[Sylvain]

This morning I went to a field hockey game to see some friends and to put the E-M5 to test. Field hockey isn't a very easy sport to follow because it's a rather small ball and the stick movements allow for rapid changes of directions. It was a sunny morning with sun already quite high. The field surface is a bright green but contrast was quite ok. I was shooting from ground.



I tried several things : tracking AF, high speed EVF, EVF, and the 9fps mode. I had the 45-200 lens mounted.



I found the tracking was actually not too bad at picking a target and following it. But I'm still not quite sure about the principle. It can follow the shape but still has to do a dichotomous af every now and then, which means that at the time of shutter release, you might just be on a soft moment.



I played with the faster refresh EVF mode. You clearly get a better refresh but the loss of resolution was kinda critical and got the ball visibility down. Also the in-focus check isn't as easy with this blocky view. For other sports, it might be useful but here, it was less useful. I soon turned the normal view on. Usability remained decent.



One thing was quite annoying : the black out time. I remember it was much easier to keep in the action with the OVF. This isn't a definitive issue as I'm sure we'll get electronic shutters soon but it made tracking uncomfortable in fast actions. Also, it feels more strenuous to the eye.



EVF & OLED vs SUNLIGHT : 0 - 2

The EVF rubber thingy is useless. It's not deep enough to shield your eyes (without glasses). One would need to scoop over to get a good view. Perhaps the Olympus EP-11 eyepiece will improve this and I sure hope it does.

The OLED. I complained in previous posts about its color cast. New complaint today : it's a glass finish panel. What a terrible idea. I really don't get it. Also, boosted to its max brightness, it still feels less bright than the E-P1 screen. My definitive opinion on this is that I *preferred* the E-P1 screen, after all. Upon first inspections, you'll probably prefer the AMOLED though.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a fanboy of the E-P1. I'm really happy to replace it, it was long in the teeth for almost everything but I think it's rather despairing to regress on some aspects.



The 9fps mode is something to try. That shutter is so quiet and the camera is so quick to trigger that you sometimes realize that you took 4 frames already. Very impressive and even with AF lock on the first frame, remains useful I think.





That's all for now. Take all this with a pinch of salt, I'm not used to sport photography so I'm sure there are a few tips&tricks about where to shoot from, how etc...



All in all, my impression is that the E-M5, while distinctly better than EVF-less mirrorless cameras (or I should say that it simply enables you to do some sport, while I couldn't shoot crap with the E-P1), is still not up to the job for -some- sports. But I feel with some practice, one could kinda manages to grab a few good ones and to be fair, I'm not sure a rebel would do much better (the 40D tracking was a joke and I don't think much technology has trickled down to the rebels... even now) but the comfort of the OVF would make it a less painful/exiging experience.



Oh btw, the 45-200 is still a semi piece of crap.