Testing the Olympus OM-1 Autofocus For Birds in Flight

Over the last four weeks, I had several opportunities to test the Olympus OM-1 Autofocus For Birds in Flight. What started as a typical AF series of tests morphed into that, plus a critique/comparison of the software I use to check for critical focus. The following are my findings on OM-1’s AF accuracy and the four pieces of software I used to make my conclusions.

Reviewing your pictures at 100% for critical focus

An essential workflow practice for all serious photographers is to review their work at 100%, also called 1:1. Without reviewing your work at 100%, you could be selecting photos that are not in focus. Having a program that gives you an accurate 100% Preview is essential. I’ve recently been able to test my Olympus OM-1 cameras on fast-moving birds in flight, reminding me of an issue I mentioned many months ago. That issue is that Olympus’ OM Workspace’s 1:1 Preview is inaccurate compared to other programs.

Mylio Photos, DxO PhotoLab, Lightroom and OM Workspace

My two main pieces of workflow software are Mylio Photos and DxO PhotoLab 6. Neither of these programs can show the AF sensor placement when the image is recorded. OM Workspace does, giving you valuable information when trying to understand a system’s AF capabilities. Combining a 100% image review and seeing the exact placement of the AF sensor is a critical part of understanding accurate autofocus. OM Workspace is the only software I work with that allows me to see where the camera placed the AF sensor. But it has an issue with viewing the image at 100%.

In the image above, I had to set OM Workspace to 50% to get the same-sized view I saw in DxO PhotoLab and Mylio Photos. Wanting to ensure I wasn’t seeing things, I also compared the OM Workspace size to Adobe Lightroom. All three other software tools, Mylio Photos, DxO PhotoLab, and Lightroom, confirmed that OM workspace showed a 200% view instead of the 100% or 1:1 view it suggested. Knowing this, I used OM Workspace to review the AF placement only.

OM Workspace shows where the camera focused

I don’t use OM Workspace very often. I pull it up only when I’m doing autofocus tests. It’s useful when I want to see where the AF sensor was in a particular image when the shutter button was activated.

I was recently testing the Olympus OM-1 on fast-flying Atlantic Puffins, hoping to understand better how accurate the AF is on birds in flight. Seeing the placement of the AF sensor is helpful to know if the camera focused where the camera placed it.

Unfortunately, even though the camera was in Bird Detection mode, it often focused on something completely different than the bird. The good news is, as the image above shows, even though the focus was not on the bird, it still seemed to focus in approximately the right spot. Even though the focus spot is on the background, the puffin is relatively sharp.

I say relatively since the puffin at 100% is not razor sharp. But it’s focused well enough to tell me the AF sensor was not focusing on what’s showing in OM Workspace. Unfortunately, the OM-1 missed critical focus, so I threw it out.

Release Priority Set to OFF

The idea behind this setting is the camera should not fire unless it’s certain the subject is in focus. Or at least that’s how I understand it. This option is in the Menu on AF Tab Page 1.

Editorial Note: I originally posted an image showing a page from the manual highlighting the settings related to Release Priority. I mistakenly reported that my setting for Release Priority was set to ON. In reality, it was set to OFF. I apologize for the mistake. I’ve corrected all instances where I used the word On to Off. I also had several references to “Focus Priority” when it should have been Release Priority. Oh, the joys of being our own editor. Thanks to DPReview reader Will Rose for bringing this to my attention.

Unfortunately, there were many times the puffin was not in focus, or even close to in focus, yet the camera still fired. Below is another example.

Autofocus with tracking seems to do a better job

Numerous videos and even more blog posts on the internet assure people that the AF+Tracking with Bird Detection is no better, and some say it’s even worse than AF-C alone. One video mentions that the official line from European Olympus is not to use AF-C+Tracking. I took this as gospel and did none of my tests using AF-C+Tracking. I regret that. So when one more opportunity came to shoot birds in flight, I ensured it was with AF-C+Tracking engaged. I was delighted to see considerably better results.

Unfortunately, the Northern Fulmar is not as fast as the Atlantic Puffin. Therefore improved AF results may be due to a slower subject. I’ll never know for sure until I get another chance at Puffins. But overall, it looked like the camera was doing a better job. With AF-C+Tracking, the camera would often not fire when the subject was clearly out of focus. And that’s what it was supposed to do.

AF stopping mid-burst?

An additional issue became apparent as I perused nearly 3,000 images. For some reason, the AF sensor would disappear mid-burst. I’ve tried to diagram the details below. In short, the screenshot below shows a burst of 25 frames. During that burst, the AF disappears twice. One for three frames and another section for two frames. Then it returns to finish the burst at the end of the 25-frame sequence.

I am still trying to understand why this would happen. But it makes me wonder if the AF may be stopping within a burst of photos for some reason. This might explain why some images are out of focus in an otherwise in-focus group. Could this be why others are writing about OM-1’s focus inconsistency with the action subjects? In the video below, Mike Lane discusses this issue with his flying pigeons in the graveyard AF tests.

