a few tests at home and I'm confident its giving me better focus already than I had with AF being on the Sutter button.

Very good handling of a complex topic. Still not sure if I know what is best for me... but you’ve opened it up for me and given me lots to think about.

A little more to get my head around, knowledge is power right, thank you, great tutorial.

Excellent video, still great and inspiring even after 5 years!

I have this camera. Thank you for your help and suggestions.

Hi Joseph. Found your channel a few weeks ago and as an amateur owner of the mark ii for a year now, it's great to find a professional user sharing detailed info the way you do. I've allready learned a lot of tips and tricks to get more out of this beast of a camera. I have one detail to add to your discussion of best use of the focus utilities on offer. You don't like the manual snap focus ring much, but having only one camera, I use it a lot, but sometimes have problems focusing precise with very short depth of field due to the fast action of the ring in this mode (which most of the time is good). The solution is to use the manual focus mode NOT activated by moving the focus ring but chosen on-camera. Using manual focus this way makes the focusing ring acting '2-speed'. Moving the ring slow will make focusing very precise, but it can be fiddly to focus fast since it then jumps rather unpredictably. What I do to focus fast and then manually adjust very precise is to have the AEL/AFL, S-AF in mode 3 for back-button auto focus. Having the camera in camera-chosen MF mode allows the AEL/AFL button to overrule manual focus and thereby make fast and fairly precise focus automatically and then I use the focus ring afterwords in slow speed to gain pin-point sharpness. I use this especially when using the 300 mm pro lens for close-up pictures but also with the 25 mm f1.2 it is suitable for non-moving objects. And by the way I often program the focus lock function to the function button on the lens :-) This is convenient when holding the camera low and looking down on the screen.

Thanks for your very easy to follow video, just bought the em 1 and set it up using another bloggers advice, lost all ability to autofocus and had to switch from aperture priority to iauto for a very important family occasion.

So helpful Joseph... thank you for your videos!

Another very helpful tutorial, thanks! Gives me one or two ideas for dealing with low contrast lighting outdoors when flash isn’t an option.

Thank you Joseph for this great video!!

Another very well done video. You present at just the right place. Too many people go too fast when showing the menu options. Thanks

Hi Joseph, I've been lurking around for a while and have watched several of your videos over the past while and decided it was high time to take part in the conversation. As a relatively recent convert to Olympus MFT from Canon, I've checked out a lot of tutorials and I have found yours very helpful, they are informative and in depth, without being overly complicated. This one really helped out with understanding a lot of the auto focus options, reading the manual only takes you so far, having someone explain it in more detail makes all the difference. The written summary is a great idea as well. Thanks.

Keep up the good work Joseph.

Thank you for such excellent content!

Thanks, your video was very helpful to me.

Top educational vids Joseph.

Pure gold. Thanks.

Thanks for the video joseph.

Great information, thanks.

Joseph excellent and very simple ;)

The E-M5 II Has a big wide HDR button just left of the shutter button that is perfect to use for BB focus.

Hold the ok button down and the focus will return to the middle when moving focus around

Love your Olympus videos - keep them coming. One request tho: Can you underexpose those overhead shots of the camera menus a bit - the bright green selections are too washed out.

There are indeed so much possibilities... like others said, the focus point goes to the center after a longer press of the ok button. Then, if the fn1 is configured as Home button, but only the AF mode (for ex. C-AF) is saved, you can switch between S-AF and C-AF very quickly within the same AF-point size and position. I wish the lever could be configured this way. Also, I would love to have the function "AF Stop" on the AEL button.

Hi Joseph, I found on my Em1 m2 if I leave to touch pad on, while looking through the view finder I can control the focus point with with little movement Of my thumb. This is by using it like a mouse lifting your finger on and of the screen. Depending on the movement it can be square by square or right to left and up and down and diagonal, it seems to be fast and fairly accurate. When returning to home point hit FN1 and ok for a second or so. Cheers. Brian

Joe, great video. Fast paced, concise, and clear. Been thinking about upgrading from an EM10 mkII to an EM1 mkII for phase detect focus (among other things), so this video was a help. One question about touch focus positioning when using the evf. On my 10.2 it functions just as you wished it would. The focus spot moves full screen span when my thumb moves half the screen span. So if the focus spot is at the left edge I put my thumb at the left edge and slide it to the center to move the focus point to the right edge. Are you sure the 1.2 can't do that as well?

