The OM-1 Focus Limiter Feature 

Thanks for posting all these videos. I have several photography RU-vid subscriptions that I follow but I always find myself gravitating to your videos. They are entertaining, to the point, have beautiful photos and videos, and informative - especially since I just received my new OM-1. Keep 'em coming!

Those still images, especially, make me drool. I have been shooting with the E-M1X (which I plan to keep), but have an OM-1 arriving in a couple days. I am planning to go to an annual Hummingbird festival on the Texas Coast this September, and can't wait to see what I capture. I was there a couple years back, and there are thousands of hummers at various locations -- as well as several spots with all manner of coastal birds -- Roseate Spoonbills, Terns, Herons, Avocets, etc.. Your excellent videos will be a great help in getting comfortable with the OM-1. Thank you for sharing all your excellent tips!

Thank you for a simple and well explained tutorial with the best English

EXcellent video . Well explained. Love the signing Wren pictures at the end.

Very useful tips! Thoroughly enjoy your tutorials

thank you! This is such a valuable function - I never hear about it before...plus love your bird set ups!

Great video as usual Mike. Thanks very much for explaining clearly with examples. Concise and helpful.

thanks for the information and for sharing the beautiful shots :)

Excellent. Thanks for the explanation

This is a perfect tutorial on when and how to use the focus limiter feature. Now I’m inspired to experiment with it. The footage and stills are wonderful!

Great video Mike. I also did a video on the OM1 AF limiter this week. I used it to take photos of dragonflies. You described it much more clearly and succinctly than I did though. Well done and fab shots as usual👍😀

Great info, I'm loving this camera even more;)

Another thing I didn't know. Thanks Mike.

This is a sensible explanation of the AF limiter. Just came back from a trip and was a bit annoyed about some out of focus shots. This is giving me the perfect explanation.

Some really good information here.

Thanks again: My next learning experience.

Cool!

In last weeks Film ? ...... who still uses film ? ..... no film, no footage, only video content ! 🙂 ........ I shut down my darkroom over 25 yrs ago ........ c'mon Mike, take it lightly, I'm only pullin yer leg ...... great stuff, once again ..... I'm learning from you once again ..... Thanks !

Very useful video, Mike, and lovely images - thanks 👍

lovely images Mike and as always everything well explained thank you.

You are my favorite camera guy. MAYBE because I have the same equipment as you.

What a great explanation of this valuable feature, and also pre MF that has puzzled me for a while. Superb footage and stills of the birds on gorse at the end.

Great tips video again thanks Mike the wren shots are stunning never seen one stay still for that long 😊📷

Educational and inspiration - must try it - thanks Mike.

What an excellent Tutorial and what images just superb, I have never used this feature but determined to give it a go.

Very nice work Mike! Cheers from NE Texas😊

Hi Mike.Nice photos as usual. Setting up the focus limiter is not fiddly. What I have done is assign a button to engage the focus limiter. I assigned it to the front button that is used for the one-touch white balance, which I never use anyway (referto page 15 in the user's manual). This way I can instantly turn the focus limiter on/off. I can also switch between On1/On2/On3 by keeping that button pressed while I turn the dial. I have assigned the following ranges as starting pint: On1: 1.4 - 10 meters (close range action), On2: 10-25 meters (for medium range BIF and action shots e.g. Terns) and On3: 25-100 meters, for long range BIF e.g. Eagles. Actually, the ranges depend on which custom mode I am using. HTH, Tord

breathtaking images thanks so much. we will not see stonechats until late September, and those will mainly be the Siberian ones passing by, on there way to east Africa., but those who winter here usually come late October. a bit busy now but hopefully by next week i can use your advises and get flight shots for our naughty weavers .

Thanks Mike, some great tips.

Interesting - would the limiter switch on the lens set to its closer distance not have worked here? My 300mm f/4 has a 1.4-4m switch - would that not have been enough to separate the background? In any event, the pictures of the birds at the end are a joy.

Could those lens switches be made programmable by OM Systems? (I've no idea if that's possible) Seems a shame to not use those switches on such an expensive lens!

That always has been a great feature, which was always hobbled by setting the limits is so insanely clumsy to set up. It should be dead easy to set the near and far limits using the AF. These should be programmable to the buttons, so you could set that up i.e. by using the buttons at the mount.

Great shots with beautiful backgrounds. The 150-400mm also produces a very nice bokeh. The focus limiter is very useful in some situations but not all. You can expand the type of situations where it is useful by assigning the function to a button. That way you can quickly surf through the options using a button press and a dial. This screen will display the selected ranges so you don't need to worry about what distances have been assigned to what buttons.

What a great feature the completely adjustable focus limiter ! I have focus limiter on 3 of my lenses including my 600mm f4 mk2 (the 3,9 kg version). And what a smart way to use it. I use the limiter on my 600mm frequently, its not as efficient as what you have there on your OM-1 but it still save time for the atofocus. Sometimes I forget to change it back and occasionally miss a shot, quite annoying.

The OM-1 offers many fiddly settings, so requires that people use the camera on a very regular basis. By setting the focus limiter you help the camera to work even better. It continues to amaze me.

When using the 150-400 M Zuiko there is a Set button. Perfect for this scenario, Emilie Talpin has an excellent video on using it and the LfN switch. The vide explains use of the black buttons on the lens to help with this situation. I do it since I watched her video. I think you will find it of interest. 😊

Your photos are really nice, amazing. Are you really considering yourself retired?

Mike, I think you have in the past used the Leica/Lumix 100-400 lens on the OM-1. This is the lens I have for my OM-1. I am happy with it, except for birds in flight, where I get a very low keeper rate even for slow moving gulls along the shoreline. I have tried the settings you suggest in another video, and also tweaking them. I keep up to date with firmware on the body and the lens. I have tried with the lens IS on and off, still no better. I do use back button focus but can't see why this would affect it. Did you ever have success with this lens?

Mike I use focus limiter quite a lot. If I know an approximate range I set it up. Currently I have one range for close up using the 40-150 and then intermediate and long for 150-400TC. As you mentioned Pre focus function is good but it involves messing about. I usually guess the range and it works (I check it works before I depend on it). If at home - say birds on a perch I can make the range pretty tight and this is especially good for nailing Procapture sequences.

Would love to have a software focus limiter in my Z9, although I'd like it to be set by initiating it somehow, then manually focusing on the near point, hit a button, far point, button again, done. Who cares about the distance in numbers in the field...

Lovely video and stills 👍🏻 Wish my Canon R5 had the focus limiter in camera function as once it focuses on the background it very rarely comes back to the subject. Can’t see why Canon can’t add it. By the way went to Elmley NR a few days ago. 240 mile round trip only to find it was closed. They assured me it would be open when I rang the day before and that I could pay on the gate 🙁 thanks for the video 🙏

I wonder if using the limiter would have any affect on the camera gong out of focus when tracking. The opportunity to use it would be very limited ( to the occasions when you can predict the flight course ) but it would be interesting to see if it still happens.