WooHoo! Firmware 4.0

[kenwae]

Some very neat features coming in November!

http://www.olympus-global.com/en/new...150915omde.jsp

[Edmunds]

This is a fine upgrade for the E-M1... but I wish Olympus would just release these things, instead of releasing a date when they will be released.

It looks like the 300mm f/4 is now set back to 2016.

[Michael Meissner]

Presumably they are still finishing up the details, and the code isn't ready yet. As a software developer, I've been in this situation many times.

Alternatively, there is speculation over at dpreview.com, that the timing is due to the agreement Olympus had with Panasonic for the sensor in the E-M1, that they would not release additional video modes (i.e. 24p frames/second) for 2 years. The contract is said to expire at the end of October. The flat movie profile feature on the E-M5 II seems aimed to compete with the new V-LOG features of the G-H4.

[Shaw]

[QUOTE=kenwae;637749]Some very neat features coming in November!

QUOTE]

An interesting article on focus stacking and bracketing here:

http://cameras.olympus.com/stack/en/

[Edmunds]

To be honest, I'd be willing to switch to an E-M1 just for 24p and focus peaking. Video with 30fps just looks like... home video

[ken610]

Looks good, Ken. Thanks for the heads up on this. Do you know whether this will again be a destructive update, as in factory reset of all body settings? Have you heard that it might include a way to save settings to a file on the SD card? I really want that feature. Any improvement on the ability to catch focus faster, as in whales that come up closer than expected?

[kenwae]

those features were not listed; they've got to save something for the EM1ii model! Given the trajectory, with an EM5ii and an EM10ii, an EM1ii is next on the list. Two other kind of nifty features that were listed were a completely silent shutter and a simulated ovf viewfinder...

[ken610]

Thanks, Ken. I'll look forward to the upgrade.

[darkgoob]

Still don't know what bitrate that 24P is gonna be. ALL-I? I doubt it.

And the fact it's a Panasonic sensor explains why I never liked the results as much as my E-M5.

Anyway I'm hoping it will be good.

[Zensu]

These new features coming in Firmware 4.0 are what nudged me to finally get the E-M1 camera a few weeks ago and even without them I've fallen in love with this fantastic camera (and no, I don't work for Olympus). Can hardly wait to try out Focus Stacking with my Oly 60mm macro!

[TonyVentourisPhotography]

Focus stacking in the field with the 60 and the 12-40 is going to be awesome. In fact, I am curious to try this at 24mm. I wonder how far a stack can be programmed. I would love to have really deep depth of field with at 12mm set to F/5.6 and get everything from super close foreground to infinity. Maybe the focus stacking can get the foreground in front of the hyperfocal in focus.