Still experimenting. What I personally find difficult is having to switch focus eye. Last November was photographing Scottish festival athletes and nothing would be in focus. Switch to left eye all was clear & sharp. Went to eye doc who told me my right eye I’ve used to focus with for 48 yrs has cataracts. LOL

Awesome . Thanks

Really well done. Learned some things in the process, too. In event photography, one feature I appreciate is the OVF setting (simulates optical viewfinder) which I assign to that little button to the left of the Electronic View Finder. Not sure what it's called. When I'm in a dark room, using a flash, etc., or I'm underexposing the scene for a high speed sync shot, I turn that on to get a brighter view finder for composition. Another side note regarding the Fn1 button/Home AF button; if you set a custom setting that uses that button for something other than the Home button and you don't have another button assigned, hitting the OK button on the back will always take it back to default home. You lose the ability, however, to do that toggle back and forth between two points like you mention in the pinned comment. For me, with group portraits, I use that LensFN button to activate the depth of field preview, which can sometimes be handy. Otherwise, the AF Stop is a good suggestion for it. I've tried things that got me into trouble when I accidentally hit that button, so your suggestion/caution was a good one. Finally, I have used three buttons the same since the E-M5 and the E-M1 and now with the E-M1 markII: the Fn2 button for 2x (some refer to it as a Digital Teleconverter) which I use often to check focus (or to get a superfine jpeg cropped 50% in the camera), and the two buttons beside the lens mount that it's easy for my middle and fourth fingers to rest on: the top one I assigned to toggle the digital zoom and the bottom one is assigned to toggle focus peeking. Those three make it easy for me to quickly check things when my eye is at the view finder without having to take my eye away during the composition.

Press and hold the home button will bring the focus point back to center. I don't remember I set it up this way or just a default.

Nicely done. I found the Pen-F to also lack a button on the back that would be good for back-button focus. How about assigning one of the front-facing buttons, instead - has anyone tried that?

Hello Joseph, the FN btn on your lens can be set to „focus peaking“ this works great and helps a lot.

Thx Joe for the your lessons, hugely useful, but many others told you that before. I have been thinking about 2 topics: BB focus and the difficulty in finding a proper use for LFn button on PRO lenses. Putting the 2 togher I thought that actually could make a lot of sense of having the AF start mapped to LFn. Ergonomically it seems to be better than the big back button on EM1m2 and we might have so found a use for it. What do you think?

one point: make sure you make good description of your video (look how long are descriptions of "pro" youtubers.. it is very important today to have good description - small blog literally). you deserve much more subscribers. just my 2 cents

Hi Joseph, great video! Is there a possibility to configure a button that can switch between eye AF on/off?

On my M-10 II I assigned focus to fn2 on the top next to the shutter button and the AF/MF switch to the record button. So, with a slight movement of my index finger I can switch between AF and MF, focus, and fire the shutter. I would find it more inconvenient to have BBF actually on the back of the camera.

On most semi-pro and no doubt pro Nikons it is possible to set the camera so that when pressing the button to the grip side of the lens will turn off flash while it is pressed. This is nice if you jump between shooting the room and shooting a well lit stage or you do not want to wash out a projected video screen with the flash. The button is there on my EM1 and my EM1 II so this should be something easily set IMHO.

Loved your video. One thing though that is not clear to me when you were explaining using C-AF with multiple focus points if it is possible to have control over the center focus point (e.g. in a rectangle of 5x5). When I use C-AF with multiple focus points the camera starts deciding to move that (green lit) focus point with me not having any control. Is this how an OM-1 MK II works? With my Nikon gear the AF-point stays in the middle of the rectangle and does not jump around within that chosen rectangle. Drives me crazy.... 😅

Why mode 3 in SAF and mode 4 in CAF? Thanks.

Hi Joseph, thank you for this video and your past assistance you have given me, thank you. One more question. Is it possible to calibrate the Olympus lenses on the omd em1 mkll. I have looked on the menu and found nothing. I thought there might be a secret menu or way of checking the focus accuracy on my lenses. Particularly the Panasonic Leica 100mm - 400mm f4 lens. (Not to say I am disappointed in their performance, however with a German background I like everything to be perfect) cheers

Great video, I am at the point of upgrading from my EM1.1 , do you think the EM1 Mll is still a good upgrade path? The EM1 X is not viable for me .

I'm wondering if there is an issue using the back-button focus with pro-capture. Would you have to hold the AE button to capture the pre-shot pics, or will it run continuously until you hit the shutter button? Or...will it not work at all with pro-capture? Great tutorial.

Lf button on my 7-14 lens is set to magnify X2 which is the only useful function I can find for that particular lens. Seldom use it but sometimes it's good.

22:35 after tapping to move focus point my screen changes the in screen icon,button to off. Tapping again returns to standard focusing. Is that different than what you're taking about?

Hi Joseph, great video, but one point, having bought a Mkii a couple of days ago. The fn1 button is not assigned by default to AF home position. It is assigned to AF area select. I.e. the same as pressing one of the four way controller 'arrow keys'.

