Olympus M1x firmware update. Installing and using for bird tracking. 

Thank you, Mike, I wish I’d watched this long ago. Very helpful.

I'm impressed with bird recognition for birds in flight with my 300mm f4 + MC14. I've found that it works very well at lower shutter speeds when a bird suddenly takes off, and I have had no time to switch to one of my BIF settings. I can site two examples: I was using a shutter speed of 1/500th on a perched Buzzard, which suddenly took flight low to the ground, and the camera tracked it and produced tack sharp images. The second was of two Jackdaws which took off unexpectedy, again at 1/500th. It also works well at my usual BIF speeds of 1/2000th and 1/2500th. I have no complaints. I look forward to trying it out on Swallows flying low to the ground in the summer.

I’ve been working with the update on-and-off since its release. Per your own results the tracking seems to work very well for birds on the ground. Birds in flight are, regrettably, still more problematic. It’s gratifying to see the camera draw those white boxes around the birds, but unfortunately the tracking doesn’t always necessarily follow, and even when it does it sometimes fails to “stick” with the subject. Best results seem to be obtained by setting the tracking sensitivity to -2, and at shorter focal lengths. (I own the Panasonic/Leica 100-400 lens, and wonder if the autofocus is possibly faster on the Olympus version that was recently released.) I also think it’s probably better to set the AF focus points to a 3 x 3 grid, rather than the whole field, so you can easily specify what to focus on if there is more than one bird in your composition. Bottom line: it’s a worthwhile update, my keeper rate for birds in flight having already markedly improved. But it’s also far from perfect, or apparently even as good as similar options offered by Canon and Sony, and is definitely no substitute for skill and patience.

HI MIke! Thanks for your posting! Wishing you the best of Holiday Season and the New Year!

Thank you. Excellent work.

Hi Mike. An interesting video and seemingly worthwhile update. As someone that uses the M1mk3, I’m hoping that they’ll eventually see fit to release it for that camera too.

Greetings from Greece. Thank you for your work!

Gosh, it’s a super camera. Great video,. Wishing you a v Happy New Year, and many thanks for all yr help. C

Excellent discussion and videography.

It is kind of funny, Sony "the most innovative" company still does not have it! Thank you for the video! I love it!

great video as always, waiting for ur next video

Mac Users: know that you may be asked to turn off a switch in "Privacy and Security", in fact I had to do two different ones in order to load the firmware into the camera. But even before that, an EOS (Canon) app was a pop-up that I assumed was part of the OM app process. An hour thirty minutes for this guy to understand it all. Read all the error messages and everything else closely. Now I have to try this tracking out!

Season's greetings to you and your family n friends. Ha ha ha, loved your woody.

Thanks Mike, very helpfull !

I am yet to try the bird tracking on birds in flight and agree it looks useful for selecting the eye of the birds on the ground. However I recently hired a Canon R 5 and 100-500 lens and the animal eye Af is in another league. Even for birds in flight (seagulls and pigeons at the park) the af puts a single af point straight on the birds eye and tracks it like a magnet. The Canon setup provides a 500mm alternative to Olympus in a package comparable in weight and compactness to an Oly with 300mm f4 (600mm)

Be very interesting to see how you get on with birds in flight 👍

Thank you. I need to do this.

Hi Mike, thanks for your videos pal, Ive sold my canon R6 and hope to move to Olympus following your advice! Ive already purchased the 300mm F4 Pro and yet to buy a body and after your thoughts please! Do I purchase the OM1 or for the same money purchase the E-1MX, 1.4 teleconverter and 40-150 F2.8 Pro lens? Keep up the great work !! Very inspiring pal x

I am so happy with tracking birds in flight. Though the birds I was shooting were large Eagles I wonder if that makes a difference ? Shooting with the EM1X and 300mmF4 and 40-150 F2.8.

I wonder if paradoxically the tracking is best with static subjects; I'm trying using FN button to toggle C1 off and on. So, using CF (with no tracking for birds in flight.

Thank you for the video..... I’m planning to purchase my very first DSLR - Nikon D750 with (85mm 1.8 + 50mm 1.8 G lens). I’m wondering is it still worth to buy this camera considering 5 years old?. Purpose of buying a camera is for taking Portraits, Still, Landscape, Bird, Product photography (learning) and of course my kids. It would be really great if you throw some lights on my concern to make a wise decision.... other options I have considered is Nikon D780 with one of the lens and Z6ii with the kit lens... Thank you and looking forward to your recommendation.

My 300mm f/4 pro had a problem during the updating process and resulted into an inoperable lens. My body though got the latest firmware version. :'( Such a bummer and hassle for a gear yo're paying thousands of dollars. There's no fail safe method like reverting the firmware to previous verison if doesn't complete or you can just try again. Now there's the hassle and stress to send the lens back to the service center and paying for shippjng and fees (possibly) but I seriously mentioned that it shouldn't be the customer's hassle to pay for such a thing. It's already 2022 and they should have a better system/way to update their camera or lens' firmware without bricking the equipment.

I know that you now use Sony a1 but as far as I remember you used Panasonic G9 for video. With what lens do you use it? How do you like it? Have you got any video on that topic?