My Settings for Birds in Flight

• Camera set to AF-C
• Bird Detection set to On
• Release Priority set to OFF
• AF-C+Tracking Sequential for approximately 20FPS capture rate
• AF pattern in EVF set to All

Not all Birds in Flight tests are created equal

All the videos I’ve seen related to birds in flight with the OM-1 are of birds shot flying parallel to the camera. That’s a relatively easy target. To accomplish an accurate test for birds in flight, you must have the birds flying straight at the camera or as close to it as possible. That’s a challenging task since a wild bird seldom flies in a straight line. Even if it did, you would need lots of luck to align yourself in the right spot to take advantage of such an opportunity. The next closest thing is to have dozens to hundreds of chances of many birds flying. Eventually, you’ll get the flight patterns you need to test your camera.

Finding a situation where I had many birds flying is the route I took for this test of the OM-1 with birds in flight. During my recent trip to the Faroe Islands, I found numerous opportunities to photograph Atlantic puffins and northern fulmars. Both species were preparing for the nesting season, so they were lots of them. And that’s the key to action photography. You need your subject to perform over and over and over again. Very seldom do great action images come from a one-off of a single bird flying past. Getting in the rhythm of how your subject flies, what time they get most active, and other behaviors takes time, patience, and, ideally, lots of subjects.

Rating your birds in flight

After the four occasions I had to photograph fast-moving birds, I selected the final images in two ways. If an image was even slightly out of focus, it received a 1 Star rating. If it was perfectly sharp, it received a 3 Star rating. In times past, I would rate my BIF images with 1, 2, and 3 stars, with the 2 Star rating being “Almost Sharp.”

Today, I could probably use many of the 2 Star images on social media or easily fix them with Topaz Photo AI. But I still have a Sony A9, so I’m much more critical of any other AF system. With the Sony, there are few 2 Stars. The accuracy of Sony’s autofocus means pictures are rarely soft. The Sony A9 is the camera to beat in all AF situations, from my experience. So that’s what I use as the standard to judge all other cameras.

Birds in Flight test results

With that in mind, below are the results of the four different Birds In Flight opportunities I had over the past four weeks.

BIF #1 Fulmar: Total Frames Shot = 313
AF-C
3 STARS (Perfect Focus) = 164/58%
1 STAR (Out of Focus) = 149/41%

BIF #2 Puffins Total Frames Shot = 1234 Total
AF-C
3 stars (Perfect Focus) =478/38.7%
1 Stars. (Out of Focus) =756./61.2%

BIF #3 Fulmar Total Frames Shot = 399 total
AF-C
3 Stars (Perfect Focus) =175/43%
1 Stars (Out of Focus) =224/56%

BIF #4 FULMAR Total Frames Shot = 1355
AF-C + Tracking On
3 Star (Perfect Focus). =742/54.76%
1 Star (Out of focus). =613/45.23%

Conclusion

In the final analysis, I have to say I was hoping for better results from the Olympus OM-1 on fast-moving birds. I finally gave up on Lumix for this exact reason. However, the big difference between the Olympus OM-1 and the Lumix G9 is the OM-1 being light years ahead of the G9 with fast birds in flight.

Unfortunately, the OM-1 is not in the same league as the Sony A9, but it did capture hundreds of exciting images of flying birds that were impossible with the Lumix G9. As much as I admire the AF system in the Sony A9, there are just too many other tools the OM-1 has that override my desire for near-perfect autofocus. So from that perspective, I’ve moved way ahead with my action photography by switching to the OM-1.

As crucial as action photography is to me, it’s not the only thing I shoot. There are other features in the OM-1 I would be seriously disappointed to give up. Features other cameras just don’t have. I’m still working on an overall review of the OM-1, which will contain the many things I absolutely love about this system. My AF tests were just one part of a long trial that merited its own blog post.

The number one tool keeping me firmly in the OM-1 camp is the can’t live without 150-400mm F/4.5 zoom lens. Other features I would hate to give up include Pro Capture, built-in ND filters, Star Light AF, High-Resolution Mode, and the small, compact form factor of all OM bodies, but especially the OM lenses.

Although the AF results were not perfect, they’re much better than the results I had shooting Lumix cameras over the past 10 years. I stuck with Lumix for far too long, confident they would eventually get their DFD focus system to work. They never did, so I had to move on. I’m hopeful OM Digital Solutions won’t make the same mistake. Thankfully the OM-1 is already dramatically better than anything I shot from Lumix. Now we just have to get the OM Solutions engineers to get cracking on the algorithms related to action photography for even better, Sony-like results. I’m confident they can do it.

Please let me know if any of you have seen the issue of OM Workspace not showing images at the 100% 1:1 sizing we all expect. Is it just me?

Editorial Note: I originally posted an image showing a page from the manual highlighting the settings related to Release Priority. I mistakenly reported that my setting for Release Priority was set to ON. In reality, it was set to OFF. I apologize for the mistake. I’ve corrected all instances where I used the word On to Off. I also had several references to “Focus Priority” when it should have been Release Priority. Oh, the joys of being our own editor. Thanks to DPReview reader Will Rose for bringing this to my attention.