For myself I’ve setup that back button for eye detection. For me it works nicely as when you are trying to get photo of a small bird between tree branches or something you can still use just one focus point if needed.
Went to bsck button focus after coming across your chanel, years ago. Yes it took a while to be used to it. Thankfully with a Nikon D750 ive no issue with the modern eye detection but i see the idea to stay with shutter button with the mirrorless cameras.
Have you always shoot with BBF since EM1.2. I have dual BBF (or even triple with front button modifier) on my 7D2 and it's second nature. But the AEL and AFL button on EM1.2 is in a wrong place to use it for BBF, so I revert to shutter half press. Am planning to upgrade to OM1 at one point though and this button seems to be super well placed.
I've learned the hard way that the OM-1 bird AI cannot focus if the bird is behind vegetation. It can recognize that there's a bird, but the AF does not cue off the subject detection, it stubbornly sticks to the twigs in the foreground. Fortunately there's Manual mode, back button focus and the smallest focus target. That sometimes prevails where the AF doesn't respond to the subject recognition AI. For birds in flight, the subject AI works but I'm not sure it is much better than a mid-size AF target without subject detection. The bird AI works great is easy situation, when you don't really need it. Ducks in the park, for instance. But coming from the EM-1 Mark ii, I don't think the subject AI is the new camera's strongest feature. For me this is the upgraded weather sealing, the hand-held high resolution and in-camera focus stacking.
Hey Aspen - Thanks for the video. I wanted to see whether you can do some real-world test on 'keeper rate' with stabilisation on and stabilisation all off. I have started to take photos of birds - mainly Swallows - in flight and watched many UA-cam videos on best setups. Too many people provide conflicting information - so there is no consensus. Is there an advantage of turning the stabilisation off?
Great video and explanation on you're workflow. I'm just wondering. If you were into landscape photography like I am. Would you use bbf then? Grt guido
I don’t think so. I find bbf is more of an efficient way to shoot, but you usually have more time with landscape photography. Of course if you also shoot wildlife, it might be best to pick one and stick with it so that it’s not confusing.
Great video, love that you say that with M43 , we don’t have many pixels to waste. Don’t hear enough M43 users say to fill the frame and avoid the crop.
But...why didn't you use another focus point, so you do not need to fokus with the focus point in the middle and then recompose. I compose my pictures and the choose the rigth focus point.
I find that focus>recompose>shoot takes a tiny fraction of a second, whereas compose>move focus points around>focus>shoot could take a second or more. If I'm shooting birds there's a good chance they've moved on before I can get a shot off.
Two years ago I learned from you about the use of AF back button. It took a lot of time and practical efforts to change my consolidated habit, but now I'm gratefully to you because this kind of shooting allows me to find a good focusing and composition. Thank you very much. Sergio from Milano
I set up back button focus on my Em1 mark 3, but I find that my shutter button is is still operating the focus at the same time. Having watched a number of videos I can't understand why this is.
@EspenHelland You're absolutely right, Espen. I eventually found it among the thousands of menus, and I turned it off . Maybe it will behave itself now. Many thanks.
Espen with the new OM-1mkII how would you set up the subject detection switching (used to be AEL button) but now that you have the subject detection lock how would that effect button choice and which buttons would you use for both?
The need to use BBF nowadays I see this as a sign of a weak AF system. Unfortunately I always have to use it with the OM-1, because the AF system does not seem to really work in conjunction with the AI subject detection. If anything is in front of the detected subject, focus always sticks with the foreground object. I never use BBF with a Sony camera. These cameras always stick with the subject I want to be in focus.
.....or use the default L-fn button for stop focus......in my film days there was no auto focus, so c-af+m is built in from years of muscle memoryOM-1 Mk II is very fast in acquisition and accuracy - especially with the 150-400 been testing for the past couple of weeks and now trust the system which is in place.....manual override is always enabled for focus with peaking
Hi Espen, my set up is very similar to yours except I use the AEL button for magnifying for those distant environment shots to get the subject sharp when they are small in the screen. Great video. Q What image stabilising mode do you find better for BIF
Do you know if back button focus can be used with the OM-1 attached to the hld-10 battery pack in vertical position? I can only find a picture of the front of the battery pack.
