Can Olympus E-M1 Mark II Survive Extreme Low Light? 

As someone who does a lot of event photography for work, yeah, M43 is more than sufficient. Just focus on capturing the moment, the photos will follow

Worth to note that lots of these photos are done with the M.Zuiko 45mm F1.8 - a lens you can get for around $200 or less new (even though the "official" price is a bit higher) …

I’m glad I kept my em1.2 when I upgraded to the om1. I really like the OM1 but I also feel Olympus/OMDS forgot that many of us shoot more than just bugs and birds.

Man, OM System messed with the Wong guy! Robin really knows how to sell the M43 systems. Thanks for a great video. Cheers!

To me, your videos do more for promoting Malaysia than the official Ministry of Tourism. I would like to visit one day now. Thank you for sharing Robin.

Another great video. "Moment trumps noise all day long" - perfect!

The photos are excellent, they really capture the atmosphere of the show. Personally I don't care about noise / grain, I think it adds to the "feeling" of low light settings.

Great video as usual. Thank you very much for sharing.

Very impressive photos Robin. I used to shoot with film cameras many years ago and stage photography required a film of ISO 400. These had lots of grain. I truly believe, that the former technical limitations have been forgotten by many photographers. Grain doesn't matter, if the image captured is great.

Thank you Robin👍🏼👌🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.

Amazing photos! ✌Beautiful moments captured!

Excellent review, Robin. Impressive results for a half-frame sensor. I have two Olympuses, and love them -- particularly for the colour rendition.

Your last 90seconds was powerful messaging. Good man 👍

capture the moment is much more important that noise free, thanks for sharing robin

The content here is totally correct. When I was shooting weddings with medium format film I used ISO 100, 400, 800 color and 1000 B&W. I thought the 800 and 1000 iso film was very grainy but used it to get the image. No one complained. Actually, I think my Olympus cameras do far better in these ranges than my film did back then and the lenses for medium format were f2.8 and 3.5 max. I'm happy. Also there was no film noise reduction either.

Your pics looks so nice, beautiful light and exciting moments.

❤❤❤love the video the photos are amazing thank you for sharing them

You did a great job Robin. That is about as tough a lighting situation as anybody could shoot in, particularly with moving subjects that you also have to freeze. Well done 👍

Robin, you've always successfully argued that composition and creativity is more important than the technicalities surrounding image fidelity. I still have my E-M1 and my arms thank me every time I go out with it.

Well this is timely! I shoot events, including dance on FF Canon, but in a few hours I am selling my crop sensor Canon kit and hope to soon buy an EM1.iii from a friend who recently upgraded to the OM-1. The main purpose is to be a weather proof travel and general purpose camera. I was not planning to use it for low light indoor events because I assumed ISO 6400 and beyond would not be viable. Well, it looks like I might be wrong! You didn't explicitly talk about DOF but I assume that is why you can shoot your M4/3 primes at f/1.8 whereas a FF camera will require f/4 or 5.6 to get multiple performers in focus. Not so true of close up telephoto shots of a single performer, but most shots need to capture most or all of the performers on stage. Thanks for this video - very informative.

Robin, I recently upgraded from a bridge camera to a EM1ii, mostly based on your recommendations. From the first time I used it, I knew it was the right move and a great camera. Thank you!

I still use the EM1 MkII, indeed I have two of them, love them!

Hi Robin, as usual a well crafted video. When I moved from FF to MFT (no regrets BTW, in fact the opposite) I toyed with getting an OM-1 but opted for an EM1.3. It meets all of my shooting needs. When I shot film we had faster film that was very grainy. Push process it and you added more grain and we just embraced it in order to capture the moment. Fast forward to today, and grain is called noise. If the noise is rendered pleasantly it can actually add mood, or drama to a shot. Olympus has a very pleasant noise appearance IMHO. Add that we can now tweak noise with AI and you can change the noise levels effectively. I usually render in some noise just because I may like how it looks. I recently shot an event in extremely low light as well. I don’t have the 45, but my workhorse lenses were the 25 and 75. They performed brilliantly. I was sweating a little, concerned that I wouldn’t get satisfactory results. The proof of success came when my client was blown away by the results. Seeing your shots here proves that there’s a lot of untapped performance potential in MFT systems. Your work here is really quite powerful.

Hey Robin. Tha ks for this post. I shot a live gig on Saturday with Em1 Mark iii and the 12-40 2.8 and 45 1.8. Light was extremely low. I was shooting around 4000 to 5000 ISO wide open and could only get a shutter speed between 1/20 to 1/60. I used Topaz denoise Ai and lightroom and got some pleasing results. I will try cranking the ISO higher next time. Thanks for the great video.

