On Thursday my wife and I spent the afternoon at the Toronto Zoo. My main objective was to do a bit of hand-held video testing. I also wanted to do more work with the Olympus OM-D E-M1X hand-held Hi Res Mode. This article contains a small selection of hand-held Toronto Zoo Hi Res Reptile images.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
I quite enjoy photographing reptiles as I am fascinated with the texture and look of their skin. Over the years I’ve found them to be good subjects on which to practice my slow shutter speed hand-held technique. With all of the fine details on most reptiles, one can quickly see any blur caused by poor technique.
I’ve been using the Olympus Loaner Gear for a little over a week. I’m just scratching the surface in terms of acquiring a good working knowledge of the equipment. Rather than bounce around from one capability to another, I decided to initially focus some of my efforts on the Hand-held Hi Res Mode.
Using this feature is actually very easy. There is plenty of good photographic subject matter around. The challenge has been learning my personal shutter speed limits. These can vary based on subject matter and lighting.
Using faster shutter speeds can make creating successful Hand-held Hi Res Mode images more assured as there is less chance of photographer movement. Obviously using faster shutter speeds is more commonly done outdoors in bright sunlight.
Captive reptiles in zoo environments are more of a challenge as the lighting is generally fairly dim. Luckily this type of subject matter doesn’t move around a lot. To try to ensure a high percentage of successful Hand-held Hi Res Mode attempts, I used shutter speeds of 1/50 to 1/60. Many of the images in this article were captured at ISO-5000. The green snake above is a good example.
The Olympus OM-D E-M1X Hand-held Hi Res Mode combines 16 different images into one RAW file. This creates a beautifully detailed image, while providing the unexpected benefit of seeming to help suppress image noise. The large 50 MP files also give photographers a lot of leeway in terms of cropping their final images. These Toronto Zoo Hi Res reptile images are good examples of that added leeway. I’ve found that the Hand-held Hi Res Mode adds a significant amount of flexibility to the OM-D E-M1X.
Overall, I find the Hand-held Hi Res Mode to be an extremely valuable and practical feature on the E-M1X. Should I decide to acquire some Olympus equipment, I will no doubt use this mode on a very frequent basis for both personal use and client assignments. Readers who have been following my Olympus gear testing journey may be interested to learn that I have ruled out the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II from further consideration. The E-M1X is a far superior camera in meeting our specific needs.
Technical Note:
All photographs in this article were captured using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. All images were produced using the Olympus Hand-held Hi Res Shot Mode. All photographs displayed in this article were produced from RAW files using my standard process. DxO PhotoLab 2 now supports the Olympus OM-D E-M1X.
Use of Olympus Loaner Equipment
All of the photographs in this article were captured using Olympus Loaner Gear which was supplied by Olympus Americas Inc. on a no-charge basis. We are under no obligation what-so-ever to Olympus Americas Inc. in terms of our use of this loaner Olympus camera equipment. There is no expectation or agreement of any kind with Olympus Americas Inc. that we will create and share with readers any images, articles or videos, or on what that content may be.
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Excellent photos! So sharp. Seems like a good camera for you.
Thanks Joni! I have been enjoying testing out the Olympus gear.
Tom
Stunning images. Is it possible to combine the Hi-Res mode with Focus Stacking?
Thanks Bill… I’m glad you enjoyed the photographs!
I haven’t tried focus stacking yet so I don’t know if you can combine them. I will try to make some time this weekend to print the 600+ page manual for the OM-D E-M1X… I can then look it up. I think focus stacking is a jpeg only function… hi res mode produces both RAW and jpeg so I’m guessing that they can’t be combined. It may take me a bit of time to slog through the manual. 🙂
Tom