Nice video and interesting but as you said the AI focussing is not 100% and the back button can kick it in to focus and yes, I do use back button focusing a lot. 👍
I also use BBF full time now. I have my OM-1 set up in a similar way to yourself, but use the lever to quickly switch between CAF & MF. This is a legacy way of working for me, as I was able to do this on my GX-8 & G9 as they by design have a lever for focus mode selection. You are correct that muscle memory can be critical in getting the shot.
Nice video! I ordered an OM-1 for a Christmas present to myself but I haven't received it yet. I'm a long time BBF user as well but coming from Pentax, I've never had a chance to see what works on the Oly platforms. Can you use BBF and Procapture at the same time? How does that work?
As a new subscriber, and a Nikon user, I appreciate your presentation style, and clear explanation of techniques, etc. I spend 99% of my photography time in the field, while hiking, camping and overland exploring.
Great tutorial!Have used BBF for years with Olympus. Shooting 2 OM-1's now with BBF. Your Camera/Shot Workflow as really brought together for me the OM-1 features and building them into improving my camera work. Thank you. (Going to look over your Courses now).
Great step by step easy to understand video! When you are in continuous focus without back button focus how does the camera behave in birds in flight with regards to focus? As the bird moves do you need to repeatedly stop taking the shot to half press in order for it to continue to focus since it's moving or can you keep the button fully pressed and expect it to continuously focus without having to half press again? Thanks for a great video!
My understanding is that as long as you’re shooting at the slower high speed which allows continuous auto focus and exposure between each shot, the focus continues while your pressing the shutter down.
This is great information, and very timely, as I’ve just received my OM-1 and have been learning to set it up. I’ve been used to using back button focus with my G9 and love it. Looking forward to trying the bird/animal AI. Thanks 👍
Very informative. I shoot birds, often in a woodland park near me and find the AI sometimes struggles when the subject is partly obscured. Some great setup tips here to help me overcome this. I think BBF is going to take a while to get used to in the muscle memory but I can really see where it would help, even with the great AI we have at our disposal. Saved this video to my favourites for reference. Thanks again.
With such long focal length and shallow DOF, isn't focusing in the middle and recomposing a bit risky? One could end up with slightly out of focus subject.
I think that could be an issue if you’re also really close to the subject, but if you’re a bit of a distance away I’ve not seen this as an issue I run into a lot.
When doing birds in flight, you'll want to maintain focus during an entire pass. That's much easier with back button and fewer out-of-focus shots. It also enables using two buttons for ai focus or spot/area.
@@EspenHelland No, letting up halfway on the shutter between bursts is likely to cause you to let up completely and then have to regain focus, while with BBC, you can independently shoot bursts while keeping focus.
Great tips on shooting steps. I'm trying to do this and make these habits. As an aside, I'm very interested in the pants you are wearing in this video, they look great for wildlife shooting, are they? Waterproof? Partially waterproof? What brand? We don't have pants like these much in the states with reinforced areas. thanks as always.
For myself I’ve setup that back button for eye detection. For me it works nicely as when you are trying to get photo of a small bird between tree branches or something you can still use just one focus point if needed.
Went to bsck button focus after coming across your chanel, years ago. Yes it took a while to be used to it. Thankfully with a Nikon D750 ive no issue with the modern eye detection but i see the idea to stay with shutter button with the mirrorless cameras.
Have you always shoot with BBF since EM1.2. I have dual BBF (or even triple with front button modifier) on my 7D2 and it's second nature. But the AEL and AFL button on EM1.2 is in a wrong place to use it for BBF, so I revert to shutter half press. Am planning to upgrade to OM1 at one point though and this button seems to be super well placed.