Shot a football match at 12800 last night ran them through DXO Deep Prime and they are fine

That sounds like a very interesting concept. The artists mingling with the audience. Also very challenging, no doubt for you.

Joli travail merci pour le partage de cette expérience perso dans cette univers je passe en iso auto et je peux régler ma vitesse et l'ouverture de mon objectf (j'ai olympus E-M5 markIII)

I'm about to shoot a wedding for a friend, and been worried about one area to do photographs. I really needed this, thank you.

Very well done. I use my MII here in Oregon where it rains, snows and now the ash from forest fires. Never had any trouble. Except when I dropped it. But, it keeps working.

Thank you :)

Most editing apps have excellent denoise functions now. Great shots Robin!

I totally agree Robin. My EM 1/2 is more than sufficient for all my needs. Paired with the 12-40 and 40-150 pro lenses, I am completely satisfied with the results I achieve in wildlife (real, not zoo) birds and landscapes. I regularly print to 400 x 500 mm and have never heard a comment about grain. With Lightrooms new DeNoise, I regularly shoot at 6400 and the grain is subtle and very even. Lastly my whole system cost what a good full frame body costs.

I so hear you. The one thing you can't fix in post is an out of focus image. A little noise is nothing by comparison. Such a shame about the OM1. It's nice to see the E-M1.2 holding up so well in such challenging conditions!

I regularly go out in the evening for some night street photography. I cap my EM-1 Mark II at 6400 ISO and have never been unhappy with the results. I usually use the Panasonic Leica 25mm f1.4. If you expose correctly the noise is unnoticeable. It’s only when you need to up the exposure then the noise becomes more obvious.

@Robin Wong Thank you for this vid. Your situation in this shoot parallels exactly what I've been doing lately (shooting drag queens in NYC nightclubs). Rapidly changing lighting, autofocus-distracting complex bright backgrounds--often flashing, rapid and unpredictable movements. Like bird photography but with terrible lighting. I have been comparing my OM-5 (essentially a smaller-body E-M1-MkIII) with my new OM-1 and surprisingly, like you, have found the OM-5 has a consistently higher hit rate under these conditions. From what I've seen in RU-vid tests the Panasonic G9M2 might be at least as good as the OM-5 here and can't wait to give it a try. I have never been concerned with noise in my shots (which in any case only very rarely require ISO12800). If somebody wants a low-noise print I've found Photoshop's AI noise reduction capable of reducing noise at least 2 stops (as well as being handy for erasing the red EXIT signs that often show up in nightclub work). Question: What do you do about white balance? Auto white balance? I set mine to an eyeballed 4200K. That way in post I at least know what the camera was thinking during each shot..

Hi Robin, hop you have a good week.

I love my em1ii, never fails me, shot weddings in to iso 12800 if i’v had to and they look fine, even printed 😃

You are right EM1 II make the job, i am impressed by results at 6400 and 12800 !

Pretty impressive. M43 is soooo good.

I've been blown away by how well Topaz Photo AI is at removing noise.

You have the midas touch Robin. I shoot the om-D EM1 II with the 100-400mm for wildlife and in manual mode with auto iso. The camera tops at 6400 and noise is very noticable. Of course I have to crop a lot but I don't see any noise on your photos. Great job! #wb2pics

Hi Robin, thank you for this great and informative video on low light, high iso shooting with the E-M1 Mk II and prime lens. I have 3 of the lens and the same camera. Question: were you shooting AF in Aperture priority or Manual Mode and were you using auto ISO with limits? Thanks again, I’m learning from you!!

A very open, honest, and informative video. I noticed most of the images were taken with the 45mm. Thank you for encouraging me to take more photos at higher iso's while keeping that shutter speed high enough to freeze the action.

Your skills at capturing the moments for this client in challenging light are awesome. Thank you for sharing the lens, aperture, shutter speed and iso information. I'm curious if you had set up iso to one of the front or back dials knowing that you were going to be mostly at f1.8 to let in as much light as possible and to allow you to be quick at adjusting to the light. Shutter priority or Manual?

I think your skill as a photographer is outweighing the mft limitations. Great job, the images grab your attention. :) I love mft but I acknowledge that low light doesn't play to their strengths....

Great video Robin. What budget lenses would you recommend for motocross photography? Say from 18mm- 200mm. Thanks

Hi Robin, love your videos. I usually use zoom lenses but now starting to use prime lenses. I find that it is very challenging to keep swapping lens and miss shots that I would have got if I got a zoom lens on my camera. I noticed you used prime lenses to cover this event and I'm wondering if you could share how you manage using prime lens. Do you use another camera body so you can just switch camera instead of lens? Thanks in advance and love from a fellow Malaysian living in Australia 😊

Fantastic work Robin! Question: when the light changes very rapidly, you probably set the ISO to auto? I still have difficulties to use auto ISO or manual ISO.

