I recently picked up a contract as a school photographer. This goes against the grain of the current market, COVID, economic and social trends, so I am fully aware how lucky I am.

To add to this lucky streak, I was asked to do some sport and performance photography during my “trial” week, so I had a chance to fully exercise my skills and gear.

The great thing about this type of work is variety. The tough part is variety. I have let my gear run down a little, selling the 12-100 Pro recently and the 40-150 Pro last year, so it was with a little trepidation, that I pressed my “budget” 75-300 into service as a sports lens, in winter, in the early morning.

What I learned.

The 75-300 on an EM1 mk2 (original firmware) was fully capable of capturing crisp and contrasty images in most light, of running high school age subjects and acquired perfect tracking lock 90% of the time. The other 10% came down to AF confusion, usually locking on to the background when two subjects split the AF area or mistakes on my part.

In poor light/weather, which was unfortunately the case on the first two days, I had to resort to shorter focal lengths with the zoom or my much faster 75mm prime, to get an acceptable combination of ISO (3200 max ) and shutter speed (1/250th min). Performance was still good, but everything was stretched.

It also managed a high hit rate with some recumbent cycles at good speed in reasonably close confines, although the bulk of the better images came from the 12-40, due to distance.

The 75mm f1.8 was also a good performer, although I did not use it wide open on moving subjects as I have always been a little suspicious of it’s AF. This lens often missed focus or hunted on earlier cameras, when the cheaper 75-300 did not. I did however, get some surprising results with indoor basketball with this camera and lens combo (razor sharp at f2.5, crops from portrait orientation below), so maybe the Em1 gets enough out of it.

At this point I have been successful shooting indoor sports with either an EM5 mk1 and 40-150 Pro or EM1 and 75mm, but I would love to try the 40-150 and Em1 combo as it is considered the best on offer from Olympus.

I also need to pull my finger out and do the all too painful firmware updates for the cameras and lenses. I wish they were as easy as the Fuji ones.

Overall I am impressed by the 75 and 75-300’s performance with the EM1 and expect them to jump again noticeably when I update.

*

The news of Olympus selling their camera division, has generated some discussion and at first I felt equal, but controlled amounts of disappointment, betrayal and frustration. The reality is, nothing is for ever, especially in the camera world. Change may be good, or not, but either way I have cameras aplenty*, lenses in equal abundance and Panasonic as an option. There are also millions of Olympus cameras in the world and I am sure stocks of original Olympus gear will be hanging around for a while at least.

The most likely path is to add a G9 and 50-200 or 40-150 for action and as a general work horse, then an 8-18 for rare wide angle use (if needed). The G9 has the same or slightly better AF tracking (lens dependant) and more AF configurations than the Olympus EM1 mk2 and better video, with otherwise the same features. It is wise to match new Pana lenses and cameras to get the most out of their DFD focussing system.

Would I change brands?

Fuji is likely and ready to jump right into. I like their high ISO and jpeg performance and their lenses are stellar. Earlier issues with focus, processing and handling are gone to the point where they are market leaders. I have dabbled with the idea of switching in the past, but have stuck with what worked. Lie the Panasonic plan, I would add just a work-horse sports kit (40-150 or 100-400 zoom and 18-55 or 10-24), then replace other bits as needed.

Nikon and Canon less so as I really do not need full frame and their crop frame options are minimal, but if pushed I could start to transition as needed. DSLR’s for sports are an option, but I really do not want to drop money into a “dead-end” gear trail.

Sony? No, not for me. Again, their best offerings are full frame and I am not a fan of their colour, menus and their lenses are still a bit of a mixed bag.

*Tons of portrait grade cameras and lenses, with the EM1 as my workhorse for sport etc. I could probably use my Olympus stocks for portrait and studio style work for 5 or more hard years work, so only the EM1 would need replacing after all of the sports work it would be doing.