I've learned the hard way that the OM-1 bird AI cannot focus if the bird is behind vegetation. It can recognize that there's a bird, but the AF does not cue off the subject detection, it stubbornly sticks to the twigs in the foreground. Fortunately there's Manual mode, back button focus and the smallest focus target. That sometimes prevails where the AF doesn't respond to the subject recognition AI. For birds in flight, the subject AI works but I'm not sure it is much better than a mid-size AF target without subject detection. The bird AI works great is easy situation, when you don't really need it. Ducks in the park, for instance. But coming from the EM-1 Mark ii, I don't think the subject AI is the new camera's strongest feature. For me this is the upgraded weather sealing, the hand-held high resolution and in-camera focus stacking.
Hey Aspen - Thanks for the video. I wanted to see whether you can do some real-world test on 'keeper rate' with stabilisation on and stabilisation all off. I have started to take photos of birds - mainly Swallows - in flight and watched many UA-cam videos on best setups. Too many people provide conflicting information - so there is no consensus. Is there an advantage of turning the stabilisation off?
Great video and explanation on you're workflow. I'm just wondering. If you were into landscape photography like I am. Would you use bbf then? Grt guido
I don’t think so. I find bbf is more of an efficient way to shoot, but you usually have more time with landscape photography.
Of course if you also shoot wildlife, it might be best to pick one and stick with it so that it’s not confusing.
Great video, love that you say that with M43 , we don’t have many pixels to waste. Don’t hear enough M43 users say to fill the frame and avoid the crop.
Noe Summit
But...why didn't you use another focus point, so you do not need to fokus with the focus point in the middle and then recompose. I compose my pictures and the choose the rigth focus point.
I find that focus>recompose>shoot takes a tiny fraction of a second, whereas compose>move focus points around>focus>shoot could take a second or more. If I'm shooting birds there's a good chance they've moved on before I can get a shot off.
Two years ago I learned from you about the use of AF back button. It took a lot of time and practical efforts to change my consolidated habit, but now I'm gratefully to you because this kind of shooting allows me to find a good focusing and composition. Thank you very much. Sergio from Milano
I set up back button focus on my Em1 mark 3, but I find that my shutter button is is still operating the focus at the same time. Having watched a number of videos I can't understand why this is.
I know that on the OM-1 you also have to go into the menu and turn off focusing with shutter button. I don’t have the em1iii but it might be similar?
@EspenHelland You're absolutely right, Espen. I eventually found it among the thousands of menus, and I turned it off . Maybe it will behave itself now. Many thanks.
Espen with the new OM-1mkII how would you set up the subject detection switching (used to be AEL button) but now that you have the subject detection lock how would that effect button choice and which buttons would you use for both?
Ive just added the subject switching to the iso button and left the others the way I had them.
thanks@@EspenHelland
Does it work with Pro Capture…?
It works as the focus, but you have to half press the shutter to activate pro capt
The need to use BBF nowadays I see this as a sign of a weak AF system. Unfortunately I always have to use it with the OM-1, because the AF system does not seem to really work in conjunction with the AI subject detection. If anything is in front of the detected subject, focus always sticks with the foreground object. I never use BBF with a Sony camera. These cameras always stick with the subject I want to be in focus.
.....or use the default L-fn button for stop focus......in my film days there was no auto focus, so c-af+m is built in from years of muscle memoryOM-1 Mk II is very fast in acquisition and accuracy - especially with the 150-400 been testing for the past couple of weeks and now trust the system which is in place.....manual override is always enabled for focus with peaking
Do you use bbq with pro capture?
Yes, but I still need to press the shutter to activate pro capture
Hi Espen, my set up is very similar to yours except I use the AEL button for magnifying for those distant environment shots to get the subject sharp when they are small in the screen. Great video. Q What image stabilising mode do you find better for BIF
Do you know if back button focus can be used with the OM-1 attached to the hld-10 battery pack in vertical position? I can only find a picture of the front of the battery pack.
I have an EM1iii the EM1ii with a multi-selector like the OM-1 but not the features of an OM-1. I would like to see you make a video for this orphan.
Nice video and interesting but as you said the AI focussing is not 100% and the back button
can kick it in to focus and yes, I do use back button focusing a lot.