What is the reason the technically more advanced OM-1 does perform worse in these difficult lighting situations? Great work Robin - your images are superb, you do not need to hide confronted with full frame!

I've used ISO 12,800 on my E-M5 and E-M1ii and got good images. You can push a Olympus files about a stop and a half past ISO 6,400. DXO Deep PRIME helps a lot also.

I shoot huge mp full frame cameras mostly. But if I had to choose just one camera for life it would be the Olympus. Low light isn't great but it's just an amazing camera.

Robin, thank you for this enlightening video. I am looking for a second prime for my EM1 mark II. I have the 45, 18 and I love it. What about the Olympus 17mm, 1.8? I thought you did not like the rendering of this lenses and quickly changed to the 25mm lens?

Robin thank you for this video. I recently purchased an EMD1 Mii and the pro 12-40mm lens. I had no idea my camera handles high ISO without denoising programs. Of course I have some Panasonic & Olympus primes too. Glad to hear the 12-40 lens shouldn’t be used for high ISO images. Maybe I’m blind but the 12,800 looks pretty good. I’d be happy with your results. I will take my 1Mii out into the night and see what I can produce. I have been scared away fro using M43 in low light high ISO situations. I also have a G9 and love that body. Will have to explore that body’s low light high ISO capabilities. Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)

Hi Robin, thanks for the video. Question - what happened to your Em1iii? Just wondering if you think it is better than the OM1. Thanks

Great video Robin! Why/what do you think the problem with the OM1 is? P. S. I'm keeping my EM1.2!!!

Let's create a new T-Shirt: Crank up the ISO!! New RAW deal!

e.g. for caves, I'm using the Olympus system even if I have a full frame as well. I have shot family events on the Olympus as well on high ISO and nobody complained about noise at all ... Artist in my city is shooting street photos on the full frame camera, and adds noise/grain in the post process. I guess noise is irrelevant in most of the photography ...

Sir, can you make video on Nikon d750 and is it worth buying now please

You need to come to Birmingham, Robin. Come see Birmingham Opera who do these types of interactive performances.

Robin, looking at your settings, I wonder if you were using AUTO ISO in aperture or manual mode. Anyway, the photos are amazingly good, somehow enhancing the lighting effects. The one with the light rays was spectacular (no pun)! If I were the client that photo alone would have sold me.

ROBIN… such a basic question but I want to set up my em1 mk2 so back wheel is aperture and front is always speed ( or other way round) so those 2 basic adjustments are always accessible …. but am finding that the options are not always there using menu B / Dial Function …. Can you help?

Hi Robin, I have the old omd em 1 and I AM very happy with my camera. I don't see any reason to upgrade. And with my Olympus 45mm 1.8, it is perfect for low light. What is your opinion?

I love my OM-1(the one I dropped... and got repaired) and use it all the time on my animal photos. I bought it because of the animal detect AF, which is great, but not perfect. I love my E-M1 II which was my main camera and is now my backup. I don't use single AF much so I can't say it there's any problem with it. What I can say is that after a series of "Twilight Safari" sessions at my local zoo this August I have found the animal AF *does* struggle as the light goes down. I struggled to get focus on my very last animal shot of the evenings and falling back to "normal" selective AF didn't help. The only way I got focus (it was too dark for me to get decent manual focus!) was to turn on the AF assitance light. Beleive me, seeing a tiger's eyes glow orange at you in the gloom is not an experience you forget easily! Would the E-M1 II have focussed? Maybe, I didn't have it with me so couldn't test it but have used it in similar situations before and don't remember having any problems but that's not a proper comparison. I have a suspicion the problem may be related to readout speed, and thus effective shutter speed during AF, which I understand is faster on the OM-1. The OM-1 reportedly does have a bit better colour tonality and slightly less noise in low light, but if it can't focus, what use is that?

Hey Robin thank you for this content :) only one question, which camera you buy after this em1 mkii? If the camera breaks and you don't find another em1 mk ii, buy you one em1 mkiii or you switch in panasonic :) ? Thank you in advance, I'm only curious:) Davide.

Amazing photos! Did you use full manual or shutter priority?

Hi Robin, What is your wish list For a new camera from OM systems?

My favourite lens from Olympus is 75mm f/1.8 premium prime, I only use primes on my Olympus camera, I want OM systems to be successful, If they truly want be successful I feel they really need to innovate A lot more than they have in recent years if they want to send a message that they’re there for the long-term otherwise more micro 4/3 users are going to migrate to other systems, just my opinion.

