The EM-1 Mark I is 10 Years Old — So I Bought One

We all rationalize when we get GAS

But why? Well, my E-P2, while still working well, was starting to frustrate me,  especially the autofocus. The smallest single point was huge and it would often focus on not what I thought it was focusing on but somewhere else: an ear, a nose, the tree next to the face —  you get my drift. At times it was sloooow and focusing my Leica was quicker compared to the E-P2 as it hunted back and forth. Often, under my breath you could hear me mutter:  “Focus, you fsck!”

The E-P2 still a great camera and even at 14 years old makes great images, especially if you run the RAW files through DxO 6 or DxO PureRaw. Lightroom sometimes makes a right hash of m43 raw files, especially skies. Just the other week I used it to shoot some family portraits of a neighbour's family: the 45mm f/1.8 is just dandy for that. I used the Leica with 50mm f/2 Summicron for the group shots.

Anyway, I was in a pawnshop the other day and there, sitting neglected and alone an EM-1 Mark I with a HLD-7 battery holder and kit lens for 329CAD (that's about 250USD). A quick visual inspections showed it lightly used although it had a weird rubbery thing around the default viewfinder. Overall I'd rate it as LN-. Except for one thing (always that one thing): no battery compartment door. That would make it BGN. No problem says I. I should be able to source this online from the usual suspects. So I bought it.

Men in sheds with tools

You'd think that the quest for said battery door would be easy. Not so. Door latches? Heck you can 3D print those. Other bits and bobs, ditto. The door? Hah! In fact double hah! I spent days trying every possible combination of query words. Mark II doors? Hava yes. EM-5 doors, EM-10 doors? You betcha! Mark 1 doors? Nope. Multiple search engines, drilling down through AliExpress, surfing every message board about m43. No dice. Oh sure, I got hits, but they had the “No Longer Available” tag next to them.

Call out to anyone who may have an EM-1 MK I door assembly or knows where to get one let me know. Or, does any other EM door fit?

Well, I thought, perhaps if I tighten down the HLD-7 the in-camera battery will stay put. Nope, the slightest jar would make it springensproing off the contacts; still contained by the HLD-7 but no path for the angry pixies to flow. Try it without the in-camera battery. Nope, it needs to be there, even if dead. Several cups of tea and Hob-Nobs later I thought I came up with a solution. Cut a piece of say 1/16" plastic to shape and fettle it in and affix with black Gorilla Tape in the tradition of Red Green. Worked around the house, but when the temperature outside began to rise to about 30C the tape would still "stick" but under the pressure of the spring in the battery well would start to deform the plastic and the tape and then, again, the slightest jar would make it springensproing off the contacts as before.

Clearly some fabricobbling was going to be required. I don't have a 3D printer and nor do I wish to become proficient designing stuff for same. More tea. More Hob-Nobs. Ah-ha! I've got it. I need something stiffer and thicker (that's what she said). Sheet brass, cut, stacked and fettled as required should do the trick. That will give the HLD-7 something to press on properly without flex and be temperature stable (I'm not going to walk the sands of Kakrafoon with it).

I chose sheet brass as it doesn't corrode and is easy to work with. Careful measuring with my calipers showed that 1/32" was a good thickness (that's about 0.03", 22 gauge or 0.76mm). Any thicker and I wouldn't be able to build it up as required and any thinner would be too flippy-floppy.

I ended up with a design something like this (not to scale by any stretch of the imagination and yes, it's on the back of a napkin):

The problem now was finding sheet brass. Almost all of the hobby stores in town have closed up shop save two. Luckily one was close by and I found a sheet of 0.03" brass that was just the right size. Thank you Trains and Such. Off to the workshop for cutting with the fret saw, rounding off with the Dremel, making a notch for the battery retaining clip and sticking it together with Krazy Glue and I came up with this:

Not the prettiest and I can just see Nik Blackhurst rolling his eyes but hey-ho, fit for purpose. It looks a bit like the gold bail from the Heart of Gold doesn't it?

It works great and everything stays in place as it should. The only issue is having to lug the HLD-7 around everywhere which makes me about as discreet as lugging my E-3 around. This presented me with the next challenge: How make something that would act like the HLD but without its size.

It came to me while I was reading “So Long and Thanks for All the Fish”. The doggos where curled up on my lap and for some reason my mind wandered (as it does, I've got to fix that hole) and for whatever reason Nik Blackhurst popped into my mind.

 “That's IT,” I shouted, startling the dogs and scattering them to various parts of the house, ”a bracket!”  You see, Nik has a bit of a bracket fetish.

I didn't want to build one because I don't have the shop tools to work with a billet of aluminum or steel. I could have used some of the maple planking I have in the shop but that's not dimensionally stable — well it is if I don't leave Calgary but going to anywhere damper would make it started to do odd things.

So back to the usual online suspects and there it was, the perfect camera bracket, 120mm long and about the right width. At 17 Canadian Pesos and delivery tomorrow, clicking "Buy Now" was obvious. It's a camera bracket/plate for use with Arca Swiss tripods but I don't have a tripod and at 17 bucks, you can't beat it. What about having to take it off to change batteries? So what? I do it with the Leica all the time. Not. A. Problem.

In either config the camera is no longer weatherproof, but neither are any of my other cameras except for the E-3. Besides, if it starts to rain when I'm oot and aboot I'll dive into the nearest pub or back into the car —  like Weston, if it's not with in 50 yards of the car I'm not going to break a sweat trying to make an image. My back, my knees and my hips are past doing the mountain goat thing.

Working with FrankenEM-1

Right from the get go it felt like I had a lighter version of my OM-1 in my hands, even with the HLD. The viewfinder is awesome for an EVF, orders of magnitude better than the EVF-2 on the EP-2. Nice and bright, and for a 4/3 camera of any type it feels spacious. Not as spacious as my OM-1, but stil spacious. This camera is wicked configurable and if you can't get it set up to suit the way you shoot, then I don't know what to say. I've re-assigned the Record and F2 buttons to be Focus Peaking and Focus Zoom, AF to a 3x3 centered pattern all though I may change that. I'll have to see how it works on the street.

I've also defaulted to Centre Weighted metering because it's what I'm used to although the pattern is truly centre weighted unlike say, the OMs that while center weighted were biased downward away from the sky.

The images I've tested with are great. OOC jpegs have that Olympus look and running the RAW files through DxO Photolab 6 produce excellent results. All the other measurebating can be found elsewhere on the interwebs so I leave that for you to find.

Conclusion

For 329 bucks for the camera, 5 bucks in brass sheet and a 17 dollar camera plate, I've got a great camera that feels great and one that I'm very comfortable with. My standard load out now for travel is my M-E with a 35 f/2.8 and 50 f/2 lenses, the EM-1 with the 45 f/1.8 and Lumix 14 f/2.5. Why both? Why not one or the other. Dunno. Some situations seem to call for the Leica, others for the EM-1. They're both small enough and light enough for me to carry both. 

As well as having a very good camera, I've a camera that gives me full flexibility. Having been with Olympus since the OM-1, I can mount my OM lenses (my beloved 50 f/1.4 and 100 f/2.8) for some compact reach if I need to. For something longer, I've a 200 f/4. That's more for when I'm "road trip" photographing I don't have to lug all the kit around. I'm of two minds about getting an MMF-2 so I can use my 4/3 lenses. The 12-60 is twice as big as the camera and the 50-200 is would be just so out of balance that I really can't see the point. I still have the E-3, 510 and 300 for those so if the use-case requires that sort of kit, I've got that covered.