👍
I also use BBF full time now. I have my OM-1 set up in a similar way to yourself, but use the lever to quickly switch between CAF & MF. This is a legacy way of working for me, as I was able to do this on my GX-8 & G9 as they by design have a lever for focus mode selection. You are correct that muscle memory can be critical in getting the shot.
Nice video! I ordered an OM-1 for a Christmas present to myself but I haven't received it yet. I'm a long time BBF user as well but coming from Pentax, I've never had a chance to see what works on the Oly platforms. Can you use BBF and Procapture at the same time? How does that work?
Cool! Hope you get it soon. You focus with bbf but you still need to activate pro capture by half pressing and then pressing the shutter button.
As a new subscriber, and a Nikon user, I appreciate your presentation style, and clear explanation of techniques, etc. I spend 99% of my photography time in the field, while hiking, camping and overland exploring.
Thanks a lot! That’s a great way to spend your time 🙂
excelent description. I am interested for your OM system course. May I get any chrismas discount fot that course ?
Hi, sure you can. Use ‘XMAS’
at checkout for 20% :)
Great tutorial!Have used BBF for years with Olympus. Shooting 2 OM-1's now with BBF. Your Camera/Shot Workflow as really brought together for me the OM-1 features and building them into improving my camera work. Thank you. (Going to look over your Courses now).
Glad to hear it! Thanks Dave 🙂
Great step by step easy to understand video! When you are in continuous focus without back button focus how does the camera behave in birds in flight with regards to focus? As the bird moves do you need to repeatedly stop taking the shot to half press in order for it to continue to focus since it's moving or can you keep the button fully pressed and expect it to continuously focus without having to half press again? Thanks for a great video!
My understanding is that as long as you’re shooting at the slower high speed which allows continuous auto focus and exposure between each shot, the focus continues while your pressing the shutter down.
This is great information, and very timely, as I’ve just received my OM-1 and have been learning to set it up. I’ve been used to using back button focus with my G9 and love it. Looking forward to trying the bird/animal AI. Thanks 👍
Cool! Best of luck with the camera 🙂
Very informative. I shoot birds, often in a woodland park near me and find the AI sometimes struggles when the subject is partly obscured. Some great setup tips here to help me overcome this. I think BBF is going to take a while to get used to in the muscle memory but I can really see where it would help, even with the great AI we have at our disposal. Saved this video to my favourites for reference. Thanks again.
Glad you found it helpful 🙂
With such long focal length and shallow DOF, isn't focusing in the middle and recomposing a bit risky? One could end up with slightly out of focus subject.
I think that could be an issue if you’re also really close to the subject, but if you’re a bit of a distance away I’ve not seen this as an issue I run into a lot.
@@EspenHelland Thanks for your feedback! I usually avoid focusing & recomposing because of this, I might reconsider now :)
Thank you for the tips
What is this wooden attachment to the lens foot you're using not on tripod?
A gift 🙂 you an check out the pinned comment on the video: ua-cam.com/video/g4mymCLYK5U/v-deo.html if you want to email about getting one
I don't find it functional when using the evf, but great when shooting lcd.
Why is that?
As always a simple informative video. I learn something every time. Cheers.
Thanks Ian 🙂
This is good!
When doing birds in flight, you'll want to maintain focus during an entire pass. That's much easier with back button and fewer out-of-focus shots. It also enables using two buttons for ai focus or spot/area.
Why would it be easier to keep focus with bbf for birds in flight? You’d keep focusing on the bird either way right?
@@EspenHelland No, letting up halfway on the shutter between bursts is likely to cause you to let up completely and then have to regain focus, while with BBC, you can independently shoot bursts while keeping focus.
Now, THAT was what I needed!
Awesome to hear 🙂
Thanks!
Thank you Richard 🙂
Great tips on shooting steps. I'm trying to do this and make these habits.
As an aside, I'm very interested in the pants you are wearing in this video, they look great for wildlife shooting, are they? Waterproof? Partially waterproof? What brand? We don't have pants like these much in the states with reinforced areas. thanks as always.
Cheers! They’re not waterproof, but great for summer and hiking. It’s by Montane