Don't fear high ISO shooters! Fear Pentax shooters, how crazy they are! haha

Looked good Robin…all on the EM1ii or did you also use the EM3 as well(or just for the video itself ). Great video regardless!

Hey Robin, great video of a very challenging shoot and beautiful images! I took some time out from an actual camera and only used a phone camera for a while but in recent years have began my journey back into photography with a gifted 4/3rds camera it's been a love/hate relationship where low light is concerned and I struggle with accepting the noise but at the same time for health reasons feel I need to stick with a lighter kit. I'm curious looking at your images, would there have been any flash involved and if so can you share your flash set up? I'm still improving my low light photography and any help on this area would be wonderful. Is there a really good flash system that you would recommend? I do prefer shooting with the light available but feel I need to grow in the lighting area, thanks again great video and if you're ever in the lower part of New Zealand we own a wee coffee cart so our shout lol but in the meantime ill follow your link to shout one from here cheers

Everybody misses the key point when shooting high ISO: the light in the environment you are shooting.

I have set 6400 to max. when I use auto iso. No complaining if exposure is correct.

I would use K3 + Sig 17-50/2.8, Sig18-35/1.8, Sig35/1.4, DA70/2.4 and Tamron 70-200/2.8... wide would be challenge as my wide option is F4 at best.. DA12-24/4. Did similar things in past during some concerts and performances in very dark rooms with just few color lamps. For M4/3 the Panasonic 10-25mm F1.7 would be great option in low light. Worst problem usually is to find usable white ballance than the noise :D And FF automatically does not provide better signal to noise ratio. It is about pixel size. 60Mpix FF sensors have similar limits like 20Mpix 4/3. Sony a7R IV has a pixel density of 7.18 MP/cm², OM1 is near with Pixel density. 9.06 MP/cm² and for example new Fuji APS-C XT-5 has 10.79 MP/cm².. The only way to have less noise is to use low resolution sensor of latest available technology.. so yes fullframe 24Mpix sensor will have a bit better HI-ISO images. But not FF in general. And using 24Mpix FF to me seems like waste of silicon :D

What do you think of the all new Nikon Zf As a street photographers camera specially when shooting in low light

👌🏻👍🏻👍🏻🙏🏻 👋🏻🙋🏻‍♂️

I Want OM systems to be successful, I want all new OM-2 with stacked 34 megapixel sensor, and all new image processor, And with full F stop of low light improvement and full F stop of dynamic range improvement. That’s what I want to see in the next camera introduced by OM systems a real wow camera.

Decided to get Olympus for my upcoming trip , Robin , is it worth to top up around rm 800 difference to get em 1 iii instead ? Main use would be family and travel usage . Thanks

I am user of Olympus micro 4/3 camera and lenses, OM systems has been very slow to introduce any new professional cameras with substantial improvements that would encourage me to buy more new cameras and lenses from OM systems, They haven’t exactly done anything to fear the worries of users that have heavily infested in the system. I’m very interested in the new Nikon Zf I’m sure it’s not a perfect camera, but no camera is.

A while ago I went to a night time open air art exhibition. Light only from the exhibits and the moon. I used 3200 for most pictures, 6400 for some on my M50, f3.5 max aperture lens, many say is bad in low light. Noise? I don’t care if the image portrays the emotions.

My G9 certainly managed 12800 at a concert. However, if 12800 isn't enough to (over expose) through ETTR then your MFT, any MFT, would not do well overall at that high number.

I don't see that you mentioned that the Olympus had a 2-stop advantage in depth of field that negates the 2-stop dynamic range of a full frame.

In this setting, I am assuming manual focusing is required. With the fast action and lighting, no camera would seem to be able to autofocus, even in continuous

Sure wish they would would make it so I can use topaz on my tablets

I don't care much about noise in live music- or event photos. If it does in a certain picture, I use programs to remove the noise. Take a look at live music etc. pictures from the 80's or 90's from analogue cameras. Full of grain. The certain moment counts for a good photo.

Nice, I tried to get lowlight images on 1 inch cameras and they became unrecoverable blobs of red and blue.

The Nikon Zf is roughly the same price as the OM-1, I know The system is a little bigger than OM-1 but it will have better performance in lowlight then m43 Camera and for street photography more than lightly you’ll only be using small wangle prime lenses with this camera which makes it a small package I know still not as small as a micro 4/3 but otherwise pretty small package

the only people who are into the noise stuff are photographers :) show a super noisy photo to a non-photographer and he will look on what is on the picture, not on the noise :)

Don't fear high iso! Printing 4X6s you won't notice!