I enabled the touch LCD and use my nose to move the AF points its much Easier 😊 and one more thing at 22.30 what you told is possible if I understood you right we can change it by oing to A2 - Set Home - AF target Mode - [.] S its possible

Hi, I guess this comment is a bit late, but anyhow. Historically continuous AF was often less accurate than single AF, at least in my experience, so I have continued the habit of only using CAF when needed. Due to the covid lockdown, I found my self with plenty of time and nowhere to go, so I decided to do a systematic test on the precision of the AF. I put the camera on a tripod and aimed for something at a set distance. For each photo, I first held my hand in front of the lens to refocus. then let the camera focus and took a shot, repeating this 10 times for each distance and aperture to ensure the camera had to do a full focus adjustment each time, for each of my primes. Next, I checked with ExifTool and noted "Focus Distance" and "Focus Step Count" for each photo series, and stored it all in a Spreadsheet - Covid gives you a lot of times for such endeavors... It turned out that there was no noticeable difference in consistency between SAF and CAF, but there was quite a bit difference in consistency depending on the lens. The Olympus PRO lenses generally had the best performance, worst was the Panna-Leica 25 1.4 This was, of course, static targets, so the test was focused on whether SAF is worthwhile. Not about CAF ability to track motion. My test indicates that you can always leave it in CAF. I have looked around, but haven't found any similar tests. If you have any experience where SAF is better I would love to hear about it!

Really interesting informative video, thank you. I will have another look at my set up. I currently use back button, but have my Fn set to bring up ISO quickly and the lever to toggle for exposure compensation. Perhaps there is a better way? Mostly I shoot moving things and find exposure compensation with auto ISO on ‘manual’ allows me to get it right for scenarios such as kite surfers silhouetted against the sky.

It's a pain switch focus on Olympus I need a camera that will nail focus on sprinters

Hi Joseph, greetings from the UK. Another informative and useful video -Thank you. My E-M5 M2 has a 'Full-time AF' feature as did the E-M5 M1, but I cannot seem to find that feature on my E-M1 M2 and I have looked through the menus. Would you know if the E-M1 M2 has this autofocus feature please? Thanks

I appreciate your video. Very informative. I've been struggling trying to set up my E-M1 mkII so that I can switch back and forth between CAF and CAF+TR. Can it be set to the AEL/AFL lever or assigned to a fn button? Thanks.

If it had a joy stick I would get it over the g9 which doesn't have focus stacking The em1x has both but out of my price range Olympus is better for recovering shadows and that's a big advantage to me you can under expose shout at a higher shutter speed

As far as I can tell, in Mode 2, the Fn Lever can be configured to switch between Manual focus and (whatever) Auto Focus mode has previously been set (e.g., C-AF or S-AF). The lever cannot be set to switch between C-AF and S-AF. This limitation would explain the “sticky” issue you described. One would think that AF mode in this context would mean we could assign the up/down lever positions to different types of auto focus, but apparently that’s not the case. Agree?

I think you misunderstood the AF Targeting Pad touch function… The screen doesn’t become a representation of where on the sensor you focus. It works more like a Laptops mouse pad You don’t need to reach the top left corner

My face and eye detection doesn’t seem to work it only locks onto the face I don’t get the green box on the eye

I would love to see the autofocus point automatically switch orientation when the camera does, like on Canon DSLRs. So if you have the focus point in the top third of the frame in horizontal, when you switch to portrait it is still in the top third and not on middle side. Or is it there in a menu/option I haven’t found yet? I’m still quite new to Olympus so still discovering its quirks. As I shoot live music, it is really putting the camera to the test, but overall I’m finding its focussing is much more accurate than my old Canon 6D.

Joseph, what firmware did your EM-1 MKII have when you made this video? I believe the "Home" button default is different on v3.0 and later.

You made mention of the trigger key, late in your video - can you identify this key. New with the EM1.2.

I see that the focus point can be controlled/moved around by using the screen. Is it also possible to move around the focus point while you are looking into the viewfinder?

while using back button auto focus on omd 1 mark ii any other button on the camera can be programmed to do AEL. i tried a lot but assigning AEL to other buttons do not work.any one can help?

when you have the auto-focus points and it is not in the center..hold the OK button in and it will move to the center.

Sony a77ii & a99ii fixed this problem they have a dial on the front of the camera to change focussing modes

How do I reset Olympus OMD 1 Mark II to factory settings?

Slightly off topic but I cannot get my EM1mk2 to write RAW to slot 1 and Jpeg to slot 2, spent hours trying, any help or a link would be great.

My camera will not auto focus at all except in auto mode so what happened? How to fix and unlock? this freeze up- "stuck"

Using AF-C for all shooting should work fine. It works on the Nikons. I leave my Nikon setting on AF-C and single, center point shooting. If moving, hold the button in. If not moving press the button to focus and let go. On the D750, I can set the front function button to change from single point to group or other multi-point AF Mode for flying birds. If the Olympuses can't do that, then it wouldn't be great for flying or running subjects.

Hi Joseph pls change your mic Your videos very nice

Im use M1-II mostly with Panas 20 1.7 pancake and its ok for photo but in video it's just unbelievable shit. He's breathing incessantly. Not a single normal shot for more than 5-10 seconds. For my use 20mm (40 effective) its most need so its freaaaking annoyng do video on olympus. Broken result everytime. Im switch to manual mode most of time.