Better C-AF With CLUSTER AREA Shooting On Olympus OM-D

hi my name is robin wong in this video i want to talk about the cluster area continuous autofocus for your olympus omv cameras let's do this [Music] [Applause] [Music] having used the olympus omd system for many years now i find that many people are not aware of this option cluster area display for continuous autofocus i don't blame most people because whenever there is a review of the olympus omb cameras that's done by even some very large review sites these reviewers don't even mention the cluster area autofocus when they test the continuous autofocus capabilities of olympus onb cameras they don't use the cluster area autofocus capabilities instead they use either continuous autofocus alone or continuous autofocus plus tracking now i'm not saying that olympus tracking autofocus capabilities is not that great but in some situations this cluster error autofocus option is superior and i'm going to show you how the cluster air autofocus was first introduced in the olympus om-d e-m1 mark ii any subsequent cameras that is released after that will have the cluster area or the focus display but if you want to use the cluster area plus continuous autofocus effectively you need to get the higher level olympus cameras such as the en1x emma ii emma iii and em5 mark 3. if you use the lower level olympus cameras such as the em-10 series or the epl9 epl10 you still get the cluster error display but you cannot use it together with the continuous autofocus effectively you can only use the cluster area with the single autofocus i admit that i don't use continuous autofocus most of the time i shoot mostly with single autofocus it gets the job done however i acknowledge that if you are a sports shooter continuous autofocus is extremely crucial and i did use continuous autofocus in rare occasions that i was shooting sports the continuous autofocus plus the cluster era display enabled this is truly helpful in situations where you only have very few subjects within a frame for example if you're shooting sports like tennis when you only have one or two players inside the frame or if you're shooting fighting sports like muay thai kickboxing or fc fights when you have two people in the ring fighting then the cluster error or the focus once you enable it it will automatically find the subject in the frame you don't even have to move the focusing point the camera will find that subject for you and track its movement full time all you have to do is just make sure that the subject is within your composition and when you're ready you see the right moment you click the shutter button that's all the continuous autofocus with cluster area display is so easy to use even a nuke like me will be able to use it to shoot sports and get very high hit rates so in which situation that the cluster air autofocus is not suitable for continuous autofocus shooting in the sports where you have too many players that you have to fit within a frame for example basketball or football if you have five players you want to fit in your frame then the camera will be confused if you use cluster autofocus it cannot track the one particular subject that you want the camera will randomly select one subject usually it is the one closest to the camera it may not be the one that you want to be in focus in such situations i usually would turn the cluster autofocus off either i use the continuous or the focus and make sure that the subject that i want to track is on the focusing point i've assigned or i can use continuous autofocus plus tracking to enable the cluster area display for continuous autofocus first you have to enable the continuous autofocus mode you can do that by going to the super control panel press ok to access the super control panel and find the focusing mode it is here then you select continuous autofocus which is the caf next you need to enable all area autofocus display for most omd cameras you can just go any of this up down left right button but for em 10 series or ep09 series you need to press left first then after that you can use the dial for omd cameras the front dial and to turn it until you see all area in focus like so next you have to go into the menu under the menu go to the cog or the gear then find the autofocus settings which is in a go to a2 here you have the f area pointer select on two this is very important you need the f area pointer on two once this is enabled all you have to do is just half press the shutter button you can see that there's a cluster area that will automatically find the subject which it will track for you [Music] one very important note whenever you use continuous autofocus shooting with burst sequential mode in your olympus on the camera is not to use burst sequential high this is very very critical because the continuous autofocus will only work with burst sequential low this applies to both electronic shutter and mechanical shutter this rule was ignored by a lot of reviewers even large size therefore they get poor hit rates if you use continuous autofocus with burst sequential high whichever continuous autofocus modes the camera's algorithm will not be able to refocus in between each frame it will only focus on the first image and every subsequent frames will not have very very effective autofocus tracking to have every single frame for the camera to work really hard to refocus you must set the burst sequential shot to low and this will ensure you get very good keeper rates now before someone asks hey robin can i use this technique to shoot birds in flight let me get that question out of the way honestly guys i don't see the fascination of shooting birds in flight if you love to do it go for it i will not comment further but i don't shoot birds in flight i rarely shoot any birds and the only time i shoot birds is when i go to kuala lumpur park whenever there's new olympus cameras that's released to test the cameras and the birds in the bird park they don't fly a lot also if you give a capable photographer say someone who is shooting birds in flight every single day if you give him a 10 years old dslr dinosaur he'll still be able to get high hit rates but if you give me the best of the best today say a canon 1dx smart 3 or a nikon d6 both cameras arguably having the best continuous autofocus tracking capabilities i will still give you nothing all right so it's not about just how well the camera performs it also highly depends on the skills of the photographer i don't have the skills i just have to be honest you can't force me to shoot birds in flight because i don't like to shoot that it's the same as me shooting inside macros some people don't like insects some people hate spiders i can't force them to shoot spiders and it's just like me loving cats some street photographers scoff at cats we choose what we want to shoot so if you want to shoot breasts in flight of course go for it not my concern but i just i'm not the right person to answer the question so there you go that's all i have to share about cluster era display for continuous autofocus in your olympus omd camera do tell me if this is your first time hearing about cluster era display or you have been using this actively shooting with your olympus omb camera please leave your thoughts in the comments below i would love to hear from you if you found my sharing useful please consider buying me a cup of coffee or you can contribute directly to my paypal account i'll put the links in the description below on how you can do that any small contribution can go a long way and help me to continue making similar videos to publish them right here if you've liked this video please give me a thumbs up please consider subscribing and also remember to go out and take more photographs until the next video please stay safe and take care bye [Music] you

Channel: Robin Wong

Views: 33,642

Keywords: OM-D, Olympus, Olympus OM-D, Olympus Visionary, photography, photo tips, photography tips, camera tips, cluster AF, Cluster area AF, Cluster Area Olympus, Olympus C-AF shooting, Olympus continuous AF, Olympus bird in flight, Olympus sports photography, Olympus moving subject tips

Id: YcNrCtx2d1I

Length: 10min 2sec (602 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020